By the Maui Curmudgeon (36th in a 43-part series)

How do the U.S. Presidents stack up? I thought I’d find out by reading biographies of all 43 presidents, in the order of their administrations. Here are briefly the pros and cons of my discoveries, the interesting bits, and how I’d rank him. For comparison, I give you the 1982 Murrary-Blessing ranking, a survey of hundreds of leading historians who ranked each president by number. This survey is the gold standard of presidential rankings and is most cited when this kind of thing needs bringing up in media.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON: 1963-1969 ~ 36th U.S. President

Imagine, finally getting exactly what you want – the presidency – in the worst way possible, an assassination. Lyndon B. Johnson was a towering figure in many respects. After 12 years in the House, he spent 12 years in the Senate, the last five as Senate majority leader. His vice-president, Hubert Humphrey, call LBJ a tidal wave. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says that “some men want power to strut around the world…LBJ wanted power to give things to people,” rights to  blacks, a help up to the poor.

LBJ was shaped mightily by the Great Depression when he worked for FDR, running youth programs to engage young students and give them a little money. He saw poverty first hand at home in Texas and committed himself to the liberal agenda. In his 22 years in Congress, he worked for Social Security, minimum wages, civil rights, and low-cost housing. Today many still consider him the greatest, most effective Senate majority leader in our nation’s history.

However, the two plus years he spent as vice-president were painful to him. “I detested every minute of it,” he wrote.

Read the rest…