As president, LBJ just wanted to be loved. Assuming the presidency in the aftermath of a highly-popular president’s assassination, LBJ was driven by feelings of inferiority. He wanted, some might say needed, to be loved by the American people and he wasn’t above dipping into the federal treasury in an attempt to buy that love—a strategy that failed miserably. Although he enacted more government entitlement programs than any other president in our nation’s history except FDR, LBJ left office reviled by those whose love he craved.
Barack Obama is following LBJ’s bad example of using the federal treasury to buy what he craves as president—not the love of the American people in his case, but power and perquisites. President Obama has no vision for America beyond his own personal vision of remaining in office so he can continue to exercise presidential power and enjoy the luxurious perquisites of being president. LBJ wanted to be loved by the American people. Barack Obama wants to rule them, not as their elected president but as their king.
