Charlie Rose

gabriel Collett  10/23/2008 05:06 PM Report

he was a stubborn fool, so is dubya

goodwin abused those TAs

US history has suffered tremendously do to egos

and misuse of power

douglas hurst  09/05/2008 02:48 AM Report

Surprisingly interesting insights into a guy who I am not a big fan of. Worthwhile viewing.

History Junky  09/04/2008 09:34 PM Report

Mr. Rose this was very interesting convesation. I enjoy Mrs. Goodwin's appearance in your program, she has plenty information about the American history in general and the Democratic Party in particular. In this conversation I expected some more information to come out, information such as how LBJ felt over the killings of JFK and RFK. Because he was a top figure in both cases, I would have liked to know his opinion.

Mantis  09/03/2008 08:30 PM Report

GT, first, you distort my premise, then you load your own words into my statement. A novice ploy, but entertaining nonetheless. I'll take your pawn for the sake of gamesmanship. I never said Mansfield was "The brains of the civil rights act which was Kennedy's bill or the voting right act " (your words, however mangled in syntax, are verbatim). I said that Mansfield "had more to do with implementing the legislation than Johnson did." LBJ did not work the Senate floor, Mansfield did. LBJ made threatening, drunken, overbearing phone calls to Senate members in the middle of the night. Mansfield usually had to repair the damage. Listen to the calls yourself. They are available in the LBJ Library Archives. Remember LBJ's slogan: "I never trust a man unless I have his pecker in my pocket?" What a creep. Further, I don't hate Johnson. You said I hate Johnson. Further, if you examine the documents relating to the Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution, it becomes apparent that Johnson pulled the trigger on a situation that instantly escalated into war based on Johnson's decision to ignore factual evidence presented to him about a fabricated torpedo attack on the USS Maddox by the North Vietnamese. Sure, he inherited conditions that could lead to war, every president does. Johnson had the chance to back out with honor. But come on, honor? We're talking about Lyndon Baines Johnson here. Lyndon Baines Johnson did inherit one thing, if not the Vietnam War itself, the millions of ghosts hovering over his tomb in East Texas and the killing fields of Southeast Asia from here until eternity. No revisionist PBS matinee will ever correct that. Class over. GT, You are dismissed. Please go back to watching PBS, and enjoy your Coca-Cola.

GT  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

You can't get bills passed without the help of the senate, Mantis. So your arguement that Michael Mansfield of Montana was The brains of the civil rights act which was Kennedy's bill or the voting right act which would never have been passed without the goading of Johnson, I find idiotic. And the U.S's involvement in Vietnam can be traced back to the Truman years and more so in the Eisenhower and Kennedy years, so yes you could say he inherited it. Just because you hate him because of Vietnam doesn't mean he can't have his dues when it comes to race and poverty. the sixties are over, hallelujah.

Mantis  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

The PBS broadcast of 9-1-08 included a statement in which Charlie Rose said Lyndon Baines Johnson did not want the Vietnam War, he inherited it. Lyndon Baines Johnson started the Vietnam War with his fallacious Gulf Of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. Johnson's unjustified retaliation for a torpedo attack that never occurred led to the eventual death of more than 57,000 Americans and millions of Vietnamese, many of them civilians. Johnson himself admitted he had lied to the American public about the incident and Admiral James Stockdale confirmed the fallacy. That did not stop Johnson from bombing the Vietnamese into the "Stone Age," to use his parlance.

The LBJ love fest that PBS hosted was an ahistorical gathering of self-interested Johnson cheerleaders. History will forever be cruel to the failed legacy of Lyndon Baines Johnson, and rightfully so. As for the Great Society, Senator Majority Leader Michael Mansfield of Montana had more to do with implementing the legislation than Johnson did. People did not trust Johnson. Mansfield was a mensch.

Coca-Cola is a major sponsor of the Chalrie Rose program. It is fitting that Coca-Cola was a major profiteer in Vietnam during Johnson's War.

Amy  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

As a teenager, I was too embarrassed by his over the top hokiness and sentimentality, to fully appreciate what a talented and dedicated president he was. And once the Vietnam war started to unravel, he represented all that was wrong with establishment Washington. ..... Looking back, I am astonished at all he was able to accomplish. Ironically, it was his ability to feel the pain of others on a very deep level, that made him one of the greatest humanist presidents of all time. ..... Now on to Sarah Palin, who has never so much as set foot in Washington.

Amy  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

As a teenager, I was too embarrassed by his over the top hokiness and sentimentality, to fully appreciate what a talented and dedicated president he was. And once the Vietnam war started to unravel, he represented all that was wrong with establishment Washington. ..... Looking back, I am astonished at all he was able to accomplish. Ironically, it was his ability to feel the pain of others on a very deep level, that made him one of the greatest humanist presidents of all time. ..... Now on to Sarah Palin, who has never so much as set foot in Washington.

NK  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

Susan Wolfe and Rick Gunter are the only two people who have written decent and fair comments. The rest are just ideological screeds. So my hats off to you two.

Susan Wolf  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

One of your best shows that I can remember. Superb pick of guests. Very much reflected the Southern wit in storytelling that exists still today. Tall tales don't come much taller. I shudder at LBJ's Viet Nam policy. I was awake to see the first transmission of his Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Otherwise, I applaud his social ideals. LBJ's tapes should be as treasured as the Nixon tapes.

sock puppet  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

One more bit of plagierism (I'm too lame to come up with this on my own). i wonder even if she was vetted? all the best mccain. That from Ernest.

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Either reflects McCains values (vetted) or (lack of) judgment - not vetted. Either way we are soooo screeeewwed if they win.

sock puppet  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

My obsessive fear of Palin's values - thus McCains - makes this cross vertilization into a more current conversation imperative. So an Alaskan's evaluation copied here: (N.B.: note her ham-fisted Karl Rove, Cheney 'abuse-of-power' cited by Joad.) Four more years of Bush-McCain-style governance? Substitute Palin for Cheney and no one will notice.

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Comment by Joad on Monday, Sep 1 at 01:47 PM

Amazing, Sarah Palin didn't say anything. The only discussion of substance came from Arizona. McCain must have wanted pure fluff. If he wanted an intelligent think on your feet kind of gal, he would have looked to a candidate such as Arizona. As an Alaskan, I can only point to Palin's slashing of the library budget, running up $12mil in long term debt while mayor of Wasilla, blatent favoritism toward Wasilla with the State's budget, handing out checks for $1200 to everyone breathing in AK while screaming about the need to drill for oil for more money, previous support of the bridget to nowhere, and now Trooper Gate, folks, her husband tried to have a trooper fired because he was the ex-husband of her sister and those two were involved in a domestic dispute (can anyone say abuse of power) and Palin claims she knew nothing about his actions, yet he called from the govenor's mansion....this is such a sad choice for our nation...what was McCain thinking??

sock puppet  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

Sarah Palin scares the hell out of me. Her values are on a scale with the Lower Slobbovia element amongst the world's common folk. If your offspring are a reflection of your values reflect on this: her unmarried daughter's pregnant and she's proud that her son is going to Iraq. Now she and McCain want to pass on those values by example and otherwise to the rest of us. Jingo-John and Packin-Palin would love to have all our sons and daughters don the uniforms-of-war for M-I profit, oil hegemony and (more) profit of course.

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From her CR interview she's pretty much a (self-serving) one-trick pony obsessed with selling Alaska's energy. But aside from that limiting qualification remains the much more meaningful one, that of her (lack?) values. Proud that her son is going to Iraq? Holy feces!!!! That's taking energy obsession way too far. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ Cheney and Bush condone killing hundreds of thousands for it. VALUES! Now along comes a 2nd place beauty queen proud that her son will be exposed to the carnage for oil. VALUES!? That he too may murder for oil; or be killed because of oil. VALUES! And now McCain is asking us for 4-8 more years of this white man's / woman's burden? Where our amassed hubris accumulates like an unstoppable juggernaut questing, obsessing (Palin-style) for more (blood and) oil. VALUES! Throw in Cheney, Bush and McCain as well! She's a carnival mirror exaggerated reflection of this putrefaction. McCain's judgment is vacuous!

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VALUES = CHOICES = JUDGMENT!

Rick Gunter   09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

Mr. Rose:

Thank you and your staff for the superb program on the 100th birthday of Lyndon Johnson. I throughly enjoyed this and hope many Americans saw this and begin to understand that true giants one operated in high councils of government.

I, like you, Mr. Rose, am from North Carolina originally. During my youth, I despised the Vietnam War and served in the U.S. Army during that era. I blamed LBJ for ending the dreams and lives of so many of my generation. But even then, I understood that he did enormous good, too.

I was particularly struck on your show that he got something like 100 major bills through Congress. If a president gets one bill passed these days, his fans are ready to put him on Mount Rushmore. Anyway, a grand show. Thank you so much.

TABS  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

Whether of not JFK was a Great President remains a question mark? His Presidency only lasted a 1000 days. On the negative side of the equation stands the Bay of Pigs, The Khrushchev meeting in Vienna which directly led to the Cuban Missile Crisis, his do nothing stance on Civil Rights, the assassination of Diem in South Vietnam, the attempts on Castro's life, and his continued escalation of American involvement in Vietnam. On the positive side of the ledger was his tempered handling of the Cuban Missile crisis and the unfulfilled promise of his August 1963 speech in which he said we all have to live in this world together, as the opening of a thaw in the Cold War. However Lee Harvey cut his Presidency short. The idealization of the JFK administration as being a "Camelot" was the work of Jackie Kennedy after the fact.

Robert Kennedy until the death of his brother was an arrogant punk. To quote someone who knew him, "He was a real dog." After his brothers death Robert was able to rise again with a sense of purpose and humility tempered by the despair that he felt. However his time was cut short and we will never know what he would have been able to accomplish.

Edward Kennedy as the sole surviving brother has continued the work of his brothers out of an emotional sense of duty as a personal memorialization of their memories. However Teddy has had an interrupted journey with a Bridge and has anethetized himself with alcohol, even into drunken debauchery in his boxer shorts in his old age. So what do we have here, a flawed lion who can't get out of his own way?

sock puppet  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

The naivete' that either party has any REAL ultimate influence is pathetically pitiful or pitifully pathetic. The real Commander-in-Chief is Olie Garch, whose white house is on K-Street. McCain's already on point re this. Obama will come around when the rewards (and punishments) are duly demonstrated and the awareness that "Your Highness" is superficial and solely honorific. Sychophantish!

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Obama, a constitutional scholar, should know the 1st Amendment Free Speech's modern translation is MONEY TALKS, and M-I money is bombastic, bull-horned, perpetual and relentless. They both know this but can't admit it - to us or (maybe) themselves. So the charade goes on right into national bankruptcy.

JP  09/03/2008 06:48 PM Report

Everyone in the discussion seemed to enjoy that LBJ stuffed the ballot box to get elected in one of his races in Texas. No one on the panel condemmed this practice as something dictator do in third world countries. They all got a good laugh out of it including Charlie...how sad.

TABS  09/03/2008 06:47 PM Report

In 1968 LBJ transfered the Social Security Trust Fund to the General Accounting Office to be used to help finance the Vietnam War. The United States government has never turned back and has continued to place the SS Trust Fund monies into the general accounts to help disguse the Federal Deficit. By 2014 payments will exceed income to pay the retirees................................This we can have it all, because we are rich philisophy of Guns and Butter has been slowly BKing America. This YES we can have it all mentality started with Lyndon Baines Johnson......... Complete fiscal irresponsibilty has reigned in the US government since that day. Unfortunately Americas leadership has become inured to the looming consequences and NOTHING will stop them until the United States is BK. A President Obama may hasten that day thats all. The hand writing is on the wall.......................BTW: This author became aware of this back in 1980.

TABS  09/03/2008 06:47 PM Report

Lincoln had what seemed like an uncanny sense of political timing. This came from his knowing his limitations, he knew what was possible to accomplish today and what wasn't......A man has to know his limitations and not the set the bar so high as to fail. However today's limitations usually become tomorrow's possibilities.

TABS  09/03/2008 06:47 PM Report

It has been said that one of LBJ's MD's told him that if he served a second term he would die of a Heart Attack before the end of that term. This was largely how it worked out as LBJ passed away in January of 1973, which was the beiginning of Nixons 2nd term. It is therefore very probable that with the stress of a second term LBJ would not have made it........The point being that LBJ knew he was a sick man when he decided not to seek a 2nd term as President. That had to be a large factor in his decision making process.

sock puppet  09/03/2008 06:47 PM Report

LBJ at least had a conscience enough to resign. A great precedent. Six months to go. Anybody holding their breath? W it's spelled i..n..t..r..o..s..p..e..c..t..i..o..n. Ask someone for a definition.

RE Mant  09/03/2008 06:47 PM Report

Good discussion about a reality that should end all idealistic nonsense about politics. But you are largely forgetting that LBJ was as much a rabid Cold Warrior as any American ever: spreading missle gap lies, the Tonkin fraud, etc. And you are forgetting that he ran the Vietnam War as if it were an anti-poverty project. He was part of string of mama's boy presidents we've had (nearly all of whom have been Democrats in fact if not always so labeled). I hated the bastard then, and more now, because he personifies much of today's politics, the same politics that is slowly destroying this country.