Thursday, January 10, 2008

WWLBJD--A Meaningful Texas Presidential Primary?

For all I know, there hasn't been a meaningful presidential primary in Texas since the party rules changes in 1972. Or maybe ever.

I know that since I've been paying attention to such things (1984 election was my first really active one, when I was 14 years old), the races are pretty much decided by the time our primary rolls around. In fact, I think that's what led to moving our primary from May to March. And then from the second week of March to the first week. And it still didn't matter. Makes me wonder why the bill to move to February 5 never passed last session; didn't our legislators want us to be relevant in this process?

Now, it appears we just may have a couple of fights on our hands, as it seems that both parties still might have a few candidates with some fight left in 'em by March 4th.

So this question, sports fans: who would LBJ support for president if the primary were held today, and why? I guess I'm assuming he'd vote in the Democratic primary, but if you disagree, tell me why.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Something tells me that while he'd admire Obama, and would want to work with him, LBJ's political relationships, like the root system of a massive live oak, would keep him tied to the Clinton status quo...
...but, the day that Obama becomes more powerful than the Clintons, that would change, no?
Look forward to hearing your learned opinion on this! It will be much more interesting than my guess!!!

landslide said...

I think he'd prefer someone who could plainly get things done; he seemed to dismiss the more visionary-type leadership, like that of Humphrey (and maybe Obama) for the more practical side. I think he'd be with Hillary.

BadTux said...

Definitely a Hillary guy. LBJ was an "operator", who worked behind the scenes knee-capping opponents and rewarding supporters. Hillary has the same basic modus operandi, though she seems to be having problems knee-capping Obama even with sending her best enforcer (the Big Dog) out to do the dirty work. The two just have a similar way of operating, I think, and would have recognized their similarities when it came down to it.

Of course, when LBJ went up against a young charismatic candidate in the Democratic primary, he went down in flames (but at least got picked as the young charismatic candidate's Veep). Wonder what that says about Hillary v. Obama, hmm...

- Badtux the Politics Penguin