Johnson or King?

Behind the petty insults in the Democratic race, there might be a real difference in philosophy of social change.

First, some background. Hillary Clinton, trying to puncture the reverie of Barack Obama's rhetorical uplift, said:

"Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964... It took a president to get it done."

I don't think this is racist, even though President Johnson himself had questionable views on "uppity negros". However, it gives a window into Hillary Clinton's world. She believes that the key figure in the Civil Rights movement was a white Texan president. He was, in her calculus, more necessary than Martin Luther King, Jr.

But ask yourself this: without LBJ, would King et al have been able to pressure Washington into passing Civil Rights legislation? Without MLK, would Johnson have pushed for a Civil Rights bill?

While I disagree with the political ends of both Democrats, I find the means that Obama apparently favors far more attractive.