gwb v lbj

the unpopularity of lyndon b's war forced him out of the '68 campaign. so how come george w got a 2nd term?

timing.

the tonkin gulf incident took place before the '64 election, and we were in major combat by mid-'65, with 180k+ troops by year's end. it took 2 more years for the peace movement to have its first major success at the pentagon in october '67. several more months passed before lbj lost in NH.

in contrast, 9/11 was far more serious than tonkin gulf, bush's afghan war was popular and seemingly short [i'll say more in another post on how it too was wrong-headed], he didn't invade iraq till 2 full years after he took office, and the NH primary was less than a year later.

still, if john mccain had run in NH again in '04, i think we might've retired georgie-boy.

and if he'd invaded iraq instead of afghanistan in 2001, he'd surely languish in crawford now.

if if if....