We’re hearing a lot about anniversaries this week. Obama will be accepting the nomination 45 years to the day after Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. Hillary Clinton spoke on the 88th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
But today is an anniversary too, and one that is getting surprisingly little attention at the Democratic Convention, given how much the Great Society continues to shape our lives and our politics. Will Englund takes note in National Journal’s Convention Daily:
Today is the 100th birthday of the Democratic president who did more than any other politician to put into law the civil rights and voting rights that have enabled the rise of Barack Obama. But as the convention formally nominates Obama tonight, you will probably have to look hard and listen carefully for any references to Lyndon Baines Johnson.
During Monday’s convention speeches, just two referred to Johnson–and one of them was by a Republican, former Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa.