President Johnson and President Elect Obama
January 4th CSPAN ran an interview of a author by the name of Robert Caro. (http://www.robertcaro.com/ ) Mr. Caro described how he was reading the correspondence of former President Linden Johnson when he was a junior senator as part of his research. The notes read deferential toward any congressional committee chairman that Johnson needed to deal with. Then, all of a sudden, the tone of the correspondence changed. Instead of Johnson asking a certain senator for a moment of this and that person’s time, the tables seemed to turn and they were asking for Johnson’s time. The implication was clear. Johnson suddenly attained a great deal of power in a very short time span.
The author knew of a very powerful person in Washington who seemed to know how the place worked and was well connected to the Washington power process. The author asked this person what took place that gave Johnson this sudden power. He was told “money” and there would be no record of it being the root of this power. The author then happened to come across a tally sheet written by Johnson, supposedly showing how Johnson doled out the money he was receiving, apparent proof that Johnson was the keeper of some treasury.
Mr. Caro made, he believes, a connection to the money Johnson received. It came from a company now called Halliburton. The author also stated that the group of oil men who were trying to influence the government were reactionary and were against the new deal.
President Elect Obama just might have received a vast amount of money from sources outside of the “normal” power broker elite system which Johnson allegedly was participating in. We are not sure but it appears that Obama’s campaign contributions came from a pretty broad range of contributors. NPR reported that President Elect Obama received funds that were more than the Democratic and Republican parties received during the past election process put together! NPR referred to Obama’s campaign as so financially successful that it could become a third party. It is quite possible the bulk of this campaign contributions did not come from the oil men. If this is the case, then powerful business might see their special business interests diminish in Washington. If that is true, this could be the first time in our history that the whole electorate now rule and those powerful interests, like Halliburton, find themselves on the outside in comparison. Those oil people will not quietly accept this as a new norm. Those guys are a tough crowd. The question is this. What tactic will they employ to get back into the seat of power again?