Today is Lyndon Johnson’s 100th birthday.

I was hoping they might make mention of this at the Convention, but I suppose it’s not surprising that they didn’t.  But I think today we should all think about Lyndon Johnson and what he did for our country. 

It’s true that he did some things of which many of us aren’t proud.  The lasting image people probably have in their minds of our 37th president is this, a man crushed beneath the weight of his own misjudgment and the regret of what might have been if not for a small corner of Southeast Asia:

But there’s another image I prefer to think of when remembering President Johnson.  It’s this:

This is a photograph of Lyndon showing off his surgical scar.  It doesn't demonstrate his ideology or his penchant for political shenanigans.  It's just plain funny.  Honestly, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

But on a more serious note, Lyndon Johnson was a classic New Dealer, an outspoken advocate of Franklin Roosevelt’s policies, firmly committed to social programs and economic justice.  When he became President of the United States, he didn’t want to be FDR.  He wanted to outdo him.   

And in some ways he did.  We mustn’t forget Johnson’s enormous contributions to our country.  From Medicare to the Civil and Voting Rights Acts to fair housing, the boisterous Texan worked tirelessly to create a Great Society.  In the end, it was not to be.

Johnson died in 1973 at the age of 64, before his Great Society was completed.  Indeed, it never has been.  Johnson must take some of the blame for this, as do the leaders that followed that lost sight, lost interest, or lost faith in Johnson’s dream of a better America.

But watching this Convention, and seeing our Democratic leaders, from Ted Kennedy to Barack Obama, I can’t help but feel some hope.  This election, when combined with the enthusiasm and strength of an invigorated electorate, gives new possibility to the Great Society.  I can only imagine what will be possible if we dare to dream once again.

I’m going to finish with this stylized clip from Johnson’s speech to Congress about the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  It’s the way I think LBJ should be remembered.  Far from the battlefield of Vietnam, this was Johnson at his best: larger-than-life, a dreamer, whose Great Society lives on in this new generation.