Jeffrey Toobin
Senior AnalystAt one level, it seems to me, the latest dispute between the Clinton and Obama campaigns can be seen as the political equivalent of a Seinfeld episode -- about nothing.
The controversy involves the relative contributions to civil rights legislation by Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. Clinton cited Johnson, who signed the main laws, as well as King. Obama focused on King, who provided the moral impetus. For America in 2008, it's hard to say how it makes much difference which candidate is right.
On the other hand, Clinton and Obama are
tapping into one of the richest historical debates of the last several decades. Two of the finest multi-volume biographies in recent history -- Robert Caro on Johnson, and Taylor Branch on King -- deal with precisely the question the candidates are debating.
The books are very different in tone: Branch is admiring, often reverential, toward King; Caro is critical, sometimes even hostile to LBJ. But they come out close on the responsibility for the civil rights revolution.
Because both biographies are complex, nuanced (and very long), the authors avoid simple answers. But they show a shared responsibility between two giants for the triumphs of that era.
Both King and Johnson were indispensable -- a verdict that, upon reflection, Senators Clinton and Obama will probably come to share.
