Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., has worked diligently for much of the criticism that has come her way over the years, and she richly, deeply, lastingly deserves it, but not this time. Not for her remark about President Lyndon Baines Johnson being a crucial figure in securing the extraordinary civil rights victories of the 1960s.

She made the observation by way of criticizing her opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in this year’s quest for the Democratic nomination for president. She thinks her experience counts for something, that it’s more important, finally, than Obama’s rhetorical skills. She emphasized the point in a TV interview by saying that Martin Luther King’s “dream began to be realized when … Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It took a president to get it done.”