LBJ and the art of leadership.

• Position: LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN - The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. IV - Book review

The Passage of Power, the fourth installment of Robert Caro's monumental biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, spans the five years from shortly before the 1960 presidential election, through the events of John F. Kennedy's presidency, and ends with the first seven weeks of LBJ's term when he seized the reins of power. The book is a tour de force, particularly its account of Johnson's political acumen and leadership skills that enabled him to get things done in the halls of Congress. Johnson deftly maneuvered bills that had become bogged down in legislative committees onto the floor of the House and Senate where he engineered their passage. These bills included the 1964 Civil Rights Act, vehemently opposed by most southern senators, including many in his own party.

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In addition to civil rights legislation, Johnson was able to push through Congress his predecessor's stalled tax-cut bill as well as a budget which he brought in below the previous year's budgetary expenditures. (Over the past 50 years, the U.S. budget has ballooned from $98.7 billion, $733 billion in today's dollars, to $3.78 trillion, over a five-fold increase despite only a 70% increase in the country's population!)

Whereas Kennedy "got Congress to think, LBJ got it to act." For his War on Poverty, Johnson married his unrivalled knowledge of the legislative process with his unparalleled ability to win over legislators. Caro displays Lars genius for flattering, cajoling and bullying powerful people to his cause, including Congressmen, union bosses, civil rights leaders, Wall Street executives, industry...