What Obama could learn from LBJ
In their new book, “The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office,” David Blumenthal, a professor at Harvard Medical School, and James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University, reviewed the nation’s many attempts at health care reform to find some “rules of success.” Here are six lessons from Mr. Johnson’s triumph — captured in his own words, at least those that can be published. It appears that President Obama has studied at least some of them closely.
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Right after his landslide election in 1964, Johnson called together all the people who were handling the legislation and gave them a pep talk, according to an account by one of his top aides: “Now, look, I’ve just been re-elected by the overwhelming majority. And I just want to tell you that every day while I’m in office, I’m going to lose votes. I’m going to alienate somebody. ... We’ve got to get this legislation fast.”...
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Speed
Right after his landslide election in 1964, Johnson called together all the people who were handling the legislation and gave them a pep talk, according to an account by one of his top aides: “Now, look, I’ve just been re-elected by the overwhelming majority. And I just want to tell you that every day while I’m in office, I’m going to lose votes. I’m going to alienate somebody. ... We’ve got to get this legislation fast.”...