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.

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.”...