John Steele Gordon: No Back to the Future for Ex-Senator Obama

John Steele Gordon was born and raised in New York City. He attended Millbrook School and Vanderbilt University, graduating with a B.A. in history in 1966. He has been writing on business and economic history for over twenty-five years. He is the author of seven books. Among them are The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street, a history of Wall Street in the 1860s; Hamilton’s Blessing, a history of the national Debt; The Great Game, A history of Wall Street; A Thread Across the Ocean, the story of the laying of the Atlantic cable; and An Empire of Wealth, a history of the American economy

Joseph Califano, who was a special assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, has a plan in today’s New York Times for how Obama can get the Congressional Republicans to bend to his will: maneuver them the way Lyndon Johnson maneuvered Congress when he needed the debt ceiling raised in 1968.

It’s not a bad plan except for one thing. President Obama is no Lyndon Johnson. Obama was in Congress for a mere four years (and had an out-to-lunch sign on his desk for the last two years while he ran for president). He played no part in the Senate leadership and has no significant legislative accomplishments to his credit. Johnson, by contrast, was in the House of Representatives for 12 years (from 1937 to 1949) and in the Senate for 12 years (from 1949 to 1961). He was majority whip in the Senate for two years, minority leader for two, and majority leader for six years. So there’s a reason Robert Caro entitled the third volume of his massive biography of Johnson Master of the Senate. Johnson knew the workings of Congress intimately and knew exactly how to push the various buttons to get what he wanted. He relished doing so....