Ed Kilgore has a great post up on LBJ and the reality of what he was able to accomplish as Senate Majority Leader and later as President. It's a good read given the prevalance of LBJ posts and columns popping up online.
I still think there is a lot to learn from LBJ's style and tactics. That doesn't mean that I believe what LBJ did was simple or easy or, in the case of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, all that progressive. Quite the opposite actually, when you read the Caro biographies what becomes clear is that LBJ had to fight and scrape for every vote in 1957. What LBJ teaches us is that a smart tactician who knows who to push and how to push them can overcome tremendous hurdles.
1957 and 1964 don't translate perfectly to 2009 for many obvious reasons but that doesn't mean we can't learn a lot from LBJ.
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