Lyndon Johnson: Success Came with Majority Congress

.. many of Johnson’s signature victories came during a two-year period when Democrats had two-thirds majorities in both the Senate, where they held 68 seats, and the House, where they held 295.

Zelizer also reminds us that Johnson’s trouncing of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 election spooked Republicans to a point where many fought progressive legislation less stridently than before, lest they be portrayed as Goldwater-style extremists.

.. What’s surprising to me is that as conditions in Congress change, he is really shut down. I didn’t expect the last part of the book: a president who’s really emasculated and can’t get anything done even though he’s trying the same old tricks. It really became crystal clear to me how Congress determines the fate of the presidency.”