Without presidential leadership in the trenches, there is no chance that Congress, particularly a divided Congress, will step on the third-rail politics of raising taxes or cutting popular programs such as Medicare, much less deploy the federal government to reduce the number of Americans living in poverty. These are the same folks who haven't been able to agree on a budget for almost three years.
Washington seems to have lost its sense of social justice and economic responsibility. As political and private-sector leaders nationwide realize that an engaged president is key to progress, many wish that Barack Obama was more like Lyndon B. Johnson. The refrain of many Democrats — and some Republicans — is that at least with LBJ, Washington worked and we got something done.
Obama will never be like Johnson, but LBJ's presidency offers lessons that could help him win a second term and make that term more than another example of Oscar Wilde's aphorism that the only thing worse than not getting what you want is getting it.