Stepping Up Big Time

Robert Caro makes the case, indeed a strong one, that for seven weeks Lyndon Baines Johnson was one of the best U.S. Presidents ever.  In those seven weeks, LBJ brought to the Oval Office a rarely matched blend of vision, humility, acumen, sense of urgency, and composure under stress.  After that, it was back to the same old vanities and insecurities.  But during the difficult time following the JFK assassination, LBJ was The Man.

Lyndon B. Johnson, U.S. President (1963-69)

Caro may have missed the mark in his account of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.  Slate magazine's Fred Kaplan explains who the real hero was.