In May 1964, Lyndon Johnson, president for barely six months, delivered the commencement address at the University of Michigan. Johnson offered his audience a grand and inspirational vision of a new liberal age. “We have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society,” Johnson continued, “but upward to the Great Society.” As the sun-baked graduates listened, Johnson spelled out what he meant: “The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.” Even this, Johnson declared, was just the beginning. He would push to renew American education, rebuild the cities, and restore the natural environment. Ambitious — even audacious — Johnson’s vision was a New Deal for a new era. From that day forward, the president would harness his considerable political skills to make that vision a reality. A tragic irony, however, was that he held the presidency at all.