The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #4)

by Robert A. Caro

And then, in the early hours of the morning, as one of those advisers recalls, “one of the wise, practical people around the table” told him to his face that a President shouldn’t spend his time and power on lost causes, no matter how worthy those causes might be. “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?” Lyndon Johnson replied.