The trip to London "certainly wasn't a stunning success," said Julian Zelizer, a professor of political science at Princeton University and a presidential historian, "He certainly didn't take advantage of the trip and stumbled into an issue. The major story was his controversial statement on vaccines."

"The vaccine statement wasn't in his best interest," said Zelizer. "It goes against the kind of conservative he's trying to paint himself — a fiscal conservative, rather than a cultural one. There are other Republicans (in the field) who can do that better than him."

“The most iconic image of Lyndon Johnson that I’ve seen … is where he hovered over opponents, where he hovered over his supporters, and he seduced them, cajoled them, lobbied them into voting for what he wanted to do,” Zelizer said.

As Julian Zelizer puts it in his terrific history of the era, southern opponents of Civil Rights legislation saw its proponents as “radical agitators who wanted to destroy wholesome southern communities, where white Americans and African Americans lived separate and equal from each other, as ordained by God.”

Many of the legislative achievements of the Johnson administration transformed the nation and remain controversial, including the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, and many others. This hour we examine the politics behind these sweeping changes and Johnson’s part in that history.

"I think he's well beyond the point where most voters know exactly what he's up to," said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian and professor of public affairs at Princeton University, recently told New Jersey Advance Media.

"I'm sure there's some justification, some connection to the needs of New Jersey, but I think at this point, post setting up the PAC, everything has to be seen through the presidential lens," said Zelizer.

"Both men are competing for to be the Republican-in-a-blue-state candidate who can appeal to a broad coalition and who is most concerned with fiscal, budgetary, and union issues rather than social or cultural questions," Zelizer said. "Not having Romney as part of the mix helps Christie claim this role and will bring some more campaign contributors back to his table."

"Certainly good news for Chris Christie,” Princeton University Public Affairs Professor Julian Zelizer told WCBS 880’s Jim Smith. “They’re competing for two things, one is the image of being the blue state Republican who can build a broad coalition and the second is just fundraising.”

Starting with Johnson’s first State of the Union address, Jan. 8, 1964, the immediate struggle was over taxes and spending, I learned from a spirited, persuasive new telling by Princeton professor Julian E. Zelizer, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and the Battle for the Great Society.”

Let's hope that those who seek to turn this debate about "Selma" into accusation and slander, such as dismissing all criticism about the treatment of LBJ as a smear campaign or those who brush off the entire value of the film because of this depiction, take a step back from the table, leaving space for those who want a serious and legitimate discussion. Movies and television shows have often been effective at triggering robust conversations about politics for a broader public.

"There’s a lot of value to continuing to show up and build relationships,” Drutman said. “Politics is not a vending machine. You don’t know what will happen, but you need to be in it to win it."

In The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society, Julian E. Zelizer argues that Johnson spearheaded the most transformative agenda in American political history since the New Deal.

President Obama needs to keep his eyes on 2016. Realistically, this is the best way that he can bolster his own legacy and that of his party -- helping to set up political tools that Democrats will need to thrive once he is back in Chicago or New York and preventing the emergence of a conservative political coalition that would pick apart the achievements of the Obama presidency.​

"The Great Society changed America not simply beause the parties changed," Zelizer says. "Tthose policies remain enduring and remain an integral part of American life.

The New America Fellows Program awards fellowships to original thinkers eager to advance a better understanding of policy challenges facing our society.

Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer is the author of The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress and the Battle for the Great Society. We speak with the presidential scholar about Johnson's legacy.

Still, the Senate results this week mark some progress in advancing the GOP's acceptance of the climate science, said Julian Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton University who studies the presidency.

A Nerding Out panel talks about the purpose of the speech for presidents, and whether Obama met his goals on Tuesday night.

Lots of discussion around #SOTU centered on the president’s legacy. One president whose legacy is now being widely discussed is Lyndon Johnson. His character’s portrayal in the movie “Selma,” pits him against Dr. Martin Luther King and the grassroots movement for voting rights. Two historians, Professor Julian Zelizer of Princeton University, an expert on Johnson, and Dr. Clayborne Carson of Stanford, an expert on King, discuss what America was going through in 1965 and how the two men connected in real life.

Today we talk with Julian Zelizer, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton, about his new book The Fierce Urgency of Now:Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society. Zelizer's book analyzes LBJ's achievements and programs under his Great Society programs and how it has shaped the modern political landscape in America.