Robert Caro, the most prolific Lyndon B. Johnson biographer, has published his fourth volume on Johnson, covering his rise to power from 1958-1964, including his Vice Presidency and early period of his Presidency.
Caro, often a critic of LBJ, has written another jewel of a book, and he makes clear that LBJ promoting civil rights and the War On Poverty was the follow through on what the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt was unable to accomplish in the 1930s.
But also, Caro makes the point that it was what LBJ accomplished in the 1960s which allowed us to elect an African American, Barack Obama, to the Presidency in 2008!
So there is indeed a direct line between FDR, LBJ, and Obama, and if Obama has a second term, he will stand out with FDR and LBJ as one of the three most accomplished Democratic Presidents in domestic affairs, for certain!