“Lyndon Johnson immediately saw its importance—both symbolic and material. “Push ahead full-tilt,” Johnson told Heller that evening without a moment’s reflection. “That’s my kind of program. It will help people.” On January 8, 1964, in his first State of the Union Address, Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty in America.” It was a characteristically bold claim—especially bold at a time when 83 percent of Americans believed poverty would never be eradicated. It was bolder still given that Johnson’s kind of program was not really a program at all, yet—it was only a loose collection of ideas, and most of them belonged to Bobby Kennedy.”