The speaker contrasts Robert Moses, who Robert Caro portrays as moving from idealism to seeking power for its own sake, with Lyndon Johnson, whom the speaker portrays as an opportunist who used power for little-known ideals only after gaining it.

“So Moses began as a naive idealist, but in Caro's telling, became somebody seeking power for its own sake. Johnson, on the other hand, was an opportunist from the very start, and it was only once he had real power that he used it for ideals few knew that he had.”