"When a man is in his thirties, the idea of serving in somebody else's presidential administration can be exciting; in one's fifties, it merely...
Aging and Public Service
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Governance
Media and the Kennedy Administration
"Where, in the case of the Kennedy presidency—the apotheosis of an imperial clan if there ever was one—was the media's alleged “inherent bias...
Leadership and Conviction
"The struggle for survival must not be led, on behalf of the American society, by some doubt-ridden egghead exquisitely poised between Yea and Nay....
The Gamble of Mass Democracy
"The untested assumption required us to suppose that such an electorate, or at least a majority of its members, would be capable of exercising the...
Lessons of Watergate
"Watergate teaches us, too, the virtues of having politicians, rather than mere managers and technicians, operating the levers of ultimate power....
Belief as National Imperative
"The one sin for which nature exacts the supreme penalty of national extinction is a failure on the part of the members of a society to believe [in]...
Nixon’s Two-Sidedness
"The discussion lasted an astonishing three hours and ended … only because both Buckley and I had other appointments. I remember being particularly...
Nixon’s China Policy Skepticism
"Reportedly Nixon … regards the détente with Peking as the principal jewel in the notoriously underdecorated diadem of his administration, but the...
Loss of GOP Identity
"No one can effectively lead or even work for the Republican Party today, because no one can possibly say what it stands for." Source: The Making of...
Building a New Coalition
"Of course, nothing worth while is ever achieved without sacrifice, and the formation of the coalition I have described will entail losses as well...
Politicians’ Courteous Self-Interest
"Politicians are characteristically most polite to people whose support they hope some day to get, not to those whose support they already have."...
Low Standards in Politicians
"Politicians are the grease on which society's wheels turn. And they can't be better, most of the time, than a sort of low competence and honor."...