Know that the immediate staff and others in the Administration will assume that your manner, tone and tempo reflect the President's.

Be yourself. Follow your instincts. Success depends, at least in part, on the ability to 'carry it off.'

The dead-enders are still with us, those remnants of the defeated regimes who'll go on fighting long after their cause is lost.

I recognize the need to provide the press - and, through you, the American people - with information to the fullest extent possible. In our democracy, the work of the Pentagon press corps is important, defending our freedom and way of life is what this conflict is about, and that certainly includes freedom of the press.

Every president when he is elected has to live with the pluses and minuses his predecessor leaves, which includes benefits as well as burdens.

If I know the answer I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't I'll just respond cleverly.

No. That's someone else's business. Quagmire is - I don't do quagmires.