The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it.

If you foul up, tell the President and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.

Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on what you move to them from the President, or the President will be reacting, not leading.

The absence of evidence is not necessarily the evidence of absence

I don't know anybody that I can think of who has contended that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons.

Remember where you came from.

If you can't solve a problem, make it bigger.