Mother ... considered a press conference on a par with a visit to a cage full of cobras.

First ladies are doing a lot. But the job remains undefined, frequently misunderstood, and subject to political attacks far nastier in some ways than those any President has ever faced.

He [Harry S. Truman] loved politicians - even Republicans.

Mother ... considered a press conference on a par with a visit to a cage full of cobras.

He's [Harry S. Truman] just your dad, and you love him. It's only when you grow up, and step back from him, or leave him for your own career and your own home - it's only then that you can measure his greatness and fully appreciate it. Pride reinforces love. My father was a great man.

Courage is rarely reckless or foolish... courage usually involves a highly realistic estimate of the odds that must be faced.

The men who espoused unpopular causes may have been considered misguided, but they were rarely attacked for their morals or their masculinity. Women who did the same thing were apt to be denounced as harlots or condemned for being unfeminine - an all-purpose word that was used to describe almost any category of female behavior of which men disapproved.