Then you get to the last half of the 20th century, Americans are getting very skeptical about their leaders and their institutions, and another place that is affected is parties and conventions.

We [the United States] are the world's only superpower right now, so everyone notices every bit of what we do or don't do.

The Founding Fathers would be sorry to see that America had become so divided and factionalized.

As parties began to develop around the turn of the 19th century, you had party nominees for President nominated in caucuses made up of party members in Congress.

I'm defining [presidential courage] pretty narrowly. It's not only taking a big political risk but it's also the risk that in the hindsight of history, people think it's wise.

We cannot be spun, or at least we'd like to think that we cannot be. And the presidents who are trying to - too overtly to try to say, here is what you historians and what you later Americans should think of my presidency, 30 or 40 years later, they look silly.

To people who remember JFK's assassination, JFK Jr. will probably always be that boy saluting his father's coffin.