George W. Bush is a person who is totally disinterested in the world, uneducated. I'm not saying he's stupid. I don't think he's stupid. He's crafty as hell, but he projects well on television. And that's the real big problem. He is the perfect "what, me worry?" president.

The paper nominated me 12 or 13 times for the Pulitzer Prize.

Richard Nixon even before becoming president, before meeting Henry Kissinger, he said, "This is ridiculous. Communism is nationalist. The Chinese and Russian and Yugoslav and Cuban and - none of these communists get along, and the Koreans and the Vietnamese, and we can do business with them." And then he opened up to China, and that's when the Cold War started.

I was able to do something that people cant do these days, which is to have quality time with the guys who were trying to be president and a number of them who got the job.

Much of what candidates have to do is raise money and appeal to constituencies or interest groups that can provide that money.

There's a problem of terrorism in the world. There's always been terrorism. There will be terrorism. You have to deal with it surgically. You have to deal with it in a serious way.

The issue I highlight in the book is welfare reform.