When you get people standing up saying, 'I'm going to just tell the truth; what do we have to fear?,' it encourages others, and it creates a counterresponse.

The fact is, most journalists I know are not particularly political. They move around a lot.

If you happened to be born on third base, you didn't rub it in the face of the guy who wasn't even born in the stadium. Self-interest was generally checked at the door with your coat and hat.

You try to hold on to some notions you might have had before, that this will somehow work out, this is a spell that will lift or be broken.

The President, who really had been mostly managing his one-man Barack Obama narrative and journey his whole life, without executive experience, certainly - he's not a governor. Some governors, of course, they have experience in executing power, which is something fairly unique, actually, in government. And he has, neither, a set of nourishing experiences.

Younger colleagues tended to draw untested self-confidence from their bonuses and prestigious degrees.

Message matters. Message matters almost as much as actions.