Message matters. Message matters almost as much as actions.

I've been a reporter for 20 years, and I don't ever get things wrong. That's important in terms of my professional status.

The informed, unmanaged question. That's the most dangerous thing at a press conference anywhere.

[Barack Obama] says at one point, "[Jimmy] Carter, [Bill] Clinton and I suffer from," what he called, "the policy wonk's disease."

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.

By virtue of some of the ways the game is played, in terms of message discipline, in terms of access for reporters, and especially in the way that sources and subjects, especially famous subjects, treat the media, almost by default there's more news that's falling into books.

A little known area often defines the fortunes of leaders -- management skills.