Quotes by David Pietrusza

While JFK had made the sale on a political level, he had not yet completed it on an emotional one.

Organizing a coup was not the same as wanting one.

John F. Kennedy responded, as he often did when at his best, skillfully mixing dollops of wit with, self-deprecation, and the principle of not-really-going-near-the-question.

Nixon was by nature a excluder. Halderman like to exclude people. When Nixons need met Haldermans abilities, you had the most perfect formula for disaster. – Jim Shepley

Richard Nixon coveted, to the point of obsession, a controversy-free, stage-managed coronation.

JFK apparently felt genuine sympathy for his 1960 presidential opponent Richard Nixon. He felt that, with Nixons frequent shifts in political philosophy and reinventions, he must have to decide which Nixon he will be at each stop. This, Kennedy reasoned, must be exhausting.

The author commented that John F. Kennedys 1960 presidential campaign team worked like a band of brothers, while Richard Nixons campaign team worked like a band of brothers in law under the direction of a quarrelsome aunt.

Nixon wanted view and advice brought to him through intermediaries. He wanted information filtered as it came to him – and he wanted his filters to filter his will back to those whom he must direct.

Eisenhower on LBJ: He hadnt got the depth of mind nor the breath vision to carry great responsibility.

Henry Cabot Lodge was like medicine, good for you, but hard to take. – Teddy White

There are really two essential things in campaigning. First, you must be in good humor. If youre going to be a raffle, you are to stay home. Second, you are to make sense in your speeches. These arent the two things you must do. Unless youre saying, if you can be in good humor when youre exhausted. – Henry Cabot Lodge

Eleanor Roosevelt on the changes in John F. Kennedy that led her to drop her opposition to his nomination for president: He has the qualities of a scholar, and a sense of history. I had the feeling that he was the man who can learn. I like him better than I ever had before because he seemed so little caulk-sure, and I think he has a mind that is open to new ideas.

The authors alliterative description of politics since the 1960 presidential debates: Government by Gotcha.

Jack Kennedy protected a mature and presidential image – tough, yet not unduly combative.

What we saw in Richard Nixons face was the panic in his soul. – Richard Goodwin

In the 1960 campaign, Arthur Schlesinger wrote of Adlai Stevenson, who already lost twice as the partys presidential nominee, He has been away from power too long; he gives me an odd sense of unreality, a certain frivolity, distractedness, over-interest in words and phrases.

A lot of people here some South in your mouth, and they automatically think youre dumb. They think if you talk funny, you are funny. – Lloyd Hand

Jack had an actors control. Chuck Spalding

Jousting with an obvious hoodlum couldnt hurt.

The political mind is the product of men in public life who have been twice spoiled. They have been spoiled with praise and they have been spoiled with abuse. – Calvin Coolidge