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 Nixon’s need met Halderman’s 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.
The author commented that John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign team worked like a band of brothers, while Richard Nixon’s 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 hadn’t 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
The author’s 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 Nixon’s face was the panic in his soul. – Richard Goodwin
A lot of people here some South in your mouth, and they automatically think you’re dumb. They think if you talk funny, you are funny. – Lloyd Hand
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
Politics look very simple to the outsider whether he is a businessman or a soldier – it is only when you get into it that all the angles and hard work become apparent. James Forrestal
No matter what office LBJ assumed he lifted greater than when he found it.
JFK had to act before his fragile body betrayed him.
Jack and Bobby Kennedy were too young, too attached to real family to transfer affection and loyalty to those that of their blood or region or upbringing.
In front of an audience of Protestant clergy, the Catholic JFK “was drawing strength from his vulnerability.
Be civilized. Grudges are for Neanderthals. – Hubert Humphrey
As the pace of the campaign quickened, politics began to clash with Kennedy’s innate sense of responsibility. – Arthur Schlesinger
Woodrow Wilson intimate Edward House urged that his boss never first be approached by argument. Instead, the President could be made most receptive by laying a groundwork of ‘common hatred”.
TR on using extramarital accusations against Wilson: “It won’t work. You can’t cast a man as Romeo who looks and acts like an apothecary’s clerk.
For Jack Kennedy, who only made campaigning LOOK easy, it was, in fact, anything but.