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1 " Staffers tend to mimic their bosses, to take their key from them. "
― Chris Matthews , Tip and the Gipper: When Politics Worked
2 " The author defines professionalism as exemplified by his subjects in their mutual unwillingness to take expected opposition personally. They would not allow grudges to get in the way of more important business. "
3 " He was making the inevitable pivot from critic to manager. "
4 " He was experienced enough to spot the downside of doing the right thing. "
5 " Historically, the coupling of president and Speaker has been a tricky one that encourages a choreography both quick-footed and wary "
6 " The Russian people were just like us. They were victims of their own government. Ronald Reagan "
7 " Shared history was the coin of the realm. "
8 " Anecdotes came with his DNA. "
9 " The author deduces the best way James Baker serve Reagan as Chief of Staff was to continually remind him why he wanted to be president. "
10 " In politics there is a large difference between loosing and being defeated. "
11 " He'd made a name for himself out there in the world beyond not just in spite of the distinctly unfashionable persona he presented, but, perhaps, BECAUSE of it. "
12 " The author attributes part of the Carter-Reagan divide to their respective attitudes toward the city from which they governed. Carter was deeply suspicious of its coziness. Reagan intended to enjoy his temporary home even while delivering it from its reigning ideology. "
13 " The author, at the time a Carter speechwriter in the 1980 campaign, showed visible distress at his boss's performance and was warned by a friend in the traveling press, lest he become the story. "
14 " In politics, nothing good ever comes from the unexpected. "
15 " Each man had come to know the other's caricature as a lie. "
16 " For Reagan,for his contemporaries, and many in the generations after them, the word Munich was understood as code for any nation's stepping back from necessary toughness "
17 " He's cutting the heart out of the American dream to own a home and have a good job ... and still he's popularTip O'Neill on Ronald Reagan "
18 " He's a beautiful man, but I'm sorry he doesn't agree with my political philosophyTip O'Neill on Ronald Reagan "
19 " It's not such a bad idea, at any time, to be seen as FIGHTING, especially when you might just win. "
20 " It was his detachment that saved us. Another man would have reacted with force to the Soviet treachery. He would have shared the righteousness of the cause, been stirred to attack by the saber rattling. Jack resisted. He was not moved by the emotion of other around him. He knew his course and stayed to it. Thank God. The boy who had read alone of history's heroes was now safely on of them. He had done it not winning a war, but by averting one far more horrible than any leader in the past could have imagined. "
― Chris Matthews , Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero
