One thing Republicans understand: In American elections, you have to choose from among only two people - not between the perfect and the good.
Presidents are always also storytellers, purveyors of useful national mythologies. And surprisingly enough, Richard Nixon, this awkward man who didn't even really like people, had not been so bad at this duty - at least in the first four years of his presidency.
What is considered 'conservative' and what is considered 'liberal' changes in any given era.
I've summarized dozens of books in my literary career; it's become rather second nature.
Let there be a special place in Hell for pundits who make predictions.
I don't read many popular histories like the ones I write. The building blocks for my research are scholarly monographs, and the inspiration for my storytelling style are folks like Chekhov.
As a general rule of thumb, Democrats do better in national elections when the year's defining issue is economic fairness, and Republicans do better when the defining issue is national security.
