What It Takes Quotes

“Kennebunkport, all the “cottages,” and Walker’s Point in particular, had to do with America’s substitute for class—that is, money and power. The stern gentlemen in their wing collars and boater hats who built these oceanfront mansions were not the idle rich of their day. They were men of big works and large affairs ... they’d catch the State o’ Maine sleeper Friday night from New York and, forty-eight hours later, they’d kiss their children goodbye again for the overnight trip back to Wall Street or midtown. Kennebunkport was their creation, for lives of the most rapacious striving.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“The white men on the Brinkley set were trying not to grin, like cheap lawyers at a ten-car pileup: Uh, did that mean Senator Dole didn’t think all the facts were out? Didn’t he believe the White House, that North and Poindexter were the only ones who knew? The Bobster dropped an eyebrow and rasped: “Aghh, don’t think Ripley’d believe that.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Anyway, the job didn’t call for deep thinking: if you thought too much, brought your insight and intellect to bear on the problems of the nation, you’d get out front of the President, or worse still, off to the side. That’s the surest way down the trash chute in the White House. There’s only one question that the Vice President needs to ask: “What’s the President saying on this?” Anything else is begging for trouble, and George Bush had brains enough to figure that out.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Taylor did write his book, about him and the campaign and all, and in the book he explained his technique.
'I'm a good cop interviewer. I try to ease, tease, coax, and wheedle information from sources. With body language, facial expression, tone of voice, and other verbal and nonverbal cues, I hope to let them know that I see the same world they see, that I empathize with them, that beneath my aloof
reporter's exterior I may even secretly admire them. In fact, Taylor noted, he does admire them. But he will not write that.
Once a reporter ventures beyond the neutral zone of objectivity into the netherworld of approbation, he makes an almost tactile investment in the subject of his praise. By morning, tons of newsprint--75 tons in the case of the Washington Post--will convey his judgment to millions of readers. It's risky.
Suppose the ingrate imbezzles the orphan's fund next Tuesday? Then who looks like a fool?
Taylor was not going to look like a fool, no. So there was nothing in the book, either, about that night with Biden, the speeches, the flights, the talk about life, the house and its stillness, the practiced hand with which Joe brought his son to the edge of waking so he would not be alarmed in the morning. No. Paul was asked about that night one time, long after, when Joe's campaign was history. 'That kind of thing... it was like a scene that he liked to show. He thought it showed him to advantage.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“There's a River of Power that flows through this country.' His buddies rolled their eyes, but Joe acted like he didn't see. 'Some people, most people, don't even know the river is there, but it's there. Some people know about the river but they can't get in, they only stand at the edge. And some people, a few, get to swim in the river all the time. They get to swim their whole lives, anywhere they want to go, always in the River of Power. And that river,' Joe said, 'It flows from the Ivy League.'
Robert Bourke came from the River of Power. And now he was going to the Supreme Court, unless he was stopped by Joey Biden, Syracuse Law '68.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Well, there never was a county attorney like Bob Dole. People said it was probably because he had a question in his own mind-- could he do it-- that he worked so hard. There never was a time that he wasn't working.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“--America’s substitute for class—that is, money and power.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“No one in his family could remember talking about it. Must have been dreadful, they agreed. And, being Walkers, and Bushes, they didn't bring it up.

It was only years later, when he got into politics and had to learn to retail bits of his life, that he ever tried to put words around the war.

His first attempts, in the sixties, were mostly about the cahm-rah-deree and the spirit of the American Fighting Man. The Vietnam War was an issue then, and Bush was for it. (Most people in Texas were.) He said he learned "a lot about life" from his years in the Navy—but he never said what the lessons were.

Later, when peace was in vogue, Bush said the war had "sobered" him with a grave understanding of the cost of conflict—he'd seen his buddies die. The voters could count on him not to send their sons to war, because he knew what it was.
Still later, when he turned Presidential prospect, and every bit of his life had to be melted down to the coin of the realm–character–Bush had to essay more thoughts about the war, what it meant to him, how it shaped his soul. But he made an awful hash of it, trying to be jaunty. He told the story of being shot down. Then he added: "Lemme tell ya, that'll make you start to think about the separation of church and state .

Finally, in a much-edited transcript of an interview with a minister whom he hired as liaison to the born-again crowd, Bush worked out a statement on faith and the war: something sound, to cover the bases. It wasn't foxhole Christianity, and he couldn't say he saw Jesus on the water—no, it was quieter than that.... But there, on the Finback, he spent his time standing watch on deck in the wee hours, silent, reflective, under the bright stars...
"It was wonderful and energizing, a time to talk to God.
"One of the things I realized out there all alone was how much family meant to me. Having faced death and been given another chance to live, I could see just how important those values and principles were that my parents had instilled in me, and of course how much I loved Barbara, the girl I knew I would marry…”

That was not quite how he was recalled by the men of the Finback. Oh, they liked him: a real funny guy. And they gave him another nickname, Ellie. That was short for Elephant. What they recollected was Bush in the wardroom, tossing his head and emitting on command the roaring trumpeted squeal of the enraged pachyderm; it was the most uncanny imitation of an elephant.

Nor were "sobered" or "reflective" words that leapt to Bar's mind when she remembered George at that time. The image she recalled was from their honeymoon, when she and George strolled the promenades, amid the elderly retirees who wintered at that Sea Island resort. All at once, George would scream "AIR RAID! AIR RAID!" and dive into the shrubs, while Bar stood alone and blushing on the path, prey to the pitying glances of the geezers who clucked about "that poor shell-shocked young man."

But there was, once, a time when he talked about the war, at night, at home, to one friend, between campaigns, when he didn't have to cover any bases at all.
"You know," he said, "it was the first time in my life I was ever scared.
"And then, when they came and pulled me out ..." (Him, Dottie Bush's son, out of a million miles of empty ocean!)
"Well." Bush trailed off, pleasantly, just shaking his head.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“And Bush knew he had to keep it up to the end not just blood-roar, but the full measure, till the cup was dry, till he, too, was brainless. The system demanded totality. That's why this system of picking the chief retained its defenders, who'd concede right away that it was long-horrible, in fact; it cheapened the issues, or ignored them; it dumbed down the dialogue to noise; it was spendthrift, exhausting, hurtful, and it savaged its protagonists... that's why the savants would get those dreamy looks at the end of the talk shows, and say it wasn't such a bad way to pick a President–a stress test that was a match for the job. In the end, we have only one nonnegotiable demand for a President, the man we hire to watch the world at our backs: that is totality. We may differ on our seven-point plans for child care, the six-hundred-ship Navy, one-man-one-vote for Namibia. But every adult in the country knows instinctively: that job in the White House is brutal, and the bastard who gets it works for us. We will not allow anything to be put ahead of it-not friends, family, nor certainly rosy self-regard... nor ease, restoration of self-forget it! Gary Hart admitted adultery and asked us to forgive his sin. But unforgivable was his assumption that he was supposed to have any life "outside." Whatever he did with that lovely girl, he put his enjoyment ahead of our good opinion, and he was erased from consideration. He would not concede that his life was our chattel.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“If they could just get Joe and his magic, intact, to one of those moments, then millions would see, in a flash, his brilliance, his balls... and they would make a President.

And Joe believed them. That's why his effort, his every day and night, was bent to straining, ever, to make something happen. Make the magic now— something ... the feeling, the connect. Who knew? This could be the time.

And so, where his instinct drove him to share some bit of his life, he’d strew the gaudiest, shiniest trim that fell to his gaze ... right now. "Folks, when I was seventeen years old, I took part in demonstrations to desegregate restaurants.." Somehow, it was easier to show the tinsel than the tree.

Lost, alas, was the solider stuff: the way he fiercely, doggedly, held his family together through loss; the way everybody he touched that day-every day— felt more like his better self than he did before Joe showed up; the relentless way he drove himself to be always the one they could count on. This was the common grit at the bed of his life family, loyalty, humor, guts–that was ever there.

See, he thought they'd have to get that stuff–that's character, right? ...
One look at his kids, Jill, his home, his life–they'd pick it up, right?

But it's hard to show the grit underneath the bits of glitter–hard for Joe, took time.. and never hit with the hot splash he craved. Anyway, the big-feet, the pundits it was not their business: they were writing about politics, not life. Not even the near end of life.

What did they know about bleeding in the skull? ...
What did Joe know, for that matter?
So no one wrote about the moment Joe lost the magic, or the common guts it took to finish the day.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“People in this country look at politicians like doctors–solve the problem.." That's the way Dick talked about his discovery. "They don't really know about the gall bladder. so they want to know something about the doctor."

This wasn't like his other campaigns. It was not just more doorsteps–this was something else. He would have to be something else. There were millions of people out there, going to pick their President. It didn't matter how hard Dick worked—he was not going to lock the baby blues on their faces and listen to them all. They weren't going to get in a room with Dick and figure out what they wanted to do. They wanted one guy, at the front of the room, to tell them what they were going to do, at least, what he meant to do.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Once, on the phone, Hart asked what I thought about the "business with Tower." I answered with my newest, hottest, wise-guy whispers about two Senators, two votes, that Bush could turn around-just a phone call ... but he wouldn't play hardball!

There was silence on the phone, until Hart said, in a tone reserved for worms: "You gave me a Washington answer." Of course, it came clear instantly: Hart saw the Tower mess as the government's, the nation's, bitter harvest ... poisoned... by the same blight that ruined him. Hart thought the sickness stemmed from a dangerous fallacy—Americans think they can know (have a right to know!) everything about their leaders. But that certainty of knowledge is not available. People can't be tied down, reduced to facts. More dangerous still, politicians try to toe the line. Hart quoted, from his friend Warren Beatty: "When forced to show all, people become all show.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“GEORGE BUSH WAS HAVING a snowball fight with the press in a parking lot outside the Clarion.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Father Diny interrupted to tell Joe a story about the World War II pilot with this slogan on his plane: Non illegitimi carborundum. Biden looked at him quizzically ... he didn’t remember much Latin. “Loosely translated,” Father Diny continued, “it means: Don’t let the bastards get you down.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“They showed him in a thousand ways they wanted to make him part of their club, but ... what was their club for? That was half the problem: they were trying to be so nice. Teddy Kennedy sent a shrink up to Wilmington, for the boys ... Kennedys knew about loss.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Of course, that made the papers, too. Well, what of it? ... He didn’t say the guy’s name! ... Gaghhd! Come on! What had the guy ever done—that hadn’t been handed to him? ... Dole never could figure what they saw in George Bush.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“They didn’t ... and by the end of the campaign, Bush was well known as a worm, a weanling woodlouse, a weedy wort in the garden of politics, a wan, whimpering ... well, it was war.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“The fact was, the Senate’s “advise and consent” was intended, from the start, to forestall the President from remaking the Court in his image. The Senate had, for most of its two hundred years, scrutinized the philosophy and politics of nominees—not just their competence, or honesty. And when a President picked a justice for reasons of ideology, it was the Senate’s duty to examine that ideology.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Couple of weeks back, he was up in New Hampshire—nighttime, a living room, late already and it wasn’t the last event—and some guy stood up and asked Joe about his education. Not his education plan ... his own goddam education, like he wanted to make sure Biden went to college. Anyway, that’s how Joe heard it ... and he blew: he started yelling how he’d graduated with three degrees, went to law school on scholarship, clawed his way up from the bottom of his class—or some bullshit—he offered to compare IQs ... all with the chin out, the hectoring voice, like ... I may be stupid, but I’m Einstein next to you! ... And Ruthie Berry and Jill, who were sitting, resting, in the next room, had to scurry in and steer Joe out of there.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“And, together, we can make America great, and strong again.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“And he got to this woman, came up from behind ... (“So, folks, look me over. If you like what you see ...”) and gently, but decidedly, he put his hands on her. In Council Bluffs, Iowa! He got both hands onto her shoulders, while he talked to the crowd over her head, like it was her and him, through thick and thin.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“There’ve been more campaigns sunk by people who feel they’ve gotta write a memo ... so when you put anything on paper, just assume it’s gonna be on the front page the next day. If it can’t be—don’t write it.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Anyway, everybody was busy writing serious-minded feminist nosebleed on Mrs. Dole’s “controversial” resignation. The idea was that we should all (harrrumph!) ... examine the assumptions of a society where a (umph! umph!) woman ... would give up her job in the Cabinet of the United States ... to help her (hocchhh!) HUSBAND! What about HER CAREER? What all the earnest anguish ignored was that Bob was much more a part of her career than the next report on the next airliner to blow up in the sky over Pascagoula ... that Elizabeth Dole would no more drop her career than would Bob Dole (or Barbara Bush) ... that she was making a career decision ... and anyone who did not know that being wife to the President of the United States is a better and more powerful job than being Secretary of Transportation was too dumb to work for government—though, alas, not too dumb to write for magazines.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“They’d show up overdressed, with black shoes and shirts that were meant to bear ties, and after a day, their noses would be burnt red, or their eyes would peer out from pale raccoon-masks, where their new sunglasses kept the skin Washington-white. They’d sit on the couches with their knees together, and they wouldn’t interrupt. They’d scowl at their agendas, or their notes—pages of typed stuff that could take days to get through ... plans on who would carry the ball on which portions of the discussion ... the Top Ten matters they had to take up with the Veep. They’d be lucky if they got to Two.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Even a year later, Bush remarked to a friend, with uncharacteristic bluntness: “I wouldn’t care if I never see Richard Nixon again.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“That’s what made it worse, in the end ... when he found out. Nixon had lied to him, personally.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“with loyalty oaths waving as weapons in the hands of the know-nothing right, the values of liberal education seemed to hang in the balance in 1952.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“And there’d be no point: Why would he give his life over to this, if it were not for the notion that he could do something great?”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Yeah, they told me, just be yourself ... so I did. Maybe that was the problem.”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House

“Then he dipped his finger into Dole’s shredded jacket, and with Dole’s blood traced an “M” on his forehead. That’d let the medics know he’d had a shot—another would kill him, overdose ... if a medic ever got there ... if McBryar could spot one”
― Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House