It would be great if politics were fact-based, but it is not, and it is surely not nuance-based. What works in a classroom or a think tank does not work on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Obama sometimes seems to be running the Brookings Institution, not the country. – Jon Meacham
The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time. – Jon Meacham
From Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln to FDR to Reagan, every great president inspires enormous affection and enormous hostility. Well all be much saner, I think, if we remember that history is full of surprises and things that seemed absolutely certain one day are often unimaginable the next. – Jon Meacham
Once the cry and the cause of a generation of progressives to make America safer, fairer and cleaner, regulation is now a dirty word in our politics. Even Democrats are quick to talk about cutting regulations Republicans hate them with – how to put it? – evangelical fervor. – Jon Meacham