The President's Very Shrewd

As I Went To College, I Went Into Radio And Television. Now I Suppose Most People Think That's One Step Ahead Of Basket Weaving As A Major In College, But It Was Part Of The Journalism Department.

But In 1941, On December 8th, After The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor, My Mother Bought A Radio And We Listened To The War News. We'd Not Had A Radio Up To That Time. I Was Born In 1934, So I Was Seven Years Of Age.

So When I Cover The President, I Try To Remember Two Things: First, If You Don't Ask, You Don't Find Out; And Second, The Questions Don't Do The Damage. Only The Answers Do.

I Didn't Come East Of The Mississippi For The First Time In My Life Until I Was 26 Years Of Age, But I Knew. I Read Magazines, I Listened To Radio, I Watched Television. I Knew There Was Something Out There, And I Wanted A Part Of It.

I Saw A Large, Red Dried Swath That I Immediately Identified Clearly As Blood. I Covered The War In Vietnam. I Saw A Lot Of It [blood] There.