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IT WAS AN [AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE] dinner that really clinched it for me. [It] was February 2004 and everybody in the room was just deliriously self-congratulatory when it was pretty clear that things were going disastrously wrong [in Iraq].
THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD THING [about my idea, the “end of history”] was the word ‘history.’ People thought I was saying that nothing was going to happen after the Cold War.
WHAT WE’VE DEVELOPED in this country is a class of professional worriers.
PEOPLE WHO HAVEN’T WORKED in the government sometimes don’t appreciate its bureaucratic tribalism—the degree to which loyalty to your particular team tends to override changing your mind in light of new evidence.
I ENDED UP DECIDING I’D VOTE FOR OBAMA by process of elimination. I just don’t think the Republicans deserve to get reelected, even with McCain. If you have a big policy failure, you shouldn’t get rewarded for it. And I really don’t like Hillary Clinton, so that left Obama.
IT’S IMPORTANT FOR PRESIDENTS to have someone who can come up to...
