Staffers tend to mimic their bosses, to take their key from them.

The author defines professionalism as exemplified by his subjects in their mutual unwillingness to take expected opposition personally. They would not allow grudges to get in the way of more important business.

He was making the inevitable pivot from critic to manager.

He was experienced enough to spot the downside of doing the right thing.

Historically, the coupling of president and Speaker has been a tricky one that encourages a choreography both quick-footed and wary

The Russian people were just like us. They were victims of their own government. Ronald Reagan

Shared history was the coin of the realm.

Anecdotes came with his DNA.

The author deduces the best way James Baker serve Reagan as Chief of Staff was to continually remind him why he wanted to be president.

In politics there is a large difference between loosing and being defeated.

He'd made a name for himself out there in the world beyond not just in spite of the distinctly unfashionable persona he presented, but, perhaps, BECAUSE of it.

The author attributes part of the Carter-Reagan divide to their respective attitudes toward the city from which they governed. Carter was deeply suspicious of its coziness. Reagan intended to enjoy his temporary home even while delivering it from its reigning ideology.

The author, at the time a Carter speechwriter in the 1980 campaign, showed visible distress at his boss's performance and was warned by a friend in the traveling press, lest he become the story.

In politics, nothing good ever comes from the unexpected.

Each man had come to know the other's caricature as a lie.