Robert Dallek

Unity is Obama's theme.

— Robert Dallek

Political vitriol is a familiar enough characteristic of American history.

— Robert Dallek

Nowadays, everyone seems to have a blog that finds readers.

— Robert Dallek

Harry Truman wrote scathing letters, but he almost never sent them.

— Robert Dallek

If nobody trusts you as president, then you can't get anything done.

— Robert Dallek

If Roosevelt didn't have World War II, he never would have had a third term.

— Robert Dallek

Congress becomes the public voice of opposition.

— Robert Dallek

There are limits on what a president can achieve or do, but the expectations are so great.

— Robert Dallek

What did in the Soviet Union was the Soviet Union.

— Robert Dallek

Full federal funding for presidential libraries should bring with it new rules of control over papers and artifacts.

— Robert Dallek

Reagan grows up in 1920s Dixon, Illinois, and it's the heartland of America. It's a time when Americans are particularly drawn to…

— Robert Dallek

Presidential aspirants reach for the highest office to satisfy some yearning for greatness or even immortality.

— Robert Dallek

In seeking an empire of liberty, Jefferson wished not only to expand the country's territorial holdings, but also to extend American institutions…

— Robert Dallek

Henry Kissinger never wanted the 20,000 pages of his telephone transcripts made public - not while he was alive, at any rate.

— Robert Dallek

Nixon's deep antipathy toward Jews is well known, and he took a strange satisfaction in having Kissinger in his inner circle, where…

— Robert Dallek

I see a direct line between Kennedy and Richard Nixon and the opening to China and the detente with the Soviet Union.

— Robert Dallek

Obama's endorsement of gay marriage is hardly as consequential as Johnson's legislative success on civil rights.

— Robert Dallek

When President Obama first unveiled his gun control proposals recommending a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and better background checks,…

— Robert Dallek

One doesn't simply write about Lyndon Johnson. You get the Johnson treatment from beyond the grave - arm around you, nose to…

— Robert Dallek

Richard Nixon had a kind of Walter Mitty fantasy life. He was a man with a grandiose thoughts: dreams of not simply…

— Robert Dallek

Late 19th-century populists saw bankers and industrialists manipulating markets to enrich themselves at the expense of small farmers and labourers and favoured…

— Robert Dallek

In 1800, in the first interparty contest, the Federalists warned that presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson, because of his sympathy expressed at the…

— Robert Dallek

To be sure, hunters and sportsmen back gun rights. Beyond that, there are millions who see guns as a defense against fear…

— Robert Dallek

During the 1937 congressional election campaign, Johnson's group probably paid $5,000 to Elliott Roosevelt, one of Franklin Roosevelt's sons, for a telegram…

— Robert Dallek

Allegations that President Clinton pardoned Marc Rich partly in return for donations to his presidential library have raised questions about the value…

— Robert Dallek

The institution of the presidency was profoundly affected by Watergate.

— Robert Dallek

Access to presidential materials should be as wide as possible.

— Robert Dallek

With television, you can make anyone look larger than life.

— Robert Dallek

At the start of first terms, presidents invariably have a measure of goodwill.

— Robert Dallek

Eisenhower was quite supportive of Kennedy and Johnson in terms of foreign policy.

— Robert Dallek

In counterfactual history, nothing is certain.

— Robert Dallek

Presidents need to be critically studied and analyzed.

— Robert Dallek

How many State of the Union addresses do people remember? They don't resonate that way.

— Robert Dallek

After one party loses two elections in a row, there's sort of blood in the water.

— Robert Dallek

American politics is theatre. There is a frightening emotionalism at national conventions.

— Robert Dallek

The Bay of Pigs was an operation the United States endorsed. That was a preventive operation. We were afraid that Castro was…

— Robert Dallek

For style and for creating a mood of optimism and hope - Kennedy on that count is as effective as any president…

— Robert Dallek

Flattery was one of Kissinger's principal tools in winning over Nixon, and a tool he employed shamelessly.

— Robert Dallek

Every year since 1990, the Gallup poll has asked Americans to assess all the presidents since John F. Kennedy. And every year,…

— Robert Dallek

The greatest presidents have been those who demonstrated astute judgment in times of crisis - often despite the advice they were getting.

— Robert Dallek