Russell Baker

“Few expected very much of Franklin Roosevelt on Inauguration Day in 1933. Like Barack Obama seventy-six years later, he was succeeding a failed Republican president, and Americans had voted...”

“Newspaper people, once celebrated as founts of ribald humor and uncouth fun, have of late lost all their gaiety, and small wonder.”

“Those who remember Washington's cold war culture in the 1980s will recall the shocked reactions to Reagan's intervention. People interested in foreign policy were astonished when in 1985 he...”

“You can always tell folks from nonfolks. Folks like to feel good, like to smile for the camera when there's a big photo opportunity for a really good cause.”

“A man writing a letter is a man in the act of thinking, and it was an exercise Reagan obviously enjoyed. After his first meeting with Gorbachev, for example, he sent a 'Dear Murph' letter ab...”

“Caution: These verses may be hazardous to your solemnity.”

“Inanimate objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories; those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.”

“The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately defeat him.”

“Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.”

“Feel good about linking hands in human chain for good causes.”

“Letter writing was clearly important to Reagan. Even as president he kept dashing off letters to friends, pen pals, media people, statesmen, critics, and the kind of people who write to pres...”

“Journalism talk is part of the nonstop background noise of American life.”

“The American press has the blues. Too many authorities have assured it that its days are numbered, too many good newspapers are in ruins.”

“It's always seemed odd to me that after a group of terrorists commits a vile and odious deed they rush messages to the public to claim credit for it.”

“In America, it is sport that is the opiate of the masses.”

“When sudden death takes a president, opportunities for new beginnings flourish among the ambitious and the tensions among such people can be dramatic, as they were when President Kennedy was...”

“Except for politics, no business is scrutinized more exhaustively than journalism.”

“Gerald Boyd was a classic specimen of the self-made man. Born poor, he worked and studied his way up out of poverty under the guidance of his widowed grandmother.”

“Poetry is so vital to us until school spoils it.”

“A skillful playwright might have a good time with the story of the assassination of President William McKinley, and especially with the three most flamboyant political figures involved: Mark...”