John Dickerson

Which means this piece on him is now eight years old. I think it still holds up.

Tyrion Lannister’s ode to the power of stories might not have been aimed at a son’s recollections of his eulogy for his mother but that’s the mark it hit.

As you know, (from clicking on this link if nothing else) I’m moving to 60 Minutes. My final message to my colleagues at CBS This Morning in what we called our Reporter’s Notebook: Thank you to Kira Kleveland and Claire Fahy and Wes Carlton and Craig Shea for putting this piece together. *The Mariner joke is […]

“John Dickerson, 50, who hopscotched from political director to “Face the Nation” moderator in 2015 to “CBS This Morning” as Rose’s replacement in January 2018, will become a correspondent for “60 Minutes.” The droll newsman indicated he was content with the move, mentioning a long-time admiration for the venerable news magazine.” — AP The Droll […]

Hi! Thanks for checking in. I didn’t really think people clicked on links in the Twitter profiles. I feel restored by your arrival here. Anyway, when I Re-Tweet something it means please click here to buy my book The Hardest Job. It’s the product of years of work on the presidency, looking at what the […]

“Please use my words for your hot takes,” said Jesus never. What if the inclination to use scripture to belittle, judge and ostracize people sparked us to look inside ourselves. “Why is your hot take on the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and not about the plank in your own eye?” I have been […]

I love this kickstarter project (The most beautiful construction set in the world) because it combines cutting edge* technology to make something that feels old and solid and complex. What other things are in this category? I’ll tell you what I’ve always wanted: as a fan of toy soldiers when I was a kid, and as […]

I interviewed Michael Lewis about his new podcast Against the Rules for the CBS This Morning podcast. A podcast about a podcast is a turduckencast, as no one calls it. Lewis is smart, funny and sharp enough to open your trickiest envelopes. What I enjoyed about talking to him– as I always do– is listening […]

Since working on the four part trilogy on the Constitutional convention I have been thinking a lot about the role of the president as actor. Those of you who committed to memory the podcast know what it meant in 1787, but what does it mean today? Emerson gives  us one hint. From his “Uses of […]

George Washington wrote a 73 page draft of his inaugural address that was never delivered. It wound up being torn to pieces by Jared Sparks who handed out bits to people who wanted a scrap of Washington’s actual handwriting. It has been pieced together (for some time now this has been the case; I’m just […]

As you know, I’ve spent a lot of time reading about the Constitutional Convention recently. (What? You’re not listening to the Whistlestop podcast?) Reading the framing debates, it’s so clear the framers didn’t need evidence of abuse of power to worry for the state of the republic. If a norm or separation of power was […]

There are so many ways in which life after 9/11 has changed. Here’s one that struck me from Andrew McCabe’s book: “When I moved over to counter-terrorism, it marked a permanent change in how I lived my life. Working in counter-terrorism means approaching every holiday with an overwhelming sense of dread. Christmas is the Christmas […]

In order to avoid misunderstandings, we should come up with a system for social media– and Twitter in particular– that alerts people to the point you’re making quickly. For example, this Tweet does an important service calling out despicable behavior spreading lies. This lie/conspiracy theory is appearing on fringe sites. It’s spun from the fact […]

I was fascinated, like everyone else, by the findings that Americans have trouble passing the citizenship test: Woodrow Wilson Foundation Finds Only One State Can Pass U.S. Citizenship Exam I’m curious about the questions people missed. It’s harder for me to understand why it is important that people know there are 27 amendments to the […]

Letter from Machiavelli to Francesco Vettori [I don’t know why I find this so fascinating, but I do. It feels patient and controlled, even though his life is in total turmoil. Also, I wish I could carry a book in my pocket instead of an iPhone.] 10 December 1513 Magnificent Ambassador: I am living on […]

The founders would have been even more productive if they wrote clear sentences. George Washington recommending aide de camp David Humphreys wrote this:“I persuade myself you will find no confidence which you may think proper to repose in him, misplaced.” Can you imagine how a fellow who wrote a backwards-running sentence like this called out “charge” […]

I am a devotee of Clinton Rossiter’s enthusiastic view that the Constitutional Convention is one of the greatest deliberative moments in world history. “There has been no greater happening in American history,” he writes, “there have not been many greater, certainly of a political nature in the history of the world.” President John Adams thought […]

Creativity comes from building something entirely new, but also from combining two previous things in a new way. We know this from Emerson, West Side Story and, of course, Hamilton. Emerson: June 18, 1838: “The art of writing consists in putting two things together that are unlike and that belong together, like a horse and […]