Quotes from John Dickerson

The goal of the moderator is to illuminate the views of the candidates on the issues that matter the most to voters, and you don't need to be on the side of the party to do that.

Today, campaigning isn't an 'interruption' but a permanent condition. Indeed, if you are a successful campaigner, it's expected you'll be a successful president.

Mr. Obama said that he personally told Mr. Putin to knock it off and vows to retaliate. But the Obama presidency is coming to an end, and his successor still won't accept that Russia is guilty of tampering with U.S. elections.

One of the ways usually that you build a bipartisan agreement is one side gives up a little, and the other side gives up a little.

Using the term 'locker room talk' blurs the line between what is criminal and what is simply oafish. That's not a line anyone should want blurred.

When Barack Obama was asked about his lack of executive experience in 2008, he pointed to his successful campaign as proof he could manage the presidency.

Expectations shouldn't be lowered, even if Donald Trump was just telling stories to impress the crowd around him and never grabbed as many women as he suggested. Lower the bar for what you can talk about, and you lower the bar for what is acceptable behavior.

The walls of our upstairs hallway testify that we once had photogenic children. There are rows of framed pictures that show them playing baseball, basketball, holding a toad, and smiling in the sunlight at their eager parents. Everything is orderly and bright.

The house was big enough for my brother and me to have firecracker wars at one end and leave Mom and Dad undisturbed at the other. When firecrackers weren't available, we attacked each other with pennies and marbles and clumps of Crisco, which made brilliant greasy asterisks when you missed and hit the wall.

A number of Donald Trump's supporters told me during the campaign they had faith that he would be a good president because he would be helped by the experts around him. But the president's improvisation saps experts of their key skill: pattern recognition.

There are a lot of plans out there for fixing health care.

After President Obama took office, his campaign book 'The Audacity of Hope' receded into his past fast. Its sweet, naive, bipartisan 'let's reason together' passages fell away, too.

Talking to the press is not always good.

Mother's Day is a welcome event in partisan times. Nearly everyone agrees that we should show mothers gratitude.

When I was first asked to be on 'Washington Week', I never prepared more for an appearance.

Campaigns maybe encourage us to pay attention to attributes that maybe aren't that important in the presidency.

Presidents have to learn how to adapt. Every president comes into the job; it's different than they expect. They must adapt.

What is the appetite for truth in the Trump White House? That's not a question about the untrue things the president says. It's about the level of truth the system expects.

The math of durability in McCain's life is extraordinary.

My mother, Nancy Dickerson, was a reporter for CBS and NBC and the first female star of television news; my father, Wyatt Dickerson, was a successful businessman. Their parties, from the '60s to the '80s, attracted cabinet officials, movie stars, and presidents.

One of the roles of the press is to make sure that the president, in the voice of the people, is telling the truth.

There is no human-resources training for how to respond when you work for an unpredictable president. It's perhaps fitting that when you visit the website of the White House Office of Administration it says, 'Check back soon for more information.'

Officials in every White House crowbar the facts to make their cases.

In addition to surviving the Forrestal, McCain has survived three other plane disasters, including being shot down over enemy territory.