Quotes from Richard E. Neustadt

Weakness is still what I see: weakness in the sense of a great gap between what is expected of a man (or someday woman) and assured capacity to carry through. Expectations arise and clerkly tasks increase, while prospects for sustained support from any quarter worsen as foreign alliances loosen and political parties wane.

Power I defined as personal influence of an effective sort on governmental action.

In all such instances of which I am aware, the Presidents do not think hard enough, carefully enough beforehand, about foreseeable, even likely consequences to their own effectiveness in office, looking down the line and around corners (xviii).

The United States was no longer the overwhelming military power in the world, no longer sure of never losing wars. no longer confident of having learned how to maintain employment and to check inflation, no longer reveling in resource independence, technological supremacy, favorable exchange rates, and the privileged life abroad. (xiii)

They will not be identical unless by chance: human prediction about other humans is not good enough. Why that is sometimes hard for readers inexperienced in government to see, I cannot tell (xvi).