Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson

“An outgoing president nearly always defines the next elections, Axelrod wrote, and people almost never seek a replica - certainly not after the presidency of George W. Bush.”

“But history is replete with potential candidates for the presidency who waited too long rather than example of people who ran too soon." - David Axelrod”

“What distinguished Obama was his determination not to wait until he had forged a longer political record of his achievement, and the historic conjunction of events that made possible so unlikely a candidacy.”