US Presidency
1968

I think I can speak with some authority about the problem of communication. I understand, far better than some of my severe and perhaps intolerant critics would admit, my own shortcomings as a communicator. How does a public leader find just the right word or the right way to say no more or no less than he means to say bearing in mind that anything he says may topple governments and may involve the lives of innocent men? How does that leader speak the right phrase, in the right way, under the right conditions, to suit the accuracies and contingencies of the moment when he is discussing questions of policy, so that he does not stir a thousand misinterpretations and leave the wrong connotation or impression? How does he reach the immediate audience and how does he communicate with the millions of others who are out there listening from afar?