QOTD

Michael Barone reviewing reporter Robert Novak's new autobiography, in the August 6th Weekly Standard:

Most reporters are liberal and most seem to me to be optimists. Novak has always been a Republican--though he voted for John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson--and has certainly always been a pessimist. That has given Novak a double advantage. Optimistic liberals always are on the lookout for signs that Democrats are winning and Republicans are losing. A pessimistic conservative is always alert for signs that his side as well as the other side is losing. Since, as the British politician Enoch Powell noted, "all political careers end in failure," and since every human enterprise is more likely to fail than to succeed, a pessimistic conservative will tend to get more scoops than his peers. Especially if he's a hell of a reporter.