Shortly after Franklin Roosevelt defeated Wendell Willkie for the presidency in 1940, the loser visited F.D.R. in the White House and asked bluntly why the President kept on as his closest aide such a controversial figure as Harry Hopkins. Roosevelt told Willkie that if he were ever to become President, "You'll be looking through that door and knowing that practically everybody who walks through it wants something out of you. You'll learn what a lonely job this is, and you'll discover the need for somebody like Harry Hopkins, who asks for nothing except to serve you."
The reciprocal loyalty between a President...
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