As I went to college, I went into radio and television. Now I suppose most people think that’s one step ahead of basket weaving as a major in college, but it was part of the journalism department.

It wasn’t until the late ’70s that a lot of people knew me.

I didn’t come east of the Mississippi for the first time in my life until I was 26 years of age, but I knew. I read magazines, I listened to radio, I watched television. I knew there was something out there, and I wanted a part of it.

And on election night I’d go down to city hall in El Paso, Texas and cover the election. In those days, of course, we didn’t have exit polls. You didn’t know who had won the election until they actually counted the votes. I thought that was exciting too.

There was a little bit of ham in me. And there’s a lot of people say there’s a lot of ham in me.

In 27 years of reporting from Washington, I’ve never heard a President admit he made a mistake.

So when I cover the president, I try to remember two things: First, if you don’t ask, you don’t find out; and second, the questions don’t do the damage. Only the answers do.

The President’s very shrewd.

And really, the basis, I think, of achieving some success in what I want to do today comes from my mother’s push to get me to read and to make something of myself from the standpoint of an education.

If you sent me to cover a pie-baking contest on Mother’s Day, I’m going to ask dear old Mom why she used artificial sweetener or stole the apples!