the book has a very layered portrait of the white house staff, particularly of john sununu and richard darman, the director of the office of management and budget, neither of whom i expect will like the book but, in fact, says they were both extraordinarily competent, knew what they were doing but that they represented a kind of style of governance that had no substance behind it and that ultimately was doomed to failure because it was not driven by ideas but was driven rather by circumstance and pragmatic reality. c-span: how old was this woman? >> guest: late 30s. c-span: you say about john sununu, "he's confident as always and serene when it comes to his own standing, and he was equally serene about the political future. he speaks amusingly of the three k's that are going to win the presidency in 1992" -- as you say, election in a walk -- "crime, quotas and kuwait." three k's? >> guest: that's right -- k noises anyway. it was thought among the people i described loosely as the bushies, the people that were the optimists who believed the president was simply going to win a second term becau