Politics & Power Quote by Bob Woodward

Journalistic credibility, in Woodward's telling, is measured by who stops returning your calls. The line is a neat inversion of the celebrity-politics feedback loop: access is usually the currency, but he frames lost access as proof of value. "Close to the bone" does the heavy lifting. It's visceral, slightly brutal, suggesting that real reporting isn't about opinion or optics but about proximity to the underlying tissue of power: motive, fear, vanity, and the private bargains that keep public narratives polished.

The subtext is defensive and strategic. Woodward has spent decades being accused of two opposite sins at once: getting too cozy with insiders, and being too harsh on them. By stressing bipartisan discomfort, he positions himself above faction, implying the work is objective because it wounds everyone. It's a classic move in American political culture, where "both sides are mad" is shorthand for fairness, even if the impacts aren't symmetrical.

Context matters: Woodward's long-form method depends on elite sources, tape-recorded interviews, and a kind of institutional intimacy. He doesn't pretend to be an outsider kicking down doors; he's the guy in the room after the door is opened. "They're not calling me up and asking me for dinner" is a wry, almost schoolyard way of describing a real consequence: the social penalties that enforce silence in Washington. The joke lands because it captures the capital city's real economy - not money, exactly, but invitations, proximity, and the quiet threat of being iced out.