Hugh Sidey has been reporting from the nation's capital for TIME since 1958, first as a correspondent, then as Washington bureau chief and, since 1978, as Washington contributing editor. His column, "The Presidency," which he once wrote for LIFE, has appeared in TIME's Nation section since 1973. He has been a witness to the triumphs and travails of six Presidents. For this week's cover story assessing the Carter years, Sidey drew heavily on those experiences--and more. "I got caught up with Charles de Gaulle's memoirs again," says Sidey. "Richard Nixon once introduced me to him in Paris. What a master De Gaulle was at sculpting public opinion, at understanding the moods of the people. He remains a great mentor for the world in the leadership business." Additional insights came from President Harry Truman, by way of Rosalynn Carter, whom Sidey interviewed for the story. "She had been reading his memoirs and had come up with a favorite quotation: 'Any schoolboy's afterthought is worth more than the forethought of the greatest statesman.' I think she was trying to tell me something, but with a smile."

Sidey reports that the most fun he had while getting acquainted with the earlier Presidents was discovering that Herbert Hoover was an ardent, and articulate, fisherman. "My reporter-researcher, Cassie Furgurson, found a tiny volume by Hoover, called Fishing for Fun. Perhaps President Carter has also discovered the book, because he has recently become an avid fisherman. Hoover wrote: 'Fishing is a chance to wash one's soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of the sun on the blue water.' It sounds so quieting and gratifying that I may take it up myself."

Of his experiences writing this week's story, Sidey says: "The work was shoe leather and phone. A call to Bob Strauss [chairman of the Carter-Mondale campaign] is always like plugging into General Headquarters, U.S.A. He has always just come away from a meeting with the President or John Connally or God. The story also took some long, tough hours of reading and thinking. But for the most part it was a lovely journey with old and new friends." The story includes, by the way, some fishing news.

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