In 1973, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward never thought he would become a household name. Woodward, along with colleague Carl Bernstein, broke the Watergate scandal, ending President Richard Nixon’s administration and changing how journalists viewed the government.

Woodward spoke about his illustrious career at the 22nd annual WIN Lecture Series Dinner held at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center on Friday.

“Well, it wasn’t so much political,” Woodward said about his early reporting career. “I did a tryout at the Washington Post that I failed at.”

Woodward attempted to join the Washington Post staff in 1971 when, he said, it was mutually agreed upon that he needed more reporting experience.

“I realized I loved (journalism) and got a job at a weekly paper in Maryland,” Woodward said. “Then the Post hired me nine months before the Watergate burglary.”

New to journalism, especially investigative journalism, Woodward and Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal and, in 1973, the pair won a Pulitzer Prize for their work on the story.

Woodward said he doesn’t think much about Watergate anymore but believes the event is more than important.

“It’s history,” Woodward said with a smile.

During his career, Woodward, who is now a managing assistant editor at the Washington Post, has seen his share of history being made. Woodward said that he is working on his fourth book documenting the Bush administration. The book, entitled “Bush At War, Part IV,” is due out in the fall.

Woodward has authored more than nine best-selling non-fiction books documenting important political moments in U.S. history, including “All The President's Men” in 1974, “The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House” in 1994 and “State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III” in 2006.

When asked about his thoughts on U.S. politics, Woodward said that the country is in a defining political period.

“Well, there is an election coming up and I think it is one of the most important ones in a long time,” Woodward said. “I think the most important thing going on in the world right now is the Iraq war. I think it will define us as a country.”

Regardless of how important Woodward thinks the election is, he stressed his desire not to endorse a specific candidate.

“I definitely stay out of that,” Woodward said. “I know them all and I think the good news is they are all pretty strong people. Obama, Clinton and McCain are very strong as individuals, but they don’t have management skills and the presidency is a management job, so that is the missing piece.”

During his speech at the WIN Dinner, Woodward suggested that whoever wins the elections should enroll in a semester of business school.

Yet, Woodward explained that not having management skills was not the worse-case scenario.

“I ask the question: 'What should we worry about?' ” Woodward said. “The thing we should worry about is secret government. Too much secrecy in the Clinton administration, too much secrecy in the Bush administration. I believe democracies die in darkness.”

Woodward said he believes it is the job of the journalist to make sure that the issues stay in the public’s eye.

“The journalist’s job is not to say, ‘Shoulda, woulda, coulda,’ but to say what is,” Woodward said. “Our jobs get to the bottom, to answer questions.”

As for the future of journalism, Woodward said he could not predict it, but that media will evolve and continue to inform the public.

“It will continue, whether it is in newspapers or on the Web, or exactly how it occurs I don’t know,” Woodward said. “You cannot just say newspapers; you have to say the tradition of independent aggressive inquiry.

“The tradition of independent aggressive inquiry will continue just because it is too important and there are too many people that realize it is important,” Woodward added.

When Woodward began his career, he was fresh out of the Navy in 1970 and looking for a job. Woodward was a lieutenant and during his speech he reminded people of the hard work and personal sacrifice of the U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

“I think the country has become numb to this war,” Woodward said, shaking his head. “Who pays the price for the Iraq war? They (the soldiers) are our surrogates. They’re there so we don’t have to be there, so we can be here. What do we owe them? We owe them everything.”

While Woodward’s speech was interesting and informative, not everything the Pulitzer Prize winner said was gravely serious. He laughed about feeling intimidated into action after speaking with then-Washington Post editor, Katharine Graham.

Woodward told the story as if it was fresh in his mind. At lunch with Graham, she asked when they would know everything that happened during Watergate and Woodward casually replied that they might never know.

“Katharine looked at me and said, ‘Never? Don’t ever tell me never.’ ”

Woodward said Graham’s response motivated him to return to work and find the answers to keep his job.

As Woodward concluded his speech covering his career, the current political situation in the United States and hysterically funny lessons he had learned during his more than 25 years as a journalist, one thing was clear: Woodward loves what he does.

“It’s a great job,” he said. “I always say if someone came from Mars or another planet and observed Earth or the United States for a year and went back and asked, ‘Who has the best jobs in America?’ they would say the journalist.

“You get to make a momentary entry into someone’s life when it is interesting and you get to get out when it ceases to be interesting, which is important. News, by definition, is not routine.”