Presidents have to decide what their popularity is for. Lyndon Johnson probably understood best that political popularity is a wasting asset. You had to use it when you had it.
From death’s perspective, there are no differences between people; there are no presidents or flight attendants, no faiths or nations. There is just the person, always dear.
I want to kill the president because I no like the capitalists. I have the gun in my hand, I kill kings and presidents first and next all capitalists.
Native Americans have faced centuries of atrocities to their people, their land, and their culture – all under various presidents who took an oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The presidents of colleges have to have some courage to step forward. You can’t limit alcohol in college sports, you have to get rid of it.
Presidents grow up in the White House. The times shape the man.
Since the enactment of the War Powers Act in 1973, which I supported then and support now, Congress has been reluctant to assert its authority when presidents decide to send American soldiers into harm’s way.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more liberal, and my father is increasingly conservative. It’s so shocking to me because I always thought we had the same politics. The day I realized we voted for different presidents, I practically fell out of my chair.
Our nation has granted its presidents exquisite transport because we need our leaders to be efficient and safe. However, we don’t need for them to luxuriate on our tax dollars.
Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.
Great presidents don’t just fight good fights – they win them.
Presidents are evaluated not by what they did by the stroke of their own pen; it’s what they persuade Congress to do.
Our great presidents have been stewards, men who broadly identified with the whole of America.
Even if you have presidents like FDR dealing with someone like Stalin, with whom he didn’t exactly all the time disagree… He wasn’t always in lockstep saying Stalin was wonderful all the time. Donald Trump never criticizes Putin.
When most presidents get in, they move to the center because they realize that this is a centrist country – even Reagan.
Presidents do not go off on leave without telling the country.
Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation.
An earthquake strikes Haiti, and care packages from America are among the first to arrive – and not far behind are former Presidents Clinton and Bush.
President Obama came to office proclaiming that he aims to solve problems, not hand them on to our children. Most presidents say that sort of thing.
We all obviously need others to look up to, and be inspirational to us. Ford did a great job as far as putting the presidency back where it belonged, getting the trust back after Nixon. And President Reagan has been one of the most influential presidents.
Since the end of World War II, U.S. presidents of both parties have recognized that foreign and domestic policy do not have to be pursued at the expense of each other.
I’ve played three presidents, three saints and two geniuses – and that’s probably enough for any man.
Three times a year, there’s Strategicon convention, and I go for the board games. It happens Presidents Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day weekends. You go and take a look at the new board games and meet a couple of board game designers, and you can check out games you don’t own from the library and then return them.
Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill. Never take the country down the road to ‘Demon Pass.’
No one reaches the Oval Office without a great deal of admiration for the institution – and himself – so it’s unsurprising that sitting presidents favor the biographies of former presidents.
Presidents routinely testify in criminal cases. You know, George W. Bush did it with Valerie Plame. Bill Clinton did it three times with Ken Starr. Gerald Ford did it with respect to a testimony about a Charles Manson follower. And Ronald Reagan, I think, is perhaps the most important precedent.
We’ve gotten to do so many great things throughout the years. We’ve gotten to meet presidents. We’ve been able to go to so many wonderful awards shows and meet so many great celebrities.
Unlike most U.S. presidents out of power, the Obamas are staying in Washington, D.C., so their younger daughter can finish school. But let’s be honest, they’re also staying so they can respond to the new administration.
The greatest presidents have been those who demonstrated astute judgment in times of crisis – often despite the advice they were getting.
I’ve worked closely with presidents, especially with President Obama, and I realized that what good leaders do at the national level is no different than what we do at the local level.
In the last 100 years only Presidents George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford lost their bids for reelection. President Lyndon Johnson did not run for a second term.
I think 60 is when many people hit their prime. We elect many of our presidents in their 60s. At that age, people are full of ideas and their best self. I wanted to dig into my potential and bring out my best self.
In journalism, we recognize a kind of hierarchy of fame among the famous. We measure it in two ways: by the length of an obituary and by how far in advance it is prepared. Presidents, former presidents, and certain heads of state are at the top of the chain.
I left Google X. All the senior women have left Google X. I was the last to make it – I was, to be fair, the last there. Megan Smith left, Claire Hughes Johnson, vice presidents at Google left.
The total eclipses of the sun are very special and have been associated with wars, famines, floods, unprecedented climate changes and the death or birth of dictators, rulers, presidents and kings, especially near the area where the total eclipse occurs.
Surveillance changes history. We know this through examples of corrupt presidents like Nixon.
Presidents are elected not by direct popular vote but by 538 members of the Electoral College.
Let’s assume for the moment that the logic behind Presidents Day is actually sound for certain presidents. Why not have a separate holiday for Lincoln and one for Washington – as we used to do, before we became so concerned with the ‘Every President Gets a Trophy’ ethos?
Obama represents one-world government, a.k.a. Neocolonialism. Presidents don’t change anything locally – they only deal with foreign policy.
Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‘we.’
The voting public is not very good at attributing credit and blame to presidents. They get too much credit when things go well and too much blame when things go badly. The same applies to coaches, C.E.O.’s, parents, and anyone else in charge.
Some people put down all presidents. If you say anything good about any of them, they think you’re supporting everything they do.
When I worked in the White House for President Carter, we tried to do comprehensive tax reform and we made some progress, and other presidents have as well.
Great presidents take stands, and they fight off these people who really are so far to the right. I don’t want to call them names, even though they would call me names.
I head a nation of a million presidents.
I almost laughed about the Machiavellian plans of the presidents of the United States.
‘Black Panther’ had a whole cast of beautiful black brilliance. Black scientists. Black presidents. The style. The technology. The color.
Presidents have to learn how to adapt. Every president comes into the job; it’s different than they expect. They must adapt.
Parodies came about because Mr. Ford was actually one of the better athletes of our presidents… but he continually had physical accidents… he was an easy target for me. The main idea was to get people laughing.
I deal with guys in their 20s and early 30s who are presidents of companies, who are movie directors.
Bad presidents don’t deserve holidays. They deserve scorn.
Presidents at the end of their second term – Reagan with the Iran-contra affair, Clinton with Monica Lewinsky – often find they are bedevilled by hostile Congressional investigations.
Two presidents pursued human rights policies that were serious and effective: Reagan and George W. Bush. They understood that American support for human rights activists is a moral imperative for us and also makes the world safer for us.
