Kris Kobach Quotes

I'll be so presidential that you people will be screaming loosen up president. Loosen up.

The thing about Barack Obama, just from being around him, is he's cooler than the other politicians, but just nerdy enough to do the job. Like you can't be really cool and be the president.

I'm actually a very quiet person off the golf course. I talk 150 miles per hour when I'm at the course, but when in private I very seldom ever open my mouth.

A politician wants to come off as a happy warrior. To be contemplative seems almost effete, fancy – dispiriting somehow to much of your audience. He [Barack Obama] is not afraid to be this way at all.

What makes Trump’s behavior seem pathological is that he is the president rather than your neighbor or colleague or negotiating partner. He speaks to audiences of millions rather than to audiences of one or two, and is immediately checked by the press. No president or leader of a developed country has ever acted like him. Most politicians speak from mental (or real) transcripts, which have been carefully vetted so that they offend no one and reveal nothing. Normal presidents lie but only when they expect to be believed because the facts are hidden from the public.

America is so much more 'show business.' For instance, you have Barack Obama. We have Fredrik Reinfeldt. Everyone in the world knows Barack Obama!

I think when it comes to the issues, I'd advise him to stick to the script. But, I mean, Donald Trump is going to have some very tough conversations and he's going to be talking about some very tough and complicated issues in all of the places that he visits.I think anytime a president does things that are humanizing, I think it's - it's good.

I don't think the Donald Trump's qualified to be president of the United States, and every time he speaks, that opinion is confirmed.

[Donald Trump] doesn't have the temperament to be president.

I really think it's important for presidents to exit the stage gracefully.

Obama's got a great sense of humor, but mainly he has a great thinking presence, which is uncommon. It's hard to imagine being able to do, think over answers and deliver them on television. If I were president I would constantly be spluttering.

President Obama has got the most moderate temperament.

I think she [Hillary Clinton] would be far superior to President [Barack] Obama, who is basically remote, aloof and not involved with - he doesn't deal with members of Congress.

Wisdom is essential in a president, the appearance of wisdom will do in a candidate.

George W. Bush is a person who is totally disinterested in the world, uneducated. I'm not saying he's stupid. I don't think he's stupid. He's crafty as hell, but he projects well on television. And that's the real big problem. He is the perfect "what, me worry?" president.

It's far from clear in general that Donald Trump is a guy who really thinks about the details of policy and is going to do the kind of heavy lifting you have to do as president to get those policies through in Congress. I think the hope is that Paul Ryan and his crew will push policies through Congress and Trump will just sign them. That's not really how policy works.

I can be the most presidential person ever, other than possibly the great Abe Lincoln, all right?

You could tell he (President Ronald Reagan) was an old radio guy. He never once looked at the television monitor.

There's a certain attitude toward being presidential that is now going away and I think the other thing we're seeing is really a moment where I think Republicans are waking up to the fact that they should have been doing this a lot earlier. They should have been trying to get under Donald Trump's skin a lot earlier.

I'm not the type of guy to go out and just say, 'Hey, I'm raising my fist to do this and do that.' I don't think I'm that type of guy. I wasn't a leader the way other people may have wanted me to be.

We have a president, who I think is a nice guy, but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps.

Presidents aren't supposed to spit, at least not obviously.

I'm vulgar, I'm a populist. But isn't that what the mayor should be?

Yet Donald Trump gets off the plane in Saudi Arabia, gets off the plane in Israel, and is overwhelmingly respected and welcomed and appreciated. I have to think that it's not all just because he has the title of president. I think it's a stunning contrast. How can these two completely different characters exist: The Donald Trump of Washington and the Donald Trump of this trip?

I think that is also something he [Barack Obama], in the beginning of his presidency, he couldn't really explore and couldn't show. He had to be almost a one-dimensional, stoic leader during that first election.