Eric Alterman Quotes

What I think is frustrating for Americans is that it feels like more was going to change with Obama.

Obama won the presidency on the strength of his message and the skills of the messenger. Now the talk of hope and change feels out of tune when so many Americans are out of work, over-mortgaged, and worried that life will be even tougher for their children.

Category after category, Barack Obama hasn't met the promises that he laid out to the American people.

If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama? You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.

There used to be a cruel joke that said Brazil is the country of the future, and always will be; Obama is the Brazil of today's politicians. He has obviously achieved nothing.

To all who leaned upon Mr. Gladstone, who trusted him, and hoped for something from him—chips, nothing but chips—hard, dry, unnourishing, indigestible chips.

Over my career, I'd watched senior leader visits have unintended negative consequences. Typically, schedules were unrealistically overloaded and were modified during the visit to cancel parts of the plan.

In my opinion, Obama can become one of the biggest frustrations in the history for many people, not for me, but for the people of the United States that voted for him and saw him as a symbol of hope for change.

I'm not really happy with my football career, but I can't complain about it, either.

It's always bitterly disappointing to people to see how normally one can live.

I have not been a success, and probably never will be.

The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.

I think you always have regrets.

That distinctive presidential conduct is now gone forever, banished to the snows of yesteryear by Barack Obama. From the beginning of his presidency to the present, he has spoken specifically and in unprecedented fashion of Republicans as his rivals, his stumbling blocks, the primary cause of his troubles.

So Bush certainly wasn't the greatest, and Obama has not done the job. And he's created a lot of disincentive. He's created a lot of great dissatisfaction. Regulations and regulatory is going through the roof. It's almost impossible to get anything done in the country.

Idle youth, enslaved to everything; by being too sensitive I have wasted my life.

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?

At the end of the day, I've played six years, haven't made the playoffs yet, that burns me and hurts my heart, so I really want to be playing.

History is nothing if not an epic tale of missed opportunities.

Clearly, the Obama presidency hasn't wiped out racial prejudices.

We were hoping Obama would reclaim moral leadership for America. That failed.

I don't want to be a figure of disappointment.

The promise of Obama's presidency, in many people's minds, is partly that America will move toward becoming a post-racial society. It's pretty clear, though, that we aren't there yet.

My concern about Barack Obama is he ran a campaign in 2008 where he said we're going to bring people together and solve big problems. And he specifically talked about the need to reach across the aisle and deal with issues like the economy, which was obviously the top issue in 2008. It has not happened.

Those close to Mr. Obama say he grows irritated at being misunderstood - not just by opponents who insinuate that he caters to African-Americans, but also by black lawmakers and intellectuals who fault him for not making his presidency an all-out assault on racial disparity.