Alexandra Petri Quotes

Now, today is the day we honor, of course, the Presidents, ranging from George Washington, who couldn't tell a lie, to George Bush, who couldn't tell the truth, to Bill Clinton, who couldn't tell the difference.

Reagan didn't socialize with the press. He spent his evenings with Nancy, watching TV with dinner trays. But he knew that to transcend, you can't condescend.

Presidents seem to fall into two positive categories: they're one of us, or they're heroes. Both McCain and Obama probably see themselves as potential heroes - presidents who will be looked up to, not presidents everyday people will remark are 'just like me.'

The Presidency is not a showman’s job. You can’t make a Teddy Roosevelt out of me.

A President has a character, and the whole administration takes its character from the President's.

When he entered the Oval Office - by fate, not by design - Citizen Ford knew that he was not perfect, just as he knew he was not perfect when he left. But what president ever was?

Presidents often disappoint, but first ladies rarely do.

This is the worst President ever. He George W. Bush is the worst President in all of American history.

Every year since 1990, the Gallup poll has asked Americans to assess all the presidents since John F. Kennedy. And every year, Kennedy comes out on top.

Whose leadership, whose judgment, whose values do you want in the White House when that crisis lands like a thud on the Oval Office desk?

Both Kennedy and Obama exuded a dash of glamour in their roles as commander-in-chief and became the darlings of Hollywood. As president, each brought to the White House a fashionable and accomplished First Lady, two adorable young children and scene-stealing pets.

I think George W. Bush has a warm, engaging personality. But, you know, the presidency is more than just a popularity contest.

White House cultures inevitably reflect the president's character. Jimmy Carter is a thoroughly honest, good person. So was his White House.

When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.

Once you're done being president, you tend to want to defend your record more than plumb your inner feelings. I find it hard to imagine Obama going home at night and writing sensitive, introspective journal entries about his meeting with John Boehner.

Me a President? I would be a worse President than George W. Bush if such a thing is possible.

If George W. Bush is a reformer, I'm an astronaut!

The nature of the Presidency is such that you are always asking yourself what else could you be doing?.

Part of the bigger problem with Donald Trump is, when you sit and talk to him one-on-one, he's reasonable, he comes across as caring, he's open-minded, but then, all of that just is thrown out the window when he tweets and when he communicates with the media - and when he communicates at all.

I believe that the role of president of the United States is vastly different from the role of candidate and that the Donald Trump of the campaign will not succeed as president.

What can be said of George H. W. Bush beyond the personal accolades is that, as president, he was a man who did nothing by half measures. He was hands-on, engaged, and thought deeply and seriously about the purpose of the nation.

The truth is that I have never created a president to push a political point of view. I am often looking to create aspirational characters; that's true. But, you know, in the end, it is really up to the actor in front of the presidential seal to decide exactly what kind of president you're going to get.

Many Republicans knew that Trump's anti-media attacks were damaging, and they cringed when his White House was consumed by his own narcissism. They knew that the country deserved better.

All of the American presidents, certainly all of the notable ones, have been pretty original.

If Obama was fundamentally different from prior presidents, Trump seems to violate every tenet of what Americans have long sought as our national image.