Aleksandr Lebed Quotes

Preserve the President's options. He may need them.

A President in a ... crisis makes, say, 10 bets a day. Maybe I made the wrong choice three times.

A man who understands the power of the Presidency, who understands the potential of the Presidency, can get almost anything accomplished.

Never underestimate the power of an American President in his early days.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

You cannot denude the presidency of the substance and power of its office. It can't be done.

I think I can regard myself as a political decision-maker.

Even military ministers have no more than a certain amount of control. It is customary that they have the right and the power to participate, from a political and military point of view, in the planning of actual operations.

Success in past U.S. conflicts has not been strictly the result of military leadership but rather the judgment of the president in choosing generals and setting broad strategy.

The office of the president is the most powerful in the world. It is also, at times, the most powerless.

I believe that the will of the people is resolved by a strong leadership. Even in a democratic society, events depend on a strong leadership with a strong power of persuasion, and not on the opinion of the masses.

Well, Warren Harding, I have got you the presidency. What are you going to do with it?

The art of politics is knowing what to do next.

I have no ambitions to be a cabinet minister, or prime minister. I wouldn't wish being prime minister on my worst enemy.

There are no techniques in politics.

Twenty-eight years in business and you understand the importance of problem solving and the importance of efficiency, because if you don't become efficient, you don't run a business well, and you are out of business. And I think some of those principles could be applied to leadership in Washington.

President Obama's biggest weakness is weakness.

There's nothing to be said for opposition. You can only talk about things and you can lay your plans. You can't actually achieve very much; you have to be in government for that.

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

Given the daunting challenges that we face, it's important that president elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.

Obama considers himself above deal-making and back-slapping, political necessities he often delegates to Vice President Joe Biden and other lesser sorts.

Generally, the president's power and capital is used to close a deal and not always to negotiate bit by bit.

Johnson showed me how important it was to use every hour of every day to shape national policy while we had the power to do so.

Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?

As to mere power I have been for years in the daily exercise of more personal authority than any President habitually enjoys.