Joe Eszterhas Quotes

President Karzai is an incredibly kind and decent man. I had the pleasure of meeting him, and he genuinely cares for his people. But I think he had too much of a tendency to want to rule by listening to all voices at all times.

I think 40 is a good age to run a country. But I've always been fast.

If the critics are right that I've made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.

The interesting thing is that it seems like George W. Bush would have been happy being the president of anything. He could have been president of Major League Baseball.

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

I am sure of my ability to form a good government.

I actually think you should run for president if you're going to be president, if you want to be president. I'm not running for president. I made that decision, consciously, not to.

For me, it all begins with faith; it begins with what matters most, and I try and put what I believe to be moral truth first. My philosophy of government second. And my politics third.

The public is going to be looking for examples of immaturity or inexperience or whatever it might be, but I think that's where we have to prove what we're capable of doing from a policy standpoint and from a leadership standpoint.

The most important criteria for a DNC chair is going to be vision.

Despite the insanity of using whether you would want to have a beer with someone as a legitimate reason for voting for or against them, I always felt that is indicative of a massive problem in politics: It matters as much what your personality is as how smart you are or how good you are at your job. That is a huge, huge problem. A lot of people who are very smart or very good at their jobs are not people I would want to ever have a beer with - but I would want them making massive policy decisions with huge implications for the future of the planet.

I love President Bush. I think it's great we have a president who always looks like he's looking directly into the sun.

Finally, the president added, 'The American people are idealists, but they also want their leaders to be realistic...'

I think that being in politics, being in leadership should be as much about listening as talking. That's how I think you can get the information and sort of pick up the nuance that will enable you to do the best possible job.

I want people to hear what I think about these foundational American values of personal responsibility, resilience, family and faith, there are things that people can learn from somebody who leads a state like Ohio which is, frankly, a microcosm of the country.

We want to believe. Young students try to believe in older authors, constituents try to believe in their Congressmen, countries try to believe in their statesmen, but they can't. Too many voices, too much scattered, illogical ill-considered criticism.

I think Trump's attention span is super low. I don't think he has the expertise to actually run a foreign policy.

It is a great privilege, as well as our responsibility, to pray for our government leaders.

No man has come so near our definition of a constitutional statesman - the powers of a first-rate man and the creed of a second-rate man.

If you don't have good people, and you don't have a good process and you don't have, at some level, the basic reverence for [presidential] office, and an understanding of the incredible responsibilities and obligations, then, I think you can get into trouble.

I do think the president's best role is usually as the sort of initiator.

History is full, down to this day, of the imbecility of kings and governors. They are a class of persons much to be pitied, for they know not what they should do.

Democracy is about criticism. I didn't elect Obama because he's a black; I voted for Obama because he was the right person at the time. Period. The exceptionalism of a black U.S. President is not important to me. It's what he does. And who he has at the table. And what he does to change the world - that's what's important.

I think Donald Trump showed a real quality that every leader needs, and that's resiliency.

It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law of America.