Robert Menzies Quotes
Never forget posterity when devising a policy. Never think of posterity when making a speech.
Robert Menzies, Australian Prime Minister, 1970
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
He was referring to water rights where short term agreements might have disastrous consequences for future generations. Under the WWI Peace Treaty the high court of Egypt was an International Court. President Wilson nominated Crabites to this court and he served there for 3 decades during which he became a world class expert in Middle Eastern affairs. The failure to have a long-term perspective was a Middle Eastern problem then and did not improve in the next century.
Description of Mary Elizabeth Lease, 1853-1933
Agrarian Reformer and Populist
Ryan told the national audience that President Obama had come to a factory in his district that as rumored to be closed. Obama had told the workers that the Federal government could assist and keep the factory open for many years. Then as Ryan explained, the factory closed the following year. He gave this as an example of Obama not keeping his word. However what Ryan did not say was that Obama had made the speech at the factory when he was a candidate for the Presidency, and then the factory was closed while George W. Bush was President and by the time he took office, the closure was done and the factory machines gone. And when Obama took office, our national economy was within days of complete bank and finance collapse. Obama saved most of the banks and then the American automobile industry. To suggest that Obama could have or should have done something for the factory that closed was shockingly misleading. It would have been a minor issue if some party hack had lied and made the same accusation. But this was the Vice Presidential Candidate whose acceptance speech was assumedly vetted by the Presidential Candidate’s staff. That is why the quotation was so memorable.
He had spent a great deal of time traveling and observing President Barack Obama. While he and many others appreciated the contemplation that Obama gave to serious issues, there were many people who saw it as a lack of courage to act swiftly or an elite intellectual proactice.
Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, KT, AK, CH, QC, FAA, FRS, was an Australian politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1949 to 1966. He played a central role in the creation of the Liberal Party of Australia, defining its policies and its broad outreach. He is Australia's longest-serving prime minister, serving over 18 years in total.
