Godfrey Hodgson Quotes

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.

The people can never understand why the President does not use his powers to make them behave. Well all the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

You may think the president is all-powerful, but he is not. He needs a lot of guidance from the Lord.

Control is not a luxury that most Presidents are allowed.

[The American President] has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues.… The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

A President cannot always be popular.

There has been so much power concentrated. There is no leash on that power anymore and Americans face the situation that this power is getting momentum with each passing year with each presidency.

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

I counted on sixty days only, but I held out for 133. I didn't go into power, but to get power I borrowed some power from the President and made him sign a number of decrees and give me enough power to create a system capable of handling crisis situations.

If Mr. Obama wants to get things done, he must recognize that in Washington only the president has the power to make the first big move.

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

Exempting judicial nominations from filibusters would expand Presidential power.

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

Congress ... is far more than the simple, limited advisory council that most Presidents would like to maintain.

I do not believe that the President has any powers at all except such as the Constitution expressly gives him or such as are necessarily inferred.

A president in his first year has a mandate and some political capital. When he picks an issue, he can practically roll any Congress.

The President may be right in how he reads the Constitution. But he also may be wrong. And if he is wrong, who is there to tell him so? And if there is no one, the President, of course, is free to pursue his course of erroneous interpretations. What then becomes of our constitutional form of government?

The danger of undue power in the President is not, to me, formidable.

The President can set the cultural agenda.

The roots of power in the White House are often bourbon and branch water taken with the President at the end of the day.

I’m the commander, see, I don’t need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.

Presidents cannot be constrained by administrative flowcharts.

There were differences of opinion, but the only opinion that mattered was the President’s opinion.

All recent U.S. presidents have learned the hard way that, despite their immense power, they remain at the mercy of uncontrollable global forces that render their personal views and campaign promises largely irrelevant.