Mara Liasson Quotes

What people forget is that the most radical thing about Obama is that he was the first black man in history to imagine that he could become president, who was able to make other Americans believe it as well. Other than that, he is a centrist, just like I try to be. He's been bridging divisions his whole life.

I went to law school with President Obama.

I don't think you can bring the races together by joking about the differences between them. I'd rather talk about the similarities, about what's universal in their experiences.

After Obama became president, I realized that black people could not have put him in the White House - it had to be a collective effort of everybody in the country.

If you think about 'Person of Interest' with Taraji P. Henson or 'Scandal' with Kerry Washington - any of those black women could have been any race; they just happen to be black. And those are the characters that I'm more attracted to. It's not so much about separation of race, but really, more uniting us.

Obama's a great speaker. Because of his speaking ability and his appearance, a lot of guys got on board. Being the first African American, a lot guys got on board.

I want a lot of people to see my movies. More black people. More white people. I want to make that connection.

The very fact that Barack Obama - an African-American - was twice elected to the presidency will always be the lead line in that hard-to-meld, gold-plated paragraph.

Lincoln would love the fact that Obama is such a great conciliator, trying to transcend ideology.

When I first heard that Barack Obama was going to be the first black president, I wanted to do the smallest, biggest tribute in history.

You have to ask if the country would have been ready for Barack Obama if we hadn't been prepared by Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice. If they hadn't already been in positions of enormous power and influence - secretary of state, secretary of defence - you know what I mean?

It's become easy for Americans to live in a cocoon of monolithic ideology and thought. It's time to embrace diversity of thought and diversity of experience.

Children today will grow up taking for granted that an African-American or a woman can, yes, become the president of the United States.

Obama is not an African American president, but a president of all Americans. It doesn't matter if you are black, white, Hispanic, he's the president of all races.

Jesse Jackson is not anti-Semitic, but in politics, you always get in trouble when you try to be cute.

The 2008 presidential election was a triumph of hope and unity over fear and divisiveness. Barack Obama's election reshapes America's political landscape and wipes away the false geography of 'red states' and 'blue states.'

All lives matter, including black lives, which is a value we should be striving for rather than condemning.

Regardless of what you feel about Obama and his politics - screw all that. The fact of the matter is, he was the first black guy to be the president of the United States. The history is still being made.

I think the first person to call me 'Britain's Obama' was Martin Bright at the New Statesman. Harriet Harman made the comparison once at a conference; it was very flattering but it made me cringe slightly.

The United States has larger enclaves than one might suspect of communities that have simply never engaged with anyone different than themselves or anyone that has an ideology that's different or a background that's different.

Great leaders have no need for reputation. Reputation is what you are in public. Character is who you are in private.

I think what matters is that we have to show people that we are an inclusive society that-that-that we want everyone to succeed. And I think there's more that all of us as leaders have got to do to be inclusive with people and make people feel like they're included in society.

We can't let people drive wedges between us... because there's only one human race.

There is only one race ... and it is human!

At home in South Africa I have sometimes said in big meetings where you have black and white together: 'Raise your hands!' Then I have said: 'Move your hands,' and I've said 'Look at your hands - different colors representing different people. You are the Rainbow People of God.'