Jen Kirkman Quotes

Say what you want to say about the rest of his presidency, including his tone-deaf response to Katrina and a war waged in Iraq on false pretenses, Bush connected with Americans in the aftermath of 9/11 because he looked as frail and unforgiving as we felt.

Presidents seem to fall into two positive categories: they're one of us, or they're heroes. Both McCain and Obama probably see themselves as potential heroes - presidents who will be looked up to, not presidents everyday people will remark are 'just like me.'

I don't know enough about politics. I am out of the loop.

There was a feeling during the years of George W. Bush's presidency that his gracelessness as well as his appetite for war were linked to his impatience with complexity. He acted 'from the gut,' and was economical with the truth until it disappeared.

Why, this fellow [Dwight D. Eisenhower] don't know any more about politics than a pig knows about Sunday.

Although his [Ronald Reagan's] policies were highly unpopular, he was able to keep his head above the slime in which his Administration wallowed because he appeared to believe in what he was saying and doing.

I don't know much about how things are done in politics.

As everyone knows, I have never been a fan of George Bush's presidency.

I guess I am politically very naive.

There's been a thread of coverage implying that Corbyn is a decent guy but he clearly doesn't understand how the world works. Ignoring the fact that for the majority of people, it doesn't.

I'm undereducated in politics, and I don't like to involve myself in them because they have dark spaces that I do not want to touch.

After 9-11, the President had a historic opportunity to unite Americans and the world in common cause. Instead, by exploiting the politics of fear, instigating an optional war in Iraq before finishing a necessary war in Afghanistan and instituting policies on torture, detainees and domestic surveillance that fly in the face of our values and interests, President Bush divided Americans from each other and from the world.

We're being taken advantage of because we have leaders who are incompetent. They don't even know. When I went out and told them you know in their trade deal they didn't even discuss the devaluation, they didn't even discuss it. At least they started discussing it, only because of me.

Obama took a bad situation and, in certain ways, made it worse. ... I find Obama scary in a way that I had not done in 2008.

I say more power to [Madonna], though I don't know how much more power is out there.

It is amazing how many of the horrors of the 20th century were a result of charismatic quacks misleading millions of people to their own doom. What is even more amazing is that, after a century that saw the likes of Hitler, Lenin and Mao, we still see no need to distrust charisma as a basis for choosing leaders, either in politics or in numerous organizations and movements.

We're in a strange state in our world where we sort of have that belief - and I have it too - that if it's written down there's got to be some truth in it. We haven't quite got to the spot where you go: "Well, it doesn't necessarily mean it's true." It could actually be completely made up and made to look very nice. So, we have to get to the point where scandal and those kinds of things are less and less important because otherwise we won't have anyone willing to run as politicians.

Democratic Party is a party that's just out of touch with who the electorate is and who Americans are.

I've never done any Hallmark movies. I don't know why.

For some reason which I have failed to understand, many people like the system [scientific totalitarianism] when it is Russian but disliked the very same system when it was German. I am compelled to think that this is due to the power of labels; these people like whatever is labelled ‘Left’ without examining whether the label has any justification.

There are establishment Republicans who think Ted Cruz is not a likable guy. I don't understand that. I've had occasion to meet him twice, but just watching him on television, he's not unlikable, he's an dislikable.

As far as liberals are concerned, the Democrats are concerned, when the New York Times clears you, you are cleared.

Donald Trump, when he gives his speeches, talks like a populist. And he talks to middle class and working America and poor people. But when he governs, at least in his first 40 days, he governs like a hard-right guy.

I came out very strongly that we want a border, and the Mexican government probably convinced him that Donald Trump was saying not nice things about the border. And I think it worked out well. I don't think it was a positive, though. I think it was probably a neutral. I don't think it was negative, but it could have been a tremendous negative.

What you don’t know, you can’t tell. Or made to tell.