Hamilton Jordan Quotes

We see more and more of our Presidents and know less and less about what they do.

Members [of Congress] go back now and report on TV. And the local press doesn't have the slightest idea of what you're doing on public policy unless you get caught in a scandal.

The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press

In post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America, skeptical voters demand full disclosure of everything from candidates' finances to their medical records, and spin-savvy accounts of backstage machinations dominate political coverage.

I respect the office of the presidency, but I never worship at the shrines of our public servants... The Washington press corps has the privilege of asking the president of the United States what he is doing and why.

Obama hasn't lost his standing because of tricks played by the Republicans. He hasn't lost his standing because the media's not fair to him. He hasn't lost his standing or his approval number because the media spent four years attacking him like they did George W. Bush. This is all on him.

The presidency is more than a popularity contest.

At least the politicians are accountable to the voters.

So I think democracy, in the long-term, in our countries will survive if it comes to be associated with leadership, will not survive if democracy plus media brings to us more and more followship rather than leadership.

When the Vice President of the United States shoots somebody, the public has the right to know.

The media are much better at keeping politicians honest and accountable. They are not willing to look the other way as they sometimes have in the past.

The people have a right to know—no, a duty to know—what the army is doing in our name.

We are narrowing the field of those who will run for office when we allow them so little privacy.

In a democracy you [politicians] have to let the press and the people give you crap.

Democracy requires that those who bear the consequences of decisions have enough knowledge to hold the decision-makers accountable.

You elect a President for four years and then you judge him in 100 days.

I don’t see any problem with having proceedings televised. I think it would be good for the public.

How can you govern if you always have to feed the news cycle?

Without television, Richard Nixon would not have a chance. He would not have a prayer of being elected because the press would not let him get through to the people.

The intoxication of power rapidly sobers off in the knowledge of its restrictions and under the prompt reminder of an ever-present and not always considerate press, as well as the kindly suggestions that not infrequently come from Congress.

Democracy in the United States takes politicians who are reasonable in private and it churns them through a public process that is almost tailor-made to undermine their virtues. Perpetually kissing up to the voters destroys the leadership qualities the voters are looking for in the first place: tranquility of spirit, independence of mind and a sensitivity to the contours and complexity of reality.

I am not on trial here, Mr. Chairman. This committee is on trial here before the American people. Let us get that straight.

Our job is to bash the President.

Public men are all amenable to the tribunal of the press in a free state. The greater, indeed, their trust, the more respectable are they.

I think you do need two terms as a president.