Hendrik Hertzberg Quotes

You can be a great president and be ridden with flaws. Of course we know that.

The President seems a bad edition of a Polish King.

Elected presidents are for countries.

Did I end up finding a little blue pill to cure America's electoral dysfunction? Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

It is simply the truth that the political system that I am part of has degenerated to the point that it needs fundamental change.

I think that the presidency really brings out the best in a lot of people.

I think George W. Bush has a warm, engaging personality. But, you know, the presidency is more than just a popularity contest.

I think it's a pity that in many people's minds constitutional reform and PR have come to mean much the same thing.

Perhaps the cruelest thing ever said of Hubert Humphrey was that he had the soul of a vice president.

I think experience is a terribly overrated idea when it comes to thinking about who should become president.

Ultimately, you change the culture in Washington only one way, and it's one election at a time, with the character of the people you send.

Now look, that damned cowboy is President of the United States.

The hardest thing about a presidential election is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.

About other Democratic candidates: Never say that any of them is not qualified to be President. Never say any of them can't win. Never suggest that any of them is the tool of an group or interest ...

Any man who doesn’t like dogs … shouldn’t be in the White House.

For the Presidency, you run on a record and not on your legs.

Without the Congress I am just a six-foot-four Texan.

I cannot run the political machine. I have enough on my hands without that. It is the people's business.

[Describing George W. Bush:] The Resume That Walks Like a Man.

Seeking the office of the Presidency implies that there is something a little bit wrong with you.

Anybody having a chance to become President usually tries to do so.

I do not feel that I have any duty to seek a political nomination, in spite of the fact that many have urged to the contrary. Because of this belief I shall not do so.

Our democratic belief that anyone can be a political leader paradoxically feeds into the anti-democratic belief that we should look to one person to quickly and easily save us. No one, alone, can fix it, and in our system of government, this authoritarian approach is a prescription for catastrophe.

We need to reform the political system, or we'll lose the democracy. I don't think it's that hard. It doesn't take rocket science. We've done it before successfully at the presidential level and tried it several places at the state level.

I called the book 'The Senator Next Door,' not 'The President Next Door.'