Rod Lurie Quotes

The presidency awed me, but presidents do not. Perhaps I have always expected too much of them, but I believe that when they reach the highest office in the land, they should live up to the greatest honor that can come to a person in American political life. Some have stood the test better than others.

The truth is that I have never created a president to push a political point of view. I am often looking to create aspirational characters; that's true. But, you know, in the end, it is really up to the actor in front of the presidential seal to decide exactly what kind of president you're going to get.

How can a president not be an actor?

We need a little more 'Hail to the Chief.'

Washington's birthday is worthy of celebration - he is one of the greatest men in history. But Washington himself would likely have seen celebration of the office of the presidency itself as monarchic in nature.

The Grand Old Party's abiding affection for a 'bigger and better' presidency isn't entirely logical. After all, the Obama presidency commenced with an effort to reenact the Hundred Days. Yet President Obama's first-term economic performance itself was not 'big' but mediocre - tiny, even.

The job of the president of the United States is to talk to the public, is to explain to them. Now, some presidents talk too much, like Bill Clinton. Some presidents try to talk but don't know how, like George Bush senior.

[Assessing William Howard Taft:] It is very difficult for me to understand how a man who is so good as Chief Justice could have been so bad as President.

Any man who has ever been honored by being made President of the United States is thereby forever after rendered the American people.

I think President Obama is weak, bored with the office, and an incompetent leader.

The way we think about a presidential portrait is one that is imbued with dignity from the outset.

As soon as a regular guy like Bill Clinton becomes the president, he wears a mantle of greatness. He's the president.

Some of the presidents were great and some of them weren't. I can say that, because I wasn't one of the great presidents, but I had a good time trying to be one, I can tell you that.

It is absolutely unacceptable to think that in the last year of the president's term, that he should stop doing his job, and he won't.

In practice, presidents have typically tended to think of themselves not just as stewards for their party, but also of the presidency itself - preserving the full scope of its constitutional power for their successors is part of their job.

A president has - and I had it even before I became president - a very special relationship with the people, a connection based on feelings.

I didn't vote for President Obama, but I think he is our president, and I like and dislike decisions of any president in office.

Charged with faithfully executing the laws, the president is, in effect, the nation's highest law enforcement officer.

Obama and his staff's sheer disrespect for the presidency is probably causing the Gipper to spin in his grave.

Donald Trump is talking about the failed leadership of the Obama Administration.

The president can't change the country on his own. But what can he do? He can give an example.

The president actually is there to complement the government in power. If they have done something that is not proper, it is the duty of the president to... discuss and to come to some common ground.

I think I governed effectively. I don't have any doubts about that. I had the benefit, when I was in office, of having an excellent relationship with the Republican Party. We had superb bipartisan support and we had the highest batting average of any president since the Second World War, except Lyndon Johnson. He had a little better average than I did.

I think in many ways president Trump views himself as someone who has the ability to overcome every obstacle and to do something that no other president has been able to do. And I think that's the way he views himself, as it relates to his legacy and how history will view him.

I don't want to be THE president, but I would like to have A president.