Presidential Challenge Quotes

Pat Buchanan's challenge to George H.W. Bush in 1992 helped elect Democrat Jimmy Carter.

When you're bringing in a fairly unknown candidate challenging a sitting president, the population needs a lot more information than reduced coverage provides.

Just as crises can provide a test of anyone's character, they do so especially with presidents.

[Barack] Obama was reaching a point [with Syria bombing] where he might not have been able to carry it off.He was losing support internally, and was compelled to send the vote to Congress, and it looked as if he was going to be defeated, which would have been a very serious blow to his presidency, to his authority.

No [electoral] challenge to an incumbent President is ever a “walk in the park,”

For years our opponents were hoping to see President Reagan's back against the wall here in the White House. I don't think this is exactly what they had in mind ...

Romney has to convince the American public that they need to do something they're not usually inclined to do - replace a sitting president with a challenger. And unlike in 1980 and 1992, when the public was persuaded to do just that, the incumbent president has not been weakened by a primary opponent.

History has shown that challenging an incumbent president in the primary almost inevitably leads to defeat in the general election.

Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.

The last thing you want to do is go up against someone in your own party and certainly your own president.