Presidential Impact Quotes

From Jefferson to Jackson to Lincoln to FDR to Reagan, every great president inspires enormous affection and enormous hostility. We'll all be much saner, I think, if we remember that history is full of surprises and things that seemed absolutely certain one day are often unimaginable the next.

One undeniable accomplishment of Bill Clinton's presidency was that it kept Jimmy Carter from being the worst U.S. president in history.

President Kennedy's life and death represent both what is possible in America, and all of the work left undone.

The corporate takeover of America pre-dates Trump and it will outlast him. This president has revealed the rot of America. He has made it worse. It will take more than ousting him to fix it.

At least since 1947, the historical record seems to support a simple conclusion: If you want the American economy to grow, you ought to put a Democrat in the Oval Office.

Me and Drake gonna be neighbors if Donald Trump becomes president.

We have had good and bad Presidents, and it is a consoling reflection that the American Nation possesses such elements of prosperity that the bad Presidents cannot destroy it, and have been able to do no more than slightly to retard the public's advancement.

It took President Obama to make America lead like America again.

For style and for creating a mood of optimism and hope - Kennedy on that count is as effective as any president the country has had in its history.

I am impressed with America's capacity for change, and their ability to bring someone as inspirational as Barack Obama into the White House.

In fundamental ways, the 2016 Democratic primary has been a litigation of the Obama years, and of whether the president's 2008 campaign vow of 'change we can believe in' succeeded or failed.

If it's hard for Blue America to see Red America as anything other than a bunch of dumb, racist rednecks; it's hard for Red America to recognize that many minorities are legitimately worried about what a Trump presidency means for their family.

I think that the world will continue trying to grapple with the climate problem, no matter who is U.S. president. But I think that, depending on who that president is, it can have a significant influence on the trajectory.

[Barack Obama] is a man who is causing us and will cause us a great deal of harm constitutionally and personally.

Every president, as he nears the end of his final term in office, thinks about his place in history.

I suspect that had my dad not been president, he'd be asking the same questions: How'd your meeting go with so-and-so? . How did you feel when you stood up in front of the people for the State of the Union Address-state of the budget address, whatever you call it.

And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.

President Obama has done more damage to America than any American has since 1776

Once a president gets to the White House, the only audience that is left that really matters is history.

One of the things I learned in editing 'The Reagan Diaries' is to never say what Reagan would do, because he surprised people.

As Obama prepares to begin the last year of his presidency, he stands in an unusual position on the national stage: He is the rationalist, a creature of intellect rather than emotion.

I don't think there is one president that's come down the line that hasn't done something good somewhere.

I think that [Donald Trump] clearly was able to tap into a lot of grievances. And he has a talent for making a connection with his supporters that overrode some of the traditional benchmarks of how you'd run a campaign or conduct yourself as a presidential candidate. What will be interesting to see is how that plays out during the course of his presidency.

I don't think there's ever been a president elected who, in this short period of time, has done what we've done.

We have a president who apparently loves instability and revolution, and that is the antithesis of those two words, Social Security.