By disgracing and degrading the presidency of the United States, by fleeing the White House like a diseased cur, Richard Nixon broke the heart of the American Dream. Hunter S Thompson
Of all the men that have run for president in the twentieth century, only George McGovern truly understood what a monument America could be to the human race. Hunter S Thompson
When you go outside this country it’s accepted knowledge that our president is under mind control. Cathy O’Brien, lecture Trance Formation of America
When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making. Bob Woodward
Every president has to live with the result of what Lyndon Johnson did with Vietnam, when he lost the trust of the American people in the presidency. Robert Caro
The presidency is more than a popularity contest. Al Gore
My fellow citizens, the AmericanpPresidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery. Sarah Palin
No man has the right to use the great powers of the presidency to lead the people, indirectly, into war. Wendell Willkie
Suffice it to say that the president is made the sole repository of the executive powers of the United States, and the powers entrusted to him as well as the duties imposed upon him are awesome indeed. William Rehnquist, Nixon v General Services Administration 433 US 425 1977 dissenting opinion
And still the question, What shall be done with our ex-presidents? is not laid at rest; and I sometimes think Watterson’s solution of it, Take them out and shoot them, is worthy of attention. Grover Cleveland
My view was that every executive officer, and above all every executive officer in high position, was a steward of the people bound actively and affirmatively to do all he could for the people, and not to content himself with the negative merit of keeping his talents undamaged in a napkin. I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the nation could not be done by the president unless he could find some specific authorization to do it. My belief was that it was not only his right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws. Under this interpretation of executive power I did and caused to be done many things not previously done by the President and the heads of the departments. I did not usurp power, but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power. In other words, I acted for the public welfare, I acted for the common well-being of all our people, whenever and in whatever manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative prohibition. Theodore Roosevelt
It is our duty at all times to tell the truth about the president and about everyone else, save in the cases where to tell the truth at the moment would benefit the public enemy. Theodore Roosevelt
The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgment – social, political, or ethical – can raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him. John Steinbeck, America and Americans
Somewhere out in this audience may even by someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president’s spouse. I wish him well. Barbara Bush
Take our politicians – they’re a bunch of yo-yos. The presidency is now a cross between a popularity contest and a high school debate, with an encyclopaedia of clichés the first prize. Saul Bellow
For instance, it is certain that women do not want a woman for president. Nor would they have the slightest confidence in her ability to fulfil the functions of that office. Eleanor Roosevelt
By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he’s been bought ten times over. Gore Vidal
Every four years the naive half who vote are encouraged to believe that if we can elect a really nice man or woman President everything will be all right. But it won’t be. Any individual who is able to raise $25 million to be considered presidential is not going to be much use to the people at large. He will represent oil, or aerospace, or banking, or whatever moneyed entities are paying for him. Certainly he will never represent the people of the country, and they know it. Hence, the sense of despair throughout the land as incomes fall, businesses fail and there is no redress. Gore Vidal, The Decline and Fall of the American Empire, 1992
That peculiarly American religion, president worship. Gore Vidal
Although I wasn’t invited to shake hands with Hitler, I wasn’t invited to the White House to shake hands with the president either. Jesse Owens
If elitist groups like Bohemian Club, the CFR and the Bilderberg Group select and groom candidates to become Presidents of the US then isn’t it safe to assume they also dictate certain policies once their alumni are in the White House? Lance Morcan, The Orphan Conspiracies
When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental – men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost ... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre – the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum. The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. H L Mencken
We should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that and be faithful in what happens. Britney Spears
Clinton: The most corrupt, fraudulent and dishonest president we have ever known. Mark Helprin, Wall Street Journal contributing editor
It is at the Council on Foreign Relations where decisions are made about who is going to be placed in the White House. John Todd
The Trilateral Commission – seventy-eight, ninety people, who controlled all three candidates for the president of the United States in 1980. Anthony J Hilder, interview Lucifer 2000
Jimmy Carter the former peanut farmer from Georgia was brought into the Trilateral Commission back in 1972, and within four years he’s groomed and runs and wins as president of the United States. Jim Marrs
Only the aspirants for president are fool enough to believe what they read in the newspapers. Christopher Hitchens
Perhaps it might be better, Mr President, if you were more concerned with the American people, than with your image in the history books. Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1963 starring Peter Sellers & George C Scott & Sterling Hayden & Keenan Wynn & Slim Pickens & Peter Bull & James Earl Jones & Tracy Reed & Shane Rimmer et al, director Stanley Kubrick, Turgidson
It is an interesting observation to note how seemingly unknown personalities magically appear on the scene as presidential candidates. Then, before you know it, somehow you are left to choose from a small group of extremely wealthy people, who suspiciously have the same broad social view. Obviously it’s a joke. The people placed on the ballot are done so because they have been pre-decided to be acceptable by the established financial powers who actually run the show. Yet many who understand this illusion of democracy often think – if only we could just get our honest ethical politicians in power, then we would be OK ... Unfortunately, another fallacy. Zeitgeist addendum, 2008