David Greenberg Quotes

#1. People should make distinctions between the office of the presidency and the person who occupies it. You can respect the office even as you lose respect for the individual.

David Greenberg

#2. Coolidge's preference for experience over ideas was a deeply rooted trait.

David Greenberg

#3. I find it hard to imagine that future historians will see the Iraq War as a big plus in Bush's ledger, but we have to admit that we simply don't know for sure.

David Greenberg

#4. We have to judge presidents not only by the long-term consequences of their actions but also by how they make citizens in their own day feel. One reason that Nixon never succeeded in his comeback campaign is that he had such a negative impact on public trust at the time of his presidency.

David Greenberg

#5. An old-timer is someone who can remember when a naughty child was taken to the woodshed instead of to a psychiatrist.

David Greenberg

#6. I'm hard pressed to give an example on the spot of a president who explicitly spoke of the vindication of history, but I'm confident that there are many such examples.

David Greenberg

#7. Presidents who restrict civil liberties, even in wartime, are usually judged harshly for it.

David Greenberg

#8. In deploring spin while also desiring it, Barack Obama is like the rest of us. We denounce spin when we see it as misleading. But we embrace spin when we see it as leading.

David Greenberg