An American President Quotes

#1. Mitt Romney looks like an American President in a Canadian movie.

David Letterman

#2. I think overall it's a disadvantage," Jeb Bush once said of what it meant for his business career that he was the son of an American president and the brother of an American president and the grandson of a wealthy Wall Street banker and US senator.

Malcolm Gladwell

#3. If you go to the Lincoln Memorial, the Second Inaugural is probably the most religious speech ever given by an American President. In its 732 words, it references God 14 times and has two verses of the Bible.

Newt Gingrich

#4. No sooner does an American president take his oath of office than the speculation begins: Will he be reelected in four years' time? If not, who will succeed him? A member of his own party? The other party?

Gore Vidal

#5. I don't think anybody can take the word of Saddam Hussein and his regime, and certainly an American president and allies who are obligated to worry about the safety and security of our countries, cannot take the word of this dictator, who lies, pathologically lies.

Condoleezza Rice

#6. President Abraham Lincoln once remarked, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Few people have more power than an American president. Being the so-called leader

John C. Maxwell

#7. When the Holy Father passed away in 2005, Laura, Dad, Bill Clinton, and I flew together to his funeral in Rome. It was the first time an American president had attended the funeral of a pope, let alone brought two of his predecessors.

George W. Bush

#8. The Arab Spring showed that people are not going to wait for an American president to make good on his big talk about democracy and human rights; they are going to fight for those rights themselves and overthrow pro-American dictators who stand in their way.

Pankaj Mishra

#9. Now goverments are a different thing. Presidents who do not want me. As I said, an African-American discriminates against an indigenous Bolivian. Well, they have their reasons, but sooner or later we will all be judged.

Evo Morales

#10. I have often thought that less is expected of the president of a great corporation than of an American wife.

Eleanor Roosevelt

#11. Some said he shouldn't save Detroit. But President Obama made the tough and right call to save more than a million American jobs in an important, iconic industry.

Harry Reid

#12. The symbolic value of having an African-American president has certainly eased some racial tensions in America, but they're not gone.

Naomi Wolf

#13. I see the Bush Doctrine as an American-style "enabling act," giving dictatorial powers to any sitting president.

Ron Paul

#14. America was magnificently characterized in November of 2008 when we elected, for the first time, an African-American President of the United States.

David Scott

#15. I am honorary President of the American Humanist Society, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that utterly functionless capacity. We Humanists behave as well as we can, without any rewards or punishments in an Afterlife.

Kurt Vonnegut

#16. Are things getting better with each generation? Yes. It's quite interesting to be living in these times, for me to witness an African-American being elected president. It's quite extraordinary.

Lenny Kravitz

#17. There are not many of us African American Sister Presidents, and those of us who are in this field do not have an easy time of it. Why the story goes that one Black woman college president died and went to hell, and it was two weeks before she realized that she wasn't still on the job.

Johnnetta B. Cole

#18. I believe that President Obama is here for a reason, but that doesn't mean that he has to stay there next year. The American people have an opportunity to have a say and so I think we just have to do what we think is right - and see what the outcome is. God's got a plan.

Vicky Hartzler

#19. When the president of the United States flicks the switch to light up the Christmas tree on the White House lawn, that house ceases to be an American symbol; it becomes a Christian symbol.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin

#20. The Iranian leaders describe the American government exactly the way American analysts describe the Iranian one, as an opaque, factionalized system with competing power centers, over which the president exercises very limited authority.

Ali Khamenei

#21. If we can elect an African American as president, we can support gay marriage! Defeat prop 8! We will not give up!

Madonna Ciccone

#22. I think that it's important that the American people know that Barack Obama didn't have a mild association with Bill Ayers, he had a very strong association with Bill Ayers. Bill Ayers is not someone that the average American wants to see their president have an association with.

Michele Bachmann

#23. I think it is so great right now that we are in an age where there's an African American president in office. I think it is important for our generation to really witness that.

Sufe Bradshaw

#24. Rand Paul is officially running for president. He even revealed his campaign slogan, which is 'Defeat the Washington machine. Unleash the American dream.' It's hard to tell if he's running for president or doing an infomercial for Bowflex.

Jimmy Fallon

#25. Every American president, regardless of party, has said that America has an intense interest in a peaceful resolution. And I think it should be left at that.

Henry A. Kissinger

#26. President Obama and members of his administration constantly express rage and anger over events totally within their control. It's an odd and unsettling fact of American life that so many Americans seem to think that such expressions of frustration should substitute for actual competence.

Ben Shapiro

#27. I have never been more proud of the United States than I am this year. We have elected an African-American president. We have the stellar Michelle Obama setting the standard for American women. I simply cannot say it enough: look how far we've come.

Kathryn Stockett

#28. Vice President Joe Biden believes that illegal immigrants are citizens. Obama believes that some Americans who join Islamist groups are citizens, while others are not. Who is an American? Whomever the executive branch deems an American. Who isn't? It depends on whether Obama ate his Wheaties or not.

Ben Shapiro

#29. Fortunately, in President Obama, the child of an African and an American, we finally have a leader who is uniquely positioned to bridge the great reparations divide.

Henry Louis Gates

#30. I think Donald Trump is totally unfit to be president of the United States. Let's not forget, this guy was one of the leaders of the so-called birther movement, which was an effort to delegitimize the presidency of the first African-American president we have ever had.

Bernie Sanders

#31. Mitt Romney says he believes in America and that he will restore American exceptionalism. I have news for him, we already have an exceptional American as president and we believe in Barack Obama.

John F. Kerry

#32. I always believed there would be an African-American president. It was something I'd dreamed about, thought about, but certainly did not believe would happen in my lifetime.

Edward Brooke

#33. I'm here tonight, not as a Republican, not as a Democrat, but as an optimistic American who understands that we must come together behind the one man who can lead the way forward in these challenging times: my president, our president, Barack Obama!

Charlie Crist

#34. Should I become President ... I will not risk American lives ... by permitting any other nation to drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment that is unwise militarily, unnecessary to our security and unsupported by our allies.

John F. Kennedy

#35. According to the people who dearly would love to throw him out of office, Barack Obama was elected to be 'above politics.' He wasn't elected to be president, after all. He was elected as an avatar of American tolerance. His attempts to get himself reelected imply a certain, well, ingratitude.

Charlie Pierce

#36. Journalists become candidates for cardiac arrest when they see or hear an African American disagreeing with an African American. We would become inauthentic if we did not have disagreements with this president.

John Conyers

#37. An Associated Press report called the President's antics 'Bible-thumping politics.' Clinton's message was decidedly religious and partisan, as was Governor's Cuomo's remarks as he 'also cited religious themes and maxims.' Why didn't the press, the ACLU, and People for the American Way cry foul?

Gary DeMar

#38. I don't know anything about American history or presidents. I don't know what tailgating is! I've never been to an Olive Garden!

Emma Watson

#39. It somehow became an article of faith on the right that Obama is the most extreme president in American history. Although, when they say that, I think what they really mean is ... he's black.

Bill Maher

#40. An eminent American is reported to have said to friends who wished to put him forward, 'Gentlemen, let there be no mistake. I should make a good president, but a very bad candidate.

James Bryce

#41. Now, when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four, they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; five, they convene a general meeting, and the club is fully constituted.

Jules Verne

#42. Let's face it many on the political right believe this President ought not to be there. They oppose him not for his policies and political view but for who he is, an African-American.

Sam Donaldson

#43. I think what's important for us to understand and there is a way forward on this issue that we an bring our country together on. And while I'm president I will do it. And it will begin by bringing illegal immigration under control and proving to the American people.

Marco Rubio

#44. I'm here not just as an actress but as a woman, an African-American, a granddaughter of Ellis Island immigrants, a person who could not have afforded college without the help of student loans and as one of millions of volunteers working to re-elect President Obama!

Kerry Washington

#45. As we women know, there are so many other hurdles that we have to cross that I would love it if we could stop having the race conversation so that we can get women further on. You know, a female president now that we have an African American president. Maybe we can get an Asian female, a gay person?

Octavia Spencer

#46. The world is starving for American leadership. But America has an anti-war president,

John Boehner

#47. Today Prince William went to Washington, D.C., and he met with President Obama. He said, 'It feels weird being in the White House because I'm not an American.' And then Prince William said, 'Yeah, me too.'

Craig Ferguson

#48. You want to be a country that creates food stamps? In which case, frankly, Obama is an enormous success the most successful food stamp president in American history. Or do you want to be a country that creates jobs?

Newt Gingrich

#49. President Bush offers the American people an optimistic vision and a clear choice in November. The President has provided steady leadership in remarkably changing times. He knows exactly where he wants to lead this country, and he has complete confidence in the American people.

Henry Bonilla

#50. Lately even the harshest critics of President Bush have been forced to admit maybe he's right about freedom's march around the globe. What if we are watching an example of presidential leadership that will be taught in American schools for generations to come? It's an idea gaining more currency.

Brian Williams

#51. And this President wakes up every morning, looks out across America and is proud to announce, 'It could be worse.' It could be worse? Is that what it means to be an American? It could be worse? Of course not. What defines us as Americans is our unwavering conviction that we know it must be better.

Mitt Romney

#52. Today there are a lot places where people say they're just hopeless. If I can come from a hopeless country, get an education, become a hyphenated American and become president of the World Bank, it's my moral duty to make sure that every single person on the planet has that opportunity.

Jim Yong Kim

#53. President [Bush] believes that [high-energy consumption] is an American way of life, and that it should be the goal of policymakers to protect the American way of life. The American way of life is a blessed one.

Ari Fleischer

#54. I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt - or religious belief.

Edward Kennedy

#55. To me, I was right from the beginning, because it's my right as an American to speak up and question our president, have my point of view, have my opinion, question what I want to question, and say what I want to say about our government.

Natalie Maines

#56. I worked in the White House on 9/11, where the vice president was given the authority to, if he deemed necessary, shoot down an American passenger jet.

Nicolle Wallace

#57. I feel the president is ignoring the opinion of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world. My comments were made in frustration, and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view.

Natalie Maines

#58. No American president can support an Egypt that calls into question the historic treaty between Israel and Egypt. And no American president can support an Egypt that doesn't fully recognize women's rights or the rights of religious minorities.

Condoleezza Rice

#59. Regardless of your political affiliation, most people agree that Ronald Reagan was an American icon. He was a president of national significance and for that reason he deserves an honor in the nation's capital.

Henry Bonilla

#60. We have this American president, Obama, born of an African father, who is saying we will not give you aid if you don't embrace homosexuality. We ask, was he born out of homosexuality? We need continuity in our race, and that comes from the woman, and no to homosexuality.

Robert Mugabe

#61. President Obama contends that charges he is "not really an American" have been trumped up by you-know-who.

Michael R. Burch

#62. When I asked the president [Barack Obama], can you kill an American on American soil, it should have been an easy answer. It's an easy question. It should have been a resounding and unequivocal no. The president's response, he hasn't killed anyone yet.

Rand Paul

#63. This is the place where anybody - like an African American kid raised by a single mom - can be president.

Jennifer Granholm

#64. I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American.

Jimmy Carter

#65. Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program.

Ronald Reagan

#66. When people see Barack Obama, they don't necessarily see an African-American president. They see someone who is a child of immigrants. They see someone whose family has worked hard and struggled. And they see many similarities between themselves and Barack Obama.

Grace Meng

#67. Mr. President, I wish to speak today, not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American. I speak for the preservation of the Union. Hear me for my cause.

Daniel Webster

#68. That's true," said Gabriel. "The American president writes love letters to the ayatollah. And us . . ." He gave an indifferent shrug of his shoulders but said nothing more.

Daniel Silva

#69. Everyone says we have our first African American president. Has there ever been a Jewish president? An Italian president? They don't say a damn thing about that. You think we're still fighting the Civil War or something. If you want to mention it in passing, OK. But don't dwell on it.

Monte Irvin

#70. If Mitt Romney defeats President Obama in his bid for reelection on Tuesday, it will mark the success of one of the most deeply cynical political campaigns in American history. It is hard to beat an incumbent no matter the economic climate.

Juan Williams

#71. My fellow Americans, this is an amazing moment for me. To think that a once scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become Governor of California and stand in Madison Square Garden to speak on behalf of the President of the United States that is an immigrant's dream. It is the American dream.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

#72. Look, if America - if being an American means anything, it means not having to lie under oath, not even for the president.

Linda Tripp

#73. The problem isn't a Congress that won't cut spending or a president who won't raise taxes. The problem is an American public with a bottomless sense of entitlement to federal money.

P. J. O'Rourke

#74. There was a lot of feeling that with an African-American president, life on the South Side of Chicago would be radically different.

Mark Kirk

#75. It's fair to say that white America wouldn't have elected an African-American president without the integrating effect of black music - from Louis Armstrong to hip-hop - and black drama and fiction, commercial as much as 'serious.'

Joe Haldeman

#76. We know this much about how Barack Obama plans to govern: He will deploy the fattest checkbook ever at the disposal of an incoming American president.

Nina Easton

#77. Let me start off by saying that in 2000 I said, 'Vote for me. I'm an agent of change.' In 2004, I said, 'I'm not interested in change
I want to continue as president.' Every candidate has got to say 'change.' That's what the American people expect.

George W. Bush

#78. Shortly after taking office in 1993, President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore called for a shift in American technology policy toward an expansion of public investments in partnerships with private industry.

Lewis M. Branscomb

#79. I think there are white alumni out there who wouldn't mind having an African American president of their school, but would be reluctant to have an African American coach, because he represents the school so. I think it's just sheer backward racism.

Frank Deford

#80. In 1989 an American invasion, Operation Just Cause, had ousted the government of President Manuel Noriega. 'They got rid of Ali Baba but they forgot the forty thieves,' ran a popular joke in Panama.

Adam Sisman

#81. To see an African-American elected president means that this country is really finally coming full circle from the birth defect of slavery.

Condoleezza Rice

#82. Global political conditions make a direct American intervention difficult, but President Reagan's messianic and visceral attitude toward the Nicaraguan revolution could mean it will happen as an act of desperation.

Tomas Borge

#83. 'The Cosby Show' - no one thought there's doctors and lawyers who are married and live in brownstones! Back then no one would have thought we would have an African-American president. They would have laughed in your face.

Keshia Knight Pulliam

#84. In committing an estimated 3,000 U.S. forces to join international Ebola relief efforts in West Africa, President Obama seems to be fulfilling the plans of highly influential progressive groups who seek to transform the American military into more of a social-work organization.

Aaron Klein

#85. President Obama is traveling around the country, proposing a stimulus bill that has already failed once. Instead of having an honest discussion about whether or not a plan that already failed once will fail again, the establishment would rather distract the American people with gossip.

Alveda King