Obama Presidency Quotes

#1. Few progressives would take issue with the argument that, significant accomplishments notwithstanding, the Obama presidency has been a big disappointment.

Eric Alterman

#2. [A]n Obama presidency would be an amusing approximation of the Carter administration, complete with vaporous moralizing and foreign policy bungling.

Emmett Tyrrell

#3. The Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons.

Benjamin Netanyahu

#4. An engaging, blow-by-blow account of the infancy of the Obama presidency ... Manna for political junkies ... Thoroughly researched ... humanizes a figure considered periodically out-of-touch even by some of his admirers.

Carlo Wolff

#5. The Obama presidency, and liberalism in general, are based on not trusting the American people - a belief that big government is better for people.

Bobby Jindal

#6. Soon, the Obama presidency will end, and America will have the chance to turn in a new direction.

Nikki Haley

#7. Each day of the Obama presidency seems to bring a new, perversely delicious irony.

Monica Crowley

#8. The Grand Old Party's abiding affection for a 'bigger and better' presidency isn't entirely logical. After all, the Obama presidency commenced with an effort to reenact the Hundred Days. Yet President Obama's first-term economic performance itself was not 'big' but mediocre - tiny, even.

Amity Shlaes

#9. The single most remarkable (and revealing) fact of the Obama presidency may very well be the lack of a single prosecution of Wall Street executives for the massive fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis.

Glenn Greenwald

#10. Within the U.S., the Obama presidency will be mainly measured by the success or failure of his economic policies. And here, I fear, the monstrous stimulus package with which this administration stumbled out of the gate will prove to be Obama's Waterloo.

Camille Paglia

#11. When historians look at the Obama presidency, they're likely to credit him especially for doing the politically unpopular things that were needed in 2009 to salvage the financial wreckage.

David Ignatius

#12. Clearly, the Obama presidency hasn't wiped out racial prejudices.

Ron Fournier

#13. No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others.

Mitch Daniels

#14. I am just mystified by these people telling me I would think Obama was doing a great job if his skin contained less melanin.

Jonah Goldberg

#15. The very fact that Barack Obama - an African-American - was twice elected to the presidency will always be the lead line in that hard-to-meld, gold-plated paragraph.

Douglas Brinkley

#16. I think satire suffered under Obama, but not because of Obama. People are more sensitive now than ever, and strong satirical voices are stifled because of that. I don't think a Clinton presidency would change that.

Michael Che

#17. The presidency has a funny way of making a person feel the need to pray.

Barack Obama

#18. I don't think that the United States are ready for a presidency as the one of Obama, at least because he would be the first black president.

Gianfranco Fini

#19. Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we are going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.

Barack Obama

#20. There was never a promise that race relations in America would be entirely resolved during my presidency or anybody's presidency. I mean, this has been a running thread - and - and fault line in American life and American politics since its founding.

Barack Obama

#21. There will be trying times during Obama's presidency, and liberty will need staunch defenders. Can Obama reshape liberalism to be, as it was under F.D.R., a fighting faith, unapologetically patriotic and strong in the defense of liberty? That would be a service to our country.

Bill Kristol

#22. I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.

Mitt Romney

#23. In his first 100 days, Mr. Obama has put the fate of his presidency in the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He may come to regret that decision.

Karl Rove

#24. One of the things I think I can bring to the presidency is to make government and public service cool again.

Barack Obama

#25. The promise of Obama's presidency, in many people's minds, is partly that America will move toward becoming a post-racial society. It's pretty clear, though, that we aren't there yet.

Timothy Noah

#26. Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.

Barack Obama

#27. this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal ..."~~Barack Obama upon winning the Democratic nomination for presidency conveys his thinking of what that means ....for the world, Tuesday, JUNE 03, 2008

Barack Obama

#28. With our financial house on fire, Obama makes clear both in in his speech and his budget that the essence of his presidency will be the transformation of health care, education and energy.

Charles Krauthammer

#29. The big post-election story if Obama wins the presidency will be in the hands of the ethically embattled Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He's not very popular, and has a chance to use his power to appoint an Obama replacement as a step in the direction of political rehabilitation.

Chuck Todd

#30. Obama is a tyrant the same way FDR was a tyrant. He has a view of presidential power that states: the government is in control of the country, and the president is in charge of the government. He's taken an imperial view of the presidency.

David Mamet

#31. President Obama is the kind of politician who puts promises on the record, and then calls that the record. But we are four years into this presidency. The issue is not the economy as Barack Obama inherited it, not the economy as he envisions it, but this economy as we are living it.

Paul Ryan

#32. My presidency is not over. I've got another five years coming up.

Barack Obama

#33. Barack Obama's inspirational whoosh to the presidency in 2008 was unusual. Most campaigns are less exhilarating; indeed, they are downright disappointing - until someone wins.

Joe Klein

#34. Barack Obama is uniquely qualified to speak about the knowledge, experience and temperament that the presidency requires. And I know he is raring to get out there and start campaigning and I really look forward to campaigning with him.

Hillary Clinton

#35. I am extremely ecstatic about the presidency of Barack Obama. I think he is paving the way for young African-American men like myself. I have very high expectations for Obama, and I am extremely hopeful that he will bring great lasting change not just to America, but to the entire world.

Texas Battle

#36. 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.

David Ignatius

#37. Through the potent example of his own life, President Obama enabled us to believe the best about America, and, therefore, about ourselves. That uplifting narrative - essentially equating the promise of America with his extraordinary life story - swept candidate Obama into the presidency.

Cynthia P. Schneider

#38. I think that is also something he [Barack Obama], in the beginning of his presidency, he couldn't really explore and couldn't show. He had to be almost a one-dimensional, stoic leader during that first election.

Jordan Peele

#39. I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.

Barack Obama

#40. Obama won the presidency on the strength of his message and the skills of the messenger. Now the talk of hope and change feels out of tune when so many Americans are out of work, over-mortgaged, and worried that life will be even tougher for their children.

Ron Fournier

#41. Through every victory and every setback, I've insisted that change is never easy and never quick; that we wouldn't meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.

Barack Obama

#42. Mitt Romney is predicting that as president, he will create 12 million jobs in his first term. Well, President Obama says a Romney presidency would result in lost jobs. Yeah, his and Biden's.

Jay Leno

#43. Unless and until Barack Obama addresses the full depth of Americans' anger with his full arsenal of policy smarts and political gifts, his presidency and, worse, our economy will be paralyzed.

Frank Rich

#44. Obama had campaigned against Bush's ideas and approaches. But, Donilon, for one, thought that Obama had perhaps underestimated the extent to which he had inherited George W. Bush's presidency - the apparatus, personnel and mind-set of war making.

Bob Woodward

#45. Beyond diversity, the story of Obama's influence on the courts is more complex. Indeed, it could serve as a metaphor for his Presidency: symbolically rich but substantively hazy. Obama took office after years of intense conservative focus on the courts.

Jeffrey Toobin

#46. Obama's pop-cultural focus may seem demeaning to the office of the presidency. It may be mockable. But it is also tremendously effective.

Ben Shapiro

#47. In the course of his presidency, Obama has gone from an almost magical charismatic figure to an ordinary politician. Ordinary. Average.

Charles Krauthammer

#48. Those close to Mr. Obama say he grows irritated at being misunderstood - not just by opponents who insinuate that he caters to African-Americans, but also by black lawmakers and intellectuals who fault him for not making his presidency an all-out assault on racial disparity.

Jodi Kantor

#49. So more and more black folk tend to be well-adjusted to [Barack] Obama's presidency, but does that mean they're well-adjusted to injustice? Because we don't hear our president talking about the new Jim Crow, the prison-industrial complex.

Cornel West

#50. The presidency of Barack Obama is a case study in stupid does,

Bret Stephens

#51. Accepting the presidency, Barack introduces "my best friend of sixteen years, the love of my life, Michelle Obama" and I think I will pass out.
That, right there, is love in action.

Emma Forrest

#52. A Clinton presidency is an Obama third term. And it's very difficult for them to get away from it.

Paul Ryan

#53. Forty four percent of Republican voters believe President [Barack] Obama was not born in the United States. They believe he is not a legal citizen of the United States.They believe his presidency is unconstitutional.

Lawrence O'Donnell

#54. The last few months of George Bush's presidency brought Obama and nobody can be happy about that.

Donald Trump

#55. Obama's presidency hasn't been dedicated to achieving economic growth in the short term, or about creating jobs.

John Podhoretz

#56. It has been my honor to support and work with President Barack Obama, a man who has brought courage and character to the presidency. President Obama's strength of character leads him to do the right thing, even when it isn't the easy thing.

Harry Reid

#57. I think the tragedy of Barack Obama's presidency is that although a lot of people around the world really admire Barack Obama a lot, they don't admire the American political and economic model as much as they used to.

Peter Beinart

#58. Obama isn't just too big to fail. He's too big to know. Obama is so vital to the country and to the world, he must be kept out of the loop in order to save him from his failed presidency.

Rush Limbaugh