Tim Matheson Quotes

I think Ronald Reagan was one of the great presidents, period, not just recently. I thought he had the demeanor. I thought he had the bearing. I thought he had the thought process.

The capacity to persuade is an essential part of being a great leader.

If you look at the very best presidents, the most effective presidents, they were always decent salespeople. Ronald Reagan was an extremely effective salesman, very tuned to the people he was selling to, very clear in what he was selling, very resilient and buoyant.

Cicero most reminds me of Harold Wilson. Both men knew how to keep the show on the road.

As his vice president for eight years, I learned more from Ronald Reagan than from anyone I encountered in all my years of public life.

[Referring to Ronald Reagan:] When you meet the President, you ask yourself, "How did it ever occur to anybody that he should be governor much less President?

I think that the great presidents have always been a little more clever.

I've got more in common with a three-toed sloth than I have with Winston Churchill. There is no easy comparison with any modern politician. The more you read about him, the more completely amazed you are about what he did - his energy, his literary fecundity, his ability to work - just unbelievable energy.

We need someone who has the experience - and the demeanor - to be the president of the United States.

You have achieved excellence as a leader when people will follow you anywhere if only out of curiosity.

Yes, in all my research, the greatest leaders looked inward and were able to tell a good story with authenticity and passion.

George W. Bush is a leader, and that's what we need in the White House. George Bush is someone you can believe and trust.

The two pillars of winning the presidency are being a strong leader and being someone who understands us and our problems.

Being a leader gives you charisma. If you look and study the leaders who have succeeded, that's where charisma comes from, from the leading.

In Ronald Reagan's case, he always bore with him this extraordinary ability to radiate confidence, optimism, clarity, a blitheness of spirit, in what other people saw as chaos. And after the 1970s, that was catnip.

Great leadership can be a difficult thing to pin down and understand. You know a great leader when you're working for one, but even they can have a hard time articulating what it is that makes their leadership so effective.

I was friends with President Ronald Reagan and he once said to me, 'I don't know how anybody can serve in public office without being an actor.'

To be elected president, you have to do more than tear down your opponents. You have to give the American people a reason to vote for you - a reason to hope - a reason to believe that under your leadership, America will be better.

President Reagan achieved such successes because when you sat in a room with him, there could be over 1,000 people in the room, yet you felt like there was only the two of you, and his wonderful wit would put you at ease. That was a tremendous gift.

If I wanted a circus ringmaster, I'd hire Trump. If I wanted advice on brain surgery or hospital management, I'd turn to Carson. Fiorina would make an articulate television pundit. But for president?

Barack Obama is way smarter than Bush - so way, way smarter than me. Obama is way more charismatic than me.

For example, I spent a lot of time with Reagan, both before he ran for governor and when he was running for president. As a print reporter without the cameras, I was able to really test the quality of their minds and their knowledge base.

Obama is a great leader. He can fire people up and get them to do what he wants.

The words spoken by the leader of the free world can expand the frontiers of freedom or shrink them. When Ronald Reagan called on Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall', a surge of confidence rose that would ultimately breach the bounds of the evil empire.

The more I have studied Lincoln, the more I have followed his thought processes, the more I am convinced that he understood leadership better than any other American president.