David Brooks Quotes

I think there was a pretty smooth hand-off from the administration of President Clinton to the administration of President Bush, particularly in the counterterrorism area. The reason I say that is because there was, for transitions, I think a stunning continuity.

President Bush says now he is sticking to his plan for handing over power to the Iraqis on June 30. It's also part of his plan to hand over power to John Kerry on January 20.

The usual practice is that the people in their jobs keep their jobs until their successors are named. Now, that's the way the [George] Bush administration treated the [Bill] Clinton people. And that's the way the [Barack] Obama administration treated the [George W.] Bush people.

I have directed all of my cabinet to work to prepare a transition plan for the incoming administration.

I had no difficulty as Secretary of Defense moving from the Bush administration to the Obama administration.

The transition is probably the most important part of the President's administration.

It seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to cooperate with the President-elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward.

Every administration, ever since John Adams took over from George Washington, has inherited foreign policy problems from its predecessor.

The Ennahda-led government did something never before seen in the region: it willingly stepped down

One of the biggest challenges for any new administration is contending with its predecessor's priorities and beginning to advance its own.

In this case, the government will essentially be run by the people who are running it now. The top level [Barack] Obama appointees will leave by inauguration day.

Whenever a new president comes in, people that are used to the previous president wonder if he has the same capacity.

Lyndon Johnson realized he really was President, that his identity had changed by President Kennedy's shocking death, when aides who had been like family to him minutes before, stood in his presence on Air Force One.

I think Donald Trump believes in democracy and the right to change of power.

The [Donald] Trump transition team is already functioning as the worst transition team we have ever seen. And the good news is the slower they do their work, the better off we are.

I was honored when [Donald Trump] asked me to chair the transition effort.

[T]he people seem to have deposited the monarchical and taken up the republican government with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes.

As long-term institutions, I am totally against dictatorships. But a dictatorship may be a necessary system for a transitional period... Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism. My personal impression - and this is valid for South America - is that in Chile, for example, we will witness a transition from a dictatorial government to a liberal government.

In his speech last night, John Kerry said this was the beginning of the end of the Bush administration. I agree. Sure, it may take another five years, but this is it.

I'm just learning that according to a source familiar with the transition process, President-elect Donald Trump intends to select Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as his national security adviser.

You know, when a president is about to leave office, most of the time most people are dying for him to go on and get out of there. But there are a few little rituals that have to be observed. One of them is that the president must host the incoming president in the White House, smile as if they love each other and give the American people the idea that democracy is peaceful and honourable and there will be a good transfer of power

The handover of power to [Dmitry] Medvedev was rather painless, everybody thought that the waves would calm automatically. By now, it's quite clear that [Vladimir] Putin doesn't want to relinquish the levers of power.

The president-elect [Donald Trump] finds himself in an unfamiliar and, perhaps, uncomfortable position. The enemies he's been fighting against are gone.

What may worry [Donald] Trump, the latest Gallup poll. It shows just 44 percent of Americans approve of how he's handling the transition, almost 40 points below President [Barack] Obama was before his first inauguration. Even George W. Bush after that bitterly contested 2000 election was at 61 percent.

The whole point of constitutional democracy is the peaceful transfer of power; of Al Gore passing the baton to George W. Bush, even though that election was very suspiciously called.