Presidential Challenges Quotes

The Presidents who have gone to Washington without first having held some national office have been at great disadvantage. It takes them a long time to become acquainted with the Federal office-holders and the Federal Government.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you're dealt?

I think we're in store for a presidency [of Donald Trump] even more unlike any that people have been imagining. I think it's gonna be tough to predict this and to analyze it, certainly in contemporary, traditional terms.

I did not expect to encounter what has beset me since my elevation to the presidency. God knows, I have endeavored to fulfill what I considered to be an honest duty, but I have been mistaken; my motives have been misconstrued and my feelings grossly betrayed.

I reached a situation in which I cannot conduct the presidency.

President Obama can talk about having no grand schemes and making no big gains, but the reality is he can't get anything of significance through Congress.

[Describing the presidency:] No one in the country is more assailed by divergent advice and clamorous counsel.

Being President is like the man who was tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail... A man in the crowd asked how he liked it, and his reply was that if it wasn't for the honor of the thing, he would much rather walk.

I can't imagine what it would be to be president when the United States at war with yourself. People killing each other here in America on a massive basis. Just can't imagine what it would be.

You can never predict what problems a President will face.

And I, unfortunately, have been to too many disasters as president.

A president just can't make much showing against congress. They lay awake nights, thinking up things to be against the president on.

The unknown has undone many a president, and no matter the popularity of an Oval Office occupant, any and all presidents are vulnerable. Of course, one thing that seems to set Obama part from his recent predecessors is his ability to keep an inner calm about tough issues.

Every president inherits a mixed bag when he comes to office, and Obama's was hardly the worst.

Barack Obama was better as a campaigner than as a - as a president sometimes in this same position. It is easier when you have a foil.

Well, Mr Obama inherited probably the biggest inventory of problems, certainly foreign policy problems, than any American president ever has. I think the entire inventory of problems that he inherited is probably as big overall as any president, certainly since Franklin Roosevelt and maybe, in some cases, worse.

Though the euphoria surrounding Barack Obama's election last week as President-elect has not yet begun to subside, it is already time to recognise that the most important challenge facing the next U.S. president is to restore America's standing in the eyes of the world.

We would see another president being accused of being illegitimate, and undermined from day one, which is exactly what these donors did to [Barack] Obama.

The problems of the President of the United States are not susceptible to scientific treatment.

It is a handicap to any man to succeed a member of his own party as President. He has little patronage with which to reward his personal supporters.

I may not agree with everything, but our President, just like President [George W.] Bush did, is trying to do his best under difficult circumstances.

Obama is thoroughly mixed up with all these things he's got. He's got to solve Libya. He's got to solve Afghanistan. He's everywhere. And this nation, I don't know why it's not showing the leadership and capacity to attend different issues at the same time.

Look, I'm not expecting the establishment to suddenly open their arms to Donald Trump. But considering their own role in creating the long-term challenges that this president is now addressing, could they just show a little humility before embarking on their next Trump-hating rant?

I've written a book that hopefully will give people a sense of what [presidency] was like. I hope my friends read it and say, "Now I understand." I hope my detractors read it and say, "Well, I better understand."

Everything [Ronald Reagan] got, the tax cuts, he had Democrats outnumbering him in the House and Senate everywhere. There were certain realities that he faced. But the biggest tax increase on Social Security was authored by none other than Bill Clinton.