Political Aspirations
Page 8
- I found [President Obama] to be someone with very polite and smart language. The problems with the US are very complicated ... but, despite the complexities, there has been an opening over the past 100 days which can later widen.
- Obviously [my daughters] - and Michelle - have made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things.
- Ultimately, only diplomacy can bring about a durable solution to the challenge posed by Iran’s nuclear program. As President and Commander in Chief, I will do what is necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. However, I have a profound responsibility to try to resolve our differences peacefully, rather than rush towards conflict. Today, we have a real opportunity to achieve a comprehensive, peaceful settlement, and I believe we must test it.
- Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] had many other goals - many other more transcendent, non-racial, policy goals. Goals that apply to white people too. Like ending poverty, reducing the war aspects of our foreign policy, promoting the New Deal goal of universal employment, and so on. But his main accomplishment was ending 200
years of racial terrorism by getting black people to confront their fears... That is what Dr. King did. Not march, not give good speeches. He crisscrossed the south organizing people, helping them not be afraid, and encouraging them - like Gandhi did in India - to take the beating that they had been trying to avoid all their lives. Once the beating was over, we were free.
- Three years ago, I did not imagine my arm would move again. For so many days, it did not. I did exercise after exercise, day after day, until it did. I’m committed to my rehab and I’m committed to my country. And my resolution, standing with the vast majority of Americans who know we can and must be safer, is to cede no ground to those who would convince us the path is too steep, or we too weak.
- ¦This is not a tool to bring down regimes. We never though of ourselves like this. We were just, you know, cracking jokes about the status quo. And it’s a way to deal with our differences…I think it’s a very healthy, cathartic way of freedom of expression. As a matter of fact, having a show like this reflects well on the government – that it allows something like this.
- Adults who enter into public life implicitly consent to having less privacy, but their families - especially their children - should not be treated callously or thoughtlessly.
- A half-century after racing the Russians to the moon, the U.S. is barely suiting up in the international race to secure interests in the Arctic.
- [President Obama] made so many promises. We thought that he was going to be -- I shouldn't say this at Christmastime -- but the next messiah.
- Politics is noble; it is one of the highest forms of charity, as Paul VI used to say. We sully it when we mix it with business. The relationship between the Church and political power can also be corrupted if common good is not the only converging point.
- I grew up with the Red Letter Bible, the Bible that highlighted the words of Jesus. And I've thought about that a lot, too. This is the Jesus who said, "Love your enemies," "Do good to those who hate you," "Bless those who curse you," "Pray for those who treat you badly." He
also said, "Everyone who makes themselves important will be made humbled, but everyone who makes themselves humble will be made important." He said, "Whoever wants to be your leader, must be your servant." And Jesus said, "It's the sick people who need a doctor, not those who are healthy, for I did not come to invite good people, but to invite sinners." You know, those words used to be easier to live by before I came to congress, where fighting for leadership and soundbites and making the evening news is common practice around
here. - This is tough trying to figure which one of these women is lying. One of them has to be. So the Lieutenant Governor is blond, and the mayor is brunette. Is that relevant in determining which one of them's telling the truth? I don't know. Just asking. The Lieutenant Governor seems a little bit more at home with makeup than the mayor. Is there anything to learn from that? I'm just asking.