A Quote by Evan Osnos
If you go back and you look at the presidency over the course of history, presidents tend to do what they campaigned on. In the 20th century, presidents between Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter accomplished 73 percent of the things that they said they would do as candidates. Part of that is because once they get into office, their credibility, their ability to do anything depends on doing the things that they said they would.
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Few American presidents have been unhappier or lonelier in office than Woodrow Wilson.
I would say to my colleague that the misery index, inflation and unemployment, when added together is the lowest it has been in the last series of Presidents, even going back to Jimmy Carter. So I think the Bush administration is doing a good job.
[Dan Fried] served six presidents over a 40-year career dating back to the [Jimmy] Carter administration.
God Bless America started to become an almost ritualistic incantation at the end of political speeches really with Ronald Reagan. It appears occasionally before, but it was not that common. And of course since it was a song that wasn't written by Irving Berlin until the 20th century (laughter), none of the 19th century presidents said God Bless America at the end of speeches, either. I think that the symbolism which suggests that everybody is religious and that even presidents who believe in church and state feel obliged to do this.
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To me, the puzzle of Ronald Reagan is how a comparatively ordinary man, someone with not extraordinary talent, accomplished such extraordinary results. At the age of 50, no one expected that this was going to be the guy who would become, at least in my interpretation, one of the two most important presidents of the 20th century.
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I'd be lying if I said that I knew I was there. I'm being completely honest. Nobody has a right in my view to seek Presidents office unless they are willing to give it 110 percent of who they are.
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I've met a handful of presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton to George Bush to Barack Obama.
I think that presidents don't give up power that has accrued to them by the precedent of previous presidents. Even when they say they would like to, I think once they get there they don't give it up.
Based on history, many presidents come into office with lots of plans, and an agenda and things they want to start and an order in which they want to do those things.
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