Robert Dallek Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

“Vice President Biden's surprising declaration of unqualified support for gay marriage seems to have forced President Obama into a public endorsement of a controversial social issue. It is difficult not to suspect that Biden's pronouncement aimed to give the president some political cover.”

“When Johnson decided to fight for passage of the law John F. Kennedy had put before Congress in June 1963 banning segregation in places of public accommodation, he believed he was taking considerable political risks.”

“A national government using New Deal programs and the massive defense spending beginning with World War II and continuing through the Cold War was Johnson's vehicle for expanding the Southern economy and making it, as he hoped, one of the more prosperous regions of the country.”

“There is a line between scurrilous nonsense and serious discussion that laps over, especially in this day and age when you've got all this electronic media and these blogs and this kind of fanatical impulse to bring down the opposing candidate.”

“A president cannot sit on his hands and be seen as passive in the face of ruthless action by a foreign dictator.”

“Access to presidential materials should be as wide as possible.”

“Concealing one's true medical condition from the voting public is a time-honored tradition of the American presidency.”

“Governing is one thing, campaigning is another - and the latter becomes far more pronounced in an election-year State of the Union.”

“Unity is Obama's theme.”

“Despite its flaws, the American electoral system has produced Lincoln, the two Roosevelts, and Harry Truman.”