January 18, 2009: Ruminations For President Obama

We are witnessing four days of unprecedented pomp and circumstance as President-elect Obama becomes the media's larger than life President, with over $115 million dollars being spent on ceremonies that the same media savaged former President Bush in 2005 for its paltry $40 million.

That said, I believe that all Americans should wish both he and his administration the best of success. Our country depends upon it.

Most Presidents admit to being admirers of certain former Presidents. I think all Presidents in total deserve some time in a new President's mind. All had something to offer.

I offer a few quotes that President Obama may not read or hear, but are appropriate for our time:


"Never spend your money before you have it." - Thomas Jefferson

"It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt." - Abraham Lincoln

"Be sincere,be brief,be seated." Franklin D. Roosevelt

"You know,everybody makes mistakes when they are President." - William J. Clinton

"A government big enough to give you anything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." - Gerald Ford

"You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence." - Abraham Lincoln

"We can draw lessons from the past but we cannot live in it." -Lyndon B. Johnson

"If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and white notes together." - Richard M. Nixon

"We live in the midst of alarms; anxiety beclouds the future; we expect some new disaster with each newspaper we read." - Abraham Lincoln

"How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt?" - Harry Truman

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is being right in time."- Theodore Roosevelt

"There is no victory at bargain basement prices." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." - John Quincy Adams

"A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus." - Herbert Hoover

"We live in a stage of politics where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement." - William H. Taft

"If you don't say anything, you won't be called upon to repeat it." Calvin Coolidge


The only fear we have to fear is fear, itself. Godspeed....