September 3, 2009: Personality Politics - Slick Words or Substance?

As Congress, especially the House of Representatives, appears incapable to construct mature legislation, it is up to the President to become less of an orator with a persona and more of a legislator, putting all those IQ points to work.

Here are how two father/son Presidents coped, in their own words:


JOHN ADAMS:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.

Genius is sorrow's child.


JOHN QUINCY ADAMS:

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

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.


GEORGE H. W. BUSH:

I think I was a better President because I was in combat.

I'm conservative, but I'm not a nut about it.

I am not one who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot or words around.

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle.

We are not the sum of our possessions.

You cannot be President of the United States if you don't have faith.


GEORGE W. BUSH:

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.

After the chaos and carnage of September 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers.

Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us.

For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible.

Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States.

There is no bigger task than protecting the homeland of our country.

The true history of my administration will be written fifty years from now.

I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself.

It's going to be the year of the sharp elbow and the quick tongue.

Only a liberal senator from Massachusetts would say that a 49% increase in funding for education is not enough.


And, so it goes......