Strong advocacy for education, health care and worker safety will be indispensable if they are to get their fair share of President Bush's austere budget for the next fiscal year.
President-elect Bush spoke in a forceful and candid manner that it is his passion that all children should have access to a first class education.
Looking ahead, I can see more and more instances where I will disagree with the president on very fundamental issues. The largest, for me, is education.
The promise of education reform can never be fulfilled without adequate funding, and by shortchanging our schools, President Bush is breaking his promise to our children.
It is only requisite, for me to say to you, that the President places great reliance upon your skill, judgment and intimate knowledge.
I spend a great deal of time with the President. We have a very close, personal, loyal relationship. I'm not, as they say, a potted plant in these meetings.
I believe that Bill Clinton will be remembered as one of our nation's great Presidents, and Senator Clinton as one of our nation's great public servants.
I would never say John Kerry would be a great president. I will say that George Bush has divided us; he has filled this country with hatred.
I was Mayor of New York during a great Yankees dynasty. I got to preside over the city during four Yankees championships.
Bill Clinton was in the line of great progressive presidents who faced the realities in his own time and applied innovative solutions to problems.
No. 1, Halliburton. Certainly, if they've overcharged they should be whacked and whacked good, but the idea that the vice president somehow is involved in this, whether they got contracts because of him, that's nonsense.
I know Barack Obama. And I believe that as president, he'll pursue the common good by seeking common ground rather than trying to divide us.
White House cultures inevitably reflect the president's character. Jimmy Carter is a thoroughly honest, good person. So was his White House.
I often have said that to be a college president, you need a thick skin, a good sense of humor, and nerves like sewer pipes.
Normal people don't just wake up in the morning and say I think it'd be a good idea to run for president of the United States.
Botswana had three successive good presidents who served their legal terms, who did well for their countries - three, not one.
The presidency is the most visible thread that runs through the tapestry of the American government. More often than not, for good or for ill, it sets the tone for the other branches and spurs the expectations of the people.
Our problem with President Obama isn't that he's a bad person. By all accounts, he too is a good husband, and a good father - and thanks to lots of practice, a pretty good golfer.
In recent years, anyone in the government, certainly anyone in the FBI or the CIA, or recently, in again, Clint's film, In the Line of Fire, the main bad guy is the chief advisor to the president.
When the entertainers of the Right aren't declaring their disgust with President Obama for groveling before foreign potentates, they're pretending to fear him as a left-wing thug, an exemplar of what they call 'the Chicago way.'
I have tremendous faith in President Obama's skills. He's a long-term visionary.
