President's Day Philosophy

I'm not sure that anyone would agree with all of the comments collected below (or even that they all constitute philosophy), but it seemed worthwhile to produce such a list for the President's Day holiday. Like all the philosophical posts, they are offered up as a prompt for further thinking, in this case about the role played by the executive in our system.

"The President is at liberty, both in law and conscience, to be as big a man as he can." Woodrow Wilson, 1908

"No man can bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it." Thomas Jefferson, 1795

"A Galileo could no more be elected President of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion." H.L. Mencken, 1949

"One cannot always be sure of the truth of what one hears if he happens to be President of the United States." William Howard Taft

"... a man in his right mind would never want to be President, if he knew what it entails. Aside from the impossible administrative burden, he has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues.... All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway." Harry Truman, 1947

"By the time a man gets to be Presidential material he's been bought ten times over." Gore Vidal, 1974

"I had rather be right than be President." Henry Clay, 1839

"A man can be right an' president, but he can't be both at th' same time." Finley Peter Dunne ("Mr. Dooley"), 1900

"I would rather be in my grave than in the Presidency." Attributed to George Washington by John F. Kennedy.