Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Winston Churchill once said that he could do a 2-hour speech extemporaneously, but a 10-minute speech took immense preparation. I don't know what he would have said about a 4-minute speech. We are a 240-year anomaly in world history. We think that what we have here in this country is the way it has always been. It is a very unusual form of government. The normal form of government throughout world history is dictators, kings, czars, pharaohs, warlords, tyrants. And we thought 20 years ago the march of history was toward democracy, but it is in retreat in Hungary and Turkey--goodness knows, in Russia. Democracy as we have practiced it is fragile. It is fragile, and it rests upon trust. It rests upon trust in facts. It rests upon trust in courts, in public officials, and, yes, in elections. I don't sympathize or justify or in any way--in any way--support-- that is putting it mildly--what happened here today, but I understand it. I understand it because I saw those people interviewed today, and they said: We are here because this election has been stolen. And the reason they said that is that their leader has been telling them that every day for 2 months. We cannot afford to pull bricks out from the foundation of trust that underlies our entire system. And I agree with Governor Romney that the answer to this problem is to tell people the truth--is to tell them what happened. It is easy to confront your opponents. It is hard to confront your friends.…”