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James David Barber Quotes

[The American public demands] a sense of legitimacy from and in the presidency. There is more to this than dignity, more than propriety. The president is expected to personify our betterness in an inspiring way, to

[The American public demands] a sense of legitimacy from and in the presidency. There is more to this than dignity, more than propriety. The president is expected to personify our betterness in an inspiring way, to express in what he does and is, not just what he says, a moral idealism which, in much of the public mind, is the very opposite of politics.

James David Barber
Opposites, Mind, President

Trying to make the presidency work these days is like trying to sew buttons on a custard pie.

James David Barber
Pie, Trying, Buttons

Ronald Reagan is the first modern President whose contempt for the facts is treated as a charming idiosyncrasy.

James David Barber
President, Firsts, Facts
"On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency". Book by Mark Hertsgaard, 1988.

The Kennedy home was a place of much action and laughter, a lively, brawling mob of children overseen by a mother who knew when to look the other way.

James David Barber
Mother, Laughter, Children
James David Barber (1992). “The Presidential Character: Predicting Performance in the White House”

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