David Gergen Quotes

David Gergen presents thoughtful, cautious reflections on media and standards, useful for readers interested in modern commentary.

15 quotes

  1. They're also a valuable supplement to the daily press, but like any new breakthrough, there is a dark side. (February 2005)

  2. I for one hope that some of the standards of the old world carry over. (February 2005)

  3. That's none of your damn business. (before February 2005)

  4. There's a normal tendency in the campaign, during a crisis, for the country to rally around the White House. vThat may help Al Gore in this campaign, but on the other hand, George W. Bush handled himself so well the other night on foreign policy that I think it fortified him just before this crisis broke.

  5. Ronald Reagan rebuilt the American presidency; it was in trouble when he came into office as an institution, and he did through his communications and through his own inspiration, and his principles. I think he did lift our spirits about, and convince us that once again that the future of the best, our best days were always ahead of us.

  6. We are making politics a spectator sport in which our only duty is to vote somebody into office and then retire to the grandstands.

  7. At the heart of leadership is the leader's relationship with followers. People will entrust their hopes and dreams to another person only if they think the other is a reliable vessel.

  8. Leadership is about calling people to do things beyond themselves.

  9. Politics is like watching football. Yes, you can see it directly on your screen, but I think a lot of people want to have some understanding of what's happening, why the play is unfolding the way it is, and I think that's where it can help them, not to render judgments but to help people make their own judgments in a more informed way.

  10. I don't have any problem with a reporter or a news person who says the President is uninformed on this issue or that issue. I don't think any of us would challenge that. I do have a problem with the singular focus on this, as if that's the only standard by which we ought to judge a president. What we learned in the last administration was how little having an encyclopedic grasp of all the facts has to do with governing.

  11. I think it's particularly raw coming the day after the Electoral College, and Bill Clinton, he's taking this hard. It's been very hard to him. He thought his wife was gonna win. He believed she should have won. I think he believes, basically, it was an unfair result.

  12. One cannot underestimate how widely admired Tom Daschle is in Washington for his integrity.

  13. Leadership is a journey. Each one of us has to take our own path, and get there our own way.

  14. The proudest moment for [a teacher of leaders] is seeing not what students learn but what they do.

  15. Ronald Reagan is clearly to television what Franklin Roosevelt was to radio.