A Presidents Day look at Obama quotes
A Presidents Day look at Obama quotes
Michael Humphrey
Image by The U.S. Army via Flickr
Aside from the decisions they face in historic moments, the President of the United States’ clearest legacy usually derives from speeches. They give thousands over their tenure, some short and ephemeral, but snippets of others stand the test of time. If FDR pops on your screen, a quote will soon follow. Same with JFK. Or Lincoln.
David Letterman got a lot of traction from this truth, at the expense of George W. Bush. (To be fair, Bush had some very important quotes thanks to his gifted speechwriters.)
Barack Obama seems to have the potential to join the elites among presidents for historic speeches. If teleprompters are any indication, Obama takes this challenge seriously. He is a great speaker, but that’s not enough. A lasting quote has to be many things. It has to be simply constructed, but complex in thought. It has to have a bit of lyricism without sounding poetic or haughty. It has to be timeless in one sense but also perfect for the moment.
So did Obama come close in his first year? Going through a whole host of speeches and quotes, Obama seems to have a problem. He doesn’t boil his thoughts down quite enough. One example:
“We lose ourselves when we compromise the very ideals that we fight to defend.”
This is close, but it’s too wordy. The “lose ourselves” is good, but the word “very” is a problem and “fight to defend” should have been wrapped into one word somehow. This issue, by the way, is one he shares with Lincoln, which is why most people only remember the end of his greatest quote (”better angels of our nature.”)
Here’s one that by historic standards might make it for him. I’m not counting it, because he wasn’t president yet. (It’s Presidents Day you know.)
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
This of course appropriates a famous quote from Gandhi, but borrowing is allowed — ask Kennedy. It has the elements of great quotes, simplicity, depth, lyricism, earthiness. To do it as a candidate is one thing, but saying something timeless in the heat of a presidency is another. Obama’s challenge lends itself to great quotes. Here are three attempts and you can decide if they reach the heights of “Ask not what your country can do for you …” or “The only thing we have to fear …”
First, a recapitulation of MLK:
“Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.”
From the Nobel address:
“Let us reach for the world that ought to be”
And one from his Cairo speech:
“Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away.”
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