People are always yearning for a bigger story to be part of, it's not enough to live our own private lives.

Presidential aspirants reach for the highest office to satisfy some yearning for greatness or even immortality.

Presidents are not only the country's principal policy chief, shaping the nation's domestic and foreign agendas, but also the most visible example of our values.

When Gingrich attacked CNN's John King for bringing up his alleged proposal of an open marriage to his second wife, Gingrich accused him of lowering the level of discourse in a presidential debate, suggesting that such a discussion is unworthy of consideration by voters.

Herbert Hoover was a man of genuine, fine character, but he lacked practical political sense. And he couldn't bend and shift and change with the requirements of the time. And he was a ruined President, because he was such a, I think, stiff-backed ideologue. And I think that speaks volumes about his character.

The greatest presidents have been those who demonstrated astute judgment in times of crisis - often despite the advice they were getting.

Historians evaluating George W. Bush's first term will focus on foreign policy and, most of all, 9/11. I think they will criticize him for his early reaction, for not returning at once to Washington, D.C.

Like Lyndon Johnson, President Obama understands that timidity in a time of troubles is a prescription for failure.

The Cold War is over. The kind of authority that the presidents asserted during the Cold War has now been diminished.

A national government using New Deal programs and the massive defense spending beginning with World War II and continuing through the Cold War was Johnson's vehicle for expanding the Southern economy and making it, as he hoped, one of the more prosperous regions of the country.

Kennedy saw the presidency as the vital center of government, and a president's primary goal as galvanizing commitments to constructive change. He aimed to move the country and the world toward a more peaceful future, not just through legislation but through inspiration.

Obama's endorsement of gay marriage is hardly as consequential as Johnson's legislative success on civil rights.

When Johnson decided to fight for passage of the law John F. Kennedy had put before Congress in June 1963 banning segregation in places of public accommodation, he believed he was taking considerable political risks.

Presidents need to be critically studied and analyzed.

President Obama can talk about having no grand schemes and making no big gains, but the reality is he can't get anything of significance through Congress.

A president cannot sit on his hands and be seen as passive in the face of ruthless action by a foreign dictator.

It's always valuable for someone running for president... to have as much bipartisan support as possible.

There's a certain clubbiness to the idea that you're an ex-president. You're no longer a politician. You're a statesman.

For style and for creating a mood of optimism and hope - Kennedy on that count is as effective as any president the country has had in its history.

Obama is cutting back on the idea that we're going to have Jeffersonian democracy in Pakistan or anywhere else.

At the start of first terms, presidents invariably have a measure of goodwill.

Racial segregation in the South not only separated the races, but it separated the South from the rest of the country.

I think the public can t accept the idea that someone as inconsequential as Oswald could have killed someone as consequential as Kennedy. They don t want to believe the world is that chaotic. It is.

Unity is Obama's theme.