From J. Edgar Hoover to Christopher Reeve

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Jesse Jackson
Dec. 21, 1987

During his second run for the Democratic presidential nomination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson was asked about the role race played in his campaign as the second African-American (after Shirley Chisholm) to try for the White House on a major party's ticket. He responded by saying: "No one asks any white candidate, 'Can a white win?'"

There is somehow a double standard or a lagging question. In some sense, it forces you to be better, just to be equal. We also know that the media has basically disciplined white Americans against black Americans. We are projected every day in the media as less intelligent than we are, less hard-working than we work, less patriotic than we are, less universal than we are and more violent than we are. So you kind of start with those negatives.

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George H.W. Bush
Dec. 31, 1990

Just days before launching the 1991 Gulf War to liberate Kuwait after Iraq's invasion, President Bush reflected on his decision. He referred to an Amnesty International report on Iraqi human rights abuses in Kuwait, most notably the killings of hundreds of babies taken from hospital incubators by Iraqi soldiers. Later, those accounts turned out to have been part of a public relations effort by the Kuwaiti royal family. Amnesty said its subsequent investigation found "no reliable evidence" of the alleged infanticide.

On this question, I've got it boiled down very clearly to good vs. evil. And it helps if you can be that clear in your own mind. And I'll tell you another thing that's reinforced my view: That is this Amnesty International report, which is devastating, absolutely devastating. It helps one come to a recognition that the right must prevail.

On the lessons of Vietnam:

Never fight a war with a hand tied behind your back. Never send a kid into battle unless you're going to give him total support. Don't send him in under-equipped. Don't send a mission in undermanned. Don't send them in where you tell commanding officers what they can't do.

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Bill Clinton
July 20, 1992

In a cover story, the then presidential candidate praised his wife, Hillary, as having "great character, great passion for doing what was right." He added that "she looks just like the person that I met over 20 years ago, except better in every way." But he also acknowledged past problems in his marriage.

Hillary and I said at the beginning of this campaign, which I thought was an example of good character and not bad character, that we'd worked hard on our marriage; we'd had difficulties, and we'd saved it.

You know, I've been treated like I had a character problem because I acknowledged that. And maybe I shouldn't have. But I think that's not evidence of bad character. I think change is tough for anybody. And I think we ought to elect somebody president who can face facts and make change and make tough decisions. Other people may have better rhetoric about it, but I think I've got a better record of it.

It could be that revealing so much makes me look weak, not tough. But if that's so, then it's not my maturity that's at issue. Then people want to be lied to, they want to be conned, they want to be manipulated. And I'm just not very good at that.