Quotes from American Presidents. Pearls and stupid statements from US politicians (8 photos). leadership quotes

Barack Obama leaves the White House. Donald Trump will be inaugurated tomorrow. And today we celebrate the first black president of the United States with a selection of his best (or simply interesting) statements about Russia:

Barack Obama, in an interview with CNN, blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the collapse of the ruble and the onset of the financial crisis, December 2014: "Three or four months ago Putin was said to be a genius, beating Obama and all that. And now he's facing the collapse of his currency, a major financial crisis and a massive contraction of the economy. Doesn't sound like the man who beat me or the United States." .

In March 2014, at a press conference with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Obama was asked whether he agreed with Republican Mitt Romney's assessment that Russia was America's biggest geopolitical enemy during the 2012 presidential campaign.
“Russia is a regional power, and not because of its strength, but because of its weakness, it is a threat to some of its neighbors,” Obama said. “Russia’s actions do not pose the number one threat to the national security of the United States. I am still much more "I am concerned about our security in connection with the threat of the proliferation of nuclear weapons."

Press conference in South Korea, April 2014: " I, of course, will save President Putin if he is drowning. I would like to believe that if anyone was drowning, I could save them. I'm a good swimmer and grew up in Hawaii and had a lot of practice."

Statement regarding the Olympics in Sochi, 2014: "If there are no gays or lesbians on the Russian [Olympic] team, maybe that makes it weaker."

In May 2014, at the traditional White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Barack Obama paid attention to Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Last year, Pat Buchanan said that Putin is on a direct path to the Nobel Peace Prize. I know it sounds strange, but, to be honest, these prizes are now given to anyone. So it’s not impossible.”“Obama showed a talent for self-irony. However, his next tirade raised eyebrows: "Rudy Giuliani said that Putin is a real leader. Mike Huckabee and Sean Hannity kept talking about his naked torso. It's a little strange."

Skeptics believed that Obama himself was fixated on Putin’s torso, since the famous photo of the Russian leader was published back in 2007. So to joke about this seven years later is what is truly strange.

On January 16, 2017, Obama gave a big press conference, the last of his career. Surprisingly, Obama devoted most of his speech to Russia and Vladimir Putin. Barack reiterated that Donald Trump's victory in the November election was due to "attack by Russian hackers", behind which Putin stood. In total, Obama mentioned Russia 38 times at the press conference, and Vladimir Putin 15.

The most striking, perhaps, was the comparison between Russia and the United States: "Russia is a smaller and weaker country economically, they don't produce anything that others will want to buy except oil, gas and weapons. They don't innovate."

At this, his last press conference as US President, Obama lamented that since Putin's return to the presidency in 2012 "anti-American rhetoric has begun to escalate". According to Obama, Russia began to profess an approach to international relations, the meaning of which was that everything the United States does "bad for Russia".
“It brought back the hostile spirit that, in my understanding, existed during the Cold War.”, said the US President.

The old saying is true: “Keep quiet and you’ll look smarter.” This very expression can be applied to some American politicians who have demonstrated their ignorance and stupidity through thoughtless statements.

Americans love to teach and teach, but they don’t always know geography. Thus, the colorful ex-governor of Alaska Sarah Palin once confused South Korea with the DPRK in her speech, and her party comrade John McCain confused Belarus with Lithuania.

The current US Secretary of State, John Kerry, whose position requires him to know geography, also distinguished himself, but speaking to students at a university in Virginia, he told them about “the courageous employees of the State Department who support democratic institutions in Kyrzakhstan and Georgia.” That is, the head of the foreign policy department, which deals with international relations, is not aware that the country of Kyrzakhstan is not on any map of the world, but there are Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

What can we say, even if President Obama, back in 2008, during his election campaign, once said that the United States consists of 57 states and is the country in which the car was invented.

Other American politicians are not lagging behind their president. Thus, the candidate for Congress from the Republican Party, Paul Brown, literally shocked the educated part of his voters by declaring, with reference to some scientific data known to him alone, that “the Earth is a young planet, which is only 9 thousand years old,” and the theory of evolution is “a lie from hell itself.” The late Charles Darwin probably turned over in his grave more than once from such words, however, Brown won the election.

Barack Obama's recent election rival, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, also got a fair amount of laughs when he was sincerely indignant at the fact that for some reason there were no windows on the plane. “If there is a fire on board, you have nowhere to go... you can’t breathe, air from outside doesn’t come in because the windows don’t open... This is a serious problem. And it’s very dangerous,” he once said after his wife survived a plane crash landing. Well, he doesn’t have basic knowledge of physics!

But the already mentioned Sarah Palin competently stated, polemicizing with adherents of vegetarianism: “If God didn’t want us to eat animals, then why did he make them from meat.” Thank God no one told Palin that people are “made of meat” too.

A favorite among fans of action films, the former bodybuilder and famous Terminator, who by definition belongs to the intelligentsia class, during his time as governor, once declared about the situation of sexual minorities: “I believe that homosexual marriage should take place between a man and a woman.”

Against his background, former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld looks like a real philosopher, which is worth only one of his florid maxims: “Reports that something did not happen are not interesting to me, since we all know that there are known events about which we know, there are things we don't know about. We also know that there are things that we do not know about, in other words, there are certain things that are unknown to us. But there is also something that is unknown and that we don’t know about—something that we don’t know if we know anything about.” Did you understand anything? No? Then you will never be the head of the Pentagon!

However, all this pales and looks quite harmless next to the old joke of President Ronald Reagan, who one day, 27 years ago, speaking live on national radio, blurted out to the whole country: “Dear Americans, I am pleased to inform you that I have just signed legislation on the declaration "Russia is outlawed forever. The bombing will begin in five minutes."

Half the country managed to drink a bottle of valerian and figure out which route to take to the nearest bomb shelter, but then a representative of the White House press service said that the president was just deigning to joke.

Compared to him, another president, George W. Bush, who also made joke after joke, looks simply darling: “We are the most generous country in the world. We are very generous. I'm proud that we are so generous. But despite our generosity, we should not boast about our generosity” and “I have my own beliefs about this. Deep convictions. But I don’t always agree with them.” George Bush, like our late V.S. Chernomyrdin in general, among other things, was simply a treasure trove of pearls, as worth his words: “Condoleezza Rice is a simple Texas girl like me.”

It is noteworthy that American politicians themselves, even when their stupid statements become known to the general public, do not experience any inferiority complex, as the current head of the State Department, Kerry, said about it: “The reason for our democracy is that it is based on freedom. A resident of America has "The right to be stupid if that is his choice. And he has the right to separate himself from others if he wants to."
So, American politicians have no shame in saying stupid things.

But one old saying is true: “Keep silent and you will look smarter” :) This expression can be applied to some American politicians who have demonstrated their ignorance and stupidity thanks to their thoughtless statements. Today I want to tell you about some of these pearls that American politicians have revealed in their eloquent statements.

They teach you how to teach, but they don’t always know geography. Thus, the colorful ex-governor of Alaska Sarah Palin once in her speech confused South Korea with the DPRK, and her party comrade John McCain confused Belarus with Lithuania.

The current US Secretary of State, John Kerry, whose position requires him to know geography, also distinguished himself, but speaking to students at a university in Virginia, he told them about “the courageous employees of the State Department who support democratic institutions in Kyrzakhstan and Georgia.” That is, the head of the foreign policy department, which deals with international relations, is not aware that the country of Kyrzakhstan is not on any map of the world, but there are Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

What can we say, even if President Obama, back in 2008, during his election campaign, once said that the United States consists of 57 states and is the country in which the car was invented. No one, of course, needs to know that the United States still has 50 states, and the automobile was invented in Germany, but people writing speeches for the president of a great country should be aware of such simple truths.

Other American politicians are not lagging behind their president. Thus, the candidate for Congress from the Republican Party, Paul Brown, literally shocked the educated part of his voters by declaring, with reference to some scientific data known to him alone, that “the Earth is a young planet, which is only 9 thousand years old,” and The theory of evolution is “a lie from hell itself.” The late Charles Darwin probably turned over in his grave more than once from such words, however, Brown won the election.
Barack Obama's recent election rival, Republican candidate Mitt Romney, also got a fair amount of laughs when he was sincerely indignant at the fact that for some reason there were no windows on the plane. “If there is a fire on board, you have nowhere to go... you can’t breathe, air from outside doesn’t come in because the windows don’t open... This is a serious problem. And it’s very dangerous,” he once said after his wife survived a plane crash landing. Well, he doesn’t have basic knowledge of physics!
But the already mentioned Sarah Palin competently stated, polemicizing with adherents of vegetarianism: “If God didn’t want us to eat animals, then why did he make them from meat.” Thank God no one told Palin that people are “made of meat” too.

A favorite among fans of action films, the former bodybuilder and famous Terminator, who by definition belongs to the intelligentsia class, during his time as governor, once declared about the situation of sexual minorities: “I believe that homosexual marriage should take place between a man and a woman.”

Against his background, former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld looks like a real philosopher, which is worth only one of his florid maxims: “Reports that something did not happen are not interesting to me, since we all know that there are known events about which we know, there are things we don't know about. We also know that there are things that we do not know about, in other words, there are certain things that are unknown to us. But there is also something that is unknown and that we don’t know about—something that we don’t know if we know anything about.” Did you understand anything? No? Then you will never be the head of the Pentagon!

However, all this pales and looks quite harmless next to the old joke of President Ronald Reagan, who one day, 27 years ago, speaking live on national radio, blurted out to the whole country: “Dear Americans, I am pleased to inform you that I have just signed legislation on the declaration "Russia is outlawed forever. The bombing will begin in five minutes."
Half the country managed to drink a bottle of valerian and figure out which route to take to the nearest bomb shelter, but then a representative of the White House press service said that the president was just deigning to joke.

Compared to him, another president, George W. Bush, who also made joke after joke, looks simply darling: “We are the most generous country in the world. We are very generous. I'm proud that we are so generous. But despite our generosity, we should not boast about our generosity” and “I have my own beliefs about this. Deep convictions. But I don’t always agree with them.” George Bush, like our late V.S. Chernomyrdin in general, among other things, was simply a treasure trove of pearls, which is worth his words: “Condoleezza Rice is a simple Texas girl like me.”

It is noteworthy that American politicians themselves, even when their stupid statements become known to the general public, do not experience any inferiority complex, as the current head of the State Department, Kerry, said about it: “The reason for our democracy is that it is based on freedom. A resident of America has "The right to be stupid if that is his choice. And he has the right to separate himself from others if he wants to."
So, American politicians have no shame in saying stupid things.

Ronald Reagan

“Dear compatriots! I am pleased to inform you that I have just signed a document that will forever outlaw Russia. The bombing will begin in five minutes." . - words spoken during a microphone check before a radio appearance on August 11, 1984.

Reagan's joke somehow became known in the Soviet Union, and at first the entire country's armed forces were put on high alert. Then came a rather harsh rebuke to Reagan: “TASS is authorized to declare that the Soviet Union condemns the unprecedented hostile attack by the US President. Such behavior is incompatible with the high responsibility that the leaders of states, especially those possessing nuclear weapons, bear for the fate of their own peoples, for the fate of humanity.”

George Bush Sr.

“Read my lips: no new taxes” . - from a speech at the Republican National Convention on August 18, 1988.

After becoming president, Bush kept his word and did not introduce new taxes. When Congress proposed increasing some existing taxes to cover the budget deficit, it agreed to it. That's why he served only one term as president.

Bill Clinton

“I want you to listen to me. I'll say it again. I did not have any sexual relationship with this woman - Miss Lewinsky. And I never asked anyone to lie. Never. "All of these allegations are false, and I need to get back to my job and continue to serve the American people." - from a speech before the Senate on January 21, 1998.

On August 17 of the same year, in an address to the people, Bill Clinton would say: “My relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky was inappropriate. They were wrong." The Americans and the Senate forgave Clinton for his prank, and he continued to serve as president.

George W. Bush

“We found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We have found biological laboratories, and we will find more of them over time. And to everyone who says that we didn’t find anything, I answer that we did.” – from an interview with Polish television on May 29, 2003.

Bush said these words while justifying the invasion of Iraq. But the truth is that neither bacteriological weapons nor laboratories for producing them were discovered in Iraq. As a consolation prize, the Americans captured Saddam Hussein, who was later hanged.

Barack Obama

“I’ve already been to 57 states. I think I need to visit one more." - from a speech during the election campaign in Oregon on May 9, 2008.

Barack Obama misspoke. Apparently he meant "in 47 states." Since he had no intention of going to Hawaii and Alaska, he only had one state left to visit. However, conspiracy theorists saw the clause as an unintentional expression of Obama's devotion to Islam. After all, the organization of the Islamic Conference has 57 members.