The American Spectator

AmSpecBlog

Novak Notes

By Quin Hillyer on 7.27.07 @ 5:46PM

I also am late at reporting on Thursday's AmSpec newsmaker breakgast, this one with Robert Novak. Herewith, then, some interesting quotes from Novak that I haven't seen reported elsewhere:

Politicians are more often TOO responsive, not too unresponsive: "Too many of them take the temperature all the time. What they are supposed to do is lead and inspire."

On presidents he has covered, he was mostly scathing, except for Reagan. Nixon "was a bad man and a poor president." Carter "was a liar." Ford "never understood the Cold War." Clinton "posed as a centrist...but he was a reflexibe liberal. A big-government liberal." Ike was "stodgy and fuddy-duddy." Three recessions in his eight years occurred largely because Ike refused to cut taxes.

"The founding fathers tried to devise a government that didn't work very well, and they damn well succeeded. [Which is a good thing because] governmental power is still the thing I worry about most."

"I think the American people are better than their leaders."

topics:
Taxes, Founding Fathers