Donald Rumsfeld President Quotations

The price of being close to the President is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it.

Don't be a bottleneck. If a matter is not a decision for the President or you, delegate it. Force responsibility down and out. Find problem areas, add structure and delegate. The pressure is to do the reverse. Resist it.

Look for what's missing. Many advisors can tell a President how to improve what's proposed or what's gone amiss. Few are able to see what isn't there.

Leave the President's family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.

Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the President and do wonders for your performance.

If you foul up, tell the President and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.

In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.

Make decisions about the President's personal security. He can overrule you, but don't ask him to be the one to counsel caution.

Preserve the President's options. He may need them.

When asked for your views, by the press or others, remember that what they really want to know is the President's views.

One of your tasks is to separate the 'personal' from the 'substantive.' The two can become confused, especially if someone rubs the President wrong.

I failed to recognize how important it was to elevate a matter of such gravity to the highest levels, including the president and the members of Congress,

I agreed only with the fact that some people talk like that and that Vice President Agnew should not have used or thought such derogatory and offensive and unfair and insensitive things about minorities.

He certainly is the secretary-general and he has a voice and a role. On the other hand, until President Bush went to the U.N., the U.N. was quite happy with the way things were,

I will answer that one question, ... The president has stated what the policy is, the secretary of state has stated it, and I have stated it. And it's all exactly the same, so I think the stories that have been playing are just inaccurate and mischievous.

The president has not suggested that that is going to be needed,

Most of the 50 or so invitations you receive each week come from people inviting the President's Chief of Staff, not you. If you doubt that, ask your predecessor how many he received last week.

I suppose the implication of that is the president and the vice president and myself and Colin Powell just fell off a turnip truck to take these jobs.

A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.

A president has to provide leadership to gain support.

Walk around. If you are invisible, the mystique of the President's office may perpetuate inaccurate impressions about you or the President, to his detriment. After all, you may not be as bad as they're saying.

Every president when he is elected has to live with the pluses and minuses his predecessor leaves, which includes benefits as well as burdens.

Know that the immediate staff and others in the Administration will assume that your manner, tone and tempo reflect the President's.

Being Vice President is difficult. Don't make it tougher.

Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others. Be sure the staff is working on what you move to them from the President, or the President will be reacting, not leading.

Don't accept the post or stay unless you have an understanding with the President that you're free to tell him what you think "with the bark off" and you have the courage to do it.

It's not going to take years, and it's not going to take days. It'll take some months. And then we will go back to the president with our recommendations as to what we believe are the priorities and what needs to be done,

But I certainly never gave the president a briefing with the impact that one would have had you seen the photographs or the video. I mean, let there be no doubt about that. He was just as blindsided as the Congress and me and everyone else.