#or

If I had grown up in any place but New Orleans, I don't think my career would have taken off. I wouldn't have heard the music that was around this town. There was so much going on when I was a kid. ↗

— Pete Fountain

#around #career #going #grown #had

Andrew Jackson was the first president to claim that the desires of the public overrode Congress's constitutional prerogatives. Virtually every president since Jackson has claimed the mantle, even while lacking two ingredients of an electoral mandate: a landslide victory and a specific agenda. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#andrew #claim #claimed #congress #constitutional

Hollywood has a history of raising expectations beyond Washington's reach, of appealing to the very American desire to mythologize political leaders, particularly the president. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#appealing #beyond #desire #expectations #history

AP promoted me to the White House beat because I knew Clinton, his family, friends, and staff better than anybody in the national press corps. Those contacts helped me break a few stories and get my career in Washington jump-started. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#beat #because #better #break #career

'Argo,' 'Lincoln,' and 'Zero Dark Thirty,' three films honored with Best Picture Oscar nominations, lionize their Washington-anchored protagonists as crafty, competent, and virtually incorruptible. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#best picture #competent #crafty #dark #films

At his best, Obama promised to work with Republicans to reduce the deficit in a way that honors both individualism and community. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#both #community #deficit #his #honors

Barack Obama may have found the answer to his biggest rhetorical challenge: When millions of voters are unemployed or underemployed, how does a president simultaneously sound realistic and optimistic? ↗

— Ron Fournier

#barack #barack obama #biggest #challenge #does

By nominating Chuck Hagel to be his Defense secretary, President Obama is putting forward an aloof contrarian who doesn't suffer fools - a striving politician who considers himself above politics. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#aloof #chuck #considers #defense #fools

Christie led the way - with a bulldozer. The governor is blunt, brash, and self-consciously authentic, the antithesis to what turns off today's voters: flip-flopping politicians who speak in poll-tested platitudes. Yes, he's the anti-Romney. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#authentic #blunt #brash #christie #governor

It's an appeal as old as America and its presidency: This is an extraordinary country populated by hard-working, big-dreaming, freedom-loving people graced by God when they're not pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. ↗

— Ron Fournier

#appeal #bootstraps #country #extraordinary #freedom-loving