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The American People. You hear an awful lot about them. Politicans, especially, are experts: they know what we want, need, feel, think, deserve, demand. So we thought we’d start keeping track of who’s claiming to speak for us, the American People. Who speaks for you?
Quotes are automatically selected from all election-related wire service stories available through Yahoo.
July 2, 2009
- “It is very important that the American people and Congress, in conjunction with my administration, come up with a structure that is not only legitimate in the eyes of our constitutional traditions, but also in the eyes of the international community,” he said.
- Here you’ve got a situation where we have and other extremists who would gladly blow up Americans, and yet we don’t have a clear terminal point, there’s not going to be some surrender ceremony where Emperor Hirohito signs the papers. And given that fact, how to manage extremists who want to do us harm and may not fall neatly under traditional criminal jurisprudence here in the United States or even international laws, but making sure that both the American people are safe and our Constitution is upheld is a very difficult thing.
- Obama: I am not comfortable with doing something this significant through executive order. I think it is very important that the American people and Congress, in conjunction with my administration, come up with a structure that is not only legitimate in the eyes of our constitutional traditions, but also in the eyes of the international community, because part of our task in defeating these extremists is winning over allies and populations that right now feel as if we haven’t been living up to our highest ideals.
July 1, 2009
- "That's why the American people will now have a particularly clear choice in next year's election — to continue down this path of fiscal mismanagement, more big government, and one-party control in Washington or to restore a system of checks and balances that will hold government accountable to its citizens."
- Obama’s strategy aims to boost the size of the Afghan army from 80,000 to 134,000 troops by 2011 — and greatly increase training by U.S. troops accompanying them — so the Afghan military can defeat Taliban insurgents and take control of the war. The White House also is pushing forces to set clear goals for a war gone awry, to get the American people behind them, to provide more resources and to make a better case for international support.
June 30, 2009
- “This case will only raise more questions in the minds of the American people concerning Judge Sotomayor’s commitment to treat each individual fairly and not as a member of a group,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
June 29, 2009
- Dean said it’s unusual to see “a legislative body so far outside the scope of where the American people are.”
- Obama also accused Republicans of being stuck in a 1990s-era debate on energy when the American people "have moved forward" with concerns about climate change and hope for renewable power, the newspaper said.
June 27, 2009
- “Bipartisan majorities of Congress and the American people oppose closing Guantanamo without a plan, and several important questions remain unanswered,” McConnell said. He said Obama demanded the transfers “before the administration even has a place to put the detainees who are housed there, any plan for military commissions, or any articulated plan for indefinite detention.”
- Obama called the measure “a bold and necessary step thatholds the promise of creating new industry and millions of newjobs.” The bill, he said, would usher in “a criticaltransition to a clean-energy economy without untenable burdenson the American people.”
- "The American people are demanding that we abandon the failed policies and politics of the past; we no longer accept inaction; that we face up to the challenges of our time. And today, the House has done exactly that," he said.
“The American People” was conceived and programmed by Greg Knauss, the masthead drawn by Leslie Harpold and the layout designed by Heather Champ. An archive and RSS feed are available.
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