Quote

Almost all first ladies have had tremendous power on personnel issues, whether the public realized it or not, whether it was Barbara Bush or Nancy Reagan or whoever.

Dee Dee Myers

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Dee Dee Myers
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: September 1
Former White House Press Secretary
Opinion Journalist
Political Scientist
Politician
Writer
Margaret Jane Myers
Whether
Ladies
Power
Tremendous
Firsts
Whoever
First
Bush
Realized
Barbara
Issues
Personnel
Public
Nancy
Almost
Reagan

More quotes by Dee Dee Myers

Image
No reporter is flying around in borrowed twin-engine airplanes.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
President Clinton intentionally created a structure that was a little loose. And one that kept him a little in the center. He didn't want one person filtering all the information that went to him. He had always operated with a lot of information coming in and a lot of stuff going out.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
Washington is still very much a male-oriented culture. Being from Los Angeles, I think it is less so there - there is less attachment to tradition, perhaps, there is more flexibility, more acceptance of change generally. That is partly because of Hollywood.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
There is an institutional cynicism that causes reporters to question everything the President says, and the motives of everything the President and his Administration try to accomplish.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
And Clinton was like that - he saw the whole playing field. He didn't just see the event that he was at or the circumstances of that week or that month. He saw the whole playing field all the time.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
When I became White House press secretary, there were other limitations that were thrust upon me. Bill Clinton was under pressure to appoint women to visible positions. I was 31, I'd never worked in Washington. Was I ready for this large and visible job? Still he wanted the credit. So he gave me the job but diminished the job.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
After I left the White House, I kept a foothold in the business of American politics as a talk-show host, analyst, commentator, speechmaker, and occasional writer. I was no longer a practitioner, but I was still a partisan, a Democrat, a blue-stater through and through.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
I don't think women hold all the answers, but with their skills, their strengths, we can get to a better place.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
Having a sense of humor has served me more than it has hurt me - just in the sense that it has allowed me to keep my sanity.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
While eschewing emotion - and its companion, vulnerability - Obama should be careful not to sacrifice empathy, the 'I feel your pain' connection that sustained Clinton. This connection is the shorthand people use to measure their leaders' intentions. If people believe you're on their side, they will trust your decisions.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
It isn't fate but fecklessness that has shoved Sarah Palin to the sidelines of national politics. The real tragedy is that she's taken a lot of other serious Republican women with her.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
One thing I think is least realistic is that there were five people that made decisions in the fictional 'West Wing.' In real life, there are about five million people that weigh in.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
A lot of people over time have had this kind of pattern in their relationship with Bill Clinton. You first meet him and you're overwhelmed by his talent. He's so energetic and articulate and full of ideas and he calls himself a congenital optimist and that optimism is contagious.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
Democrats single out glaring examples of tax preferences or spending priorities that favor the wealthy and Republicans cry 'class warfare!'
Dee Dee Myers
Image
As women slowly gain power, their values and priorities are reshaping the agenda. A multitude of studies show that when women control the family funds, they generally spend more on health, nutrition, and education - and less on alcohol and cigarettes.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
I think how pay gets determined is pretty broad - experience, how people look, what they bring to the job. But there's no question women are paid less. Women don't ask.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
You as the press secretary have to protect the president's interests and the White House's interests more broadly. And a lot of people inside the White House, as you learned, sometimes with painful experience, have competing agendas, have differing points of view, have priorities they're trying to protect.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
There are people in the public sector with a range of experiences that have no equivalent in business, but are essential to governing, like keeping a kid in school or helping someone get and hold a job. The value of those skills can't easily be measured against a bottom line.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
When I first started working in politics, as a junior aide on Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign, it never occurred to me that I would one day work in the White House. There were plenty of women among the volunteers who stuffed envelopes and walked precincts. But there were fewer and fewer on each successive level of influence and access.
Dee Dee Myers
Image
1992 became known as the 'Year of the Woman' because so many of us were elected to public office that November, including a record six to the United States Senate.
Dee Dee Myers