Leon Panetta
Leon Panetta
Leon Edward Panettais an American statesman, lawyer, and professor. He served in the Obama administration as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2009 to 2011, and as Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013. A Democrat, Panetta was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993, served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994, and as President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997. He is...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth28 June 1938
CityMonterey, CA
CountryUnited States of America
You've got to sit down with all of the special-interest groups on your side before you announce that decision and walk them through it. You need to determine if they're going to support it.
I don't think there is any question but that the indictment of Tom Delay gives another boost to the Democrats in terms of their argument that the GOP leadership doesn't pay attention to ethics requirements.
One of the things that has made Iraq such a tragedy is you've got the administration, which is kind of locked into its view; you've got Congress, which is scrambling all over the place; and politics, which has invaded this issue on all sides. The good thing here is we can stand back and assess this.
Just when we should be getting ready for the 21st century, our education system is beginning to fall down in terms of preparing our students for that future.
That confrontation, I think, clearly was in the minds of those who were sitting down at the table,
You really ought to think twice before you appoint a staff member to a position like Supreme Court justice. You have to ask whether that person really has the experience you need to be a justice. Usually, it will make more sense to go outside the White House.
You're talking about a real problem facing this country at the very moment when we're expecting something like 70 to 80 million baby boomers to retire and to add additional costs to Social Security and Medicare. We're headed towards a fiscal cliff,
The United States, and the president's made this clear, does not want Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. That's a red line for us. And it's a red line obviously for the Israelis so we share a common goal here.
Well, you know, any defense force worth its salt has to be able to deal with uncertainty, has to be able to deal with events that we may not have planned for.
Unfortunately these days, there is a hell of a lot that keeps me awake.
There is growing distrust we see from the investing public. There is a responsibility of the New York Stock Exchange that we address those issues.
When you're smaller and leaner, you're not going to have that large a presence throughout the world.
The reality is that the United States military alone cannot be all things to all nations. We will sharpen the application of our resources, better deploy our forces in the world and share our burdens more and more effectively with our partners. And frankly, all our allies need to do the same.
We are a nation at war. This is also a time for hard choices. It's about ensuring that we are able to prevail in the conflicts in which we are now engaged. But it's also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation's limited resources to defending America.