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
I think the most important thing for this president to do is to focus on trying to get some things done -- limited things done -- over these next 100 days, ... If he can get education reform accomplished, if he could do something on campaign reform in a bipartisan way, then that could send a very important signal to the American people that he's going to try to get things done.
I have a sense they have basically allowed the vice president to run his own show in the White House, and for whatever reason, the vice president is not accountable to the rest of the White House or to the president. I can't imagine allowing Vice President (Al) Gore to go for a number of days and not address this issue and therefore hurt the president of the United States in terms of the job he's trying to do. The first priority in the White House is not the vice president. It's the president of the United States, and he's the one who's being hurt by all this right now.
The president is out there today trying to talk about health care, and the reality is nobody cares about what he's saying on health care because this news is consuming everything. No president could tolerate that or should tolerate it.
Red lines are kind of political arguments that are used to try to put people in a corner.
Over the last 10 or 15 years, there's almost been a deliberate strategy to push all the tough decisions to the very end of a Congress, with the hope that you can ram them through as members try to get away for the holidays.
I think they're facing the largest challenge I've seen in recent history, in terms of an administration having to decide whether they continue to borrow and spend, or whether they face up to very difficult choices that have to be made to discipline the budget. I think we'll find out in the next few months what that decision is going to be.
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,
There is a tremendous lack of leadership in both parties to address this issue.
Unfortunately these days, there is a hell of a lot that keeps me awake.
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.
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.
He gets a pass, they don't. And that's obviously created a lot of nervousness on Capitol Hill.
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.