What the U.S Presidents are remembered for are:
Kennedy advisers Adlai Stevenson and John Kenneth Galbraith counted themselves lucky to get an only slightly revised version of one line into the inaugural – and it is that line that has been adopted by Obama: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."
Bill Clinton’s presidency is defined for most by just nine words: "I did not sleep with that woman, Monica Lewinsky."
Richard Nixon's "I am not a crook."
Ronald Reagan is remembered for a snappy 1987 admonition in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
George W. Bush presented himself as a uniter of America's diverse population with the Roman practice of divide and conquer.
That America's 43rd president understood the Constitution to have given him the powers of an autocrat came in a little-noticed 2000 aside: "The legislature's job is to write the law," Bush said. "It's the executive branch's job to interpret the law."
George Washington's farewell address in 1796 exhorted the U.S. not to become involved in foreign entanglements, the complexities of which were so treacherous to navigate.
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