Dwight Eisenhower

• “I believe people who are in a position of visibility and leadership affect the character of young people and individuals who look to them as leaders. And in some respects just as important as their policies and positions is there character and their substance. What for me makes people like Teddy Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt and John Adams and George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan such extraordinary leaders is that they had integrity through and through. What they were on the inside and what they said on the outside was harmonious. There a lot of people like that. I think that if people try to live a very different personal life not consistent with the role they’ve assumed as a governor or senator or president, we lose something as a nation.”
  • Governor Mitt Romney, The Atlantic (September 2005)

LAMB: Why is Dwight Eisenhower one of your favorite presidents?

ROMNEY: Well, I happen to believe that one of the most important things a president of the United States does is set a culture of integrity, character, vision, patriotism, that the values that a president is known for and lives by live on well beyond some of his or her policies -- I guess all his, at this point. His policies.

And, you know, I will go back -- and read a couple of books about Teddy Roosevelt last year, ”Theodore Rex” and ”The Rise of Teddy Roosevelt,” I looked at some of his policies and said, gosh, I have exactly the opposite view today. The Republic Party has a different view then it did back in 1900.

But you know, what Teddy Roosevelt did for this country and his power and vision and passion and his character still inspires us. And so I look at Dwight Eisenhower as the man who, if you had to point to a single man who helped us win World War II, you would say, boy, that’s Dwight Eisenhower.

I looked at what he did in the White House and the character and integrity he brought to the White House and said, that’s a man I respect. I grew up when he was president. He’s my first memory of president, 1952 election. I remember that, you know, ”I like Ike” slogan.

And he was a person you did like and you respected as an individual. Now he did some important things as well. The whole idea of building an interstate highway system and investing in infrastructure turned out to be enormously powerful.

Staring down the Russians at that time the Soviets was an important contribution, so he made contributions politically. But it’s his contribution as a man, as a father, as a husband, as a person of integrity that I most respect.

C-Span Transcript, BRIAN LAMB, HOST