In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Most of all, be honest with yourself and make sure those in political office, our so called public servants, are being honest, holding them accountable for their actions!
Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical.
Honesty is the best policy; but he who is governed by that maxim is not an honest man.
I did not expect to encounter what has beset me since my elevation to the presidency. God knows, I have endeavored to fulfill what I considered to be an honest duty, but I have been mistaken; my motives have been misconstrued and my feelings grossly betrayed.
Be honest. Be honest with yourself, be honest with, you know, your fellow politicians. This is a rare quality of politicians.
When you're talking with a person at this level of the government, at the very highest level, I think you have to be very discreet because he, President Clinton, is very aware that anything he says publicly can have a profound impact on American politics and on world politics.
Given the pervasive secrecy of the Bush-Cheney administration, and the sorry consequences of that disposition, President Barack Obama's early emphasis on openness in government seems almost inevitable.
A true leader has to have a genuine open-door policy so that his people are not afraid to approach him for any reason.
Nothing trumps honesty, as far as I'm concerned.
I will run an open government that speaks with honesty, seeks opinion, listens to its citizens.
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