Since the United State presidential election is right around the corner, I have been thinking quite a bit about qualities in the head of the executive branch. Here are some quotes I ran across in dwelling so much.

You have to remember one thing about the will of the people: it wasn’t that long ago that we were swept away by the Macarena.
― Jon Stewart

Every election is determined by the people who show up.
― Larry J. Sabato, Pendulum Swing

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.
― Winston S. Churchill

Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.
― Abraham Lincoln

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Tocqueville: Democracy in America

We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.
― Thomas Jefferson

Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it’s up to you to know with which ear you’ll listen.
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.
― Benjamin Franklin

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’
― Isaac Asimov

I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
― Thomas Jefferson

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?
― Mahatma Gandhi

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
― H.L. Mencken
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
― John Adams

I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
― Thomas Jefferson