“Even though I'm president of the United States, my power is not limitless. So I can't dive down there and plug the hole. I can't suck it up with a straw. All I can do is make sure that I put honest, hard-working smart people in place … to implement this thing.”

—  Barack Obama

Radio interview, Grand Isle, LA, June 11, 2010. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/06/obama-on-spill-i-cant-suck-it.html?hpid=news-col-blog
2010, 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill (April 2010)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Even though I'm president of the United States, my power is not limitless. So I can't dive down there and plug the hole…" by Barack Obama?
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama 1158
44th President of the United States of America 1961

Related quotes

Van Jones photo
Barack Obama photo
George Hendrik Breitner photo

“In the works I paint [now] I can't see any guarantee that I shall make progress.... while better skilled people [artists] - even though their work does not seem so good at the moment - can move forward much more easily.”

George Hendrik Breitner (1857–1923) Dutch painter and photographer

translation from the original Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek
Er is in wat ik maak geen waarborg, dat ik vooruit zal gaan.. ..terwijl beter geschoolde lui, ook al lijkt hun werk op het ogenblik niet zoo goed, veel eer, verder kunnen komen.
Breitner, quoted by Jan Veth, in Portretstudies en silhouetten, J. Veth; Amsterdam 1908, p. 204
Jan Veth is remembering Breitner's remark from an earlier walk they made together
1900 - 1923

Valerie Martin photo
Barack Obama photo
Ellen DeGeneres photo

“You have to have funny faces and words, you can't just have words. It is a powerful thing, and I think that's why it's hard for people to imagine that women can do that, be that powerful.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

Ellen DeGeneres, US Magazine, January 1995

Sun Myung Moon photo

“That's why I can dream dreams that God Himself never dreamed. I'm that kind of person. I can believe the things even God can't believe. I can do things even God can't. That's why God hated me more than Satan hated me.”

Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) Korean religious leader

Father's Words in Washington D.C. http://www.unification.net/2003/20030517_1.html (2003-05-17)

Jimmy Carter photo

“I can't deny I'm a better ex-president than I was a president.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Interview with reporters, as quoted in "Carter condemns abortion culture" in The Washington Times (3 November 2005) http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051103-111740-7148r.htm
Post-Presidency

Holly Black photo

Related topics