Leon Panetta
FameRank: 6

"Leon Edward Panetta" is an American statesman, lawyer, and professor. He served in the Presidency of Barack Obama/Barack Obama administration as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2009 to 2011 and as United States Secretary of Defense/Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013. A Democratic Party (United States)/Democrat, Panetta was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993, served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994 and as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff/Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997. He is the founder of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, served as Distinguished Scholar to Chancellor (education)/Chancellor Charles B. Reed of the California State University/California State University System and professor of Public policy (law)/public policy at Santa Clara University.

In January 2009, President-elect Obama nominated Panetta for the post of CIA Director. Panetta was Advice and consent/confirmed by the full United States Senate/Senate in February 2009. As director of the CIA, Panetta oversaw the U.S. military operation that led to Osama bin Laden's Death of Osama bin Laden/death.

More Leon Panetta on Wikipedia.

None of this is being paid for.

You can't slam dunk a tax cut package the size they're talking about.

If these are baseless charges, it'll be OK. On the other hand, if there's something there, and it leads to him having to step out of office, it may be time to do some repair work and that may not have the consequences you would expect.

They feel confident that we will be able to bring the person responsible for this outrage to justice.

I think the most important thing for this president to do is to focus on trying to get some things done -- limited things done -- over these next 100 days, ... If he can get education reform accomplished, if he could do something on campaign reform in a bipartisan way, then that could send a very important signal to the American people that he's going to try to get things done.

You are going to be arguing about issues that we all saw Democrats paid a heavy price for in the last election. Democrats have a tremendous opportunity right now to hit Bush where he's weak, which is on oil prices and the war. Don't hit him where he's strong, which is these values issues.

We finally have the FDA's support, the ability to provide needed drugs to those that are suffering from cancer.

The political and substantive reality is that the agenda has to change. I don't think they have any choice.