“The federal government is an aircraft carrier, not a speedboat”

U.S. President-elect Ronald Reagan wrote in The Wall Street Journal on January 9, 1981:
 
“It will take some time to accomplish the things I have described. Government is an ocean liner, not a speedboat. If you turn the wheel a few degrees, it must come along gradually, lest it capsize. So, though we shall move deliberately, with clearly identified goals, we won’t do so in haste.”
 
U.S. President Barack Obama said at his second press conference in March 2009:
 
“‘This (government—ed.) is a big ocean liner. It’s not a speedboat. It doesn’t turn around immediately.”
 
Obama said at a press conference on November 14, 2016, referring to the possibility of the next administration changing his laws and policies:
 
“The federal government and our democracy is not a speedboat, it’s an ocean liner - as I discovered when I came into office.”
 
A slightly different line—with “aircraft carrier” instead of “ocean liner”—was used by Obama in an interview with The New Yorker, published on November 28, 2016:
 
“I think that the possibility of everything being out the window exists. But, as a practical matter, what I’ve been saying to people, including my own staff, is that the federal government is an aircraft carrier, it’s not a speedboat.”
   
     
9 January 1981, The Wall Street Journal (New York, NY), “Government & Business in the ‘80s” by Ronald Reagan, pg. 18, col. 6:
It will take some time to accomplish the things I have described. Government is an ocean liner, not a speedboat. If you turn the wheel a few degrees, it must come along gradually, lest it capsize. So, though we shall move deliberately, with clearly identified goals, we won’t do so in haste.
   
26 March 2009, New York (NY) Amsterdam News, “Obama: No quick fixes, no silver bullets, but a plan and policy” by Herb Boyd, pg. 1, col. 4:
At this second press conference since assuming office, Obama told the nation “there are no quick fixes, and there are no silver bullets,” no overnight solutions to the economic quagmire. The crisis didn’t happen overnight, he said, “and it will take many months and many different solutions to lead us out.”
(...)
Pg. 31, col. 5:
Toward the end of the session, Obama compared his administration to an ocean liner, not a speedboat. “And we are going to stay with it [pursuing the right direction] as long as I’m in this office, and I think that - you look back four years from now, I think, hopefully, people will judge that body of work and say, ‘This is a big ocean liner. It’s not a speedboat. It doesn’t turn around immediately. But we’re in a better - better place because of the decisions that we made.’”
       
Twitter
Zeke Miller
‏@ZekeJMiller
Obama: “Do I have concerns, absolutely, of course I have concerns…but the federal government and our democracy is not a speedboat”
3:13 PM - 14 Nov 2016
 
Twitter
NowThis
‏@nowthisnews
Obama: “The federal government and our democracy is not a speedboat, it’s an ocean liner.”
Watch live: http://goo.gl/cGYIe4
3:14 PM - 14 Nov 2016
 
Twitter
Chloe Riley
‏@ChloeRiley84
Obama: the federal government and our democracy is not a speedboat, it’s an ocean liner - as I discovered when I came into office
3:14 PM - 14 Nov 2016
 
The New Yorker
THE POLITICAL SCENE
NOVEMBER 28, 2016 ISSUE
OBAMA RECKONS WITH A TRUMP PRESIDENCY
Inside a stunned White House, the President considers his legacy and America’s future.
By David Remnick
(...)
“Not because I was over-hyping it. I think that the possibility of everything being out the window exists. But, as a practical matter, what I’ve been saying to people, including my own staff, is that the federal government is an aircraft carrier, it’s not a speedboat. And, if you need any evidence of that, think about how hard we worked over the last eight years with a very clear progressive agenda, with a majority in the House and in the Senate, and we accomplished as much domestically as any President since Lyndon Johnson in those first two years. But it was really hard.” Obama said that he had accomplished “seventy or seventy-five per cent” of what he set out to do, and “maybe fifteen per cent of that gets rolled back, twenty per cent, but there’s still a lot of stuff that sticks.”
 
The New Yorker
     
Twitter
Drew Ackermann
‏@drewackermann Drew Ackermann Retweeted Jacob Lupfer
“The federal government is an aircraft carrier, not a speedboat.” - words that don’t usually carry the comfort they do nowDrew Ackermann added,
Jacob Lupfer @jlupf
Amazing piece. David Remnick was with President Obama just before and just after the election. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/11/28/obama-reckons-with-a-trump-presidency?mbid=social_twitter&utm_content=buffer2a0dc&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer …
6:55 PM - 17 Nov 2016 from Washington, DC
 
Washington (DC) Examiner
Obama says Trump will fail to turn back his agenda, just 15% at risk
By PAUL BEDARD (@SECRETSBEDARD) • 11/18/16 12:06 PM
Partisanship and slowness in Washington will largely block President-elect Donald Trump’s bid to overturn the Obama administration’s main programs and regulations, President Obama claims.
 
“The federal government is an aircraft carrier, it’s not a speedboat,” says Obama. “Maybe 15 percent of that gets rolled back, 20 percent, but there’s still a lot of stuff that sticks.”
 
Obama’s comments to the New Yorker fly in the face of evidence from Trump Tower and House and Senate GOP leadership offices that much of his agenda, starting with Obamacare and immigration, face revisions or outright rejection.
 
YouTube
Michael Garee
‏@MichaelGaree
@MoenMikey As Pres. Obama said, the U.S. Government is like a big luxury liner, not a speedboat. It takes time to make a turn of any kind.
10:24 AM - 11 Dec 2016