text: Riding The Tiger "I discovered that being a President is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep on riding or be swallowed." Harry S. Truman Posted December 31, 2012 By Carah Ong Top Quotes from the 2012 Presidential Election Mitt Romney and Barack Obama on stage at the foreign policy presidential debate. October 22, 2012. Photo by Irina Lagunina, courtesy of Voice of America, PD. It's the last day of the year. To celebrate, we decided to recap what we think are the top fifteen quotes from the 2012 presidential election. Wishing all our readers the best for a peaceful and prosperous 2013. Top Candidate Quotes: 1. Mitt Romney, speaking to donors during a private fundraising dinner: There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. 2. Barack Obama, 'You didn't build that' comment that was used effectively by Republicans (unedited): There are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business — you didn't build that. 3. Mitt Romney's comment on women during a presidential debate that set the Internet ablaze with memes galore. Referring to his time as Massachusetts governor: I had the chance to pull together a cabinet, and all the applicants seemed to be men. I went to a number of women's groups and said, 'Can you help us find folks?' and they brought us whole binders full of women. 4. Mitt Romney on what he would cut in spending during the first presidential debate: What things would I cut from spending? Well, first of all, I will eliminate all programs by this test, if they don't pass it: Is the program so critical it's worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? And if not, I'll get rid of it. Obamacare's on my list. ... I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird. Actually like you, too. But I'm not going to -- I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for. That's number one. 5. Barack Obama to Mitt Romney in the second presidential debate: I don't look at my pension. It's not as big as yours so it doesn't take as long. Read more → Campaigns 2012 Election Tweet