If you run head first at the brick wall, you'll hurt yourself

Have presidents always said such trivially true things and gotten away with it being a massive, blaring headline about promoting democracy?

Bush Pushes Spread of Democracy Worldwide

...Appearing at the first White House Conference on Global Literacy, hosted by first lady Laura Bush at the New York Public Library, the president pointed to "a direct link between illiteracy and persistent poverty" and said, "You can't have prosperity unless people can read."

Or this kind of trivially untrue (and ungrammatical) thing, where it would be a cruel joke to make it a massive, blaring headline?

...he told the literacy conference that the General Assembly meeting "gives me a chance to clearly explain" to foreign leaders that "the goals of this country are to help those who feel hopeless; the goals of this country are to spread liberty; the goals of this country is to enhance prosperity and peace."

UPDATE (September 21st, 12:40pm):

Hmmm. The link and headline above seem to have mysteriously transformed into an article on Chirac at the UN.