(CNSNews.com) - Actor and activist Richard Gere told CNSNews.com on Capitol Hill that President Barack Obama has done an "extraordinary job" in office and will probably go down as one of America's "great presidents."

Gere said, “Overall, I think he’s done an extraordinary job. I think he’s going to go down probably as one of our great presidents."

“He’s been able to juggle – let’s think of all of the problems that he’s had in his presidency," said the actor. "You know, natural disasters, or international issues, domestic. He has found a way to change and flow to learn from every situation.”

Gere continued, “He obviously puts himself out there personally constantly. He’s a good listener. He engages on a personal level almost every day. We’re coming out of this terrible economic crisis. We’re turning the corner on terrorist situations. I think his engagement with the Chinese is starting to flower now – the strength within him is starting to emerge. I think he’s doing a terrific job.”

Richard Gere: Obama Is 'One Of Our Great Presidents' Friday, June 03, 2011 By Nicholas Ballasy
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/richard-gere-obam-one-our-great-presiden

"The horrendous energy that we’re all feeling, and the possibility of turning it into more violence, and revenge, we can stop that. We can take that energy and turn it into something else. We can turn it into compassion, and to love, and to understanding."

"That’s apparently unpopular right now, but that’s alright."

Richard Gere addresses the crowd at concert for N.Y. firefighters and police

Richard Gere, after being honored with a humanitarian award for his work in Tibet, said the following:

I grew up in a time like a lot of people here. It was Vietnam, and we instinctively, innately, felt we could change the world. There was no doubt about it, and we did. We changed he world, and then something happened. It all became selfish... and rancid...and silly... and stupid, and we ended up with the last eight years that we’ve had in this country, which is almost over(applause). We have a few days left, but with this new administration, I think we can recapture that innate instinctive feeling that we really can genuinely care for and love each other...everywhere on the planet. Everywhere, and no one is outside of that embrace. Nobody. Everyone gets it. We don't hold it back from the bad guys...the guys with the wrong color. The guys that live in the wrong places. Everybody gets that.

By Kerry Picket (Bio | Archive) January 9, 2009 - 00:14 ET
Richard Gere and Others Take Parting Shots at Bush Admin at Critics' Choice Awards
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kerry-picket/2009/01/09/richard-gere-others-take-parting-shots-bush-admin-critics-choice-award

VENICE, Italy (AP) - Richard Gere and Charlize Theron added their voices to a chorus of stars taking swipes at the Bush administration at the Venice Film Festival.

"How did we elect Bush twice?" Gere asked rhetorically while promoting his new film, "The Hunting Party."

"What's interesting to me is how do the bad people among us end up our leaders?" the 58-year-old actor said at a news conference Monday.

Gere, Theron Bash Bush in Venice Sep 4 11:04 AM US/Eastern
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8REN9100&show_article=1

"Bush's plans for war are a bizarre bad dream. There doesn't appear to be any sort of basis for any of this. I have a feeling something hidden is at work here that will someday see the light of day."

Richard Gere criticises Bush in anti-war attack
Story filed: 14:00 Monday 10th February 2003
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_749299.html

The Power of Love Richard Gere Says Even Terrorists Deserve Compassion

"If you can see them [the terrorists] as a relative who's dangerously sick and we have to give them medicine and the medicine is love and compassion. There's nothing better."

But, he said, we must also think about "the terrorists who are creating such horrible future lives for themselves because of the negativity of this karma. If you see it from a much wider point of view, we're all in this together. We're all intimately interconnected in all of these actions."

Wednesday, October 10, 2001
By David Blaustein
ABC News
http://www.tibet.ca/wtnarchive/2001/10/10_1.html

"I keep asking myself where all this personal enmity between George Bush and Saddam Hussein comes from. It's like the story of Captain Ahab and the great white whale from Moby Dick." Gere, a Buddhist, added: "We have to say 'stop', there's no reason for a war. At the moment Hussein is not threatening anybody. "It'd be different if he was staring somebody down with a loaded gun in his hand. But there doesn't seem to be any indications whatsoever that this man poses an immediate threat to anybody. "America has never paid any attention to other people, so it's absurd for Bush to say that it's all in the best interests of the Iraqi people. "If the United States marches into Iraq without the backing of the United Nations, that will be done entirely without the backing of the American people."

Ananova Story filed: 14:00 Monday 10th February 2003
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_749299.html