Political Quotes - Page 271

The John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics was originally intended to bring scholars and politicians into closer contact, on the assumption that other office-holders can use academics as profitably as Kennedy did during his political career.

A readers eyes may glaze over after they take in a couple of paragraphs about Canadian tariffs or political developments in Pakistan; a story about the reader himself or his neighbors will be read to the end.

Don't you just hate it when the war on terrorism interferes with political correctness and liberalism's equality fetish?

If even one of these unidentified UFOs turns out to be an alien craft, the impact on all aspects of our nation's culture-economic, political, personal-will be limited only by what is learned from an open, serious, objective study of the subject.

You know what is ambassador's job? To have as many contacts in political establishment as possible. This is the job of Russian ambassador in Washington, of American ambassador to Moscow and of every ambassador in every country of the world.

I do believe that the Barack Obama administration has reached a new low by using the instruments of the state against its political adversaries. Obama does not see people who disagree with him as well-meaning opponents but rather as enemies. That's not something that Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton did as President. Probably Obama's direct descendant in this line is Richard Nixon. And Obama seems to have carried Nixonian tactics to a new low. So, we've turned a corner in American politics that doesn't bode well for our future.

The typical presidential staff resents the vice-president even more than they do the first lady.

The key to running a campaign on the cheap is to avoid spending money on anything other than projecting a message.

Often GOP political strategy seems like the human wave theory of the Chinese military translated to politics. Where Beijing uses masses of soldiers to overwhelm their adversaries, the GOP uses huge campaign budgets as a substitute for strategy, thought or issues.

Today, a politician does not just need public support to win elections; he needs it to govern.

Leadership is a dynamic tension between where a politician thinks his country must go and where his voters want it to go.

A politician can do what he thinks is right, he just has to be sophisticated in how he goes about it. Those who seek a president who 'will disregard the polls and just lead,' ask for the political equivalent of 'The Charge of the Light Brigade.'

The opposing party rarely causes so much angst as does one's own.

It is from the center that leaders must lead.

Every donation received is a potential negative ad. Vetting money is just as important as raising it.

In fighting scandal, the key is not to overreact.

There is literally no such thing as an idea that cannot be expressed well and articulately to today's voters in thirty seconds.

Like the battleships of old, omnibus programs present too tempting a target, too easily destroyed by a single attack, to make it through a fight.... It is through incremental change after change, step after step, that a statesman of today can vindicate a bold vision.

There is no substitute for a clear vision and a decisive direction.

Spin is overrated. It is strategy, not spin, that wins elections.

The greater informational levels of the voters, their decreasing inhibitions in expressing disagreement, and their greater preference for Jeffersonian direct involvement, all make the need for a 'permanent campaign' to sell a president's policies all the more crucial.

The most basic decision a modern politician must make is whether to be aggressive or conciliatory.

The Darwinian adaptive trait of our time is the ability to figure out when we are being lied to on television.

The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students.

I had a reputation of being somewhat moderate, partly, I think, because I wasn't a 'bomb thrower' like some of my conservative colleagues, and partly because I got along with people all across the political spectrum.