The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. — Adlai E. Stevenson
No matter what name we give it or how we judge it, a candidate's character is central to political reporting because it is central to a citizen's decision in voting. — Roger Mudd
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal -- that you can gather votes like box tops -- is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process. — Adlai Stevenson
In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide. Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate-look to his character. — Noah Webster
Popularity should be no scale for the election of politicians. If it would depend on popularity, Donald Duck and The Muppets would take seats in senate. — Orson Welles
Like NASCAR race drivers or PGA golfers, why not require each of the [US presidential] candidates to cover their clothing, briefcases and staff with the logo patches of their corporate sponsors? — Jim Hightower
Any politician or campaigner trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the public won't get very far. — Nicola Sturgeon
We have a large public that is very ignorant about public affairs and very susceptible to simplistic slogans by candidates who appear out of nowhere, have no track record, but mouth appealing slogans — Zbigniew Brzezinski
Any politician who can be elected only by turning Americans against other Americans is too dangerous to be elected. — Thomas Sowell
There aren't many strong or charismatic candidates today, because many people can't withstand the scrutiny. — Tom Ford
In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one. — Plato
A platform is something a candidate stands for and the voters fall for. — Gracie Allen
If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner. — H. L. Mencken
Magic Johnson, former basketball player, may run for mayor of L.A. in the next election. Remember the good 'ol days when only qualified people ran for office like actors and professional wrestlers. — Jay Leno
Short Political Candidates Quotes
The only people I know getting in high places by running their mouth are politicians. — Bo Jackson
A Green Party candidate would be very different from a Democrat or Republican and should be heard. — Peter Camejo
Anyone who campaigns for public office becomes disqualified for holding any office at all. — Thomas More
Anybody who has political ambition has an Achilles heel. — James Callis
A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar. — H. L. Mencken
A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. — Texas Guinan
The public want honesty from their politicians. Not showy gimmicks. — Theresa May
Appeal must be to an informed, civically militant electorate. — Felix Frankfurter
Political Candidates Image Quotes
When words are both true and kind they can change the world.
Political Candidates Quotes
Truth between candid minds can never do harm. — Thomas Jefferson
Activists need to educate themselves about the power of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, invented in 2009, and use crypto to leverage the success of their independent media gains to tip the balance of power away from the troika in ways that could never happen by backing a political candidate. — Max Keiser
The GSEs became powerful advocates for their own bottom lines, providing substantial financial support for political candidates who supported the GSE agenda. — Jerome Powell
Be gentle with yourself, you're doing the best you can.
Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten. — Dick Gregory
Dogs are great assets to candidates, and the feeling seems to be engendered that if a dog loves the candidate, he can't be all that bad. — Dick Gregory
Every week Republicans are excited about a new candidate because the one they liked last week turned out to be a moron. — Andy Borowitz
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
I don't think voters give a hoot about the character of their political advisors, except to the extent that character reflects on the candidates. — Bob Woodward
It is not because a part of the government is elective, that makes it less a despotism, if the persons so elected, possess afterwards, as a parliament, unlimited powers. Election, in this case, becomes separated from representation, and the candidates are candidates for despotism. — Thomas Paine
Modern candidates seem to have to live with political matters all the time. In my father's time, a politician's home was still his castle. — Rose Kennedy
Democracy in many parts of the world is undergoing a very deep crisis. Politics is becoming a branch of the entertainment industry. People vote not for the best leader, but for the funniest candidate. — Amos Oz
Election Candidate Quotes
Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates. — Gore Vidal
[American Communist Party] legally exists in the U.S.A., it nominates its candidates in the elections, including Presidential elections. — Joseph Stalin
The problem with every American candidate regarding the presidency, I am not talking only about this campaign or elections, but generally, that they say something during the campaign and they do the opposite after the campaign. — Bashar al-Assad
Treat everyone with politeness and kindness, not because they are nice, but because you are.
God has called us to be His representatives in our nation and in our world. Select candidates who represent your views and work for their election. — James Dobson
This is what happens, when, for the first time in modern history, a candidate resorts to lawsuits to try to overturn the outcome of an election for president. — James Baker
Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in. — H. L. Mencken
Be the person your dog thinks you are.
So much of what passes for public life consists of little more than candidates without ideas, hiring consultants without conviction, to stage campaigns without content. The result, increasingly, is elections without voters. — Gerald R. Ford
Barack Obama didn't get elected president, would never have been elected president, had he decided to run as a black candidate. In order to reach the broadest number of people you have to speak to their interests as broadly as you can. — Gwen Ifill
One of the great virtues of our democratic system is that only one of the candidates gets elected. — Bernard Meltzer
In a new interview, the president discussed the upcoming election. He said that Hillary Clinton is going to do great as a presidential candidate. When asked how Biden would do, Obama said, 'Hillary's going to do great.' — Jimmy Fallon
Presidential Candidate Quotes
Better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep — Benito Mussolini
It's better to live one day as a lion than a dozen years as a sheep. — Charles M. Schulz
People with conservative temperaments don't become fighter pilots or presidential candidates - they're all that way to some extent. — Tucker Carlson
The stronger you become, the gentler you will be.
No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling. — Ralph Nader
Obama a ‘light-skinned’ African-American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one. — Harry Reid
Who can guarantee that he [Alexander Milinkevich, a Belarussian opposition presidential candidate] is the most promising candidate capable of competing with the incumbent president? — Alexander Lukashenko
Being polite is so rare these days, thats its often confused with flirting.
The Russian Federation has a growing Muslim minority, which is causing cultural and religious clashes. This is similar to mass immigration of Mexicans to America, and certain presidential candidates are tailoring their campaigns to get Mexican votes. — David Duke
I debated in high school! If you told things that weren't true or just made things out of whole cloth, you were penalized. It's too bad they don't apply the same standards to presidential candidates as they do to high school students. — Mark Hamill
I don't know if the presidential candidates are running for the White House or Animal House. — Bob Hope
It is true that all of the current presidential candidates once denied that they had any intention of running. But the fact that I am also a liar, doesn't make me a candidate. — Pat Paulsen
Political Campaign Quotes
What my campaign is about is a political revolution - millions of people standing up and saying, enough is enough. Our government belongs to all of us, and not just the hand full of billionaires. — Bernie Sanders
Better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in. — Lyndon B. Johnson
I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience. — Ronald Reagan
Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, ut because you are.
The debates are part of the unconscionable fraud that our political campaigns have become a format that defies meaningful discourse. They should be charged with sabotaging the electoral process. — Walter Cronkite
Unfortunately, money in politics is an insidious thing - and a loophole in our campaign finance system was taken advantage of with money going to existing or new 527 groups with the sole purpose of influencing the election. — Olympia Snowe
I happen to think that conservatism, when properly applied to the 21st century, could actually help everybody. And the message of Trump's campaign was obviously not super-appealing to Latino Americans, black Americans and so forth. That really bothered me. — James David Vance
Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They're underused.
But having said that, what's happening with campaign finance reform and our political culture is devastating. — Robert McChesney
But having said that, what's happening with campaign finance reform and our political culture is devastating. — Robert Waterman McChesney
Every great political campaign rewrites the rules; devising a new way to win is what gives campaigns a comparative advantage against their foes. — John Podhoretz
Campaigning in Wyoming is politics at its most retail level. It's done one voter at a time. — Mary Cheney
Political Election Quotes
Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters. — Abraham Lincoln
If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times. — Mark Twain
A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it. — Harry S Truman
Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician and I'll show you a crook.
A guy named Adolf Hitler won an election in 1932 ... and 50 million people died as a result ... what I learned as a little kid is that politics is, in fact, very important. — Bernie Sanders
The political lesson of Watergate is this: Never again must America allow an arrogant, elite guard of political adolescents to by-pass the regular party organization and dictate the terms of a national election. — Gerald R. Ford
A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it. — Harry S. Truman
Politeness and courteousness are a small price to pay for the goodwill of others.
No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems - of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind. — Thomas Sowell
We're not going to have the America that we want until we elect leaders who are going to tell the truth - not most days, but every day. — Ann Richards
It is not in the nature of politics that the best men should be elected. The best men do not want to govern their fellowmen. — George Macdonald
The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors. — Thomas Jefferson
Politicians And Politics Quotes
As long as judges tinker with the Constitution to 'do what the people want,' instead of what the document actually commands, politicians who pick and confirm new federal judges will naturally want only those who agree with them politically. — Antonin Scalia
An honest public servant can't become rich in politics. He can only attain greatness and satisfaction by service. — Harry S. Truman
Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason. — Mark Twain
We find two great gangs of political speculators, who alternately take possession of the state power and exploit it by the most corrupt ends -- the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians who are ostensibly its servants, but in reality dominate and plunder it. — Friedrich Engels
Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians. — Charles Krauthammer
The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They
always did...they always will. They will have the same effect here as
elsewhere, if we do not, by the power of government, keep them in their proper
spheres. — Gouverneur Morris
Politics: Poli a Latin word meaning many and tics meaning bloodsucking creatures. — Robin Williams
If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you? — Tony Benn
He was the only man I ever knew who could get money from the rich and votes from the poor with the promise to protect them from each other. — Tommy Douglas
We have no eternal allies, and we have not perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. — Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston
Political Leaders Quotes
There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution. — John Adams
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas. — Joseph Stalin
The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders...tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. — Hermann Goring
Politics is when you say you are going to do one thing while intending to do another. Then you do neither what you said nor what you intended. — Saddam Hussein
Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America. — Bernie Sanders
All the ills of mankind, all the tragic misfortunes that fill the history books, all the political blunders, all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill at dancing. — Moliere
Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation, and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political, intellectual, and cultural leaders in Asia. — William C. Kirby
Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation, and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political, intellectual, and cultural leaders in Asia. — William Kirby
People listen to what their political leaders are telling them, and my view is both that Trump is tapping into some racially ugly attitudes, but also that he is leading people to racially ugly attitudes. — James David Vance
We must unite. Violence against women cannot be tolerated, in any form, in any context, in any circumstance, by any political leader or by any government. — Ban Ki-moon
There is a lack of interest in voting in the United States, and that troubles me. It is very necessary that people get registered, study the issues and be aware of the politics of our country. We will really be set back if people don't take the time to learn about the candidates who are concerned about the well-being of all the citizens and vote. — Rosa Parks
I feel that this is my first year, that next year is an election year, that the third year is the mid point, and that the fourth year is the last chance I'll have to make a record since the last two years; I'll be a candidate again. Everything I do in those last two years will be posturing for the election. But right now I don't have to do that. — Dan Quayle
Politics: the art of appearing candid and completely open while concealing as much as possible. — Frank Herbert
I don't want to be disrespectful of the president of the United States, but as a political person, one of the things I appreciated about this president, in the past year especially, is he is a fantastic candidate. — Ed Gillespie
We have felt for some time that if political candidates or their staff are willing to make the pilgrimage to North Iowa, the least we can do is show hospitality. And it's also a wonderful way to get to know these people who make our political system work. — Kurt Meyer
Most of the presidential candidates' economic packages involve 'tax breaks,' which is when the government, amid great fanfare, generously decides not to take quite so much of your income. In other words, these candidates are trying to buy your votes with your own money. — Dave Barry
The charade of politics is to make voters think that the personal narrative of the candidate affects the operation of the corporate state. It doesn't really matter on the fundamental issues whether the President is Republican or Democratic. — Chris Hedges
If supporters of equality for women want to vote for the best candidate, they must look to a person regardless of gender and must disregard the gender of political opponents. — Karen DeCrow
Candidate Obama was either exceptionally naive or willfully disingenuous when he vowed to change the way Washington works. The very promise of Hope and Change was rooted in uprooting the Washington modus operandi. But instead of rejecting it, he embraced it all - the secrecy, the closed doors, the political favors, the near-criminal negligence. — Reince Priebus
Well, I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment, and I've learned quickly these last few days that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. — Sarah Palin
I probably carry more scar tissue on my derrière than any other candidate-that's political scar tissue. — Alexander Haig
And, when the votes are counted, let everybody, including the candidates, get into a good humor as quick as they got into a bad one. — Will Rogers
If you really want to diminish a candidate, depict him as the foil of his handler. This is as old in American politics as politics itself. — Karl Rove
I see it all the time in politics. If a candidate gets caught in a lie, he quickly tries to change the subject by throwing more mud at his opponent. The mud keeps flying until some of the slanderous material sticks. — Joe Scarborough
Other Republican candidates may retort to personal attacks and negative ads. — George W. Bush
Candidates don't have to deal with reality. They talk about the wonderful things they can accomplish as if advocating them is the same as achieving them. They live in a world of political make-believe in which everything from reconciling conflicting interests to paying for costly programs is easy. — Fred Barnes
In politics there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those like John McCain who use their careers to promote change. — Sarah Palin
During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected. — Everett Dirksen
Work can be undertaken to create an authentic independent political party, a real party, based on popular participation from the ground up, not a top-down candidate producing organization like the two official parties, working from school boards to state legislatures and beyond. Not easy in the regressive U.S. political system, but not impossible. — Noam Chomsky
I was proud to have been the anti-establishment candidate after more than twenty years in politics, a small town guy fighting for the ordinary Canadian. — Jean Chretien
Because liberalism typically doesn't sell in American presidential politics, liberal candidates tend to run as culturally conservative centrists. — Rich Lowry
Mudslinging - In politics, anything bad the opponent says about our candidate; in contrast, when our candidate does this, it is called 'making a good point. — Richard Turner
When you become active in the system and communicate to your representatives, and they don't vote in accordance with your values, your responsibility is to support candidates who will. — Joan Blades
As someone who's been covering presidential campaigns since the 1950s, I have no delusions about political reporting. Candidates bargaining access to get the kind of news coverage they want is nothing new. — Dan Rather
What in fact takes place in an election is that two hand picked candidates are propped up before the citizenry, each candidate having been selected by a very small group of politically active people. A minority of the people... then elects one of these hand picked people to rule itself and the majority. — Robert J. Ringer
A candidate could easily commit political suicide if he were to come up with an unconventional thought during a presidential tour. — E.B. (Elwyn Brooks) White
There is no question that many people are intimidated and scared. However, the majority of voters are clamoring for something else. So if word gets out that there actually is a candidate out there of integrity, who is not poisoned by corporate money, you could see a lot of people come together from across the political spectrum. — Jill Stein
Ben Carson and I don`t have much in common politically. But the fact is when you have kids getting involved in the political process, doing their best to elect the candidates of their choice, that`s what the American democracy is about. — Bernie Sanders
I've never seen a candidate - I've never seen a human being - who, with the most limited briefing, can understand the dimensions, the parameters, the nuances of everything of any kind of a policy or political problem. — James Carville
[If the Democratic nominee turns out to be] Walter Mondale, I hope he picks Representative Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. It would be a desperate move, but that's what it'll take to get rid of Reagan. Ms. Ferraro is no more unqualified than a lot of Vice Presidential candidates have been, and anyhow Mondale's in good health. — Hendrik Hertzberg
When you think about a presidential candidate spending all of his or her time talking to that tiny, tiny fraction of us who have the capacity to fund political elections, it's obvious why the perspective of government is skewed relative to what most Americans care about. — Lawrence Lessig
The presidential candidates are offering prescriptions for everything from Iraq to healthcare, but listen closely. Their fixes are situational and incremental. Meanwhile, the underlying structural problems in American politics and government are systemic and prevent us from solving our most intractable challenges. — Larry Sabato
When the political columnists say 'Every thinking man' they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to 'Every intelligent voter' they mean everybody who is going to vote for them — Franklin P. Adams
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