Quotes from Ari Melber

TV ads are great for broadcasting, but voter turnout is about narrow-casting. And not all messengers are created equal.

It's hard to be a national punch line unless lots of voters have soured on you.

Large majorities of voters support taxing millionaires and protecting social security.

Iowa has long been heralded as a bulwark against the money and media that dominate the modern presidential race. Its caucus requires voters in every precinct to actually gather in a room, at one time, and listen to neighbors pitch their chosen candidates, before they are allowed to vote.

When controversy calls, corporations can be far more responsive than politicians. The market votes every day, after all.

If anything, the genuine human struggles in 'Sicko' raise questions about our society that run much deeper than what passes for political discourse today. Why does such a rich nation let people suffer and die without health care?

Many candidates use a political autobiography to sell their candidacy.

Political operatives don't tend to be existentialists. They do know, however, that if a supporter doesn't vote, then his or her opinion does not make a sound - or a difference.

I would love to get Chief Justice John Roberts for an interview. I think that would be fascinating, I think that Supreme Court nominees should do more interviews.

I get up with an old-school alarm clock.

The 'FISA Amendments Act' would gut the oversight system established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which subjected domestic spying to review by a special intelligence court.

From the Fourth Amendment to post-Watergate reforms to the national outcry when Bush's warrantless surveillance was revealed in 2005, the United States has a strong tradition of overseeing the government's power to spy on its citizens.

Only a few bloggers have the audience and credibility to effectively break stories, pressure the traditional media, incubate new ideas, or raise real money. These influential bloggers are usually sharp, opinionated, and focused on the world 'offline.' They refuse to view events through the solipsistic blinders of their own websites.

I think politics is always about dialogue. I think journalism ranges from dialogue to monologue, and there are times when different poles are necessary.

Washington is deeply frustrating because so many of the positions that politicians hold are a product of ephemeral self-interest. They reverse themselves, for themselves, all the time.

Corporations, like nations, do not have friends. They have interests.

Shareholders, of course, have every right to weigh in on whether (or how) they want a company to exercise political influence.

Obama's openness is a welcome change from his predecessor, who went all the way to the Supreme Court to hide the RSVP list for a single policy meeting. And transparency is intrinsically good, since in a democracy, very little government activity is legitimately secret.

Good lawyering is usually cerebral and impersonally. You can convince a judge with a mastery of facts, detail, and precedent - not a story from the gut about how you feel a certain way.

The press is always more comfortable with factual determinations than moral ones, although in day-to-day life, a lot of people care a heck of a lot more about morality than every precise actual fact.

Obama must scrutinize and disassemble the post-Sept. 11 imperial presidency, even if he reduces his own power in the process.

The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus is crucial for every presidential campaign.

Tea Party adherents are actually more religion-driven and more anti-abortion than the party they are supposedly upending.

The Tea Party movement's economic agenda is a matter of emphasis, not exclusion. This is not a single-issue group.