Quotes About Rhetoric

Taxes are like abortion, and not just because both are grotesque procedures supported by Democrats. You're for them or against them. Taxes go up or down government raises taxes or lowers them. But Democrats will not let the words 'abortion' or 'tax hikes' pass their lips.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Clinton cost John Kerry more votes than he gained for him whenever they appeared together. Imagine being part of a crowd enraptured by the presence of Bill Clinton, and then having to listen to a speech by John Kerry!

Obama and his attack dogs have nothing but hate and anger in their hearts and spew it whenever possible.

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker's personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.

Trump is a room-reader. He'll slow down a line, rephrase a point, work in a pause, and ride the energy of his audience wherever it takes him.

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.

Rhetoric, which is the use of language to inform or persuade, is very important in shaping public opinion. We are very easily fooled by language and how it is used by others.

I always thought Jon Stewart was an extremely good surgeon with his scalpel. He would have Republicans on who, I guess, were unclear about what Stewart was up to, and while Jon Stewart was being nice, he was building a case for drowning them.

Those of us in public office and those of us who aspire to public office have a responsibility to be reasonable, fact-based, in our rhetoric and to not suggest things that are unreasonable, to whip up a lot of emotion in public, which can lead to government overreach, fear, suspicions, and prejudice.

In the handbook of Donald Trump, they no longer do whistle calls - they're now using full bullhorns.

The Republicans always do a good job of dividing and conquering. They do a really good job of making black folks, poor white folks, and Hispanics not like each other.

Politicians talk themselves red, white, and blue in the face.

One 'I am woman/Hear me roar' speech may play well with her allies in the media, but women need to look beyond her rhetoric and the snazzy ads. If they do, they'll quickly realize that the Hillary Clinton who bashed women and called them bimbos in the 1990s is the real Hillary Clinton running for the White House in 2016.

If you aren't creeped out by the No Birth Control Left Behind rhetoric of the White House and Planned Parenthood, you aren't listening closely enough. The anesthetic of progressive benevolence always dulls the senses. Wake up.

White House officials acknowledge in broad terms that a president's time and public rhetoric are among his most valuable policy tools.

Modi's masterstroke has always been to blur the battlelines and construct an artificial enemy one that plays into primal instincts of pride and insecurity.

Gimmicks belong almost anyplace except a Republican presidential primary.

Politicians pose and grip and grin, and mouth blandishments, and, like the beloved Arab leaders, are careful to say nothing. The prime photo op directive, it seems, is to say absolutely nothing.

The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.

Prime Minister, I see you've already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely, the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says nice words but he's really all about looking out for his rich and powerful friends, just like the Conservatives.

The President seems to extend executive privilege way out past the atmosphere. What he says is executive privilege is nothing but executive poppycock.

Most states, for all their rhetoric in favour of free trade, are adept at trying to manipulate markets to protect and advantage their own producers.

Selling and telling are two different things. In politics, we sell ideas.