Quotes About Campaigns

Historically, Democrats have shown they are willing to do just about anything to win elections. Republicans must quit taking the high road and fight back with everything we have.

I worked for a lot of candidates, in tough campaigns that lost. Most of my candidates lost until Bill Clinton. There was always a point where you look in their eyes and they knew it was over. And there was never that point with Clinton. He never quit. He never gave up.

One of the last books I read was 'Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime' by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. It gives a really good behind-the-scenes look at the campaigns. I didn't ask the president how accurate it was. I wouldn't ask him that.

It's important not to limit the amount of their own money that candidates can spend, but to give other people access to enough money to run competitive races.

Important state legislative races and statewide elections for offices like Lt. Governor and Attorneys General are often overshadowed by gubernatorial and federal elections.

I think, of course, all senate races are national races.

A lot of celebrities can raise money for you if you are running for political office.

It will be almost impossible for any other candidate to raise the money that the Clintons can raise.

I know about raising money.

I've never been good at raising money.

I ran two campaigns for governor in a state that's 2-1 Democrat where I did not mention my opponent in print, radio, or television. I don't know if any other politician at a gubernatorial, congressional, or a senatorial level can make the claim.

Nobody was going to beat Barack Obama in 2008. That's a fact. It was his moment. It wasn't that John McCain ran a bad campaign, or picked the wrong VP. It was just that it didn't matter, it was over when it started.

We believe that leaders should be following the masses. We only ran in leadership campaigns to get our ideas across, to use it as a platform.

When George Bush used the Willie Horton ad, he knew what he was doing.

The 2012 presidential campaign's turn away from the classic, straight-up, American election - where the candidate who gets the most votes nationwide wins - is another sad reminder of the extreme political polarization distorting today's politics. No one talks about a 50-state strategy for winning the presidency these days.

Ah, political physics. Someone wins an election and, poof, they are a candidate for vice president. Ridiculous.

A lot of our Democratic consultants have fallen into the self-defeating prescription that the candidate that runs the most negative ads wins. I have a new theory: Positive is the new negative.

People win elections based on having the right ideas, the right plans, like my seven step plan for 700,000 jobs. That's what wins elections.

Conservatism, when presented in full strength at the ballot, wins at the ballot.

The gun lobby is certainly politically powerful, but it loses as many races as it wins.

A lot of the time, we're shooting summer campaigns in winter because they have to come out the next season. It's the hardest to feel great in a bikini when it's cold... so I appreciate a swimsuit shoot that's in warm weather.

Our laws governing lobbying and campaign contributions have struck the right balance between the wishes of the people and those of private industry, so why are we so quick to doubt that the same great results can be achieved by putting the government's justice-dealing branch on the same market-based course?

The infamous political ads like Carly Fiorina's 'Demon Sheep' and Christine O'Donnell's 'I Am Not a Witch' are so confusing, it's almost like they were paid for by Democrats.

No, sir, I'm not saying that charming, witty and warm copy won't sell. I'm just saying I've seen thousands of charming, witty campaigns that didn't sell.