This is America. We pick our leaders through democratic politics – ballot boxes, campaign stops, and good old-fashioned retail electioneering. It’s a system that doesn’t work without thousands of volunteers and ordinary supporters getting out in public and making the case for their preferred candidates.
I’m just an old storyteller, and I always wanted to know, what the hell were these candidates really like?
In the early days of the republic, the secretary of state was the heir apparent to the president. Presidents could easily hand-pick their party’s next candidate. The party caucuses formally selected the candidates, but presidents guided the process.
People read inevitability as entitlement, and the American people want their candidates to sweat for the job. They want them to actually make a case for the job.
Good candidates can arrive at the binary search tree as the right path in a few minutes, and then take 10-15 minutes working through the rest of the problem and the other roadblocks I toss out. But occasionally I get a candidate who ‘intuitively understands’ trees and can visualize the problem I’m presenting.
For at least a decade, Millennials have been stereotyped as lazy, entitled, and stuck on social media. While that may not be entirely fair, they are notoriously liberal, overwhelmingly supporting left-leaning candidates and favoring policies like nationalized healthcare and same-sex ‘marriage.’
Few losing V.P. candidates in the modern era have walked away with their reputations and future political prospects significantly enhanced, and some have even been damaged by their turn on the national stage.
I’m a big fan of Barack Obama. I think he carries a heavier burden and is held to a greater and higher standard than other candidates : I think there’s a large, large portion of this country that feels disenfranchised and marginalized by the political process.
When you recruit good candidates and you have a good message and you have energy and organization and partnership, you always have a fighting chance.
Belonging to one party is acceptable. But my days of just ticking the party box are long over. I judge the candidates for who they are.
Corporate efficiency has led to a nasty trend of filtering resumes for keywords. This might save time, but it ensures that many of the best candidates will never make it to the interview.
We often feel a twinge of guilt over our own fascination with presidential candidates’ wives – as if we are secretly reading the ‘Star’ for our campaign information instead of the policy journals.
I think that when Americans go to vote, states should not list what party the candidates are affiliated with. That would require voters to actually think and get to know a candidate instead of voting for their favorite gang. ‘Oh, this guy is a Republican, so he must be good.’
We ought to have more people who believe in constitutionally limited government. We have to have more people come to Congress with that mindset. I think we can make this a better place, if, when elections happen, we support candidates who share that philosophy.
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.
Fighting gerrymandering is one thing. The other thing is insuring we have the right candidates for the people and not the right candidates for the Party.
When the NRA wants to prevent gun reform, they funnel money into the campaigns of candidates nationwide to make sure they don’t vote for common sense gun reform. Insurance companies do the same to block Medicare for All and prevent us from guaranteeing health care as a right, not a privilege.
When candidates have asked me for support before, they have asked for more than a check.
It was important for us to be as supportive as our candidates and as our incumbent senators would have us be.
I want to make sure my candidates have my support. We are a family, we always go together.
Veterans are especially appealing candidates in key swing districts. Veterans have credibility, not just with Democrats but with independents and Republicans as well. They’re the kind of people respected for their leadership, not just their politics.
It is evidently necessary to generate and test candidates for solutions in some systematic manner.
The real fight is within the Republican Party to get it to nominate grassroots-type candidates who the public wants, and not just some ‘echo’ of the other side.
Numerous candidates lose their first White House race and try again four years later – but all of them do so after running surprisingly well the first time. No one ever talked about John Connally or Phil Gramm running again.
I’ve often fantasized about visiting the Bahamian beach where Columbus first stumbled ashore in 1492. Sadly, no one knows where that beach is. In fact, no one’s even sure which island Columbus first encountered (there are three candidates). It’s a pity, a disappointment, and a lost revenue source for the Bahamians.
When candidates run on conservative principles, they win. But when we legislate conservative policies, the American people win.
I see The Rock running in 2020 and being a two-term president. I think he would be great, and I’m joking when I say I think Stephanie McMahon wouldn’t be a fine president of the United States. I think she’s got the leadership qualities. I see those two as potential candidates, and I see Kane as a congressional leader.
What people are looking for are candidates and representatives that are going to work hard, tell it like it is. I’m unafraid to do things when it doesn’t poll well.
We are not yet a society free of sexism, and this will continue to be an issue for all women candidates.
Weary of wily politicians who say one thing and do another, voters and advocacy groups insist presidential contenders commit to the cause du jour in writing, but candidates are foolish to comply. Words matter.
It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.
There are those who think that the private lives of candidates are none of our business. But when those candidates ask us for our attention as they explain their plans for how they will represent us, no one should be surprised at our interest in how they represent themselves.
I don’t have more money. I won’t have more money than any of the candidates, even the Republican candidates. We know that already. But we are building this campaign team like I would build a business. And that is, we are building it so far with no debt.
We’ve always got to look for opportunities for our English coaches to get more experience than just doing county coaching gigs. They need to do more than that if they’re going to be viable candidates for England jobs going forward.
But when I was selected, after my very first tour of squadron duty, to become one of the youngest candidates for the test pilot school, I began to realize, maybe you are a little bit better.
We need to preserve jobs in America for American citizens first, and none of the other presidential candidates are – are addressing this issue. It’s not politically correct, but it is one thing we could do right away to have jobs in America for American citizens first.
Iowa is especially critical for underdog and cash-strapped campaigns, because the caucus system relies on grassroots organizing, enabling candidates with time for retail politicking to beat better-funded rivals. So underdogs usually seize on the state.
I see all four presidential candidates, the leading four, Cruz and Trump and Sanders and Clinton, all oppose TPP.
NBC Universal has created a role called ‘talent branding specialist’ – a marketer whose job is essentially to put the company on the radars of the most sought-after candidates.
Candidates seeking the highest office in our government deserve the opportunity to be fully heard.
When you read Trump’s tweets or see candidates interact online like Jeb did with Hillary, you’re like, ‘Yes, it’s just like my friends.’ That’s the magic.
Senator Jon Kyl has given all of the eventual candidates in this race an excellent model of how to best serve Arizona and the country. He’s set the bar extremely high, and I’ll do my best to meet that standard.
I make charts of songs that are good candidates, good targets, so to speak. Then I try to come up with ideas for parodies. And 99% of those ideas are horrible.
The Court made an exception, however, in the case of candidates contributing to their own campaigns because of the rather reasonable presumption that a candidate is incapable of corrupting himself.
In post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America, skeptical voters demand full disclosure of everything from candidates’ finances to their medical records, and spin-savvy accounts of backstage machinations dominate political coverage.
It’s important for us all to elect people not just on blind party loyalty. We’ve got to really examine what candidates say and do.
In creating superdelegates, the Democratic Party recognized the expertise that its top holders of public office have gained by running for office themselves. They are experts at winning. They know the issues. They are in a unique position to evaluate presidential candidates.
