Words matter. These are the best Jeff Greenfield Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
One of the litmus tests for judicial conservatism is the idea of judicial restraint – that courts should give substantial deference to the decisions of the political process. When Congress and the president enact a law, conservatives generally say, judges should avoid ‘legislating from the bench.’
In the many-mansioned house of Alternate History, I occupy a small corner. The trio of what-ifs I chronicled in ‘Then Everything Changed’ all begin with tiny, highly plausible twists of fate that lead to hugely consequential shifts in history.
Something about her eyes or voice has always suggested the hint of a free spirit, trapped in a Peck and Peck cage, dreaming of making rude noises at public gatherings of Republicans.
As a personal matter, I stopped voting more than a decade ago, on the grounds that it helped me as an analyst not to think about making a choice in the voting booth.
There are good people who are dealt a bad hand by fate, and bad people who live long, comfortable, privileged lives. A small twist of fate can save or end a life; random chance is a permanent, powerful player in each of our lives, and in human history as well.
I got into writing and thinking about politics because I was told there would be no math.
Think about one of the most powerful influences on a young child’s life – the absence of a father figure. Look back on recent presidents, and you’ll find an absent, or weak, or failed father in the lives of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
History doesn’t turn on a dime; it turns on a plugged nickel.
In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge?
I got into television because I hated it so. I thought, there’s some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen.
It strikes me as a sound, honest statement for a prospective voter to say: ‘Look, I haven’t given this election a minute’s thought, and it’s just not fair for me to cancel out the vote of someone who actually gives a damn.’ Indeed, it’s not just sound and honest – it’s the ethically responsible thing to do.
So you wake up this morning and find you’re president of the United States. Pretty cool, no? Helicopters and a 747 at your disposal; courtside seats at any NBA playoff game of your choice; everyone stands up and the band plays when you come into the room.
When Ronald Reagan chose George H.W. Bush in 1980, it was a clear signal that he was running an inclusive campaign; that he welcomed the moderate and even liberal wings of the GOP – there was a liberal wing back then – into his campaign.
For millions, Roger Ebert will be remembered as a writer and television personality who brought a sense of passion and excellence to his craft. For me, he is a man who fused joy and courage as few others ever have. My life was enriched by having such a friend; it is poorer for losing such a friend.
Protestations of indifference to higher office are hard to take seriously when the ‘non-candidate’ is busily engaged in testing the waters.
By every measure, John Kennedy’s sex life was compulsive and reckless. At one level, it had clear public consequences. Knowledge of Kennedy’s behavior gave FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover absolute job security, as well as the potential power to derail Kennedy’s re-election had he survived assassination.
After immersing myself in the mysteries of the Electoral College for a novel I wrote in the ’90s, I came away believing that the case for scrapping it is less obvious than I originally thought.
Conservatives may worship Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand,’ but for Obama, the helping hand comes in large measure from the public, not the private sector. To call this ‘socialism’ is to do violence to the word and to the concept. To call it ‘un-American’ is a smear.
These people have served a longer sentence than some people who have committed murder.
When Bill Clinton chose Al Gore in 1992 – from the same generational, ideological, and geographical background as his – it underscored his campaign’s central argument that this was a clash between the past and the future, that ‘Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow’ was indeed the campaign’s anthem.
One of the enduring myths of campaign analysis is that you can actually count the number of ‘undecided’ voters by asking voters if they are undecided or not. Sometimes, significant numbers of voters actually change their minds.
When George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney, it was a reassuring sign that the Texas governor would have an experienced, prudent voice at his side.
I grew up in New York City, where we played highly unorganized sports: stick ball, stoop ball, and the occasional game of baseball with no adult supervision.
George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower all rode their wartime heroics into the White House.
In another life, before taking the veil of journalistic purity, I practiced the black arts of a political operative, including ‘debate prep.’
Somebody is going to have to do fancy footwork to make sure Elizabeth and John Edwards get their prime-time shot .
When I listen to the complaints that follow just about every presidential debate, I’m reminded of the well-worn joke about the Jewish mother who buys her son two shirts. When he shows up at dinner wearing one, she says: ‘What’s the matter? You didn’t like the other one?’
When Al Gore picked Joe Lieberman, it was a clear declaration of independence from President Clinton; no Democrat had been more critical of Clinton’s misconduct.
There is something discordant about a team of speechwriters and political operatives hammering away to create an image of the ‘real, inner’ candidate. And, to be blunt, there is no necessary connection between a moving life experience and the skills necessary for leadership.
More things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by conspiracy.
F.D.R. had to deal with Southern segregationists – and outright racists – who held power in Congress, so he had to yield to that power in order to get his New Deal legislation passed.
Remember, the first presidential candidate to reject public financing for both the primary and general election was… Barack Obama, in 2008. He did it, in spite of a flat pledge to the contrary, because his campaign saw that it could vastly outspend John McCain.
If Obama’s vision of the public sector is socialism, then so too were the visions of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
