This is the first convention of the space age – where a candidate can promise the moon and mean it.
I would like to do a story where the country found itself a presidential candidate who actually will get elected preaching traditional values and then sets out to enforce them, where it actually comes down to the fact that reality as we know it may not be as etched in stone as we tell ourselves it is.
I always stayed away from political commentary. First of all, I didn’t feel entitled. What I may feel about a candidate, I’m a comedian. I mean, if people like my comedy, that doesn’t mean they should vote for the person I like. That’s why I always kind of stayed away from endorsements.
Whether you voted for me or not, going through the Democratic process had made me a better candidate. I am a smarter, better candidate.
In 1800, in the first interparty contest, the Federalists warned that presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson, because of his sympathy expressed at the outset of the French Revolution, was ‘the son of a half-breed Indian squaw’ who would put opponents under the guillotine.
I think sometimes celebrities can hurt a candidate. You don’t want people to judge them on your last project.
If you really want to diminish a candidate, depict him as the foil of his handler. This is as old in American politics as politics itself.
When you’re bringing in a fairly unknown candidate challenging a sitting president, the population needs a lot more information than reduced coverage provides.
Even before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton threw their exploratory committees into the ring, every reporter seemed to be asking, ‘Which candidate are Americans more ready for: a white woman or a black man?’
Typically, the view of party leaders is that primaries are best avoided. Better to coalesce around a consensus candidate early, help that candidate amass a mighty bankroll, and focus the attention of volunteers, activists and other stakeholders on the general election.
In an age when stagecraft, gauzy themes, and sound-bites have too often been substituted for leadership, Bill Clinton as a candidate made it essential to campaigning to take the specifics of governance seriously. Practical solutions were ‘in;’ ideology was ‘out.’
While normal people have to disclose donations directly to a candidate, there is no such transparency on people donating to certain types of nonprofit organizations that can play a major role in our elections.
It is reckless for a presidential candidate to publicly raise doubts about honoring treaty commitments with our allies.
If a candidate puts together a small business platform, I’ll go out on the road for him. You know, I’ll support him.
I never watched a Heisman ceremony when I was a kid. I didn’t even know it was held at the Downtown Athletic Club when I was a candidate. I thought it was at Radio City Music Hall or something.
I don’t think the candidate would be directly responsible for things that their supporters say, but when it gets to a certain level, they ought to say, ‘Cut it out.’
While nobody has identified any gene for religion, there are certainly some candidate genes that may influence human personality and confer a tendency to religious feelings. Some of the genes likely to be involved are those which control levels of different chemicals called neurotransmitters in the brain.
I think that the American people are curious about who a candidate is, what their background is, who their family is, what their faith experience has been, their education, their work experience. All of those are factors that voters look at because they want to take a measure of the individual.
I really believe that anybody on the Left or the Right that tries to invoke the teachings of Jesus to say they should vote for this candidate or that candidate, I think they’re stretching Scripture.
Trump is a really complicated story and a difficult candidate to write about.
I believe a democracy needs men and women of conviction in its positions of leadership in order for us to succeed. That’s the subject of ‘A Perfect Candidate,’ a film I made 20 years ago about Oliver North and Charles Robb.
Having a Republican candidate speak at the NAACP convention is like trying to build a house starting at the roof. If you don’t have a foundation, the roof isn’t going to stand.
It’ll be my luck that the worst candidate will pick up ‘Fly Over States’ as his election song. Then I’ll be forever linked to that guy, whoever he is!
I’ve run for office, and I’ve stood on street corners, while people walked by me and didn’t want to talk to me, and did not think I was a credible candidate. And then four years later, I was nearly elected mayor of San Francisco, so I know what it takes.
On a pure entertainment level, if I’m going to choose to listen to a presidential candidate speak on a Saturday night, it’s going to be Donald Trump over Bernie Sanders by a landslide!
I intend to be a candidate for those who want to vote against everyone.
You can’t let a candidate run for too long. He will be dragged along, cut apart, put back together and ripped to shreds again – from both the political opponents and the media.
I always thought of myself is a private-sector person. I was a reluctant candidate. I put in my time. Now it’s somebody else’s turn to take charge. But I am still very interested in politics.
I guess if you’re independent, not afraid of much, and extremely stylish, that makes you a pretty good candidate for being a New Yorker.
I was a candidate in 1991. There was virtually a wave for Ram Mandir. In 1989 also, there was a wave – anti-Congress wave.
I knew that if we were going to actually defeat Harry Reid, we had to have a candidate who would offer a sharp policy contrast. Someone who would not just pay lip service to limited government principles, but had a solid record of voting that way time and again. I’m that candidate.
A campaign adviser can change the outside appearance of the candidate, but the ideology and personality of the candidate remains the same.
Almost never does a candidate with high negatives have much of a coattail effect.
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.
Mo Udall didn’t want the presidency bad enough. He was too sane. He was a marvelous guy, but you had the feeling there was another Udall outside his body watching the candidate Udall who was too extravagant, telling him to cut it out.
George W. Bush is not only a great president; he was a great candidate.
In campaigns, promises are usually treated skeptically. Past positions are viewed as the one reliable way to gauge a candidate’s instincts.
If supporters of equality for women want to vote for the best candidate, they must look to a person regardless of gender and must disregard the gender of political opponents.
I never would have believed as a candidate for the U.S. Senate that the U.S. government could buy GM without a hearing, with no vote, yes or no. There are billions and billions of dollars at stake here.
Obviously I’m young and I’m also Hispanic, two important groups in this election. And I’m confident that I can do a good job in articulating why President Obama ought to be the candidate that Americans select for the next four years.
When I was selected as a Labour council candidate in 2009, people publicly challenged how I could possibly represent anyone from the Bengali community because of my faith and since my selection and election as the member of parliament for Liverpool, Wavertree, I have received a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse.
Hiring’s tough. It’s not just filtering through hundreds of applications and blocking out big chunks of your day for interviews – those are the simple parts. The difficult thing is the nagging feeling that, despite your best efforts, the perfect candidate will somehow fall through the cracks.
Voter fraud is a reality in American elections, but it is typical of the candidate to confuse anecdote with data and turn allegation into conspiracy.
I was the first candidate to come out against this war, spoke at every anti-war march.
The candidate out front on Labor Day has historically been the one who stayed ahead in November.
I don’t want to be Wall Street’s candidate. I want to be Argentines’ candidate.
If I’m going to compare myself to a candidate, it’s Rick Scott. It’s not Donald Trump.
Political discourse has become so rotten that it’s no longer possible to tell the stench of one presidential candidate from the stink of another.
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.’
You can’t exactly bake a man to your specifications. Most of all, one shouldn’t alienate a candidate. A hybrid of Einstein, Tarzan and Inge Meysel doesn’t exist. Besides, the images of politicians in the media aren’t always accurate. I’ve had my share of experiences in that regard.
I now announce myself as candidate for the Presidency. I anticipate criticism; but however unfavorable I trust that my sincerity will not be called into question.
