Top 55 Steve Kornacki Quotes

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.

My first job in journalism was covering politics in New Jersey.

I almost flunked pre-calculus back in high school.

When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the modern Southern GOP was born.

If Rand Paul does run for president in 2016, his campaign will have a credibility that Ron Paul’s three bids for the Oval Office lacked.

The lesson I take from TV is the less rehearsed it is, the more natural it’s going to seem. Don’t overthink it. It seems to work enough for me, and I’ll just keep doing it.

Generally, the real question in a midterm year is whether the damage for the ruling party will be severe or mild.

Trump showed you can get elected by voters who think very poorly of you.

Walter Mondale was dissuaded from running for the Senate from Minnesota in 1990, in part out of fear that his 49-state loss to Ronald Reagan in 1984 had reduced his standing.

The 1994 midterms had been a shocking rout for the GOP, which picked up 54 seats in the House and eight in the Senate. No one had seen it coming. The Democratic Congress was supposed to be a permanent fact of life; it had been 40 years since Republicans had controlled the chamber.

I went to a public school, so we didn’t have to wear a tie.

My favorite player, all-time, will always be Doug Flutie.

Back in August 2002, I was hired as a reporter for a website covering New Jersey politics, then still a pretty novel concept. I was 22 years old, not from the state, and thoroughly inexperienced.

Ideologically, there are no major differences between the two Pauls, and there are stylistic similarities too; like his dad, Rand hardly minds being the lone ‘no’ vote in a sea of ‘yes’ votes. But unlike his dad, Rand seems to pick his spots with at least one eye on the bigger picture of politics.

The godfather of the modern Mississippi Republican Party, Charles Pickering, left the Democrats in 1964 because the party’s national convention agreed to seat two black delegates.

We read primary results to assure ourselves that this candidate has won this state’s primary and can win the state in the general election. I think that’s a very dubious jump to make.

I can multiply. Long divisions start to be a stretch.

By their nature, midterm elections favor the out-of-power-party. Its voters tend to be more motivated to show up and swing voters are more likely to treat it as a protest vehicle for their frustrations.

The Romney who showed up at CPAC in early 2007 vehemently embraced the conservative cause and openly mocked his home state and its liberal reputation.

The Tea Party was really a two-front war – one against Obama, the other against any Republican politician who reeked of insiderdom or insufficient purity.

I want to thank Chris Hayes and his team for creating a totally original and incredibly smart model for political television.

I do a lot of walking.

I don’t think my political opinions, to the extent I have them, are useful.

Favorite-son candidates almost always win their states decisively in presidential elections. But their status as national celebrities can end up breeding fatigue and resentment among home-state voters when the election is over.

I try to do the deep breathing exercises and I end up panicking in the middle of them and it never goes well.

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.

Following college sports as a kid, I’d be like: Clemson. Where the hell is Clemson? By learning sports rivalries, you learn the regions and the culture of a state.

I’ve been a football fan pretty much my whole life.

There is huge money to be made – by candidates, by book publishers, by merchandise peddlers – from small-dollar conservative consumers who are as enraged by their own party’s establishment as they are the Obama White House.

There was a certain futility to Elizabeth Colbert Busch’s congressional campaign, one that had nothing to do with her and everything to do with the state and region she calls home.

I think I’ll forget to eat a lot during election week.

My knowledge of popular music more or less ends in 1972.

Patriots’ Day is the essence of Boston, a Massachusetts-only holiday that seems like it was invented to celebrate Boston.

Midterm elections, by nature, just aren’t about the party that’s out of power. But presidential years are different.

Chris Matthews is a giant. He’s a legend.

I tried the Calm app, but that I don’t rec – well, maybe I got a bad story or something – but it didn’t work for me.

I’ll sometimes forget it’s my birthday, but my mom has taken to calling me at the exact time of my birth, so that’ll usually remind me. It was an important moment for me, obviously, but I guess a more memorable one for her.

Enacted in 1994, the first of the MSRB rules bars employees of firms that underwrite state and municipal bonds from donating to any official seeking federal office who has any role in giving business to bond firms.

I was probably the worst calculus student in the history of my high school.

A case can be made that Boehner’s skills as a House leader are underappreciated.

Some coaches keep quiet about politics to avoid alienating boosters and other higher-ups.

In 2016 you had a significant number of voters who said on Election Day: I don’t like Donald Trump. I don’t think he tells the truth. I don’t think he has the temperament to be president. I don’t think he is qualified. I do think Hillary Clinton is qualified. And I am voting for Donald Trump.

American politics are rich with characters and stereotypes – Joe the Plumber, Harry and Louise, Nascar dads and hockey moms, to name a few. But one persistent type hasn’t gotten much attention: the Republican football coach.

Romney’s Obama-era CPAC struggles spoke to a challenge his ’12 campaign never overcame: to shore up the GOP’s restive conservative base in a way that would allow him to pivot to the middle in pursuit of general election voters.

I have a specialization in a very particular area: the presidential primary process.

With writing, obviously you can really take the time to crack what you’re going to say and build to a big point.

They say it doesn’t get any more Jersey than 24-hour diners. Of course, they say the same thing about women with big hair, hapless college football teams and governors who tell their wives they’re gay on national television.

Compared to the ’88 GOP race, the Democratic fight to succeed Clinton was orderly and drama-free. In the formative days of the campaign, Vice President Al Gore seemed at least potentially vulnerable.

The early favorite for the GOP nomination and ‘natural’ heir to Reagan was Vice President George H.W. Bush. But Bush was an imperfect fit for the party’s base.

Whereas his father would deliver rambling lectures that were heavy on gold and often disconnected from the political news of the moment, Rand Paul communicates a desire to make himself relevant to the GOP conversation.

Republicans have used the filibuster to turn the Senate into a de facto 60-vote body.

New Jersey’s governorship is the most powerful in the nation.

I think a lot of people’s memories of the ’90s are nostalgic. The economy was pretty strong, there was good TV and movies, yet our politics were changing quickly and dramatically.

Race has clearly played a role in Kentucky’s Obama-phobia, as it has in other swaths of Appalachia. The Obama administration’s supposed ‘war on coal’ is a big factor too.

I was the All-American kid, or so I told myself – good grades, never in trouble, bright future, well-respected by my peers. My favorite comedian was Bob Newhart.