Top 77 Mark McKinnon Quotes

Sometime in the not too distant future, denying gays the right to marry will be viewed as historically corrupt – as corrupt as denying slaves their freedom.

In Texas money goes further, with one of the lowest costs of living, one of the lightest tax burdens as a percent of income, and one of the lowest debt-per-capita ratios.

Washington doesn’t have just a spending problem, or just an entitlement problem, or just a taxing problem. We have a leadership problem. Fix that, and the first three problems are solved.

I prefer for government to err toward less regulation, lower taxation, and free markets. And I’m a radical free trader.

There’s only one way we’re going to change our political climate and ensure we establish some respect in our discourse. And that is to show there is a real price to pay for being a disrespectful partisan idiot.

The Republican Party needs to, first of all, quit electing people in primaries that have prehistoric notions about women’s issues.

Every president becomes a caricature. The press, partisans, late-night shows, and other arbiters of our culture these days boil down complicated and multi-faceted personalities into one-dimensional punchlines.

Immigration reform almost happened under President George W. Bush. Twice. And it was comprehensive.

A Rick Santorum presidency would be very, very dangerous for America.

When you look at the money spent by labor unions for Democrats, it comes as no surprise the Democrats crafted a campaign-finance ‘disclosure’ bill with the thresholds adjusted to exempt unions.

America’s commitment to religious freedom and tolerance should not be conditional.

I met Barack Obama, I read his book, I like him a great deal. I disagree with him on very fundamental issues.

It doesn’t matter if I go on CBS, PBS or Fox. Whoever is interviewing me is going to want to create some conflict in the story, or it’s not interesting. That’s just the way the news is.

There are three opportunities that you have during a general election campaign where you can substantially move the needle of public opinion. One, is your convention speech; two, are the base; three, is the selection of your vice president.

Debt is a drag, a reality you may experience with every credit-card bill you open. But for a corporation or a government, it can be even more of a drag – on economic growth and job creation.

Donors, like voters, increasingly expect candidates to exercise fiscal discipline.

I think that the press has a duty and an obligation to report on local government, state government, federal government – to be aggressive, to do its job. And its job is to report on whatever it’s covering.

America as we know it will end unless we end Medicare as we know it.

Democrats love to criticize Republicans on guns, but they are generally mute when it comes to taking on Hollywood or the gaming industry.

Technology and social media have brought power back to the people.

I don’t claim any moral or ethical high ground, but I also have chosen not to run for public office. Shouldn’t there be a higher standard of conduct for public officials?

The office of the president is the most powerful in the world. It is also, at times, the most powerless.

Marco Rubio is interesting because he checks so many boxes when you think about what a Republican nominee needs. He brings Florida, he’s young, he’s Hispanic, the Tea Party likes him. But that said, he’s got issues, actually surprisingly, ironically, with Mexican-American voters.

I don’t think that the press in 2004 was any more unfair to Bush than they were to Kerry.

Republicans constantly claim to be the party that defends the Constitution. We have no legitimate right to that claim until we get right on gay rights.

Public unions are big money.

Technology has had more of an impact on the presidency and how the presidency communicates than anything.

What strikes me when I leave Washington is the extent to which there’s a huge disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country. The rest of the country is not hyper partisan.

You know, the Tea Party is a – first of all, it is a significant movement, and I think the media and some pundits have tried to write it off as a bunch of cranks or something. But, in fact, it’s really a very legitimate and fairly significant swath of voters out there.

I think the press has an interest in communicating to its viewers or readers, and their viewers or readers drive profit for those news organizations, so I think those news organizations have a certain bias toward their own readers. Yeah, I think they are a special interest. Of course they are.

A messy participatory process is representative democracy at its best.

Democracy is but an experiment in the long history of the world.

Presidential primary debates are an important part of our political process. But the media has wrested complete control from the parties and candidates over everything, including the number, the format, the qualifications, and the moderators. And they’ve become a circus.

Wind and solar power are land-intensive, a green sin, but not energy-dense, and affordable only when heavily subsidized. And wind power must be supplemented with hydrocarbons for reliability.

Hypocrisy is the scarlet letter in politics.

Immigration is the most explosive issue I’ve seen in my political career.

I don’t really care how or why Obama got to the right place on gay marriage. I’m just glad he got there.

CEOs make hard decisions; sometimes, the least worst is the right one.

Limited government, low taxes, controlled spending and debt, and a restrained regulatory environment make Texas work.

It’s much more powerful and compelling to create a positive vision than it is to tear somebody down.

One thing is clear: Ron Paul defies labels.

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

Outside events can change a presidential campaign, a president, and the history of the nation: the Iranian hostage crisis, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, the downing of the helicopter in Mogadishu, Somalia, the suicide attack on the USS Cole, and, of course, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Politics only makes the difficult challenge of marriage even harder, with the demands of the job and the public spotlight it casts on a union.

The job of elected leaders is to deliver results that represent the interests of the citizens who placed them in a position of authority with their voice, their vote. But these days, money talks louder.

Rand Paul comes off like an academic stiff who wants to give us a lecture on American civics.

Marketers know – no matter how deep the emotional connection or brand loyalty – when a product does not perform, rational thought overtakes emotion, and most consumers make a new choice.

Advocacy groups and voters are not wrong to push candidates to declare their position clearly on policy issues. That is good citizenship. Hard questions should be asked of every candidate, every politician. And those public servants should be prepared to answer, but in their own words.

I’ve spent the better part of my career in politics and public policy working on and fighting for education reforms.

I’ll tell you, Liz Cheney is going to be a very good candidate. I worked with her during the Bush campaigns. She’s smart, she’s focused, she’s disciplined – and she’s got a great back story. She’s got a large family. She’s a great mom. And she’s a hard worker. I think she’s going to be a very effective campaigner.

A competition of the best ideas – that should be what Congress is about.

A troubled economy is always the sitting president’s fault. It was when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter, when Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush, and when Barack Obama defeated John McCain by running against George W. Bush.

It’s rare when a president wins the campaign without winning independents.

Unfortunately, in American politics there are no standards for shame.

I don’t buy the argument that there can’t be a successful independent candidacy for the presidency of the United States. People who say, ‘It can’t happen,’ are many of the same people who said we’d never elect an African American.

As in nature, politics abhors a vacuum. Without a strong voice for more moderate leadership, the Tea Party is filling that vacuum.

Conservative women in politics run a punishing gauntlet. They endure psychological evaluations and near-gynecological exams their male and liberal counterparts do not.

If we cannot come together to pause, to respect our dead and the heroic lives of meaning they led, then ours is truly a civilization lost.

News is virtual now. It is not 24-hour news cycles; it is instant news cycles. It is live. News is live all the time, around the clock.

It’s never popular among young people to be part of the establishment.

People who know Paul Ryan say, ‘He will be president one day.’

Infrastructure spending does not create immediate jobs, and more than half of those jobs will pull from the pool of the already employed.

Normally, when politicians talk about ‘cutting the budget,’ they really mean reducing the amount of increase. Actual spending goes up while the politicians claim to have ‘cut the budget.’