Thomas Barrett Quotes

I think that there was a lot of undisclosed money that came into South Dakota, driving a message to paint me as a Washington partisan, which I don't believe that I am, but it was a message that resonated, after pounding it away for a number of weeks.

People hate negative tactics, but the fact is, as the 3 A.M. ad demonstrates, they can be very effective.

In a national campaign you are driven to negativism.

I know that campaigns can seem small, and even silly. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me - so am I.

Somehow politicians have become convinced that negative campaigning pays off in elections.

Candidates who went into an election with negatives higher than 30 or 40 points just inevitably lost.... Drive up the opposition's negatives.

The trouble [with modern political campaigns] is that the technicians of the media and the professional campaign advisors believe that the negative commercials and the attack work better.

Negative advertising is the only way voters can find out that a candidate may be unfit for public office.

It [television] has locked candidates into ridiculous positions because only ridiculous positions can be compacted into 30-second commercials.

Politics ... is going to be diluted down into a 10-second window, where you whack the guy as hard as you can and then get out of there.

A 30 second negative ad can matter more to a candidate's career than a lifetime voting record.

Political advertising works, particularly when it’s unrebutted.

Anybody who says negative commercials are wrong and shouldn't be used doesn't know anything about politics. The fact is people respond to those commercials.

The Republicans are much better at negative ads than we are. But we have the 24 hour rule. If they hit you, you get your response on the media within 24 hours.

In my opinion, the polarization of our politics has mostly been brought about by the massive infusion of money—mostly spent on negative advertising that create divisions among the population that watches television and the two parties.

Campaigns are about creating cartoons.

People don't generally like advertising that takes a stand.

When it comes to scaring the bourgeoisie into showing up at the polls, nothing works better than negative advertising.

I don't want people ever to think I'm not in advertising. It's such a business of enthusiasm that if you're not totally excited about it, you should leave it.

People spend money on negative campaigning because it works.

You never see Coke and Pepsi doing attacks to each other. It would depress the product category of soft drinks.

TV ads are great for broadcasting, but voter turnout is about narrow-casting. And not all messengers are created equal.

There's no question that the marketing and advertising world is ahead of the political marketing the political communications world.

I've got these high negatives because the Koch brothers have spent a year attacking me.

Well, I mean, I think all campaigns run negative and positive ads.