Bill Bradley Quotes

I think it would be an extreme poverty indeed if there weren't more than one person willing to compete for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.

I have never understood the Iowa caucus.

A great many of us have been concerned about the presidential nomination system... whether or not we have drifted into a system that simply doesn't work so well any more.

You know, this is not about endorsements in the primary. We have to get through a primary first.

The 2008 battle in Iowa for the Democratic caucus was perhaps the most titanic single nominating contest in the history of modern politics.

Based on the number that they found, The New York Times reported that Hillary [Clinton] had basically clinched the primary 'cause you added the superdelegates to the number of delegates you'd already gotten. But this was on the eve of the California and New Jersey primary.

If you look at that 2008 Democratic primary, there was no more formidable, unstoppable candidate - other than an incumbent President - in modern times than Hillary Clinton.

I normally don't endorse in Democratic primaries.

You have had presidential candidates over the last 30 years who would have had a very hard time getting nominated under the old system. One example is John Kennedy.

In the Democratic primary in 2008, the Obama team devised a strategy to use the caucuses and a complicated system of awarding delegates in the state primaries to sneak up on Hillary Clinton and establish a lead Obama never surrendered.

Message to Obama: Fighting the Clinton machine won't be as easy as picking up favorable press clips.

A caucus is basically an undemocratic method of selecting a candidate.

It only takes one vote to win the Vice Presidential nomination.

The political parties have no role except to stage the conventions, where you celebrate a decision that's already been made elsewhere.

You've got to lose a few [elections] before you learn what the American system is all about.

In the early days of the republic, the secretary of state was the heir apparent to the president. Presidents could easily hand-pick their party's next candidate. The party caucuses formally selected the candidates, but presidents guided the process.

During the protracted tooth-and-nail tussle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries, I was one of those fierce partisans desperate for the first black candidate with a serious shot at the White House to win the nomination.

I'm never going to become an expert on how you get delegates. I think what you've got to do is follow the will of voters.

Unpledged delegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grassroots activists.

The good thing about having a Republican primary is that the voters will decide our nominee - unlike the Democrats.

In 1984, I managed Walter Mondale's campaign for president. Mondale won the nomination after a bruising battle with Colorado Senator Gary Hart and Reverend Jesse Jackson.

I'm a Republican. I'm running in a Republican primary.

I strongly favor shortening the campaign season and putting more primaries and caucuses on the same day, preferably regionally.

After one election comes many more.

We're running in a primary election. What do you do? You go out and seek support. When you're getting support, that's good. When you're not getting support, that's bad.