James J. Blanchard Quotes

Politicians can’t just point to problems. They need to propose solutions.

The question of our time is rapidly becoming can government get things done?

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

There is no school that teaches you how to run a state. You make mistakes, but you learn on the job.

Being a cabinet minister is not like running a company. A country is not a company.

We will govern as if we had a majority. You simply carry on with your agenda.

We can’t just run the government on political rhetoric and ideology.

If it becomes necessary for me to act, or merely to lay before the Congress a statement of what occurred, I want to know fully the exact facts.

President Obama and members of his administration constantly express rage and anger over events totally within their control. It's an odd and unsettling fact of American life that so many Americans seem to think that such expressions of frustration should substitute for actual competence.

One cannot legislate problems out of existence. It has been tried.

Washington, D.C. is full of think tanks, theoreticians and advocacy groups. Governors are the ones whose feet are on the ground.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

My biggest ambition is to bring together what happens in the real world with what politicians talk about.

My message to Washington is very simple. Face reality. Be leaders. Demonstrate accountability. Engage in principle compromise. And understand your job is to find solutions.

I have the experience and ability to step in on day one in Washington and start working on the challenging problems facing our country.

It is easy to say that something should be done. However to say what, when and how is more difficult.

Administration is the essence of government, and its quality is a prime condition of civic comfort.

Being Attorney General is a lot better than being a judge. You can get something done. If you have an idea, you’ve got thousands of people you can put to work on the idea.

Government is about hard choices.

The line has not been exactly drawn which separates those important subjects, which must be entirely regulated by the legislature itself, from those of less interest, in which … power may be given to those who are to act under such general provisions to fill up the details.

I’m not ready to hand over power to people or groups of people who have no ability to manage a nation.

There are two rules for mayors: Be there and do something.

The job of government is to govern. They ought to get on with it.

Governing is about selecting.

You can’t govern a country on charisma.