Josh Earnest Quotes

Talking points are a core set of messages an executive or politician utilizes in communicating with stakeholders. It's a term of art for having an outline of your remarks.

Nobody has a magic lamp which can tell you in advance whether what you say will be effective in persuading an audience.

Being a press secretary is like learning to type: You're hunting and pecking for a while and then you find yourself doing the touch system and don't realize it. You're speaking for the president without ever having to go to him.

During my years as a press secretary, I developed a powerful internal filter, which worked to strip all things 'off message' from my thoughts before they came out of my mouth. It didn't always work, of course, and I said more than a few things I regretted.

You can never get your message across if you're always answering their [reporter's] questions.

The bully pulpit is not an open microphone. You have to target it very carefully.

Whenever I have a message to get out I seem to find a way to get my message out.

I want people to hear what I have to say, and I want to be able to get a lot of points across.

I know what to say, how to say it, how to bring profile to the issues I care about and people want to listen to me.

The most important thing to remember is you must know your audience.

I thoroughly believe that any man who's got anything worthwhile to say will be heard if he only says it often enough.

If you have something really important you want to say, you have to read your audience, I guess.

The genius of guys like Lincoln and Reagan and FDR - the great communicator leaders - is that they're actually educators, so they understand when they use a phrase that they have to explain it, because, by definition, you won't understand it or they wouldn't need to be using it.

Trump has a way of driving a message so people hear it.

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

Talking to the press, you say things a little differently.

If you don't have a good case, and you don't have a good message, then shining a light on it is not going to get you very far.

I make sure I say something important without being preachy through all my performances.

Communication and communication strategy is not just part of the game - it is the game.

In a world where audiences listen for attitudes rather than arguments or information, speakers must feel the pressure to posture rather than engage.

If you want to convey a message, you must do so in an enjoyable format.

Because I come from the place of interviewing, I know how to answer a question giving you what you need to hear and not a minute more.

I've always been a believer that if you're not interested in talking to the media, you shouldn't be running for Senate in the first place, or you're kind of missing out on one of the key components is to get your message out of what you want to do.

I personally have a pretty open philosophy about trying to talk to the press, and so does Dan Bartlett.

I spent my career trying to speak to the broadest possible audience whether it's in print or whether it's in television.