Michael Barone Quotes

The tactics and strategy of every Presidential election campaign is most influenced by the previous Presidential election.

A dozen men in good suits and women in silk dresses will circulate smoothly among the reporters, spouting confident opinions. They won't be just press agents trying to impart a favorable spin to a routine release. They'll be the Spin Doctors, senior advisers to the candidates

I know how to run a nationally paced campaign.

I've been both a journalist and a politician, and I can tell you it is more fun to ask the questions than have to answer them.

I don't have to play football.

Of course we are looking to win support across every section of society. We win support by speaking to voters on the issues they most care about.

The Obama campaign was smarter, quicker on their feet than the Clinton camp.

What is the primary purpose of a political leader? To build a majority. If voters care about parking lots, then talk about parking lots.

Every great political campaign rewrites the rules; devising a new way to win is what gives campaigns a comparative advantage against their foes.

On any given vote, on any given day, a smart senator who has taken a bold or controversial position can reach far more media outlets between the elevator and the Senate chamber than he or she could garner in a full press conference back home.

I know certain techniques, such as a press release that looks like a newscast. So you use it because you want your man to win.

One must do things in such a way that people believe that they want it to be done this way.

Campaigns are not for educating. They're for linking up with the public mood.

When you run a campaign the idea is not to appeal to pundits but to appeal to people.

In order to govern you have to feed the news cycle

Politics is a messy business, but campaigning prepares you for governing. It prepares you to get hit, stand strong, and, if necessary, hit back.

Donald calls me and asks me what I think. Very often I will answer him, but Donald Trump is his own adviser. He is his own campaign manager.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy rode a superior televised debate performance to victory over Richard Nixon.

If I do a campaign, I'm going to do it my way.

We have to be strong in ourselves. Whoever defines themselves only through their opponents risks making their entire programme... dependent on others.

Campaigns are crazy things. They're half startup, half enterprise.

For somebody who's never run for office before, Donald Trump understands that old axiom, "Define yourself before you're defined."

And how about that Barack Obama? You know what they're saying? For the first time he's starting to slip in the polls. Barack Obama is starting to slip in the polls. Don't worry. He's got a plan. He's going to be to campaigning in Europe.

I don't have all these advisers, political advisers. I don't even talk to them because I'm not a slave to a campaign manager, and Trump isn't either.

It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause by yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others — playing people against one another, making them pursue you.