George Monbiot Quotes

Some of the reasons John McCain lost in 2008 were his lackluster campaign, his refusal to showcase Obama's extreme liberalism and, thus, his failure to demonstrate why he would make a better president than Obama.

Microtargeting, as its name implies, is a way to identify small but crucial groups of voters who might be won over to a given side, and which messages would do the trick.

We will not lose this election for lack of money.

In terms of the ability to go out and win - this is why you have campaigns. You go out, and you take your issues to voters, and you put them out there, and people respond, or they don't.

In New York, we had primary elections for mayor. To improve their chances, all five candidates changed their name to Rudy Giuliani.

My focus as part of the leadership is to keep talking about the independent voters, independent voters - how do we get the independent voters back?

One of the problems we saw in the last presidential election in our party is that our nominee, while winning the election, which we ought never to forget, often lost sight of the difference between strategy and tactics.

Most politicians, when they meet with a guy like me, or a guy like Carville, tell you about how they can win.

The Romney candidacy is better than it was four years ago, but it's not clear that it's good. Mitt needs to get good real fast: A real speech, real plan, real responses, and real fire in the belly.

You win the presidency by connecting with the American people's gut insecurities and aspirations. You win with a concept.

One of the enduring myths of campaign analysis is that you can actually count the number of 'undecided' voters by asking voters if they are undecided or not. Sometimes, significant numbers of voters actually change their minds.

The important things that in a campaign we talk about, let us not forget that once the election is over.

Ideas matter. Legislative proposals matter. Slick campaigns and dazzling speeches can work for a while, but the magic always wears off.

I have been overwhelmed by the response that I have received on the doorstep during this campaign.

It's hard running as an independent. I wouldn't have won the Senate election if I hadn't been governor. I had credibility. The hard part is getting voters to the point where they think it's thinkable and not a waste of time.

I'd never get elected if people in North Carolina realized how liberal I am.

I happen to think it's the politics that makes you electable, but the reason for that is politicians sometimes talk about electability as if it's just a matter of conning the public. Actually, it's a matter of persuading the public, and in my experience, usually, the public gets it right.

It does no good to be a conservative if you can't sell a conservative message in a general election.

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

Every election is a matter of definition.

In every election in American history both parties have their cliches. The party that has the cliches that ring true wins. And if the cliches continue to ring true when the party governs, then that party and those cliches can change history.

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

There are certain elections where policy matters more than others….Personality without a platform will not cut it.

It is increasingly difficult to run a campaign of substance in an atmosphere which increasingly focuses on personality.

To win [elections] in this country these days you've got to campaign down to a 13-year-old's level of mental development.