Dick Morris Quotes

As president, you can't just say, 'I want this,' or, 'Do that.' A president has to lead the American people to where he wants to go, and the chief of staff needs to help him get it done.

What do you prefer? A prime minister obsessed with being popular, or a prime minister who does the job?

I think that Donald Trump is very concerned about finding the right way to be effective in a responsible way. And he wants to be effective.

President tends to feel that he cannot go beyond what the public will support him in doing. So he tries not to decide what is the best course so much as to decide what the people will support.

I think what the American people want more than anything else is a strong and decisive leader.

Politics is not a tea party. When it is time to act, you have to move fast and decisively.

In his first 100 days, Mr. Obama has put the fate of his presidency in the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He may come to regret that decision.

Because the task of a political leader is to do what he believes is better for his country. Sometimes the public opinion is in favor; sometimes the public opinion needs a little bit more time to understand things.

We have too many politicians who are poll-driven to excess. Polls are important. You've got to know what the public is thinking, but you can't let them drive you completely.

Forget the consultants, the pundits and the pollsters; good policy is good politics.

I think Obama is handling his image very well, but I think he lacks boldness.

President Clinton does not use polls to reach positions. He takes positions and then uses the polls to survive the experience.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

How a candidate runs shapes how a president governs.

Presidents have to decide what their popularity is for. Lyndon Johnson probably understood best that political popularity is a wasting asset. You had to use it when you had it.

I don't do my job as minister based on polls.

Mario Ruiz Massieu's resignation places the ball very firmly in Zedillo's court. A key decision he will have to make is whether he is going to govern with, without, or against his own party.

It is not the business of politicians to please everyone.

Here lay the political genius of Franklin Roosevelt: that in his own time he knew what were the questions that had to be answered, even though he himself did not always find the full answer.

I think that most of the candidates [for presidency] can't run the railroad, and I still worry that whoever gets elected will have policies designed for political rather than practical reasons.

I'm not really much into politics, because it's rarely discussed in my line of work, but I know that Barack Obama is trying his best, and that at some point down the road, he's going to get it right.

There's symbolism in politics. There's communication in politics. And I think what Donald Trump is saying is, give me the job, and when I get to that job I will figure it out.

People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but a group of men, and usually they are very inferior men. They may have some better man working for them, but they themselves are seldom worthy of any respect.

Neville [Chamberlain] has a retail mind in a wholesale business.

If Hillary Clinton becomes president, how is she going to be able to get the country behind her when she seems like a political figure from another era?