Dick Morris Quotes

Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibility. It is like advertising and it is the same effect that is achieved—commitment to a scenario.

It is so important – the setting in which the President is presented to the world.

Sometimes heads of state have to make statements for [local] public consumption.

No, no, no. Dick Cheney forbade me to waste time on his image. I would have liked to have done more.

Politics is the business of managing perceptions.

A charismatic president has a secret weapon: the public.

It’s not only what you do in politics. It’s what you appear to do.

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

Never lose your temper with the Press or the public is a major rule of political life.

White House officials acknowledge in broad terms that a president's time and public rhetoric are among his most valuable policy tools.

Don't worry about polls, but if you do, don't admit it.

Did I say that the President's entire job is image management? Of course not.

Obama's pop-cultural focus may seem demeaning to the office of the presidency. It may be mockable. But it is also tremendously effective.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

Good policy makes good politics and what I've done has been good politics.

A summit is a photo opportunity featuring two or more heads of government who have no business to transact, but believe a set of smiley photos will do them a lot of good politically.

You're on the elevator of public opinion when you're in the presidency.

Today being President is really no different than running for President. It’s about approval ratings and photo ops and damage control and deniability.

The healthy presidency is one that never lets the press hustle the President's priorities.

The more publicized the presidency the less powerful the office.

Choose the politics of principle over the politics of personality.

Whenever we get involved in a war, the White House seems to have 3 priorities: We cannot appear to be losing; we must appear to be winning; we must look like we know what we are doing.

As human nature is very much the same in Congress as in a stock exchange, a church convention, or a newspaper office, the President who deals with Congress tactfully and courteously will, in the long run get more of what he wants than the President who does not do so. He may not get so much credit for what he does gain, from those people who like to see a President fight Congress, especially in that flattering way which consists in appealing to them to make Congress do what the President wants done.

When you're actually president, the spin matters a lot less.

I'm not a politician; I don't have a well-organised PR machine to craft my every word.