Scott Walker Quotes

The art of politics is knowing what to do next.

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.

In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.

[Describing her role:] It's like running a big corporation and a little country at the same time.

Effective Presidents are those who can achieve a balance between purpose and prudence.

Leadership is important in politics.

Taking power is fine. But what do you do when you are in power?

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

The prime minister's job is to captain his team, his party and his government.

The president of the United States actually has to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Your personality as the prime minister feeds through to what you emphasise, and what you don't, how you'll handle a situation - whether you've got the combination of intelligence or instincts to adapt and to make good decisions.

The wound-tight, travel-light Obama has a distaste for the adversarial and the random. But if you stick too rigidly to a 'No Drama' rule in the White House, you risk keeping reality at bay. Presidencies are always about crisis management.

President Obama's biggest weakness is weakness.

When you are President you have to get something done, and that often means compromise.

Part of your job as President is not only to make the tough calls, but to get people to agree with you.

The people can never understand why the President does not use his powers to make them behave. Well all the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

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

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

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.

The skills necessary to change nappies or negotiate Brexit are obviously very different, but both involve a great deal of trust in the competence of the people doing the job.

Politics is not a science...but an art.

It's so much easier to throw rocks than it is to govern.

Politics is the art of realizing what there is to realize.

The decision he made with Usama bin Laden was a tactical decision. It wasn't a strategic decision. The strategic decision was made by President Bush to go after him. What President Obama has done on his watch, the issues that have come up while he's been president, he's gotten it wrong strategically every single time.

The important thing is that we recognize our President's leadership, that he is not saying: I am going to walk away from this. He is saying: I am going to do the right thing.