James Carville Quotes

Any time you get into a presidential campaign and the stakes are so high, all candidates - they want to be in complete control whenever they can. And you can't blame them for that.

This has always been the way of presidential politics. The president rises above the fray while his surrogates go on the attack. They throw the spears and fling the mud; he sits upon the throne.

I had the vocation for politics. What I didn't have was any aptitude for political combat. I took the attacks personally, which is a great mistake. It's never personal: It's just business. It was ever thus.

The one thing we can all be sure about in politics is you are as well to expect the unexpected.

Review" is a great word in politics. It will last you almost an entire election cycle if you play it right.

Politics. Where fat, bald, disagreeable men, unable to be a candidate themselves, teach a president how to act on a public stage.

It’s a good thing in politics that candidates run against each other; otherwise no one would win.

Politics has never been for the thin-skinned or the faint of heart, and if you enter the arena, you should expect to get roughed up.

Politics is like boxing — you try to knock out your opponents

The reality is I have a job as a national party chair that, one, requires a thick skin. It requires me to be able to absorb the body blows so our candidates can stay above the fray.

If a statesman is one who looks to the next generation and a politician one who looks to the next election, a political consultant must be one who looks to the next tracking poll.

Politics is not about schmoozing, it's about boxing. And you have to enter the arena; you have to come close enough that your face would ready the face of the other guy; and the price is that he can reach your face.

Hillary's [Clinton] been doing a good job of portraying [Donald] Trump as unqualified, not the right temperament.

I am pretty good at arithmetic, and I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight. But we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.

Jeb Bush brought it up at the debate and he was doing it very well, and all of a sudden, I don't know what happened, but he got shut down.

I knew how to influence the people, but it's really just one vote. But the party is being handled in a very good way .

Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter has filed papers to run for president. But in his official filing, he misspelled the word 'president.' Political experts say it's all part of Hunter's plan to attract Bush supporters.

I do think Hillary Clinton should have pivoted and say, I am change, I am change, because people do want some change.

[Donald Trump] was a better candidate; that's how he won.

You can’t dress rehearse the bad moments.

Life is full of surprises, but never when you need one.

Hillary Clinton doesn't know how to win.

We don't get offered crises, they arrive.

It looks like Rudy Giuliani is out of the race. Finally, a Republican with an exit strategy.

My preference is that we beat him [Donald Trump] outright in the primary process. And I believe that's exactly what's going to happen here in the next few weeks, especially as we move to winner-take-all states. The terrain begins to change.