David Brooks Quotes

Andrew Jackson was the first president to claim that the desires of the public overrode Congress's constitutional prerogatives. Virtually every president since Jackson has claimed the mantle, even while lacking two ingredients of an electoral mandate: a landslide victory and a specific agenda.

Conservatives, please. Let's not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He is not exactly the anti-Christ, although a disturbing number of people on the Right are convinced he is.

I think the Democratic Party has picked a lot of the wrong candidates, the kind that Middle America, or people who are more down the middle and more rational, can't side with. I think that's been the problem.

If we don’t win, we don’t govern.

I speak to people for whom the issues are a mixed bag; they are liberal on some, conservative on others, middle of the road on the rest. But politicians don't take their cues from those people. No, politicians emulate the world of punditry.

Our [former] governor [Pat McCrory] was supposed to be a moderate, but he found himself beholden to people who have much more draconian ideas. I think he assumed this stuff flew under the radar.

The Tucson speech [of Barack Obama] was brilliant, and I'm so angry at Republicans for jumping on him because you have to give credit. Part of being successful is to give credit to people who you may not disagree with when they do well.

I do miss George Bush. Compared to these teabaggers and the people who are pandering to them, he looks like a professor.

It's just, "Hey,[Barack] Obama's the hero, and he wants Obamacare," and so the coverage is totally devoted to whether or not Obama's gonna get it. Now, in that scenario, who are the villains?Well, your good old, reliable Republicans are the villains, and they are always portrayed as the people trying to deny our beloved hero what he wants.

I can tell you is all nine of the people here [on debates] would make an infinitely better commander in chief than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

The American people as a whole are really pretty moderate. They're not, as a whole, conservative or liberal. The right wing is marching the Republican Party off a cliff.

The Democrats are having all kinds of problems uniting people here, and Barack Obama is the lead unifier, and it ain't going to happen.

I don't know how you bridge that contradiction, but I felt that Barack Obama was sincere. It didn't feel like a line to me. You know, it felt like him reverting back to what was in his bones and that's, you know, optimism and a deep belief in, you know, American institutions and the American people.

I think it's a very legitimate aspect of American life to criticize and to disagree and to debate. But I want to say I think it's a lie to say that the president lied to the American people. I sat on the Robb-Silverman Commission. I saw many, many analysts that came before that committee. I asked every one of them-I said, 'Did-were you ever pressured politically or any other way to change your analysis of the situation as you saw?' Every one of them said no.

The Democrats want illegal mirgation not they are humanitarian. This is not about compassion. This is not about love and a soft spot for people from these horrible places and wanting to give them a better life. This is about registering a bunch of future Democrat voters that are never gonna be able to fend or provide for themselves. This is about flooding this country with people who are going to be forever dependent on a government-run by Democrats.

Art is about people. I think the discussion about whether architecture is art or not is lamebrain.

The prime minister says he has a vision for change, well put that to the people of the country.

It is those same so-called experts who said we had no chance of winning the primary. It will be hard work, but we can win. And if those same people who fought against me work just as hard for me, we will win.

I'm a United States senator, and I have a responsibility to the people of my state - also to the people of this country.

I will ensure we honour the instructions the British people have given us. I argued for specific changes in the referendum campaign, I believe in them, I will deliver them.

We have an enormous support within the Dutch public. One million people voted for my party.If we would've been extreme, we would've got 0.01 per cent of the vote. We got more than 10 per cent of the vote.

The Spanish PM rang me to say: 'I have the support of only 4 per cent of the people.' I said, 'Crikey, that's even less than think Elvis Presley is still alive.'

There are people here [in South Africa] who, whatever the debate is on a particular issue, their dominating idea is that at the end of the debate we must emerge stronger than we were before and closer to one another.

I hate people who say 'Just to play devil's advocate.'

Besides, when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush.