Douglas Bailey Quotes

The world of messaging is the world of campaign consultants, of politicians, who are like trained seals who are given their message and then they perform. I’m not into that.

When you run a campaign the idea is not to appeal to pundits but to appeal to people.

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

I don't see politics as one or two people just making or delivering announcements - it's also about winning public support and the public enthusiasm. You've got to win public support.

Political folk talk a lot these days about 'messaging' - a neologism designed to describe the way in which parties and politicians consciously characterize their efforts. It is only intended to be positive - i.e., 'Our messaging is designed to show we care.'

I know certain techniques, such as a press release that looks like a newscast. So you use it because you want your man to win.

There is literally no such thing as an idea that cannot be expressed well and articulately to today's voters in 30 seconds.

Half of my job is to help build public support for the President’s agenda.

… the most famous ad produced in the history of political television

Television has supplanted people as the only audience that campaigners are interested in.

Campaigns are about creating cartoons.

I think the Reagan people are superb marketers. Their whole approach to polling, to television, to the symbolism and the rest approaches genius.

Our job is not to dictate the policies of our candidates or even influence them but simply to articulate them in the most clear and meaningful way to the relevant audience.

There's no question that the marketing and advertising world is ahead of the political marketing the political communications world.

As someone who was like a chief spokeswoman for [Donald Trump] and his campaign manager, it wasn't always relevant to what Americans out there were telling us at rallies or telling pollsters behind the scenes concerning them.

You don't need to spend tens of millions of dollars on political consultants to tell you what you think when you already know what you think.

It just seemed the timing of it was a little bit of pandering to the public at a time of an election.

We should remember the campaign advertising will be only a smaller portion of the President's total exposure.

I understand the process of politics and the game of television.

It's very clear you have to engage the public and say: You have to vote no on 74, no on 75, no on 76, no on 77. Those are the issues that Arnold pushing. And those are reactionary, Republican initiatives.

If people don't know who you are, they're not going to listen to your message. And not everybody pays attention to politicians by watching Fox News and CNN.

I happen to think it's the politics that makes you electable, but the reason for that is politicians sometimes talk about electability as if it's just a matter of conning the public. Actually, it's a matter of persuading the public, and in my experience, usually, the public gets it right.

The degree to which campaigns have become dominated by marketing is breaking the spirit of democracy, and we're all just so sick of it, across party lines.

During the last 20 years the advent of radio changed all the old rules of political campaigning. Now the successful advent of television, available for the first time this year in a presidential campaign, must again influence the planning of the campaign. Television, with its triple advantages of sight, sound and motion, can make or break a candidate, a party or a platform. In my opinion television must not be considered as supplementary media but as the heart of your program to “win friends and influence people.”

Eisenhower was willing to experiment with television to promote his candidacy, his Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson was less inclined to do so. Fearful that the election might become a simple decision between “Ivory soap vs. Palmolive,” Stevenson shunned short, televised commercials and opted instead to talk sense to the American people with more substantive speeches.