Charles McDowell Jr. Quotes

You have had presidential candidates over the last 30 years who would have had a very hard time getting nominated under the old system. One example is John Kennedy.

The political parties have no role except to stage the conventions, where you celebrate a decision that's already been made elsewhere.

A great many of us have been concerned about the presidential nomination system... whether or not we have drifted into a system that simply doesn't work so well any more.

In Europe and the United States, you've got different systems to select candidates, and no system is perfect.

You may elect whatever candidates you please to office, if you will allow me to select the candidates.

A caucus is basically an undemocratic method of selecting a candidate.

The main question that is decided by an election in our country is, which political party shall have the privilege of dispensing the offices of Government?

I think the trend to move towards caucuses and conventions, whether to nominate senators, governors or presidential nominees, I think the move towards caucuses and conventions is a very bad one, and that our party should reward those states that spend the time and money to have primaries.

For the record, our democracy is revered around the world. And free elections are the best way on Earth to choose our leaders. This is how we elected John F. Kennedy; Ronald Reagan; two George Bushes; Bill Clinton; and Barack Obama. It has worked for decades.

We live in a representative democracy, characterized by free and fair elections and peaceful transfers of power. After most elections, roughly half of Americans are thrilled with the results; the other half are profoundly disappointed.

Needed reform of the nominating procedures has been thwarted by the individual vested interests of the DNC members in maintaining the maze of primaries and caucuses.

Every four years in the presidential election, some new precedent is broken.

In 2010, we have to focus on electing a new Congress and in 2012 we have to focus on electing a new president.

If we don't like what the Republicans do, we need to get in there and change it.

The way to lessen the grip of the Tea Party on the electoral process would be to do what a handful have done and have a primary where all voters, members of every party, can vote, and the top two vote-getters then enter a runoff.

There are ways to pursue political change. In a democracy, it's through the ballot box. There are other ways, and many democracies have many different systems of democracy.

In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms.

I have never understood the Iowa caucus.

A lot of people criticize the primaries, but I think they are absolutely essential to the education of the President of the United States.

Have election day on a weekend so that people can vote.

We have created our own monster. The three P's. Platforms, Primaries and PACs. The combination of all this reform [allows] the ideological activists of both parties to dominate the [presidential] nomination.

We don't win or lose elections because of [party] rules.

[Presidential] nominations are won consistently by the front-runners.

If the question at Chicago had been who shall be the next President? instead of who shall be the candidate? beyond all question the choice would have fallen on New York's illustrious statesman .

People don't vote parties. They vote individuals.