Bob Schieffer Quotes

In this digital age, there is no place to hide behind public relations people. This digital age requires leaders to be visible and authentic and to be able to communicate the decisions they've made and why they've made them, to be able to acknowledge when they've made a mistake and to move forward, to engage in the debate.

My view is different. Public relations are a key component of any operation in this day of instant communications and rightly inquisitive citizens.

A President has to do the image stuff that will help him so that he can do the substantive things he wants to do.

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.

Where would anyone in publicity be if they allowed sensitivity, restraint, breeding or good taste to stand in their way?

Always maintain good relations with your public.

I'm a really big believer - this is not a statement about President [Barack] Obama, but whoever is president - that good policy is really important.

Every plausible policy must be followed by the question 'And then what?'

You know, there are certain things that make for good sound bites but don't always translate into good policy.

In the end, rational policy is always good.

When in doubt, one can rarely go wrong by going public.

People are terrified for their own reputations. They want the press on their side.

I'm not one who goes for the 'all press is good press' dictum.

I'm happy to do interviews from time to time, but I don't find them that necessary - and that hasn't seemed to have affected people's understanding of our work.

Never believe people in this business who say they don't read what's written about them.

I think if I had to do it over again, I'd do it the same way. I would just put more resources into getting the public diplomacy part much stronger than we were able to.

There are a lot of public figures who, before they take a stand on a issue, they talk about it with their publicist and they figure out how it's going to affect record sales. Life is really too short to worry about that sort of thing.

You are always trying to please people before you get to the public whenever you do anything that requires a corporate body to sanction it.

Overall, I'm not upset at the press.

See that the President, the Cabinet and staff are informed. If cut out of the information flow, their decisions may be poor, not made, or not confidently or persuasively implemented.

Because the task of a political leader is to do what he believes is better for his country. Sometimes the public opinion is in favor; sometimes the public opinion needs a little bit more time to understand things.

Forget the consultants, the pundits and the pollsters; good policy is good politics.

A wise governor told me a long time ago, political capital you don't get more of by keeping it. You get it by using it.

People at Facebook are fairly used to the press being nice to us or not nice to us.

Good policy makes good politics and what I've done has been good politics.