Gerhard Schroder Quotes

Could it be that my indictment -- curiously issued two weeks before the Democratic National Convention -- is largely political?

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

One of the hardest things in politics is getting a democracy to deal with something now where the payoff is long term or the price of inaction is decades away.

As a scientist, the starting point is always the facts of the matter, whereas often, in politics, the starting point is how does this play in the next election.

If more politicians in this country were thinking about the next generation instead of the next election, it might be better for the United States and the world.

I think, first of all, you know, Washington has a bad habit of a very short attention span.

Washington - having spent a lot of time there, I grew up there and have spent a lot of time there recently - is largely defined by detailed analytical views and policy choices that are not very good. You know, each policy choice has a winner and a loser, right? Somebody's ox is getting gored.

Because each are going to blame each other. The thing that Canberra has to really get right is the sharing of the resource. But my problem with people in the government who are there for a short time is that there's no consequences for some of these decisions they make.

A week is a long time in politics.

As the governor of this state, I obviously see the issue quite differently.

Short-term thinking is the greatest enemy of good government.

When you see how the President makes political or policy decisions, you see who he is. The essence of the Presidency is decision-making.

In the wake of the Iraq war, it has become clear that official intelligence analysis was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community’s own work was politicized.

There is only one conflict, and that’s between short-term and long-term thinking.

The last thing you want is to have to make a decision for political purposes.

The [political] system is too responsive now. It responds to every short term whim without regard to the long term.

Politics is about timing and situations.

We always defer … kick the can down the road. The only way you get into trouble in politics is to make choices.

Arguments are made in Washington with very few facts behind them.

We see governments come and go.

Europe has a lot of problems when there are sudden decisions to take.

The need to incorporate longer term time scales into our societal choices is very real—and right in the lap of our generation.

The pressure of time, is the overwhelming challenge for policymakers who must act on assessments that cannot be proved at the time and whose mistakes are irretrievable.

Politics or ideology must not get in the way of sound planning..

One of the things you get caught up as a coach is thinking short-term.