Ted Kulongoski Quotes

I think President Obama is a committed, practicing nonideologue. He's consumed by neither tactics nor ideology. He is more concerned about outcomes than he is about process and categorizations.

When people ask me if I'm liberal or conservative, I say, 'Yeah.' I'm both of them. To be a liberal means to be open-minded and generous and open to new ideas. And to be conservative means to hold onto things that are important, things that shouldn't be cast aside.

I'm an independent, straight in the middle. I've donated to candidates that I thought would be good that are Republican and Democrats alike.

I'm conservative on some things, and I'm not on others.

People ask me if I'm liberal or conservative. I say neither - I'm pragmatic.

will anything but fanaticism make for change? Wisdom and compromise come later.

I could never be a member of a single party. I want the best of all worlds, thank you.

By temperament and disposition and emotions, I'm a liberal; but in my beliefs about what's best for the country, I'm a centrist.

I'm just not a purist. You set goals and you have to work with everyone to figure out how to get what you can.

Moderates tend more than ideologues to be other-directed types who respond to external pressure.

Sometimes a little compromise isn't a bad thing. You don't need to be precious about it.

A man who has both feet planted firmly in the air can be safely called a liberal as opposed to the conservative, who has both feet firmly planted in his mouth.

I'll work with anyone - and I really do mean that - Democrat, Republican, independent, Libertarian, contrarian, vegetarian.

While splendidly progressive it is at the same time, amply conservative and sound.

[Ideological] Purity is fine but it doesn’t win elections and is not a governing strategy. Compromise is required.

I'm quite moderate.

I like to be an optimist, but I like to be a realist, too.

I would consider myself more a passionate centrist.

A good conservative is someone with an open mind.

One cannot be dogmatic about the right solution.

People ask me, "Are you right wing or are you left wing?" and I always say, "I'm for the whole bird." A one-winged bird didn't ever get off the ground.

I'm convinced that the most important division in human affairs is probably not the one between left and right, liberal and conservative. It's the one between zealotry and understanding, between absolute conviction and compromise, between preachers and politicians.

You have to maintain your principles but have a broader appeal.

You can cooperate and not compromise your core values. But I'm a realist with the philosophy that sometimes you've got to take bites out of the apple instead of the whole apple.

I am neither left wing nor right wing. I am middle-of-the-bird.