George Ryan Quotes

It’s always open season on the personal lives of presidents or presidential candidates.

Modern candidates seem to have to live with political matters all the time. In my father's time, a politician's home was still his castle.

You live by the media, you live by the polls, you've got to suffer by the polls, too.

When politicians complain about the media, it strikes me as resembling footballers complaining about the umpire.

I mean, the part you don't like, I mean, that's the only part. That's the part no one likes, and that is the criticisms, and the unfair criticisms, I might add, of my husband. But that's also just a fact of life in politics.

If we could have somehow stayed away from the public and the press, it might have been different, but every private issue seemed to be played out on the front page.

The margin of error when working on the White House staff is zero. Any mistake you make will wind up on the front page of the Washington Post.

What matters to the press matters perforce to politicians.

In any operation as large as that of the federal government there are always going to be anomalies, mistakes and peccadilloes. The trick is to incite so much public (or at least media) outrage about them that the government has eventually to cut its losses rather than risk continued political damage.

If you’re going to be in national politics you have to maintain a thick skin.

Hillary Clinton, because she's the Democrats' presumptive 2016 front-runner, has become the target du jour. Frankly, I don't know how public figures get through it.

Journalism and the news has become not only a means to debate but also to judge and deconstruct celebrity, the news story, and the emotional lives of political people.

The topic of Sarah Palin has been open season to the media, entertainment industry, and club comics alike.

I don't want to be on the bandwagon of dogging any president or anybody in positions where they have all these different constituencies.

You can get from a politician whatever you demand in this country. The great irony is that everybody complains about how it runs but not enough people direct their force and power directly at the politicians and make demands upon them. Ours is a system that abhors remoteness. If you're remote from this political system, it'll kill you.

What public men, whether in or out of office, must avoid, is the making of predictions. This is what is called, in their own language, " committing themselves," and is never done without the greatest caution and necessity; and, therefore, whenever public men choose to put themselves at issue with the ministers, and hazard predictions, they become from that moment entitled to the praise of superior wisdom or not, just as their expectations are or are not verified by the event.

What the electorate gives, the electorate can take away

Rahul Gandhi gets a copy of every programme that has been started by the Centre during Parliamentary procedure, but he has got no time to read. He has got time to go to night clubs.

Being under the political spotlight is far different than anything I'd experienced before. Every word is a critical word. Sometimes you really aren't allowed to get your full thought out. A lot of it is about having a 30-second sound bite.

I think it's really tough being in Donald Trump's shoes, when you've got the media looking to put the worst possible spin to everything that you say.

Is there some reason why the quality of people going into the parliament is not as high? I don't know the complete answer, but I think - in fact, I'm sure - that part of it is the increasing intrusiveness of the media - the general media and social media - into the private lives of politicians and their families.

Bruce Rauner needs to lead, and until he does, we must fight to hold him accountable.

I don't get bothered by the media. There is nothing in the media that makes me lose any sleep at night.

I don't understand these politicians who want to be president and complain when they get a tough interview.

My readers know my views on politics and politicians because I make no secret of them in my comments for 'The New Yorker' and elsewhere.