Ed Rendell Quotes

One of the most overused phrases in political commentary is that someone is running a 'negative' campaign filled with 'attack' ads.

Negative campaigning is wrong.

People do not like negative campaigns.

The infamous political ads like Carly Fiorina's 'Demon Sheep' and Christine O'Donnell's 'I Am Not a Witch' are so confusing, it's almost like they were paid for by Democrats.

In a political campaign, you take your position; you stay strong with it. And the Clinton campaign put out tons of stuff that was not true about Donald Trump and who President Trump is.

I think sometimes negative campaigning, like so much, is in the eye of the beholder, and I don't think we'll ever get rid of it.

There's a reason people run negative ads... it's because they work.

Anyone who thinks that negative campaigning is a modern invention has never read the nineteenth century press

I'm not the inventor of negative campaigning, but I'm an ardent practitioner.

[Criticizing Republican attacks:] The politics of smear and fear are not worthy of this republic.

The problem with smear campaigns is that too often they work

There was a slow-motion swift boating of Hillary Clinton in '15.

Even though voters overwhelmingly dislike negative ads, they do influence voters' opinions about a candidate.

I think what people are really crying out for is simple information they can trust when they're bombarded by attack ads, fundraising pitchers and all sort of comment and opinion all over the place increasingly.

I don't think people in Hawaii like negative ads, whether it's done by an independent group or whether it's done by the campaign itself.

In an interview with a journalist, you look petty taking the pot shot but in a slick ad you can really do damage - including unfair damage - from afar. It is not that much different than waging a war by a drone than by hand-to-hand combat.

Political commercials encourage the deceptive, the destructive and the degrading.

I had to learn early on that where conservatives are concerned, the truth about them is the last thing anybody wants to report. It's the lies and distortions, the mischaracterizations, the character assassinations, that people want to report.

I said during the course of the campaign I didn't like it and I don't like the idea of having an opponent's picture on your ads and it would be nice to see candidates sign a pledge like that.

President Obama has been attacking relentlessly. In 2008 he said that if you're out of fresh ideas you use stale tactics against your opponent - you try and make your opponent unacceptable and that's what he is trying to do.

When campaigns use one-word labels, typically it's meant to distract and destroy.

Despite all the public hand-wringing about negative advertising, political veterans will tell you that it persists because, more often than not, it works. But tearing down the other guy has another attraction: It can be a substitute for building much of a case for what the mudslinger will do once in office.

I've never, in my whole 30 years in office, run a negative ad.

Our nation stands at a fork in the political road. In one direction lies a land of slander and scare; the land of sly innuendo, the poison pen, the anonymous phone call and hustling, pushing, shoving; the land of smash and grab and anything to win. This is Nixonland. America is something different.

Politics ... is going to be diluted down into a 10-second window, where you whack the guy as hard as you can and then get out of there.