Joe Scarborough Quotes

Mudslinging – In politics, anything bad the opponent says about our candidate; in contrast, when our candidate does this, it is called 'making a good point.

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

In politics, a lie unanswered becomes truth within 24 hours.

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

It wouldn’t hurt to remind the voters of what scoundrels your opponents are and to smear them at every opportunity….

My first campaign was pretty ugly: the incumbent came after me hard with a lot of things that weren't true.

I think all politicians lie.

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

I have become an adjective. There is something called a Rovian-style of campaigning and it's meant as an insult. One columnist said it consists mainly of throwing mud until it sticks. One prominent blogger described the elements of a textbook Rovian race as fear-based, smear-based and anything goes.

When people see political ads, they think someone's lying to them.

The permanent campaign is inherently deceptive.

I know every politician spins the truth a little.

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.

There's so much mudslinging going on, and people get so turned off by that. It seems like neither party is aware of that. They're too concerned with blasting each other.

Mr. Gingrich's injunction represents the worst of American political discourse, which reached a low during the dispiriting presidential campaign of 1988. Then, more than ever before, negative argument displaced reasoned discussion about how a nation might best be governed. The sound bite reigned. Attack commercials flourished. The signs this year aren't any better. Evidence that negative campaigning can come back to sink the sender has had little impact. The races for governor in California and Texas have already seen the same slash and burn. No doubt the proceedings will grow more rabid still as November nears. Negative discourse serves democracy poorly. The temptation to avoid serious debate is already great. It increases as the stakes soar and slander becomes a rewarding, easy option. The issues of the day go untended. The whole affair takes on the character of the gladiator's art. The GOPAC glossary may herald a descent into even lower levels of discourse. It comes blessed by a politician of some influence—the Republican whip in the House—and it is intended for candidates on the state level, many of them presumably running for the first time. Even though Mr. Gingrich himself may not have seen the list before it was mailed, this is a disturbing document. The nakedness of the GOPAC offering also makes it useful. There must be limits to the negative politics that voters will bear; the bald appeal to invective will certainly probe those limits. For now, it should be said that some adjectives in the glossary aptly describe the glossary itself: shallow, sensationalist, and, yes, shame(ful).

If a negative ad is run against you and you don't answer it, it becomes the truth.

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

Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man of my party who attacks with … vile, foul slander and abuse any opponents of another party.

Half the lies our opponents tell about us are not true.

New developments in negative advertising like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth allow a campaign to hurl invective while shielding the candidate from any association with such strategies.

Politics these days is a disgusting game of mudslinging, filled with selfish people with selfish aims.

There is a lot of spinning and a lot of lying in our times—in politics, in government, in sports and everywhere. It’s gotten to the point where … you no longer believe the first version of anything. It wasn’t always that way. I guess it started for me with Vietnam, when the establishment felt it had to lie to justify a policy that as it turned out was never going to work.

In campaigns, lots of things will be said, and what they have said about my husband is just simply not true.

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.

President Trump not only lies with astonishing temerity and abandon, but those lies connect into equally false narratives that gin up the worst fears and prejudices of his base.