Peter Mandelson Quotes

The Tories, every election, must have a bogy man. If you haven't got a programme, a bogy man will do.

Let's remember that Bruce Rauner has every interest in getting stories out there that hurt Democrats.

Most pundits regard an election year session as an opportunity for the two parties to frame issues and garner political advantage in advance of the approaching election.

Only in Washington would the Republican operatives get the entire press corps ginned up over the notion that I'm going to be home campaigning instead of going to a bunch of worthless parties at a convention that's only being held to do something we all know is going to happen anyway.

Our opponents struggled manfully, desperately; but wind and tide were against them. They had campaign and other papers, good speakers, and large meetings; but we were far ahead of them in singing and electioneering emblems and mottoes which appealed to popular sympathies.

We’re going to sell Jack like soap flakes. There are no accidents in politics.

Well, you know, in any political campaign, you're gonna have people on one side that are gonna slip a reporter something because they think it'll hurt the guy on the other side.

Political parties exist to get bums on seats.

I've got a really hard election. If you had a really hard election and it was after Labor Day would you go to North Carolina to a bunch of parties and glad-handing or would you stay home and work as hard as you know how to convince Missourians they should rehire you?

Part of the reason I am so evangelical in our campaigning work is that I had an unshakeable faith in Labour values, but we needed a machine worthy of the message. I grew up with a peerless Conservative machine, with vastly superior resources.

Downplaying their faults is pretty much the point of campaigns. But we do count on them living with the constant terror of public rejection.

‘If you want Colonies for your Sons, vote Conservative!’ ‘To Vote for a Liberal is to Vote for a Boer!’

It's always useful for a politician to bash Congress.

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

Elections are about fucking your enemies. Winning is about fucking your friends.

Modern politics is really a battle between lawyers and marketeers.

Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers.

Nobody understood how to use television for his own purposes better than Nixon, despite his poor showing against John F. Kennedy in the televised presidential debate.

Don't fall in love with the map. The map doesn't win elections.

Now, one of my beliefs, one of my theorems that I have evolved over the years is that when it comes to Democrats and the media they will always tell us who they fear. And all we have to do to learn that is look at who they're trying to damage and/or destroy.

I don't really think it's appropriate for me to be picking and choosing in the primaries. It's pretty dumb politics for a Republican to choose between Republicans in a contested primary because obviously you're going to be offending some people.

One of the favorite tricks of the Democrats is to try to get the Republicans to pass over their strongest candidate and nominate instead a candidate who will be easy to beat.

I've worked on enough campaigns to know that the most aggrieved candidate rarely emerges victorious.

It is the BJP's duty to criticise and oppose me. I have no problem with that.

There's an old saying in politics: You never run the same race twice. Democrats are running the same race three, four, five times. It's an old ploy, and Coloradans see through it.