Ed Koch Quotes

I was at the 1976 Republican Convention in Kansas City. I was running 'Nobody for President' at the time. I printed up these press releases and handed them out to the crowd at the Kemper Arena. 'Nobody keeps campaign promises.' 'Nobody lowers your taxes.' 'Nobody should have that much power.' 'Nobody is in Washington working for you.'

In 2008 all the stars aligned perfectly for Obama's 6-point victory over John McCain. He was an inexperienced, untested neophyte, and successfully convinced enough voters to paint their own version of what hope-and-change was all about on the blank canvas he provided.

People may have their opinions about Senator Helms, but he was highly effective and he took care of his constituency. I learned all those lessons from him, and I bring a great deal to the table because of that.

If you [as a Presidential candidate] identify a problem, you are going to be expected to have a solution.

The only problem with running for office is, once you are elected you have to serve.

From now on, I think it is safe to predict, neither the Democratic nor the Republican Party will ever nominate for President a candidate without good looks, stage presence, theatrical delivery, and a sense of timing.

The No. 1 thing I want a voter to think about when they see my name, or hear my name, is what I stand for, and what I want to do for them and their family while elected.

I respect Sen. Elliott and expect that she will be a strong opponent.

We have to be very realistic as a party as to what we're promising Canadians going into the 2019 election.

Having the ability to inspire a crowd and connect with voters doesn't mean a person has the skills to appease those same voters once in office.

Members of Congress are less beasts of accumulating burden than computational machines designed to win re-election. Their sense of their own political interests is acute.

Ralph Nader has slavery reparations on his platform, which makes me think he's not serious. If he thought he could win he wouldn't even say that.

It was gonna be a race [2016] that set a foundation for the Left in the future. But given the math, I didn't think he was gonna make it. And so I started to shift to Hillary [Clinton] and to discussions of the platform and discussions of what to do.

If you're running to be president of the United States, you can't just tell people you're going to make America great again. I think you need to begin to explain exactly how you're going to do it policy-wise. We're not going to win a general election with a candidate that refuses to detail policy.

John Spratt did a great job of constituent service. When somebody had a problem, he would jump on it. The reason I ran against him was that he was one way in the district and then when he got to Washington, he voted the opposite.

If I'm going to compare myself to a candidate, it's Rick Scott. It's not Donald Trump.

In campaigns, promises are usually treated skeptically. Past positions are viewed as the one reliable way to gauge a candidate's instincts.

We're running in a primary election. What do you do? You go out and seek support. When you're getting support, that's good. When you're not getting support, that's bad.

Every decision I make in Congress will be centered on the needs of the district.

When you are in election mode, you are focused only on winning.

The good and the bad news is that politicians rarely do what they say they are going to do when they campaign.

Vladimir Putin will be up for reelection, and he has shifted his whole political strategy inside of Russia from one where he promised the Russians pretty much a chicken in every pot, a better economic way of life.

If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises. I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency. I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one womanmy dear wifeas I begin this very difficult job.

I think I have this old-fashioned idea that when you are asking people to vote for you, it is kind of like a big job interview, and you oughta tell people what you think you can do for them. I think we can create more economic opportunity. I think we can improve education, make college affordable, deal with the myriad of issues that we confront.

There's a normal tendency in the campaign, during a crisis, for the country to rally around the White House. vThat may help Al Gore in this campaign, but on the other hand, George W. Bush handled himself so well the other night on foreign policy that I think it fortified him just before this crisis broke.