Barack Obama Quotes

President Clinton does not use polls to reach positions. He takes positions and then uses the polls to survive the experience.

Forget the consultants, the pundits and the pollsters; good policy is good politics.

The art of politics is knowing what to do next.

In politics a capable ruler must be guided by circumstances, conjectures and conjunctions.

In politics, as in business, leadership is crucial.

President Obama's biggest weakness is weakness.

Running for president is hard. But it's good preparation. Because being president is a lot harder.

If I worried about pollsters, I wouldn't be president.

Leaders respond when they perceive that there will be a political cost of inaction.

When politicians try to govern by raising a wet finger to the wind or on the basis of public opinion polling, the public gets to think that all leaders are interchangeable.

If you're in politics and you can't tell when you walk into a room who's for you and who's against you, then you're in the wrong line of work.

I'd rather be underestimated by the polltakers than by the voters.

In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

It is impossible for a Minister to please the many without displeasing the few

I would not attribute any strategic thinking to Trump.

Leadership is important in politics.

As a politician, I should expect sharp challenge from those who disagree with my decisions.

Popularity has always been the key currency in choosing a president.

Timing is very important in politics.

I don't look at polls.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

It's so much easier to throw rocks than it is to govern.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

I think politicians do great things in the world, but I don't think they're the only ones who can. I don't like all the rhetoric and the finger pointing.