Frank Bruni Quotes

I will continue to work with the Republican Party to try to encourage primaries.

You have had presidential candidates over the last 30 years who would have had a very hard time getting nominated under the old system. One example is John Kennedy.

If we go by the National Popular Vote, we'll get more people voting.

A lot of people criticize the primaries, but I think they are absolutely essential to the education of the President of the United States.

The people who vote in the primaries are at the ideological edge of their party.

The political parties have no role except to stage the conventions, where you celebrate a decision that's already been made elsewhere.

Look at those Republican [Presidential Primary Nomination] debates. I feel embarrassed as an American when I hear them orate.

It is true that in some states the only important vote is the primary, when you choose between different members of the same party. In these states, where our two-party system usually does not function, it is important that everyone vote in the primaries. Elsewhere throughout the country, citizens should vote both in the primaries and in the final election, for where the two-party system works they will always have a choice between party candidates.

As far as party primaries are concerned, both Republican and Democratic Party primaries are dominated by the most zealous voters, whose views may not reflect the views of most members of their own respective parties, much less the views of those who are going to vote in the November general election. In recent times, each election year has seen each party's nominee selected - or at least subject to veto - by its most extreme wing and then forced to try to move back to the center before the general election. This can only undermine the public's confidence in the integrity of the candidates of both parties.

The people who show up at the early primaries are very passionate and not much interested in compromise.

Primaries are the place where you see whose message is connecting with the largest number of people.

I think the trend to move towards caucuses and conventions, whether to nominate senators, governors or presidential nominees, I think the move towards caucuses and conventions is a very bad one, and that our party should reward those states that spend the time and money to have primaries.

The good thing about having a Republican primary is that the voters will decide our nominee - unlike the Democrats.

My problem anywhere is the damn Republicans closed out the independents from being able to vote in the primary.

I strongly favor shortening the campaign season and putting more primaries and caucuses on the same day, preferably regionally.

Is there any other democracy where the voters are as spoiled as they are in the United States? Especially, of course, in certain states, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where the old joke is literally true about the citizens who say they haven't yet formed an opinion about a candidate because they've only met the fellow a few times.

Whenever we do voter registration, we ask, 'Why haven't you voted before?' The response is often, 'No one's asked us.' It's not about telling people what to do - it's about sharing what they can do.

People are motivated to vote early, to defend core American values.

I think that [Barack] Obama was elected because young people are starting to get interested in their country and I think that's a very healthy thing.

[People] are ready to go out and vote. There's a difference between being ready and energized and actually going out and voting.

People in debt become hopeless and hopeless people don't vote. They always say that that everyone should vote but I think that if the poor in Britain or the United States turned out and voted for people that represented their interests there would be a real democratic revolution.

The biggest story in all of politics are the millions of people that are coming out to vote for me, in all fairness, for the Republican Party.

In my view, republican primary debates ought to be moderated by people who would vote in a primary.

We do have some people that have never voted before.

People in Congress are willing to shut down the entire government or to make it impossible for a Supreme Court nominee to get a hearing or for routine appointments in the executive branch to go unfilled for years because of a hold placed by a senator.