Lee Hsien Loong Quotes

One of the reasons a strategist never sits in a stadium and gets caught up in the crowds - and never sits watching a debate in person - is because the vast majority of American voters watch these political events on television.

Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That's the only way you can get elected.

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.

One of the great cliches of campaign journalism is the notion that American elections have long since ceased to be about issues and ideas.

Practical politics is the politics of the coming election.

In politics, familiarity doesn't breed contempt. It breeds votes.

There is always a gap between what candidates say in the heat of the campaign, when they are not constrained by the realities of governance, and how they act after being sworn into office.

In politics, you have to understand that there are some cases where you'll never be able to get votes.

There is no Modi wave. He has to attend so many rallies because there is no wave and also, BJP doesn't have a face to project.

I hate to rain on anyone's parade or burst the enthusiasm bubble, but talk is especially cheap during an election season.

Politicians do not like to alienate voters no matter how lofty the goals.

Almost every politician running for office comes out with a set of plans so that they can demonstrate how serious they are about fixing the state’s problems. But once the election is over and the candidate takes his or her oath, you rarely here a peep about those plans again. They end up on a shelf somewhere gathering dust.

We do not expect much from a pre-election [American] government. It is hostage to the election process.

You cannot take any statement very seriously when it is made in an election context.

[Commenting on negative campaigning:] On the eve of the first Tuesday in November, once again we are faced with the ugly paradox of 30-second-spot democracy: to prove they are worthy of governing us in all that we hold dear, America's politicians must behave in a way that proves they aren't.

Pete Wilson was never more than the sum total of his focus groups.

The First Law of Politics: Never say anything in a national campaign that anyone might remember.

We elect people who are good at getting elected rather than good at representing.

No amount of promises to the needy at election time will make the wrong policies rights; nor would lessen the enormous price we have to pay for them.

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

When you run a campaign the idea is not to appeal to pundits but to appeal to people.

There are certain elections where policy matters more than others….Personality without a platform will not cut it.

Every four years, presidents claim more than they have accomplished; opponents portray alternative policies in terms that can only later lead to disillusion.

Party platforms are reasonable exercises but nobody pays much attention to them.

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