James Carville Quotes

Presidential nomination debates have turned into mud wrestling instead of expositions of the candidates’ views.

A political campaign should be an education for both the voters and the candidates.

Candidates talk about issues that voters want to hear about.

Every presidential election I've ever been involved with has been characterized as the dirtiest campaign in history.

Elections matter, but how much they matter depends entirely on how free, open and fair they are.

Memo to White House: Calling voters stupid is not a winning strategy.

It seems to me that election season is just a Petri dish for anger and cynicism.

Mr. Gingrich's injunction represents the worst of American political discourse, which reached a low during the dispiriting presidential campaign of 1988. Then, more than ever before, negative argument displaced reasoned discussion about how a nation might best be governed. The sound bite reigned. Attack commercials flourished. The signs this year aren't any better. Evidence that negative campaigning can come back to sink the sender has had little impact. The races for governor in California and Texas have already seen the same slash and burn. No doubt the proceedings will grow more rabid still as November nears. Negative discourse serves democracy poorly. The temptation to avoid serious debate is already great. It increases as the stakes soar and slander becomes a rewarding, easy option. The issues of the day go untended. The whole affair takes on the character of the gladiator's art. The GOPAC glossary may herald a descent into even lower levels of discourse. It comes blessed by a politician of some influence—the Republican whip in the House—and it is intended for candidates on the state level, many of them presumably running for the first time. Even though Mr. Gingrich himself may not have seen the list before it was mailed, this is a disturbing document. The nakedness of the GOPAC offering also makes it useful. There must be limits to the negative politics that voters will bear; the bald appeal to invective will certainly probe those limits. For now, it should be said that some adjectives in the glossary aptly describe the glossary itself: shallow, sensationalist, and, yes, shame(ful).

The election campaign is no time to get involved in very, very serious issues.

American politics shows again and again that the best explanation is an accusation.

For an office-seeker [candidate], sticks and stones are greatly to be preferred to an adhesive adjective.

Vilifying members of other political parties is a puerile exercise.

This race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks, not worthy of the American people and not worthy of this critical time in our nation’s history.

So long as we have government by party, the very notion of repose must be foreign to English politics. Agitation is, so to speak, endowed in this country. There is a standing machinery for producing it. There are rewards which can only be obtained by men who excite the public mind, and devise means of persuading one set of persons that they are deeply injured by another.

We need to recognize that, whether you're looking at Georgia or North Carolina or North Dakota or Florida, that the disenfranchisement of voters, the suppression of votes, cuts across every community, and therefore, it cuts across partisanship.

My policies and my record are very clear that I have made it easier to vote. We have made the elections process more accessible to people in Georgia, not less, despite their rhetoric.

I'm going to continue to do the work we're doing on voter suppression, supporting the work that's being done by Fair Count, ensuring a fair Census count.

It's fascinating watching the debates [of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump], with the search for the new president. It's like a car crash, unfolding in front of your eyes. The level of personal attacks!

All the blood is drained out of democracy - it dies - when only half the population votes.

Politicians always criticize each other in different ways.

In terms of the ability to go out and win - this is why you have campaigns. You go out, and you take your issues to voters, and you put them out there, and people respond, or they don't.

We have a system that allows us to manage a free and fair election, free of fraud, free of intimidation, and that's what we delivered on election day, and we're very very proud of it.

Every vote counts and every vote must be counted.

Nobody ever won an election by spitting at his political opponents.

Organising free and fair elections is more important than the result itself.