Paul Begala Quotes

A lot of our Democratic consultants have fallen into the self-defeating prescription that the candidate that runs the most negative ads wins. I have a new theory: Positive is the new negative.

If you're going to get into the political business, you've got to be intensively competitive.

The hardest thing in most Ottawa men's [politicians] pants is their cellular phone.

Men in political life must be ambitious.

You can make a successful run for political office without an especially thick resume, any exceptional talent for expressing yourself, a noteworthy education or for that matter a basic grasp of science.

A man’s got to walk if he is going to be in politics.

Donald Trump won the campaign, and I was empowered by Jared Kushner and lucky to be around people like Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon.

You don't need to spend tens of millions of dollars on political consultants to tell you what you think when you already know what you think.

Obama might do well to remember that his fast rise from the Illinois state Senate was due in large part to an uncanny ability to make friends and find mentors.

I think I went into poli-sci because I knew there was a stage, plus I thought I wanted to help people, and I realized in poli-sci that if you want to be a politician you're either born into it, or you've got an amazing brain, which those are rare - and I don't have one.

I think there's a lot to learn from Rockefeller on how to pass legislation.

Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle - that of obedience to their superiors.

If I was into politics, I would be rich.

We're novices. We have friends now who are part of the freshman class who in some cases have run for Congress two and three times before they won their seat.

The kind of thing I'm good at is knowing every politician in the state and remembering where he itches. And I know where to scratch him.

Mitt Romney is a nice guy. But, we know where nice guys finish in politics.

I supported Bob Schaffer's three races for Congress. But we all had concerns about whether he could win statewide. Then my wife suggested that I get it.

I talked to the rest of the nation for about ten minutes about what Lyndon Johnson was doing for the people of the Northeast. In truth, I thought I was laying it on a bit thickly. But when I returned and spoke with the President, he mentioned several points I could have added. I learned that it was simply not possible to lay it on too thickly for him (or most other politicians).

You don’t become a statesman unless you are first a good politician.

Modern politics is really a battle between lawyers and marketeers.

A great politician has to bother himself less with means than with goals.

For the politician the goal is always to be in the government.... Everything is about the struggle for office. The purpose of power, the problem to solve, is forgotten.

Anyone who gets to the top in politics is a control freak.

Most of the people who want you to run for governor want something.

In running for Congress, you have to raise over $2 million. You are going to end up shaking hands with people with whom you would rather not shake hands. 95 percent of all the candidates with the most money, win.