Ron Fournier Quotes

There are no techniques in politics.

At the start of his second term, one wonders less about Obama's fitness than his willingness: Why doesn't he do more to build and maintain the relationships required to govern in era of polarization?

A politician rises on the backs of his friends ... but it is through his enemies he will have to govern afterwards.

Politics and strategy are one.

It's very interesting how Washington works. It's not about speeches. It's about relationships.

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

It's interesting to play a politician who gets stuff done.

I have good relationships with Hillary Clinton, Joseph Biden and especially Richard Holbrooke - he is my teacher. I learned a lot of great things from him.

When you come down to the short strokes in Washington DC, you have to have power.

I never had a political power base.

The problem is Donald Trump was an outsider to politics. He really didn't have a team of seasoned political veterans around him who had worked together and knew how to work together and get something done.

I didn't have any idea what politics was like. I was surprised at how difficult it is to get something done. In the private world, if I have an idea, I just do it.

Politics is about realities, not logic.

Politics in Philadelphia is a contact sport.

Most politicians - those people who live, eat and breathe politics - like to sit around and talk about politics and tell political war stories. Reagan didn't do that. His war stories were movie war stories and Hollywood war stories. He loved that.

I knew Barack Obama, absolutely. And I knew him probably as well as thousands of other Chicagoans.

In politics, madame, you need two things: friends, but above all an enemy.

I have a direct line with Obama. It's a crucial link. And I can put Spain in the spotlight.

Politics is about putting yourself in a state of grace.

Politics is a contact sport.

And I remember looking at Gray Davis and, you know, Gray is the consummate political operative.

Foreign politicians don't have resources - or limited resources. It's useless dealing with them.

In the end, I think part of my problem was that I was a better legislator than I was a politician.

Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?