Rebecca Traister Quotes

The language of America changed with the election of Bill Clinton, because with all due respect to my friends on the Republican side, Bill Clinton is the best communicator of the last 50 years. He felt your pain.

Everyone in politics turns to the press, if only to manipulate it or deflect it.

People don't want to believe they have to speak like Obama or Clinton to participate meaningfully in politics, because most of us don't speak like Obama or Clinton.

Some politicians that I've seen have been brilliant with the public. They almost speak with the skill of an actor.

Modern political speechwriting is not a high-minded pursuit for brilliant talents.

No politician has ever been defeated by a speech he didn’t give.

Theodore Roosevelt may have invented the sound byte.

I did not see my job as Press Secretary as to help the press. My job was to help get Tony Brown and the Labour Party elected.

In politics, you don’t have to love the press; you don’t even have to like the press, but you sure as hell have to feed the press.

Every successful president has suffered imputations that he has in sinister fashion charmed the press or used a new medium of communication (radio, television, the Internet) to claim an undeserved standing.

To be sure, every White House tries to limit its exposure to difficult and distracting questions. The Obama administration was scrutinized for its use of late night shows and YouTube chats to get the president's message across in low-risk situations.

I've always been a believer that if you're not interested in talking to the media, you shouldn't be running for Senate in the first place, or you're kind of missing out on one of the key components is to get your message out of what you want to do.

Selling and telling are two different things. In politics, we sell ideas.

Many people in public life are not good campaigners.

Trump loves the media. Trump understands the power it has and, accordingly, loves the people who have media power.

Speeches are more important in politics than talking points, as a rule, and are better remembered.

I've always talked to the media. I'm pretty respectful to the media.

Reagan didn't socialize with the press. He spent his evenings with Nancy, watching TV with dinner trays. But he knew that to transcend, you can't condescend.

Obama's stern demeanor punctuated by intermittent flashes of his wide, relaxing smile is his greatest weapon in defusing pent-up angst.

It is essential for politicians to make a connection with us, as Franklin Roosevelt did, as Teddy Roosevelt did, as John F. Kennedy did, as Ronald Reagan did.

Modern political speechwriting is certainly a skill, and one that requires experience and practice to master.

I think for more than half of my career, I have refrained from talking to the media.

Being a press secretary is like learning to type: You're hunting and pecking for a while and then you find yourself doing the touch system and don't realize it. You're speaking for the president without ever having to go to him.

Did I say that the President's entire job is image management? Of course not.

If it were the Clinton people, they'd be sitting around figuring out how to pull themselves out. Instead the president is continuing to go around the country and peddling Social Security, which the needle is not moving on.