John Dingell Quotes

… triangulation is the idea that you demonstrate to some set of swing voters that you are politically palatable by poking the extremes of both parties in the eye.

As the Republicans run to the crazy Tea Party right, they leave behind the huge mass of genuinely moderate and independent Americans that make up the majority of voters. The ones that used to consider themselves now-extinct moderate Republicans. They're up for grabs. And the Democrats have to grab them!

We need independents, we need the GOP, we need Reagan Democrats.

I believe in operating in the big middle of the electorate and not being to the far right or the far left. I think you get so much more done.

When most presidents get in, they move to the center because they realize that this is a centrist country - even Reagan.

I think the Democratic Party has picked a lot of the wrong candidates, the kind that Middle America, or people who are more down the middle and more rational, can't side with. I think that's been the problem.

Leaders willing to demand centrist government and less alienating politics are rare. Moderation is not considered sexy; bipartisan initiatives are frequently deemed boring. Ironically, it has been left to a media celebrity to fill part of the yawning gap in the middle.

I think I'm turning into a libertarian. I'm not part of the gaggle of Hollywood liberals. I gaggle for no one, and I'm not a liberal. I'm libo-conservo-rado-middle-of-the-roado.

I think liberals would love to see the conservative party be more moderate, more middle of the road. I mean, my gosh, what do you call John McCain? Some would argue, what do you call Mitt Romney?

I don't have the luxury of just hanging out in my primary and, once I win the primary, I'm fine. I have to talk to Democrats and Republicans.

Successful presidential campaigns follow a two-part strategy. For Republicans, Richard Nixon described it as running to the right in the primaries and running back to the center in the general election. For Democrats, the idea is to go to the left in the primaries, then to the center.

Closely allied to the assumption that Democrats can't win because they're too secular is the view that they can't win if they're too liberal. This assumption has steered Hillary Clinton toward the center, following her husband. I tend to share this view myself.

What many of the Senate Democrats are taking as the lesson of this election was that Hillary Clinton is too moderate and they need to go more Elizabeth Warren, more Bernie Sanders, more extreme and on the fringes.

The most important political task facing the out-of-power party - the Democrats for now - is creating a villain to run against. It's certainly easier than developing some grand new ideas or policies on which to campaign.

If you are a Democrat, and you get less than 90% of the black vote, you are going to likely lose your election.

Romney still enjoys the Republicans' traditional advantage among voters who are veterans, but the Obama campaign is confident it can chip away at that.

My focus as part of the leadership is to keep talking about the independent voters, independent voters - how do we get the independent voters back?

We don't have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats.

Republicans are completely befuddled by Obama's 'star power' and don't seem to have a clear or effective strategy to compete.

President Johnson offered the middle of the road.

We could beat back Kennedy on Civil Rights, but Lyndon [Johnson] knows how to beat us.

You can't win with just Republican voters. You can't win with just Democratic voters. The key is the ticket splitters.

Have we come to the point where the Democratic Party needs a Republican President?

All presidential elections will ultimately be a fight for the middle.

In the United States, it is easier to take over a party than to start a party.