Fred Barnes Quotes

The pundit world, having spent years in awe of Karl Rove, will never understand how bad he is at his White House job.

In the media's eyes Bannon made Trump. Trump is too dumb to have made himself. Trump is too rough around the edges. Trump is not a deep enough thinker, and he's not nearly a brilliant strategist. Trump couldn't have gotten himself elected. That's what they all think. Bannon did that.

Truth is stranger than nonfiction. And life is too interesting to be left to journalists. People have stories, but journalists have 'takes,' and it's their takes that usually win out when the stories are too complicated or, as happens, not complicated enough.

Alinsky's 1971 book, 'Rules for Radicals,' is a favorite of the Obamas. Michele Obama quoted it at the Democratic Convention. One Alinsky tactic is to 'Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.' That's what the White House did in targeting Rush Limbaugh, Rick Santelli and Jim Cramer.

Most of the press is in league with government, or with the status quo.

I think that people like Bloomberg, they're complete thugs. No question about it. But on the other hand, it must be said that they are politically savvy. They don't get into those positions of power - in the case of Bloomberg, both economic and political power - by being anybody's fool.

Ah, political physics. Someone wins an election and, poof, they are a candidate for vice president. Ridiculous.

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.

I love Karl Rove. He elected Bush.

I think Karl Rove saw that in George W. Bush early on and understood the impact that he could have on Texas politics and probably on national politics.

The people who run campaigns today have more iron control over the campaign than they did 20 or 30 years ago.

If you would know the depth of meanness of human nature, you have got to be a prime minister running for a general election.

In order to govern you have to feed the news cycle

I knew Saleh well, having interviewed and met with him several times. He was a professional Machiavelli, fluent in all forms for political maneuvering.

Let's remember that Bruce Rauner has every interest in getting stories out there that hurt Democrats.

Steve Bannon was my right-hand man. He didn't like me to say it, but he was on my payroll.

When you lose power, then all of a sudden, the press are lions. When you have power, the press are lambs.

No matter the candidate, every detail in a campaign is carefully and strategically framed for our consumption. The devil is in them.

Trump and Yanukovych have shared the same political brain: an operative named Paul Manafort.

Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi go to the White House for dinner, and the immediate belief they had is, "Oh, they're gonna smoke Donald Trump. This is not even a fair fight. Trump doesn't even know what's coming."

Lee Atwater,[Ronald] Reagan's strategist, had no patience for CPAC, because he thought they were sort of wild and immature, basically.

The most powerful weapon deployed by the Clintons is the corporate media, the press.

As truth is Washington's worst enemy, everyone associated with the truth is Washington's enemy.

Howard Dean is no longer the brilliant mastermind of the Fifty State Strategy that enabled the Democrats to storm the White House and Congress. He's the idiot wearing an ugly sweatshirt.

I have no doubt that the Congress is active in manipulative politics.