Mark McKinnon Quotes

I'm a politician. What I say is not holy writ.

The State of the Union is less written than it is designed, structured and organized around applause prompts and camera cues.

How many State of the Union addresses do people remember? They don't resonate that way.

Bunkum Darlington, who sat close to Walker in the House changed the spelling and gave it its generalized meaning of political rhetoric for the folks back home.]

The Republican National Convention was a rage-athon featuring a parade of hemorrhoidal has-beens.

The entire purpose of the State of the Union Address is for the president to outline where we stand as a nation.

The Republicans have a “me too” candidate running on a “yes but” platform, advised by a “has been” staff.

I'm hearing echoes of Bill Clinton, circa 1996, in President Obama's reelection rhetoric.

You know the bark is worse than the bite in D.C.

Politicians are just Daily Mail journalists writ large, aren't they? They're always telling us what's going to happen, and we know they don't know!

It is clear to me that Democrats want to attack me rather than debate Sen. McCain on important economic issues facing the country. That kind of distraction hurts not only Sen. McCain's ability to present concrete programs to deal with the country's problems; it hurts the country.

It is kind of tedious after a while, to parse politicians doing the same thing over and over again. The facts change from week to week, but the sort of masquerade doesn't.

A nation can't get strong on political pablum.

American politics is theatre. There is a frightening emotionalism at national conventions.

The problems seem so easy out there on the stump. Deficits shrink with a rhetorical flourish.

The best time to listen to a politician is when he's on a stump on a street corner in the rain late at night when he's exhausted. Then he doesn't lie.

Politicians often confuse what sounds good with what really works.

People [in politics] do go on and talk.

What Mr. [Robert F.] Kennedy says lacks only the merit of being true ... Bobby Kennedy can jump off the capital dome or whatever else he has to do to get the attention of the American people.

Precisely because our political speeches are meant to be reported, they are not worth reporting. Precisely because they are carefully designed to be read, nobody reads them.

Is that a politician’s ‘No’?

When I hear things like 'unpatriotic,' I just chalk it up to a lot of political rhetoric.

The shelf life of a seventh-year State of the Union address is about five minutes. Presidents can propose stuff. They're probably not likely to get it done.

At these big set-piece events like the leaders' debates, that exterior of calm and serenity is nothing compared to what's going on inside most of the time.

Political speeches might represent the ideas of the politician at hand, but often times, it's not written in their own words.