Paul Begala Quotes

Let's just do what is right for the American people. And those of us who are involved in politics and government know that our responsibility is to the American people, that we have a responsibility to find our common ground, to seek it and to find it.

In the end, Ted Kennedy was a politician, plain and simple. Yet he embodied how politics and public service can be successfully intertwined. You can't be a good public servant without being a good politician. Kennedy was both.

Here's a little newsflash for those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve this great country.

It taught me that Clinton's instinct to make this about your life as a citizen, rather than his as a human being, was the right answer to these things.

There are people who kind of gravitate towards running politics based on new ideas and issues, and that was what the secret was for Clinton.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.

You can’t govern a country on charisma.

You might be considering elected office because you are angry with those in power. Indignation can be a motivator to run but not to govern. If you win you'll need more than anger to govern.

We need elected officials who overcome partisan politics to really help people.

With Bill Clinton, his lawyers always wanted him to say nothing about the Lewinsky scandal. Defendant Clinton had the right to remain silent. But President Clinton had a completely different need - political survival. That meant, in the end, that he needed to trumpet his supposed innocence and talk publicly to the American people.

I've not been a decisively re-elected city councilor and top vote-getter three times because I haven't done the work and because I don't work hard.

A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren't still there, he's no longer a political leader.

What motivated me to dedicate myself to public service for nearly two-thirds of my life was the chance to produce results for those people who entrusted me to be their voice and their champion.

I think we need politicians; we need people who want to serve.

I know I can serve Hawaii and our country well in the U.S. Senate, know we can mount a solid statewide campaign, know we have a good chance of prevailing.

There are too many politicians in the world and too few statesmen.

I really don't have tremendous political ambition. I have policy ambition.

The prime minister's job is to captain his team, his party and his government.

I thought I could make a difference, so I ran for office.

As a policymaker, as a public servant, I come to Washington, D.C., and I make difficult decisions and I make difficult decisions every day. And sometimes those decisions upset people.

Clinton knew how to get things done. He was battling the Republicans, and then he basically took a lot of their agenda and made it his own. That's what Obama's not doing.

It's easier to run for office than to run the office.

It's a rarity when someone takes a political risk in Washington today in the public interest.

A statesman, we are told, should follow public opinion. Doubtless, as a coachman follows his horses; having firm hold on the reins and guiding them.

Whatever you may think of Mrs. Clinton as a character, I think she believes quite strongly in public service.