Frank Bruni Quotes

I have never seen a poll elect anyone

When widely followed public figures feel free to say anything, without any fact-checking, it becomes impossible for a democracy to think intelligently about big issues.

We're gonna need more than winning elections; we're gonna need to change the way people think, and they're not gonna change what they think if there's no counter to the way liberalism is presented in the pop culture.

I think the most important thing for the public and the press is to just listen to what Donald Trump says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas.

Most election analysts in the U.S. habitually confuse the sound of money talking with the voice of the people.

I think the people should demand accountability on the voting. I think there's no point in voting if you're not gonna demand fairness and be able to verify each vote. And other countries can do this fairly easily. So I don't think you really want democracy if you're not willing to take that first step.

I mean there are a lot of people - maybe a lot, I know how many - who really thought that when [Donald] Trump said, "You ought to be in jail," that they agreed with that and thought that she [Hillary Clinton] should be.

I know there's an online petition to have another referendum [like Brexit] but I think honestly I think if people want to go for it a little further down the line it would be a hiding for nothing.

On the road, when I do stand-up, people would always say, "What do you think about Donald Trump?" If you said, "He's crazy," they'd be like, "Yeah, he's crazy." But if you said, "I don't know - he seems interesting," they would be like, "That's really what I think."

Instead of engaging on the merits and saying, "Well, we want an open border, you know, we really do," and that's all good for America because they know the people will reject that, they [the elites] attack Donald Trump as an extremist, which I think is unfair.

I wonder at what point do you stop doing what you think is right and you start doing what the majority of the American people want?

I don't think that politics are as complex as people like to make them seem or out to be.

I do not think I am entitled to assess the President of the United States. This is up to the American people.

I think, in my own state, I can tell you that people do want to hear a serious discussion on serious issues.

I think these debates coming up are going to be a test of who the American people like better, who they want in their living room more, who they think is better capable of being president of the United States.

I think we're coming to a place where we're saying all war is wrong. We might even learn something about the sensationalism we get caught up in with people like Donald Trump.

Personally, I'd rather have pins stuck in my eyes than endure a conversation with John Kerry, but I'd love to hang with Bush.

I'm going to spend a lot of time trying to explain as best I can why it's important for us to succeed in Iraq. I'm going to do what I think is right, and if, you know, if people don't like me for it, that's just the way it is.

I think referendums are fantastic as long as the question is phrased in a way which is not meant to deliberately confuse or confound people.

Every single of us is going to be saying, "Thank God, finally, an interesting convention." But you're right about all those people out there. All the people who have been energized by the Trump campaign are going to be very, very angry folk if they think that Trump is not well treated.

I don't subscribe to the theory that all politicians are crap. I think the 'cool people' often take that position.

The press tend to stick with that the people don't care about foreign policy in their daily lives and aren't concerned about it and so on and so forth. I don't think that's actually true.

I wouldn't say it's a done deal yet, by any means. I think there are a lot of people who feel like their lives depend on decisions that are going to be made in this election [2016].

Now I think liberals have gone from underreacting to Trump and saying that Trump is just a clown and a buffoon, and that Hillary Clinton's going to kick his ass, to now overreacting, and saying, "Oh my God, 60 million people consciously endorsed a white supremacist for president."

Ordinary people seem to not like me. They tend to think that I’m a little weird.