Murray Chotiner Quotes

In 1960, John F. Kennedy rode a superior televised debate performance to victory over Richard Nixon.

One strange quality of writing about political campaigns is that it's a little like writing about a baseball game inning by inning. We presume we can say something about the final result from the state of play a third of the way through. You can when a game is a colossal blowout, but you can't when it's close.

And when you start talking about the practicality of winning a race like that - you've got to remember we're not talking about winning 51 percent of the vote. We're talking about winning 36, 37, 38 percent of the vote.

It is not through any combinations of politicians that the outcome of an electoral campaign is decided.

Let's not just look at it as taking votes away from Gore. Our support comes from a lot of people.

If you had let Frannie make you up the night of your debate with Kennedy, you would have been elected President.

The tactics and strategy of every Presidential election campaign is most influenced by the previous Presidential election.

The outcome of an election depends on the candidate, not the people on the sidelines [advisors, handlers, etc.]

I could have possibly beaten Senator McCain in the primary. Then I could have been the candidate who lost to Barack Obama.

Reagan won because he ran against Jimmy Carter. If he ran unopposed he would have lost.

If Ralph Nader runs, President Bush is going to be re-elected, and if Ralph Nader doesn't run, President Bush is going to be re-elected. We're going to run on the president's strong and principled leadership and his positive agenda for a second term.

If everybody that voted in 2008 shows up in 2010, we will win this election. We will win this election.

In 2008 all the stars aligned perfectly for Obama's 6-point victory over John McCain. He was an inexperienced, untested neophyte, and successfully convinced enough voters to paint their own version of what hope-and-change was all about on the blank canvas he provided.

Votes are like trees, if you are trying to build a forest. If you have more trees than you have forests, then at that point the pollsters will probably say you will win.

The Olympics are coming... and it's a big problem in American politics, because the problem with holding the Olympics this fall is that we're all going to be focused on the Olympics, and it makes that window of opportunity for Gore to win the election that much smaller.

We don't want someone who will get 98 percent of the vote. We want someone who will get 51 percent of the vote.

If Mitt Romney defeats President Obama in his bid for reelection on Tuesday, it will mark the success of one of the most deeply cynical political campaigns in American history. It is hard to beat an incumbent no matter the economic climate.

The fact is, presidential politics has become a game of inches.

Presidential elections are always pocketbook elections.

The undecideds could go one way or the other.

The candidate who is successful in defining the election is usually the winner.

President James Buchanan's margin of victory in the election was fifty thousand dollars.

You can’t win a Presidential election in this country with just a base.

Elections are not about solving anything. Elections are about winning.

If the election had been held on October 27, I would be your President.