Michael Ashcroft Quotes

I do think Hillary Clinton should have pivoted and say, I am change, I am change, because people do want some change.

There's a basic law, Klein's second, or third, or fourth law of politics in the TV age, which is warm always beats cold, with the exception of Richard Nixon. The nicer guy usually wins.

I understand why the Tories will be gunning for Alastair Campbell because they fear his campaigning skills.

Our opponents struggled manfully, desperately; but wind and tide were against them. They had campaign and other papers, good speakers, and large meetings; but we were far ahead of them in singing and electioneering emblems and mottoes which appealed to popular sympathies.

Democrats fell in love with the idea that winning elections was a matter of talking to voters about the one issue we think impacts them, instead of our plan to move the country forward as a whole.

Trump was doing very well on a model that made sense, but now, as the campaign has gotten to the end stages, a more traditional campaign has to take place.

They don't want to get dirty and they know that Trump loves this kind of thing. And your polls, and yours are what's giving them the material that they need, it's the oxygen that the Trump campaign requires, a poll every three or four days showing him where he is.

Constant conflict is actually often good politics. Because the more you can inflame your supporters the more likely they are to show up at election day. And if they're more inflamed than the other side, even if the other side has more people agreeing with it, you'll win, because your crowd will show up.

I think it is very possible he [Donald Trump] could be nominated and depending on how this all plays out, I would take him seriously in terms of being able to win because he's appealing to a very, very - he's appealing to fear.

John Kerry suspended his campaign for five days this week in honor of President Reagan. And right now, he's ahead in the polls. How's that make him feel? Disappears for a week and he's up in the polls. What else can he do now but go into hiding.

I will force Hillary Clinton to fight on the ground of her foreign policy mistakes.

The only way liberals win national elections is by pretending they're not liberals.

Monica Langley of the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting that Donald Trump's strategy is essentially two-pronged. that he's trying to use the split in the GOP to rally his base and trying to depress Democratic turnout.

Is Stephen Harper using the imagined fear of widespread security threats to score political points before the next election?

Spin is overrated. It is strategy, not spin, that wins elections.

While Jeb Bush finds himself mired in the muck of an intramural fight in his own party over his remarks about the Iraq War, Hillary Clinton is sticking to the low-key strategy, and it looks like it's working.

I think if Donald Trump skipped out on a debate, for whatever reason he gave, I don't think it would help him at all.

I guess truth can hurt you worse in an election than about anything that can happen to you.

Here's why Sarah Palin says she won't be running for president. She says she can be more effective at getting others elected by not running. And I thought, well, that's true, because in 2008 she got Obama elected.

Since Jimmy Carter, religious fundamentalists play a major role in elections. He was the first president who made a point of exhibiting himself as a born again Christian. That sparked a little light in the minds of political campaign managers: Pretend to be a religious fanatic and you can pick up a third of the vote right away. Nobody asked whether Lyndon Johnson went to church every day. Bill Clinton is probably about as religious as I am, meaning zero, but his managers made a point of making sure that every Sunday morning he was in the Baptist church singing hymns.

The most effective way to beat Hillary Clinton is to remind voters of Hillary Clinton's behavior.

I knew the President would run for reelection in 1984. Why not? Actors love sequels ... and returns.

When I left the secretary of state office, I had a 69% approval rating. Once I start running for office and all the incoming you know is battering away, people are going to say, "Hey, wait a minute - what's that mean, what's that mean?" I get all of that, but I don't think we do any service to our country or the voters if we descend into the kind of insult fest that he seems to relish.

Look at Jeb Bush, $115 million and Jeb actually stated in December 2014 that he was going to win this primary by not winning it. He was going to win it without winning base voters. They have made it clear they want nothing of their base. They're embarrassed of their base.

I'm having my platform run up by a movie set designer, so it will be very impressive from the front, but not too premanent. After all, there's no sense putting a lot of time and thought into something you'll have no use for after you're elected.