William Weld Quotes

The challenge in working in politics, particularly if you're working for a political party, is that everyone's a messenger.

Al Gore adopted three utterly different personas in three national presidential debates.

The Republican Party does not want to defeat Democrats.

When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An army without profanity couldn't fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag. As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, By God, get carried away with my own eloquence.

Republicans know well that a change of rhetorical pace is necessary. But efforts by their leaders to damp down the bellicosity of newly elected Tea Party types is running into the fact that the Tea Partiers have only the high volume setting on their amplifiers, just like Palin. They're like a couple having a fight at a funeral; politely sotto voce, then suddenly bursting out fortissimo with their plaints and accusations.

I have this belief that Donald Trump keeps floating the idea that he will quit the party and run as an independent if the Republican Party does not treat him fairly.

You've got to attract interest in your candidate. The problem when you're running far behind is that you've got to move through those positive phases very quickly. Then, you have to draw attention to the other guy. You've got to create interest in why you differ from him and you've got to create a desire to remove him.

All of these years I've been doing my program I was under the impression the Republican Party wanted to beat Democrats. And as the years have gone by, it's become obvious to me that that's not their number one objective.

There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans.

Any Democrat running is trying to get that Barack Obama coalition, which is an increasingly diverse voter base. It's young folks. It's minorities, as well as white women. I don't think we as a party can afford to alienate or not try to speak to the concerns, fears, insecurities, aspirations of white men. We should not give up that ground.

One of the issues the Democrats have to be clear on is the given population distribution across the country. We have to compete everywhere. We have to show up everywhere. We have to work at a grassroots level, something that's been a running thread in my career.

The whole framework of the presidency is getting out of hand. It's come to the point where you almost can't run unless you can cause people to salivate and whip each other with big sticks. You almost have to be a rock star to get the kind of fever you need to survive in American politics.

It [selecting as many candidates as possible] is also advantageous for the [Conservative] Party because it helps us to build a base in those areas where we have not in, recent times, been as active as we'd have liked. It means that opposing parties don't get a free run but are challenged to prove themselves to voters.

Barack Obama didn't get elected president, would never have been elected president, had he decided to run as a black candidate. In order to reach the broadest number of people you have to speak to their interests as broadly as you can.

We must stop being the stupid party.

If you don't have a record to run on, you paint your opponent as someone to run from.

Donald Trump can't beat Hillary Clinton, I think it's very clear, and she doesn't want to run against me, because I can beat her, because I will fight her and force her to fight on ground that she will lose on.

McGovern couldn't carry the South if Rhett Butler were his running mate.

Every politician just has to remember how he got his position in the first place. A young candidate running for Congress or any outsider interested in public office could only achieve his goals by relying on soft power. They could not force anyone to vote for them. They needed to convince their potential voters, they needed to do fundraising, they needed to be attractive candidates.

The time has passed in America when this party can be the party of compassion and let the executive branch run foreign policy. It won't work. We have to be the party that can stand toe to toe with George W. Bush on national security, as well as the party of compassion.

I do different work, teaching and running around visiting universities and bookstores, and that prevents me from writing. But it's nice to be wanted as a writer.

Don't forget: before there would be a #NeverTrump hashtag, there would have been a #NeverJeb hashtag. And a lot of people would have been on that, and they would have said they would have stuck with it. If I were Donald Trump, and I was that much in the lead - he is so much in the lead he doesn't need to keep hating on the people who are the establishment who he hates so much. Why not try to bring them along and say, "Look, I believe this party is big enough for all of us. I want to hear from you. I want to make a deal" or whatever it might be.

The Democrats are dropping the F-bomb at practically every appearance now, because they think that's how they connect to the Millennials. They're losing their minds.

I'd make - before I'd elect somebody - I'd make him do town meetings and face the people and then I would insist that the person not run on a platform of no compromising. The meaningful thing that the leaders could do would be to be dedicated to a discussion across the isle, to vote their consciences and not to follow the strict party line. I think that would lead to sensible decisions.

I spill water on myself all the time at nice restaurants. I've run into poles and knocked myself out.