Barack Obama Quotes

The single biggest weakness that politicians have as a group is that they want people to like them.

A 30 second negative ad can matter more to a candidate's career than a lifetime voting record.

Politicians livelihoods depend on what people think.

It is increasingly difficult to run a campaign of substance in an atmosphere which increasingly focuses on personality.

In the art of governing you have to almost make love to your opponents and say “No” to some of your fiercest supporters. In campaigning it’s the exact opposite.

In a campaign, impressions can be much more important than facts and debate.

The losing side is comforted, I think, by this idea of magical gurus [masterminding the opponent’s campaign], because it’s less disconcerting than the fact that people just didn’t like them very much.

If I get to be president, what can I do anyway? With Congress and the press, what chance do I have to make basic changes?

One cannot judge the poll outcome by the crowds one draws at public meetings.

As the master politician navigates the ship of state, he both creates and responds to public opinion. Adept at tacking with the wind, he also succeeds, at times, in generating breezes of his own.

To me there's nothing to get excited about with Hillary Clinton. I mean, maybe there's things to get excited about in terms of, scared of, opposition. But I don't think Hillary has this large army of devoted fans willing to go through fire for her.

I think the Donald Trump's obsession is, is bigger than just polling. I mean it's funny because we've been harping on polls like never before, Trump was harping on his own polls endlessly. I mean his stump speeches would begin with him crowing about his latest poll numbers and that was just a kind of odd convergence.

As a United States senator, I've got to do everything that I can to make sure that Trump does not become president.

George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump. Take your pick. They are hated; they are not opposed, and I wish an even bigger percentage of the American people would figure this out. The American people are running around thinking that all the hate and the racism and all these other isms are located on the Republican Party side.

Dogs are great assets to candidates, and the feeling seems to be engendered that if a dog loves the candidate, he can't be all that bad.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all the people some of the time, which is just long enough to be president of the United States.

On the BSkyB bid, Rupert Murdoch is now in town in London seeking to sort things out. I would simply say to him, look how people feel about this. Look how the country has reacted with revulsion to the revelations. So do the decent and sensible thing and reconsider, think again, about your bid for BSkyB.

After the war, and until the day of his death, his position on almost every public question was either mischievous or ridiculous, and usually both.

If you're going to run for president as the anti-Clinton, you should know that Democrats and their media friends will do whatever it takes to make you look Clintonian... The questions won't go away because Democrats are desperate to define Republican deviancy down to Clinton levels. The ugliness is just getting started.

When you do a computerized poll, where people are comfortable, Donald Trump vote goes up very dramatically. And I think people don't realize the effort by the elite media, the totally dishonest effort to submerge him, has had an effect.

When you're looking for votes, you are looking for votes from everybody, particularly the powerful.

I don't know if Mika Brzezinski intended to be that honest. She's very worried the president intimidating the media is gonna lead to people believing what the president says instead of what the media says, and it's the media's job to control what people think. She used the word "control." She worries that Donald Trump is acing them on this and her fear is rational, but her philosophy is off course, all wet.

Barack Obama was better as a campaigner than as a - as a president sometimes in this same position. It is easier when you have a foil.

Public opinion is the pennant on a nation's mast which shows the politician and the editor how to trim the sails.

There's a big gap between public opinion polls and the vote in Washington, in Congress. The majority consciousness has changed, and often that has made very clear, practical changes in our daily lives, but the centers of power are still not occupied, for the most part, by this new consciousness.