William Galston Quotes

Successful and unsuccessful political policies have one commonalty. The people who created the policies thought they would be successful.

Over time, the best politics are policies that actually work …. Others in the White House are looking for short term political victories. The political hacks are just doing their jobs.

Good policy makes good politics and what I've done has been good politics.

It's easy to defend a policy that works. It's not so easy to defend a policy that didn't work.

Governing is one thing, campaigning is another - and the latter becomes far more pronounced in an election-year State of the Union.

You don't go into politics unless you want to win.

Forget the consultants, the pundits and the pollsters; good policy is good politics.

You can’t win if you don’t play. The people who get involved in politics are more likely to get their way.

I believe that [Bill] Clinton is the best tactical politician, certainly in my lifetime.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

If you can’t bring the people with you, you lose the policy

Today, campaigning isn't an 'interruption' but a permanent condition. Indeed, if you are a successful campaigner, it's expected you'll be a successful president.

President Obama makes fantastic stump speeches, but putting together an actual agenda is more complicated.

Campaigning and governing are two very different activities, and there is no reason to assume that how Trump conducted the former will dictate how he approaches the latter.

Democrats are very good at governing. When it comes to messaging, I'm not too sure about.

You're always as good as your last movie and that's the same with politics. If you are successful with a certain policy, then you're hot; if you're successful with the economy, or bringing down the unemployment rate, then you're hot. But if you're not successful, then things go south very quickly.

Campaigning is different from governing.

Certainly the policy is right and good politics usually follow good policy.

PUSH, n. One of the two things mainly conducive to success, especially in politics. The other is Pull.

There's a very big difference between campaigning and governing.

Politics is a messy business, but campaigning prepares you for governing. It prepares you to get hit, stand strong, and, if necessary, hit back.

I think that winning the White House is about more than just entertaining a large audience.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

I love being a parliamentarian. I love it but I don't like politics. And I hate elections.

Nobody has a cakewalk to become governor.