Mark Shields Quotes

The election before us will be the Austerlitz of American politics.

I'm into politics - I'm interested in the election and how pissed off people get.

I don't think that winning the presidency of the United States is a matter of a single issue.

Three weeks is a lifetime in presidential politics. The conventional wisdom changes so suddenly.

An election is like a horse-race, in that you can tell more about it the next day.

Normally we would expect more seats in Congress to go to the political party that receives more votes, but the last election confounded expectations. Democrats received 1.4 million more votes for the House of Representatives, yet Republicans won control of the House by a 234 to 201 margin.

Our American elections have been fought between parties which, roughly, have represented the forces advocating change and those preferring stability.

Parties do often nominate losers.

Politics: a Trojan horse race

It's a matter of opinion on many of these issues, and there's no right or wrong. That's why we have elections; that's why we have debates. Donald Trump thinks one thing. Hillary Clinton thinks another thing.

Momentum has always counted for something, not everything, but it's always perceived as being something that matters in American politics.

Political pendulums swing hard and feed on stark contrast.

In the Constitution, there is no idea of a political party. It is representatives of every constituency because it is so vibrant and varied.

In presidential elections, I think people focus way too much on ideology.

There's an ideological belief on the left that you should not use nonpartisan tools.

I've watched presidential debates since I was a teen, and I love it.

I'm not going to opine as to whether I think a particular candidate can beat Donald Trump or not.

My father was a Democrat.

I would almost certainly vote for Trump if I was American.

The recount in Michigan is over. The election is over. Our next president is Donald J. Trump. Winning once was nice. But winning twice was huge.

My own students say they don't trust anyone who voted for Trump. How can you have a democracy with that?

Midwest elections have consequences.

Too great a love for the presidency has caused Democrats to neglect state and local politics and to overly prize compromise and a futile quest for bipartisanship. It has made liberals too allergic to federalism and too shy about grassroots politics.

Election losses are always an inkblot test for partisans. If a candidate's defeat has no clear and obvious cause, if the data points are all over the map, it is easy for those on the sidelines to claim, 'Candidate X would have won if only he or she had been more like... me.'

I am an elected official; I was not elected by the Right.