Robert Kuttner Quotes

You must build public policies on reason, on facts.

To govern is to chose.

Policy making is not as easy as slurping down cabbage soup.

Governing is about selecting.

Politics is about explanations.

Good or bad, political choices have an impact on the way country’s behave.

Go with the science!.

I did not love politics. As a matter of fact, I hated politics. I loved governing which is … a different thing.

Of course I am partisan in my politics, but my partisanship is rational - which, in my book, is not necessarily oxymoronic.

My view is that politics should be on the basis of issues.

Policy is driven by more than politics, however. It is equally driven by ideas.

Rhetoric matters, but at the end of the day policy matters more.

Politics is the science of urgencies.

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

Good ideas are the backbone of good government.

You have to spend your political capital on great causes for your country.

My number 1 priority is common sense, because we don't see a lot of that in the state capitol.

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

You do the policy, I'll do the politics.

Everyone wants to demagogue everyone else. That may be good politics, but it's awful policy.

I think issues and substance, policy and vision and record should be the meat of politics.

Politics is the science of who gets what, when, and why.

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

Politics doesn't matter, policy does.

Even a conscientious person cannot reach reasonable political conclusions without trustworthy, factual information.