That mysterious independent variable of political calculation, Public Opinion.
I don't think Cheney started off in 2000 with a burning desire to become vice-president. I think the prospect gradually became more appealing, and he goosed the process.
There's a presumption that somehow you calculate beforehand whether something is going to be good politically or not. I simply don't.
The right kind of leader for the Labour party is a desiccated calculating machine.
The thinking person's case for Romney, murmured by many of his backers, amounts to this: Vote for Mitt, you know he doesn't believe a word he says.
You can never underestimate the ability of the Democrats to wet their finger and hold it in the wind.
In any crass political calculation, drilling for oil will always win more votes than putting a price on carbon. But if I recall what I was taught in fifth-grade American government class, we elect presidents to do more than crass political calculations.
I don't think [Bill Clinton] does anything - I don't think it's ill will. I don't think he's evil in the sense that he hates the Bill of Rights. He does what he figures will help him politically.
Our political system seems to be proving itself almost incapable of dealing with what's been put before it. The decisions it is making, or fluffing, are so vital and yet are inevitably so compromised by the endless political calculations of all involved.
Morality must guide calculation, and calculation must guide politics.
All the politics in the world are nothing else but a kind of analysis of the quantity of probability in casual events, and a good politician signifies no more but one who is dexterous at such calculations.
In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas — no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.
A lot of folks look at the political calculation and then determine the policy. I think that's backward.
Accusing a politician of being politically expedient is like accusing water of being wet or circles for being round.
George Bush and his gang imagine they are being political geniuses.
Fanaticism displays itself in the masses; but the masses were rarely fanaticised; and the crimes ascribed to it were commonly due to the calculations of dispassionate politicians.
People don't realize what a brilliant politician Lincoln was. Looking back, we want to ascribe a level of providence to his every decision but he was a cunning and calculating politician; from the cultivation of his image as a hayseed from Illinois, to his ability to keep this country together under dire circumstances.
People can make any political calculation they want. I make decisions what I think is in the best interest.
I see Hillary [Clinton] as a calculating politician without any vision. It depends what the next thing is that they calculate she needs to say.
It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no State, without being soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness.
