Political Charisma Quotes

On a pure entertainment level, if I'm going to choose to listen to a presidential candidate speak on a Saturday night, it's going to be Donald Trump over Bernie Sanders by a landslide!

I joked at our National Convention that our party was nominating a candidate for president who was charismatic, larger than life, memorable, so they wanted to balance the ticket.

When I was young, all the politicians looked like ancient Latin teachers or greengrocers. They were mumbly, stumbly men with their hair blowing in their eyes, walking into trees, opening the wrong door. They had no idea how to present themselves.

Barack Obama has brought glamour back to American politics - not the faux glamour-by-association of campaigning with movie stars or sailing with the Kennedys, but the real thing. The candidate himself is glamorous. Audiences project onto him the personal qualities and political positions they want in a president.

It has become commonplace to call Trump a reality TV star. That is said as an aspersion, the way Ronald Reagan was called an actor. But Reagan's acting experience, his ability to talk to the camera and not yell to the hall, is what helped make him such a good politician. It is the same with Trump.

FDR used to say, 'You and I are the two best actors in America'.

I don't have a steady relationship. That's something that women in politics deal with. For some reason, men in politics seem to have a larger charisma, and women drop around their feet. I haven't noticed that so much for me.

Nixon is the last candidate who couldn’t make it on the Johnny Carson Show who could make it in an election.

Television changed politics forever. If you’re not any good at it, forget it.

When he [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] advised millions of listeners in one of his fireside chats to “tell me your troubles”, most of them believed implicitly that he was speaking to them personally and immediately wrote him a letter. It was months before we managed to swim out of the flood of mail.

Beguiled by George S. Bush's easy smile and casual indifference to the details, we are on the brink of electing him to office. This isn't choosing a president, it's casting the lead in a sitcom about the presidency.

At a time when the public is sour on politicians, have no use for them, Bill Clinton has risen to a different level. Bill Clinton is endlessly interesting.

I've had great pleasure meeting the likes of Newt Gingrich and having a chat with the fellow on a staircase. I found him completely dishonest and totally likeable, because he doesn't care! He knows what a politician is, and he's a perfect embodiment of one.

It's not about sizzle for me. I think it's fine. I mean, America made a decision in 2008 to go with a president who did have sizzle.

I have always liked the Kennedys as politicians. They had such great hair.

I have found, in my life experience with President Trump, when he's out there himself and he's being his fresh, authentic self, it's very appealing to the people of the United States.

People tell me that Senator Edwards got picked for his good looks, his sex appeal, and his great hair. I say to them: How do you think I got the job?

You can make a successful run for political office without an especially thick resume, any exceptional talent for expressing yourself, a noteworthy education or for that matter a basic grasp of science.

Ann Romney has been front-and-center. She's held a lot of town halls, a lot of campaign rallies, on her own, separate from her husband. And she is dynamite out on the campaign trail.

Masterful politicians and effective agents of change tend to succeed by singling out and making salient some aspect of a nation's self-understanding, sparking a sense of recognition - and ultimately moving voters in their favor. Obama made it into an art form.

The worst thing a politician can be is dull. At least I'm interesting.

Both Kennedy and Obama exuded a dash of glamour in their roles as commander-in-chief and became the darlings of Hollywood. As president, each brought to the White House a fashionable and accomplished First Lady, two adorable young children and scene-stealing pets.

A man running for office puts me in mind of a dog that's lost-he smells everybody he meets, and wags himself all over.

Our love of Hollywood-style glamour helped elect two presidents: JFK and Reagan, who fulfilled the prophecy that a country so enamored of actors would eventually make one their president.