Voter Expectations Quotes

Political ignorance helps explain Americans' perpetual disappointment with politicians generally, and presidents especially, to whom voters unrealistically attribute abilities to control events.

Consumers, unlike voters, expect an immediate response to their concerns; and companies, unlike governments, do not have the luxury of a mid-term lull.

Voters want conflicting things. They want a lot of government spending, but they don't want higher taxes.

The politician is your best friend - he always wants to be there when he's asking for your vote. But then, often, he doesn't have time for you when he gets into office. To me, it's the opposite. They should listen to you more when they're actually in office.

Politicians make a lot of promises when they are campaigning, and they come to towns, and people get enthusiastic about them coming to their communities. And then they don't fulfill the promises.

Do after election as before election you said you would.

A presidential debate is a job interview. And voters look for certain traits in people applying to be president.

I think the voters believe that when you become president of the United States, you have a higher obligation and a higher standard than anybody in the world. And if you violate that standard, they're going to remember it on election day.

A lot of people get elected to Congress, and sometimes a part of their pledge is a term-limit pledge. There's no accountability.

The campaigns of Steve Forbes, Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, and John McCain all outperformed expectations on their support from independent voters. They made no effort to shy away from ideology, but conveyed to voters that their policies were driven by principle, not party talking points.

Almost every politician running for office comes out with a set of plans so that they can demonstrate how serious they are about fixing the state’s problems. But once the election is over and the candidate takes his or her oath, you rarely here a peep about those plans again. They end up on a shelf somewhere gathering dust.

We elect these people not to represent their parties but to represent us.

Having the ability to inspire a crowd and connect with voters doesn't mean a person has the skills to appease those same voters once in office.

Many of the Western democracies - including the U.S. - have a problem that voters want benefits they don't want to pay for.

To me party platforms are contracts with the people.

The elected officials should be working for the voters who elected them. Money corrupts the process. Why would you be giving a candidate money unless you expect something in return?

If the President says, oh, Washington's got to change, and people are doubting whether my change can really happen, I think instead what the public's begun to see is the change they're seeing is not the change they voted for.

I think there's a couple of things going on. One is that Trump's relationship with his base is not the traditional relationship of a politician and the people who elected him, and the constituency, which is a relationship of some accountability, right? The idea is that the politicians are working for the people. They're public servants.

So to that extent that was a very sharp reminder a few months out from the election that we weren't performing in the eyes of the public to the level that they wanted if they were going to re-elect us. So we went out and were much more upfront on issues.

Why should I ? I don't need to run down my opponent through filthy language in order to win. The voters don't expect this from their representatives.

Well, I, you know, I think at PIMCO we always try and be open with the press and the public. I mean, isn't that what voters want from their politicians? Mohamed El-Erian, our CEO, writes several op-eds a week.

Let me start off by saying that in 2000 I said, 'Vote for me. I'm an agent of change.' In 2004, I said, 'I'm not interested in change - I want to continue as president.' Every candidate has got to say 'change.' That's what the American people expect.

I think that's going to be an issue: Whether or not voters are going to get more of the same in a Clinton candidacy or whether she really is something unique and has something to offer apart from her husband.

Ideas, not ideology. Voters want a government that works.

We elect our Presidents, be they Republican or Democrat, then start daring 'em to make good.