Quotes About Candidates

#1. You must understand printing lies about Republican candidates is OK. It's called vetting. Printing the truth about liberals - that's called 'swift-boating'.

Howie Carr

#2. If the nearly one-and-a-half million babies aborted in America each year could, somehow, vote, chameleon candidates would find fresh reason to be concerned about abortion, whereas now they are unconcerned.

Neal A. Maxwell

#3. The conservative version of American exceptionalism has become a password of sorts for candidates who want to prove their credentials to a right-wing America.

Russ Feingold

#4. There aren't many honest men or women in Washington anymore. Politicians get where they are by the sheer force of their egos, not their convictions. And you know what? It's our fault as voters. We don't demand better candidates, so we end up getting what we deserve - on both sides of the aisle.

Brad Thor

#5. He has selected from a group of overwhelming candidates. This candidate was nominated to the Supreme Court because of his extremely overwhelming qualifications.

Rod Parsley

#6. Our experience with newly-minted MBAs has not been that great. Their academic records always look terrific and the candidates always know just what to say; but too often they are short on personal commitment to the company and general business savvy. It's difficult to teach a new dog old tricks.

Warren Buffett

#7. I think people are looking for a president who has views and who sticks to those views. So, I think Governor Romney, Governor Perry, Governor Huntsman are all terrific candidates. I think we got a chance to elect a real, executive leader.

Lamar Alexander

#8. People who refuse to accept unpleasant truths have no right to complain about politicians who lie to them. What other kind of candidates would such people elect?

Thomas Sowell

#9. Expressing reverence for Reagan has been almost a requirement for Republican presidential candidates since 1988, but Mr. Walker has taken to it like an apostle to his creed.

Anonymous

#10. The people of South Carolina support conservatives who are trying to push real change, and the people of South Carolina expect their presidential candidates to back them up when they show courage.

Nikki Haley

#11. If we are really constrained by love, then we see every lost sinner we meet - including those who persecute us - as candidates for the new creation.

Warren W. Wiersbe

#12. There is plenty of time for Republicans to have a Macaca moment. But right now, as of October 17, 2014, the Republican Senate candidates have performed better than they have in years. For the moment, today, as you read this, the Democratic candidates are the jokes.

Matthew Continetti

#13. Candidates don't want to be associated with poor people, people who have jobs or are ugly; they want to be associated with a certain middle class demographic, so as a result they leave those others out completely.

Matt Taibbi

#14. The 2008 Democratic presidential candidates would be wise to note that unwarranted negativism is dangerous and badly underestimates the strengths of the American people to adapt to and prosper with change.

Bernard L. Schwartz

#15. Instead, as a consequence of racial gerrymandering, "elections nationwide have become more or less permanently structured to discourage politically adventuresome African American candidates who aspire to win political office in majority-white settings.

Jason L. Riley

#16. Presidential campaign observer Teddy White on the second Kennedy-Nixon debate in which the candidates spoke from separate television studios: It was as if, separated by comments from his adversary, Richard Nixon was more at ease and could speak directly to the nation that lay between them.

David Pietrusza

#17. No matter where you are on politics, I think it is wonderful to see candidates funding campaigns not by talking to a very small number of very rich people, but by reaching out to a very large number of citizens.

David Brooks

#18. Several amendments should be made to the primary and general election laws to improve them, but such changes must in no way interfere with a full and free expression of the people's choice in naming the candidates to be voted on at general elections.

Arthur Capper

#19. We could double our chances by working for one of these candidates, not against the other. For now, I've figured out how to answer reporters when they ask if I'm supporting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. I just say yes.

Gloria Steinem

#20. After saying yes to Turkey, the EU is having difficulty finding clear and consistent grounds for saying no to other, still more remote candidates - but being in the general vicinity of Europe does seem to be a continuing requirement.

Timothy Garton Ash

#21. Attack politics costs us dearly in terms of insight into the candidates. In a presidential campaign, the focus is so tight that the politicians are afraid to say anything that hasn't been scripted.

Jack Germond

#22. The law requires a paper towel ad to be scrupulously honest, but allows political candidates to lie without reproach. What's wrong with this picture?

Jef I. Richards

#23. If you look on the fungal genome as being soldier candidates protecting the U.S. as our host defense, not only for the ecosystem but for our population ... we should be saving our old-growth forests as a matter of national defense.

Paul Stamets

#24. I don't think voters give a hoot about the character of their political advisors, except to the extent that character reflects on the candidates.

Bob Woodward

#25. Everyone is so concerned now where all of the candidates are born. McCain was born on a military base in Panama. Hillary was born outside Chicago, and if you believe the media, Barack Obama was born in a manger.

Jay Leno

#26. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid marveled at the electability of Barack Obama because, unlike previous black candidates, Mr. Obama was 'light-skinned' and lacked a 'Negro dialect.'

Monica Crowley

#27. [Senator] Kerry [democrat MA] is emerging as the worst of all the viable Democratic candidates. He has the backbone of Clinton and the charm of Gore.

Andrew Sullivan

#28. I've had the opportunity to spend some time with Donald Trump. He is - he - as you can imagine, I mean, he's a very engaging man. He's - he puts on an image as a lot of candidates and I think all of us do when we're in front of a microphone that's really tough and combative.

Rick Santorum

#29. Five GOP representative candidates this session have shocked me to my soul at how blatant they have trivialized rape. My prayers were answered in their defeat!

Diane Chamberlain

#30. To realize one's dream. To whom is this accorded? There must be elections for this in heaven; we are all candidates, unknown to ourselves; the angels vote.

Victor Hugo

#31. One thing is for sure: most of the people admitting candidates to universities for technical subjects are pretty dissatisfied with the level of math education.

Conrad Wolfram

#32. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.

Alfred Nobel

#33. With good morality first candidates you'll get bad candor, bad ethics, bad loyalty and bad morality - lastly bad odor will surface to save the day if you maintain good optimism like I do.

Brian Spellman

#34. Now we have some lawyers in our firm hosting fund-raisers for both candidates in any contested race. Guaranteed juice no matter who wins.

Randy Singer

#35. I have on many occasions spoken my mind from stage. I have offered organizations table space by the merch booth. I have donated a dollar-a-ticket, or the entire guarantee, to different causes. I have registered voters. I have played on behalf of political candidates.

Conor Oberst

#36. One of the candidates running for governor is a 100-year-old woman. Yeah, the 100-year-old says she'd like to recall Governor Gray Davis, but more importantly, she'd like to recall where she left her teeth.

Conan O'Brien

#37. It is clearly important for all leadership candidates to be open and transparent about their tax affairs. I was very happy to publish mine today, and hope others will follow suit.

Theresa May

#38. Some candidates need to say provocative things that make noise to break through the media muffle and get themselves noticed.

John Podhoretz

#39. One way the Tea Party has benefited female candidates - and the conservative movement generally - is by consciously steering clear of social issues.

Hanna Rosin

#40. Given a choice between two bald political candidates, the American people will vote for the less bald of the two.

Victor Gold

#41. The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.

Adlai E. Stevenson

#42. A debate has one purpose, one purpose only, and that is to facilitate the exchange of ideas directly between two candidates, and that's it.

Jim Lehrer

#43. Like NASCAR race drivers or PGA golfers, why not require each of the [US presidential] candidates to cover their clothing, briefcases and staff with the logo patches of their corporate sponsors?

Jim Hightower

#44. As yet we use our media only for selling things - including, of course, political candidates. What will happen when someone masters the art of selling souls?

Erica Jong

#45. I've always said this and finally I had a chance to demonstrate it: The moderator should be seen little and heard even less. It is up to the candidates to ask the follow-up questions and challenge one another.

Jim Lehrer

#46. Martha Pope herself is a legend within the institution, and he was enormously supportive. And me and the women candidates.

Barbara Mikulski

#47. The ban directly hampers the partys ability to spread its message and hamstrings voters seeking to inform themselves about the candidates and issues,

Thurgood Marshall

#48. I see many founders waste too much time trying to work their networks and/or ultimately settle for mediocre but available candidates. You will definitely have to interview hard for cultural fit, but the best talent isn't cheap.

Scott Weiss

#49. One of the candidates at the early GOP debate, George Pataki, said his routine before every debate is to drink a diet lemon Snapple iced tea and pray. Which is also the advice Chris Christie gets from his doctor.

Jimmy Fallon

#50. If you are feeling overly optimistic the Republican Candidates Debate is on.

Kristen Schaal

#51. I still have five years to the end of my term. There are many candidates. There'll be a problem if it's supposed to be a European or someone from the emerging countries, the so-called BRICS. This will be decided, but please don't think Poland has anything to say about it.

Marek Belka

#52. The charge that liberal candidates don't connect with or understand the values and beliefs of regular Americans is embedded in old epithets like 'limousine liberal,' which I first heard aimed at New York Mayor John Lindsay in 1969.

Jeff Greenfield

#53. I think President's candidates need shock collars or something.

Ted Cruz

#54. I'm not wasting my time with any more non-straight-talking candidates.

Jesse Jackson

#55. Candidates With Deeply Held Christian Beliefs Are Unfit and Disqualified From Serving As A Federal Judge.

Charles Schumer

#56. I think Nevada is going to really be the first true test of whether or not these candidates have particular strengths in particular demographics.

Lucy Flores

#57. In addition to being extremely expensive, and we have to put up with the stupidities that the candidates repeat, it's really being decided elsewhere who will sit in the presidential seat.

Subcomandante Marcos

#58. In every election cycle that I can recall, there comes a moment - or a few - where charges of elitism and claims of commonness are wielded by presidential candidates like a sword and shield: 'Vote for me 'cause I'm one of you. It's the other guy who's out of touch.'

John Ridley

#59. When the mask of self-righteousness has been torn from us and we stand stripped of all our accustomed defenses, we are candidates for God's generous grace.

Erwin W. Lutzer

#60. I said during the course of the campaign I didn't like it and I don't like the idea of having an opponent's picture on your ads and it would be nice to see candidates sign a pledge like that.

Scott McCallum

#61. I debated in high school! If you told things that weren't true or just made things out of whole cloth, you were penalized. It's too bad they don't apply the same standards to presidential candidates as they do to high school students.

Mark Hamill

#62. If elitist groups like Bohemian Club, the CFR and the Bilderberg Group select and groom candidates to become Presidents of the US then isn't it safe to assume they also dictate certain policies once their alumni are in the White House?

Lance Morcan

#63. It looks to me like the candidates are trying to relieve the farmer of his vote, instead of his debts.

Will Rogers

#64. I don't - you know, I'm very disillusioned with our political system. If we don't wake up in America and realize that we have to vote out of our courage and integrity for candidates who reflect our own beatitudes, and not the beatitudes of the war machine and the corporations, we are - we're doomed.

Cindy Sheehan

#65. I do not trust self-serving misinformation coming from corporations and their media trolls. I do not trust politicians who are taking millions from those corporations, either. I trust people. So I make my music for people, not for candidates.

Neil Young

#66. Crossroads is second to none in our support of Tea Party candidates. In 2010 and '12, we spent over $30 million for Senate candidates who were Tea Party candidates. We spent almost $20 million for House candidates who were Tea Party candidates.

Karl Rove

#67. Don't drag candidates through weeks of endless interviews. Don't flake out on interviews. At DeveloperAuction, we often have offer letters prepared in advance, so we can hand them to great candidates as they are leaving the office.

Matt Mickiewicz

#68. President Bush is not fazed by other candidates' war records. He said, I may have not fought in Vietnam, but I created one.

Craig Kilborn

#69. I support selecting as many candidates as early as possible for lots of reasons. First of all I think it is important that every voter - regardless of where they live in the country - should have the opportunity to vote Conservative should they wish.

Theresa May

#70. The final ballots represent players, managers, executives and builders who are top-tier candidates and worthy of review for consideration for election to the Hall of Fame.

Fay Vincent

#71. I worked for a lot of candidates, in tough campaigns that lost. Most of my candidates lost until Bill Clinton. There was always a point where you look in their eyes and they knew it was over. And there was never that point with Clinton. He never quit. He never gave up.

Dee Dee Myers

#72. Republican candidates had to appeal to their base, which is by and large elderly white people arguing with empty chairs.

Paul Krugman

#73. Candidates don't have to deal with reality. They talk about the wonderful things they can accomplish as if advocating them is the same as achieving them. They live in a world of political make-believe in which everything from reconciling conflicting interests to paying for costly programs is easy.

Fred Barnes

#74. California's economy is declining so rapidly that candidates are asking 'Are you better off now then you were four minutes ago?'

Craig Kilborn

#75. Presidential primary debates are an important part of our political process. But the media has wrested complete control from the parties and candidates over everything, including the number, the format, the qualifications, and the moderators. And they've become a circus.

Mark McKinnon

#76. Natural Texas politicians make terrible, terrible presidential candidates. Phil Gramm, I remember the 'Phil Gramm for President' campaign. I thought that was the worst thing in the history of the world, but Rick Perry was possibly worse.

Gail Collins

#77. Tonight was the CNN primary debate with the four remaining candidates. It was kind of a change for Newt Gingrich. Usually when he's arguing with three people at once, it's his wife, his ex-wife, and his mistress.

Jay Leno

#78. We must train our 'future candidates' on not only how to win elections but how to govern well.

Fela Durotoye

#79. The candidates at the Republican debate looked like a town council that was outlawing dancing. They looked like a board of directors that was lying about poisoning a river.

David Letterman

#80. Both candidates in this election [2004] pledge to end this war and bring our troops home. The great difference - the great difference is that I intend to win it first.

John McCain

#81. Without a confession of faith the church's evaluation of its ministers is haphazard and shallow at best; and the church will be in great danger of laying hands on novices and heretics, all because it does not measure candidates for the ministry by a broad and deep standard.

Samuel E. Waldron

#82. I get out of all of these things that many of these candidates would rather take legislation to build a time machine and go back in time to where we had, you know, no women voting, slavery was cool. I mean, it's just kind of ridiculous.

Thomas Roberts

#83. When candidates have asked me for support before, they have asked for more than a check.

J. B. Pritzker

#84. I think the American people are sophisticated enough and wise enough to make judgments about the candidates and wade through the charges and countercharges that come with the election 2004 campaign.

Colin Powell

#85. As the 2016 presidential race kicks off, candidates on both sides of the aisle are promising to stand up for the middle class. Voters deserve to know that anyone who champions Obamacare cannot honestly say she or he is also a champion of middle-class Americans.

John Barrasso

#86. The Democratic Party, all the candidates from Washington, they all know each other, they all move in the same circles, and what I'm doing is breaking into the country club.

Howard Dean

#87. It will be about which candidate, which of the two candidates remaining, is best suited to make a positive difference in the lives of North Carolina families, and I submit to each of you tonight that I am that candidate and Elizabeth Dole is not.

Erskine Bowles

#88. What people are looking for are candidates and representatives that are going to work hard, tell it like it is. I'm unafraid to do things when it doesn't poll well.

Adam Hasner

#89. To be honest, in 2012, I was against both candidates, and so I just picked any third party because I thought if more people voted for third parties then they'd have to take third parties seriously.

Ronda Rousey

#90. Rather than fretting about IQ scores, voters should try to determine what candidates read - other than the Bible, which they all say they read - and the kind of people with whom they spend their time.

Jack Germond

#91. If you treat your candidates as Resumes ... ... . They will remember you as Phone Calls !!!

Somu Korannavar

#92. Candidates should be extremely cautious in displaying a sense of humor. If he or she tells a joke with a point, there is almost certain to be some minority group offended.

Jack Germond

#93. In choosing candidates for this challenging way of life, she emphasised intelligence and good judgment ("GOD PRESERVE US FROM STUPID NUNS !! )

. It was her conviction that intelligent people can better be aware of their faults and, at the same time, see the need to be guided.

St Teresa Of Avila

#94. The molecules that allow microbes to catch their prey and hold on to them are likely candidates for the molecules that form the rivet attachments between cells in our bodies.

Neil Shubin

#95. Because appearing to be fair is part of being fair, most mainstream news organizations discourage marching for causes, displaying political bumper stickers or giving cash to candidates.

Bill Dedman

#96. When I listen to candidates spend all their time attacking Barack Obama, I'm glad they're not driving this bus because they'd be looking through the rear-view mirror. I look through the windshield at the road ahead.

John Kasich

#97. God has called us to be His representatives in our nation and in our world. Select candidates who represent your views and work for their election.

James Dobson

#98. And, when the votes are counted, let everybody, including the candidates, get into a good humor as quick as they got into a bad one.

Will Rogers

#99. The reality is that asking the public to fund political campaigns accomplishes nothing. Candidates continue to seek interest-group support through other channels, both financial and in-kind, and corruption problems abound.

Bradley A. Smith

#100. It's important to ask candidates about their beliefs, in part because politicians frequently exploit religious faith - often with the idea that voters will be more likely to unthinkingly accept certain political positions so long as they arise from religious belief.

Gary Bauer