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But The People At Home If We're Doing A Town Meeting Or A Town Format. You Have To Answer The Question That Is Asked. And What People At Home Are Gauging How Does This Candidate Respond To The Questioner? Do They Show Respect To The Questioner? Do They Try To Understand Why The Questioner Is Asking That? Do They Respond To The Question? Is There A Human Connection Between The Two? It's Where Barack Obama Beat Mitt Romney In 2012. He Lost The Voters On Who Was A Stronger Leader, Who Had A Vision For The Future, But On Who Cares About People Like Me, He Trounced Mitt Romney.

-Mark Shields

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But The People At

Mark Shields

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But The People At Home If We're Doing A Town Meeting Or A Town Format. You Have To Answer The Question That Is Asked. And What People At Home Are Gauging How Does This Candidate Respond To The Questioner? Do They Show Respect To The Questioner? Do They Try To Understand Why The Questioner Is Asking That? Do They Respond To The Question? Is There A Human Connection Between The Two? It's Where Barack Obama Beat Mitt Romney In 2012. He Lost The Voters On Who Was A Stronger Leader, Who Had A Vision For The Future, But On Who Cares About People Like Me, He Trounced Mitt Romney.

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I Have My Disagreements With President Obama, But President Obama Has Run An Amazingly Scandal-free Administration, Not Only He Himself, But The People Around Him. He's Chosen People Who Have Been Pretty Scandal-free.

It's Tempting To Remember That The Tea Party Had A Peak And Then The Republican Party Establishment Sort Of Beat It Back Down. And So These Things Are Won In A Day.

You Have To Understand That Republicans Are On Lockstep On One Issue. They Will Not Raise Taxes. Democrats Are In Lockstep On Another Issue, Pro-choice In All Cases On Abortion.

Russia Is A Country That Has Supported, Propped Up The Worst Of Anti-democratic Regimes In The Middle East, That Has Practiced - Mistreated Its Own Press, Mistreated Its Own Civil Society, And Economic Intimidation Of Its Neighbors, Including Invasion Of Its Neighbors.i Mean, This Is The One Country On The Face Of The Earth With The Capacity To Obliterate The United States.

I Think This Was As Good A Democratic Convention [ This Was My 24th Convention] As I Have Seen Since The 1976 Convention, Which Nominated Jimmy Carter.i Just Thought It Was A Spectacularly Successful Convention. I Don't Think Hillary Clinton's Speech Was Spectacular, But I Don't Think She's A Spectacular Speaker.

The Argument Of Those Who Are Being Criticized At Any Time, The Civil Rights Movement Forward, The Anti-war Movement Forward, Is, It's Always Outside Agitators Doing It.

I'm A Little Nervous About Public Funding. It's Better Than What We Got Now.

The Tough Thing About A Campaign Being Over Is, You Lose Your Enemy.

Mitt Romney Looks Like A Secretary Of State. He Looks Like The Chancellor Of The Exchequer.

The Republicans, They Are In The Danger Of Rooting For The Country To Fail. They Look Bad That Way, I Mean, And I Want To Say To Them, Cheer Up, Republicans. Eventually, Things Will Get Worse.

[the Republicans] Looked At Basically The Failed Wars And They Said, Oh, This, Us Being The Policeman Of The World, That Is Not Working.

In A Strange Way, Hillary Clinton Was Helped And Victimized By Barack And Michelle Obama.michelle Obama Was Probably Better Than Barack Obama, If You Think About It.her Speech Is A Masterful, Masterful Speech. And She Delivered It In A Persuasively Conversational Tone.

American Education Will Be Determined By The Quality Of American Public Education, And That's Public Schools That Are Available.

I Do Think, Over The Last Years, A Lot Of Republicans Have Decided It's Not Working, What The Party Believed In, Free Trade, Global Capitalism, Open Borders.

Tim Kaine Didn't Come Across Authentic. It Wasn't Good. And It Was - It Just Really - I Think, For Short-term Benefit, I Think The Democrats Tarnished The Brand, Which Is An Awfully Good Brand.

I Do Look Upon The Secretary Of Education's Primary Responsibility As The Quality Of Education That - And Improving The Education That Every Child In American Public Schools Receives.

Hillary Clinton Has Emphasized That She Is Afflicted With Or Possessed Of The Responsibility Gene.

Immigrants Have Been The Sustenance And The Survival And The Treasure Of America.

Donald Trump Has Taken Over The Republican Party. He's Transformed The Republican Party.

Peter Hart, The Pollster, Has A Question When He Asks About Presidential Or Vice Presidential Candidates, What Kind Of A Neighbor Would They Be? And Several Democrats - George W. Bush Was Always Seen To Be A Good Friendly Neighbor Who Would Pick Up The Newspapers If You Were Out Of Town Or Check Your Mail.

The Way To Solve All The Money In Politics Is Not To Pretend We Can Get Money Out Of Politics. That Will Never Happen. We Have To Channel It In Ways Where We Can See It And Hold It Accountable. And I Think The Parties Are The Best Vehicle For That.

[in Politics] When A Goes After B And There's A C, And D And A Q All Lined Up There, You Have No Idea Who's Going To Be The Beneficiary.

I Think Donald Trump Is Obviously The More Colorful, The More Flamboyant, The More Dominant Personality.

Now Republicans Are A More Interventionist Party Than They Have Been At Any Time Since George W. Bush Left Office.

Lee Atwater,[ronald] Reagan's Strategist, Had No Patience For Cpac, Because He Thought They Were Sort Of Wild And Immature, Basically.

There Is Always Strength In Numbers

Strength In Numbers

Donald Trump Is Sounding The Same Theme He Has Sounded Since May Or June Of 2015.

We're Not Being Invaded By Undocumented Immigrants Who Are Coming To Kill Police Officers And Commit Crimes. And I Don't Think Most Americans Think It's True.

Politics, They All - Talked To The Insiders.

When You Think Of Pristine Preservation Of America, You Immediately Think Of Tulsa And Oklahoma.

Donald Trump Defies Gravity. And So I Guess He Has To Be Donald Trump. It's Gotten Him So Far.

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.

The Uncritically Admiring Supporters And Friends Of The Prime Minister [benjamin Netanyahu], In Whose Ranks I Certainly Don't Include David [brooks], But Include Charles Krauthammer, The Columnist, And Mike Huckabee, The Former Governor Of Arkansas, Insist On Comparing Him To The Incomparable Leader Of The British Forces In Country In Part Of - During World War Ii.

I Believe Devoutly That The National Election Is The Closest Thing We Have To A Civic Sacrament Of Democracy. And I Really Do Think That Heed Must Be Paid, And When People Make A Decision, Those Who Are On The Other Side, Including Me, Accept It, For That Reason.

The Final Thing The Tea Party Had Was, They Fed Into The Philosophy That Donald Trump Now Embodies. So They Had A Different View Of How The World Should Be Governed. And So They Had A Lot Of Things That We Didn't Appreciate Going For Them As Time Went By.

I Think An Increasing Number Of Republicans Are Perplexed And Actually Nervous About Donald Trump And Russia, Nervous In The Sense That He Is Gratuitously Giving Democrats The National Security Advantage, That They're Standing Up For The Country.

If You Only Make Fights That You're Going To Win, There Would Be No Women's Vote In America, There Would Be No Civil Rights Laws In The Country.

90 Percent Of American Schoolchildren Are In Public Schools. And The Emphasis On Private Schools And Charter Schools And Parochial Schools Is Not Unimportant.

Donald Trump Is An Independent Presidential Candidate Who Ran On The Republican Label. He Really Did. He Took It Over. He Transformed It Into His Image, In His Likeness.

By A 2-1 Margin, Voters Believe That Donald Trump Would Change Business As Usual In Washington, But By Almost As Large A Margin, They Believe That Hillary Clinton Would Be Better In A Crisis And Less Of A Decisive Margin She Cares About People Like Them.

Donald Trump, I Hate To Tell People Who Are Concerned About It, Is Not Going To Be Impeached. The American People Believe In Giving Somebody A Fair Chance. He's A New President. There Have Been Troubles, There Have Been Problems.

White Working-class Voters Or Working-class Voters Have Felt Abandoned, Have Felt, In Many Senses, Disparaged By The Political Leadership Of America.

It's Interesting How Identity Politics And Ann Coulter-style Tactics Have Now Blossomed. But They Were Always There In Cpac.

Identity Politics

Being A Party Chair, You Really Have A Chance To Make A Difference. But What The Democrats Have To Do Is Recognize And Accept The Fact That They're At Their Lowest Point [in 2017] Since 1928 In The United States House Of Representatives And Their Lowest Point Since 1925 In States.

I Think Any Advocate Who Is Effective Has Fully Acquainted Himself Or Herself With The Legislator They Are Going To Meet. Know What Committees They Are On, What Issues They Are Interested In, All In An Effort To Build A Bridge For Communicating With Them.

The Democrats Have This High Level Of Expectation Of What Government Can Do.

[donald Trump] Stood Up And He Said, You Finally Have A President, You Finally Have A President. I Am The Future.and What Did He Get? Hosannas And Huzzahs And Genuflection. It Was A Total Takeover Of The Conservative Movement.

I Don't Think He Should Make Foreign Policy On The Basis Of Peak,but I Don't Think It Can Be Overstated That Israel Has Been An Embattled Democracy That Has Enjoyed The Bipartisan And Overwhelming Support Of Americans. It Has Been A Moral Force.

Big Money Buys Access In Washington, And Access Purchases Influence. It Is As Simple As That. And They Have Basically Given A Green Light, A Further Green Light, After Citizens United, To The Biggest Money To Have The Bigger Voice In Our Politics, And To Sound Out And Drown Out The Voice Of Just Ordinary Citizens.

Donald Trump Is Writing A Different Theme, Which Is It's Midnight In America And That Things Are Bad, And They're Bleak, And They're Gloomy And They're Doomy, And The Only Thing That Is Going To Save You Is Someone With The Authority And Power Of Somebody Like Me.

Authority And Power

Franklin Roosevelt Ran On A Balanced Budget In 1932, And The Greatest President, Certainly, Of The 20th Century. So The Idea That You Lay Out A Predicate Right Now, Donald Trump Has Recreated The Republican Party In His Image.

John Mccain Has Become The De Facto Running Mate Of George W. Bush.

George W. Bush In 2000 Went To Private Financing For The Nomination, But He Accepted Public Funding In The General. And, Quite Frankly, So Did - It Was Broken In 2008, When Barack Obama Decided He Wasn't Going To Do That.

The Democrats Have An Economic Message That Is Directed At People At The Lower End. That Has Been Their Cornerstone. The Republicans Has Been More Upscale.

Richard Nixon Said It Best. It Makes No Difference Whether They Hold Your Nose Or Whether They Go Would Through A Wall To Vote For You. It Counts The Same With The X.

Tim Kaine Reminds Me Of - Peter Hart.tim Kaine Is A Good Neighbor. He's Kind Of The Dependable, You Know, Friendly, Helpful. And, You Know, He Would Be Over There. He Would Give You A Hand If There Were A Problem At The House.

Barack Obama Knows That America Cannot Be Strong Abroad Unless We Are Strong At Home. People The World Over Have Always Been More Impressed By The Power Of Our Example Than The Example Of Our Power.

President [john F.] Kennedy, After The Bay Of Pigs, Said To Turner Catledge Of The New York Times: I Wish You Had Written More, I Wish You Had Investigated More, Because It Might Have Saved The Country Of The Cataclysm Of The Bay Of Pigs.

That's What The Conservative Movement Has Become, Is Basically An Annex Of The [donald] Trump Campaign.

Stronger Together Is, I Think, A Preposition And A Comparative Adjective, But It's Not Really An Action Verb Or What It Is.

The Reality Is That The Republicans Twice Had Mitt Romney As A Potential Nominee. They Chose Him In 2008 - 2012. In 2008 And 2012, He Had Been The Most Get Tough On Illegal Immigrants, On Undocumented Immigrants, Illegals, As He Called Them, Accused John Mccain Of Wanting To Give Them Social Security Checks, Accused Mike Huckabee Selling Out To Them With The Dream Act In Arkansas, Was Really The Most Strident.

This Is America, Where A White Catholic Male Republican Judge Was Murdered On His Way To Greet A Democratic Jewish Woman Member Of Congress, Who Was His Friend. Her Life Was Saved Initially By A 20-year Old Mexican-american Gay College Student, And Eventually By A Korean-american Combat Surgeon, All Eulogized By Our African American President.

Donald Trump Picked A Remarkably Nice Guy In Mike Pence.

I Think That The People That Are Publicly On Hillary Clinton's Short List All Are Very Congenial People. They're Not People With Personality Or Captain Queeg Problems.

There Is Always Strength In Numbers. The More Individuals Or Organizations That You Can Rally To Your Cause, The Better.

[donald] Trump, He - You Know, Buy American, Buy American, Anti-free Trade, And Got Big Cheers. They're Waving Russian Flags, Probably Partly As A Joke. But, Still, The Party Has Become An Ethnic Nationalist Party.

As Bill Clinton Said So Eloquently At The Convention, During Vietnam There Was A Chance To Serve; There Was A Chance Not To Serve.

Gone Is Any Mention Of American Exceptionalism. I Happen To Believe That Twice, Three Times In The 20th Century, The United States Saved Western Democracy, Both World War - Both World Wars And The Cold War.

When You Run For President Of The United States, Everybody Does The Same Thing In The Campaign-they Talk About Veterans, How Much They Admire Them, How Grateful They Are.

George Washington Was The President Who Could Never Tell A Lie, And Richard Nixon Was The President Who Could Never Tell The Truth. Donald Trump Is Truly The President Who Can't Tell The Difference.

Telling The Truth

It's Both Strategic, To Get People's Minds Off Other Things, And To Pick An Internal Enemy. It's Part Of [donald Trump's] Psychodynamics To Always Care About His Press Coverage Intensely. He's More Interested In That Than Anything Else.

Democrats, If They're Smart And They're Not Brain-dead, Are Doing Two Things Right Now.they're Having Self-deprecating Humor Written For Them. There Was No Humor In Cleveland. And They Are Not Making This A Donald Trump.

There Is Nothing More Basic To Our Democracy Than The Right To Participate In Electing Our Political Leaders.

America's Exceptionalism, American Leadership, The American Model, The American Values Are Not [first With Donald Trump] - They're Something That End At The Border.

I Think Hillary Clinton - First Of All, It's A Great Victory, Acknowledge It. She Has Made History.

Mitt Romney Looks Like A President. I Mean, He Really Does.

You Really Have One Bite At The Apple.

If Mitt Romney Had Got The Percentage Ronald Reagan Did Of Hispanics, He Would Have Defeated Barack Obama.

Critics Of Donald Trump Take Him Literally, But Not Seriously. His Supporters Take Him Seriously, But Not Literally.

The Strength Of Donald Trump As A Candidate - And I'm Not In Any Way Defending Moral Convictions Or Anything Of The Sort - Was That He Says What He Means, You Know Where He Stands.

Sometimes, You Just Let The Country Have Its Way, And You Don't Try To Determine The Shape Of The Country. You Sort Of Modestly Step Back And Let The Country Figure Out What It Believes.

When The Size Of The Group Supporting Your Cause Reaches A Critical Mass, Any Legislator Or Elected Official Has To Pay Attention.

Something Really Serious Has Shifted In The Minds Of Republicans And Certainly Others.

Barack Obama Did Get A Higher Percentage Of The Vote Than Anybody Has In This Country In 20 Years. I Mean, It Was A Resounding Victory. I Mean, Whether His Core Constituency Was 20 Percent Or What, His Electoral Constituency, Which Is How We Measure Elections, Was 53 Percent, Which Was, You Know, Historically High, The Highest Of Any Democrat, Other Than Franklin Roosevelt And Lyndon Johnson.

Politics Is A Contact Sport - A Question Of Accepting An Elbow Or Two.

The Failure To Invest In Our Public Transportation And Public Life, I Think, Is A Scandal And A Shame, And It Should Be A National Embarrassment.

The Pattern Of American Presidential Elections Is That The More Optimistic Candidate, Whether It's John Kennedy And Let's Get America Moving Again, Ronald Reagan, It's Morning In America, Or Barack Obama, Yes, We Can, Always Wins, Or Nearly Always Wins.

The Tea Party Thing Is Only Apt In Some Ways. The Activism In The Town Halls, That Looks Superficially Like It. But What The Tea Party Did Was, They Went After The Party, The Republican Party, As Their Vehicle. And Parties Is How You Change History.

The White House, As Warren Harding Said, And I Think Accurately, Is An Alchemist. We Find Out The Strengths, The Weaknesses And The Smarts And The Dumbs Of Whoever Those Occupants Are Under The Pressure Of The Presidency.

The Single Worst Campaign Slogan I Have Ever Heard, Is Hillary's Clinton, "i'm With Her," It Means Nothing. It Absolutely Means Nothing To Anybody. I Mean, It's About Appealing - And It Says Nothing About Anybody's Life, About The Country.

Hillary Clinton, At The End Of The Debate, What You Want Viewers To Say, Yes, She's Smart, She's Knowledgeable, But She's Not A Bad Egg, You Know? Not A Bad Egg Is A Pretty High Compliment In American Politics, Given The Toxic Atmosphere In Which We Currently Dwell.

If I Were John Bolton, I'd Take Great Consolation In The Words Of My Principal Supporter On The Committee, Who Gave A Ringing Endorsement, Which Was, There Is No Evidence That He Has Broken Any Laws.

Once I Accuse You Of Racist, I Have Demonized You, And It Means Any Future Collaboration, Cooperation Between Us Is A Sign Of My Moral Deficiency, If I Would Deal With Someone Like That. It's A Terrible Thing To Do.

We Had The Clip Of [donald] Trump Saying: I'm Not President Of The Globe. I'm President Of The United States.[ronald] Reagan Would Have Never Said That. [dwight] Eisenhower Would Have Never Said That, Because He Would Have Said, Yes, I'm President Of The United States, But It's In Our Interests To Be Securing A World Order.

Dwight Eisenhower

Dan Coats, Retiring Senator From Indiana, A Mild-mannered Man, A Former United States Ambassador To Germany, Former Congressman, Said Of Ted Cruz He's The Most Self-centered, Narcissistic, Pathological Liar I Have Ever Seen.and He Said, You Can Quote Me On That.

The Advantage That Hospitals Have Over Other Institutions Is That Hospitals Are Community-based. You Can't Outsource Your Work; You Can't Move Your Emergency Department To Pakistan.

[dwight Eisenhower Was ] A Citizen Of The World.

Dwight Eisenhower

The Democrats Are Now An Upscale Party.

Americans Don't Like Powerful Figures Who Punch Down, That Is, Who Pick On Someone Less Powerful And Less Able To Speak For Themselves Than They Are.

I Think That "arabs Coming Out In Droves" Is So Violative Jewish Values That Non-jews Admire So Much About Jewish People Throughout History, Of Welcoming The Stranger, Of Standing Up For The Outsider, Of Defending The Marginalized. This Was Classic Us Against Them. This Was The Narrowest And Meanest Of Politics, To Which Jews, Sadly And Tragically, Around The World Have Been Subjected To.

I Think Donald Trump Is Not Going To Be Impeached [in A ] Month. Let's Not Close Out Possibilities.i Do Think That What's Happening Is Great And That People Are Active And People Are Just Involved In The Democratic Process.

The Studies That Show The Reason Washington Real Estate Is Booming And There Are So Many Lobbyists In Town, It Does Pay.

There Are People Who Know Hillary Clinton Who Tell Wonderful Stories About Her, How Likable She Is, How Funny She Is; 99 Percent Of American People Don't - Have Never Seen That Side Of Her.

I Think The Republican Party Is Cursed. And It's Cursed Itself.

Let's Give The President Some Due Here. They Had A Mess, And He Fixed It, And They Mobilized A Lot Of Authority, And They Did It.

Health Care, It's Going To Be Political. It's Going To Be, Let's Say, The Confluence Of The Politics And The Messy Implementation.

The People Who Are Rising, They're Super Ambitious. They Have Relationships With People Above Them. They Have Relationships, Hierarchical, Sort Of People Below Them. A Lot Of People Do Not Have Relationships Horizontally. And There's A Lot Of People Who Reach High Political Offices, But Who Are Weirdly Lonely, Weirdly Lacking In Intimacy Skills.

Kevin Mccarthy, Who Is The House Majority Leader, Was Pretty Open. He Went Out And Recruited Candidates. And The Republicans In The House Have Paid A Price For It Ever Since, Because They Cannot Pass Anything Comprehensive Or Real Because Of The Freedom Caucus, Which Is The Child, The Product, The Progeny Of The Tea Party.

The Fact Is That It's The Most Dangerous Place To Be On The Political Scale Is To Brand Those On The Other Side As Racist. That's The Atomic Bomb. That's The Nuclear Weapon Of An American.

To Me, The Fundamental Thing - Well, I Guess I See A Lot Of People Debating In The Wrong Way. A Lot Of The Debate Is, Should We Go To The Coasts, Should We Go To The Center, Should We Go To The Left, Should We Go To The Right?

I Think It's Fair To Say That Donald Trump Was Born Without The Embarrassment Gene Or The Moral Reservation Gene.

The Democrats Have Tried The War Against Women In The Past. It Didn't Really Have That Much Traction.

The Charter School Is A Possibility, An Alternative In Certain Circumstances, But Not In Most, And Not In Most Places, And Not - Most Parents Don't Have Either The Time, The Inclination Or The Aptitude To Sit And Go Through Sifting What School And What Is Available And What The Options Are.

The Democrats Are Standing On One Side, And The Republicans Are Playing Games On The Other. Both Sides Are Playing Games.

I Personally Believe That [donald Trump] Is Wrong On The Condition Of America.

I Saw Money Change Votes.i Mean, They Just Seem Unaware Of This, That Money Is Something - If They Want To See The Appearance Of Corruption, All They Had To Do Was Look In Las Vegas Last Weekend.

The Stated Objective And The Mission Of Vladimir Putin's Russia Is To Destabilize The North Atlantic Alliance.

Washington Is A City Of Money. It's A Flood Of Money.

Now The Republicans Have A Very Low-scale, By Economic Standards, Base. Donald Trump Has.

The Democratic Party Is A Coalition. Its Strength And Its Weakness Is, It's A Coalition Of Interest Groups, Caucuses. It's A Lot Less Homogeneous Than The Republican Party, Where People Tend To Believe The Same Things And Oftentimes Look Alike.

My Church [catholisism] Is Hurting From Arrogance And From Its Indifference To The Suffering Of Children That Were Abused And The Inclination Of The Leadership To Protect The Institution, Rather Than The Children.

The Democrats Have To Do What He Did When [rahm Emanuel] Was Chairman Of The Democratic House Campaign Committee, Recruit Veterans, Recruit Football Players, Recruit Business People. And I Think That's What The Job Of The New Party Chair Has To Be.

Donadld Trump Loves Loyalty.

I Thought What Steve Bannon Said Was Probably More Chilling Or More Threatening Than Anything The President [donald Trump]says, I Mean, Because He Said, It's A Constant Day. We Have To Defeat The Press.

If You're On The Other Side From Me, You're Not Simply Wrong Or Ill-informed Or Mistaken. We Don't Share The Same Country, The Same Values. You May Not Be The Same Kind Of An American I Am.

For Many Years, We Have Had These Campaign Finance Reforms, And They Have Been Failures. Money Is More Coursing Through Our System Than Ever Before. Incumbents Have Used The Laws To Advantage Themselves. And One Of The Reasons I Think They Have Been Failures Is We Have Tried To Crush Down The Money In Places Like The Political Parties, And It Has Squished Out Into Opaque Super Pacs And Sort Of Hidden Channels.

There Is No Tougher Job In America Than Being A Cop On The Beat In A Major City In This Country, Big And Brawling.

Whether It's Her [ Hillary Clinton] Guarded Privacy Or Whatever Else, I Mean, There Has Got To Be Some Sense That This Is A Human Being That I Can Identify.

George Bush Says What John Kerry Did Was Noble. Yet He Sees Him Being Savaged By His Own Supporters.

Since The Election, Since The Formation Of A Government, The Death In Iraq Has Increased. The United States Stands By, Helpless To Do Anything About It. That's The Reality, Not George Bush's Revisionist History!

Tim Kaine Kind Of Gives The Warmer, Human Face Of The Democrats.

Campaigns Are Fun. Campaigns Are Police Escorts, They're Airplanes, They're Crowds, They're Balloons, They're Bands, A Lot Of Fun. You Speak In Vague Generalities. You Get Applause For Slogans. And Then Governing Comes. And Governing Is Tedious And It's Difficult An It's Time-consuming And It Demands Your Attention. And Policy Isn't Vague Generalities. It's Specifics And It's Based On Knowledge.

I Mean, This Is A Group [republicans], Don't Forget, That Gave Its Presidential Straw Ballot To Ron Paul, Ron Paul, And Rand Paul And Rand Paul. So, They Have Abandoned What - Their Libertarian Values And Instincts To Embrace [donald] Trump.

When You Have Got Military-style Assault Weapons And High-capacity Magazines, They're Intended For One Purpose. And That Is To Inflict As Much Damage On Human Beings In As Short As Time As Possible.

Assault Weapons

Franklin Roosevelt Had A Pretty Clear Line. Ronald Reagan Had A Pretty Clear Line, People Who Rescue Parties.

I Don't Hear Any Clear, Coherent Message [from Democrats]. I Mean, When You're A Party Out Of Power, It's The Time To Be A National Party Chair.

The Economy Of The United States Gross Domestic Product Doubled From 1996 To 2015, Doubled, More Than, $8.8 Trillion To $17.1 Trillion. And The Median Household Income Went Down.

The Problem Is That What Donald Trump Said, If You Take It Literally Now, Is Cause For Anxiety And Nervousness.

Clinton's Major Problem, And The Two Aren't Separable Really Because There Is Hope In The Country, The Hope - - Optimism Has Slipped Dramatically, Make No Mistake About Every Measurement Shows That. But The Hope Is Still There. Hope Is With Him. People Want Change. They See Him As The Best Chance For Change.

Donald Trump Is Not An Unintelligent Man.

The Republicans Are Looking At A Country That Is Going To Be A Majority Minority Country In Just Over A Generation. And They Are An Increasingly White Party.

It's Fine To Be An Activist, But You're Not - If You're Not Putting Up Candidates, If You're Not Getting Political, If You're Not In Your Party, Then You're Probably Not Going To Have Long-term Change. You Will Probably Dissipate.

I Think She [hillary Clinton] Would Be Far Superior To President [barack] Obama, Who Is Basically Remote, Aloof And Not Involved With - He Doesn't Deal With Members Of Congress.

I Think The Democrats Did A Terrible Disservice, The Hillary Clinton Campaign Did, To Tim Kaine. Tim Kaine Had The Earned Reputation Of Being One Of The Most Respected And Well-liked, And Not Cheap Partisan Members Of The United States Senate. And They Turned Him Into An Attack Dog.

The Problem With Smear Campaigns Is That Too Often They Work.

Smear Campaigns

The Person You're Choosing Is Going To Be 90 Feet Down The Hall For Four Years. That's A Pretty Intimate And Close Relationship, And It Better Be Somebody You're Comfortable With, You Like, You Trust, You Look Forward To Seeing, Not Someone You're Coming Up With Creative Ideas On How To Avoid.

I Do Think What The Tea Party Also Had Was Obamacare And The Unpopularity Of That, At Least At The Time. And So Whether There Is Something That Is Equally Unpopular And Equally Galvanizing That Is Almost Self-destructive From The Administration, That's Another Factor That We Will Wait And See.

Presidential Trust Is Something, That's Perishable And It's Precious. And Once A President Loses It, It's Not A Question Of Whether It's Conflict Of Interests Laws Or There Aren't Conflict Of Interests Laws.

That's The Job Of A Free Press Is To Hold The Lamp Up, To Investigate, To Hold Accountable. And Denying Access, As Sean Spicer Did , Is The First Step Toward A Dictatorship.

I'm Sure Little Marco [rubio] Didn't Think It Would Stick. I'm Sure Crooked Hillary [clinton] Didn't Think It Would Stick. These Labels Do Have A Certain Power To Them. And So We Will See How It Plays Out.

John Kerry's Biography Was Central To His Campaign.

Let's Not Pretend That All Of A Sudden, This Is Some New System.

Human Trafficking Is A Human Tragedy. It's An Outrage Against Any Decent People.

Human Trafficking

There Is A Cleavage And A Divide In America Like I Have Never Seen Before.

For The Democrats, They're Trying To Avoid Having The [ben] Sanders- [hillary] Clinton Debate Over And Over Again. But, To Some Degree, They're Sentenced To That Debate.

It Doesn't Have To Be The Same Line That We Have Had For The Last 40 Years, Because That Clearly Isn't Working On Any Level. But You Have Got To Have A Pretty Clear Line On This Crucial Issue.

You Want A Leader, Western Leader, English-speaking? Mitt Romney.

Americans Don't Like The Way Washington Operates. They Don't Like Washington. They Don't Like The Way Things Are Going.

There's No Question That There's Been A Breach In The Trust Between Urban - Especially Urban Community, African-american And Minority Communities And The Police In Major American Cities.

African American

In The Past, In Order To Continue As A Candidate, A Serious Candidate, You Had To Be In The Top Three Finishes In Iowa. You Had To Be In The Top Two Out Of New Hampshire. All Our Presidents Elected In The Past Half-century Finished Either First Or Second In New Hampshire And In The Top Three In Iowa. That Changed With The Citizens United, When We Gave Unlimited Amounts Of Money.

I'm Not Sure Betsy Devos Has Ever Spent A Day In A Public School. And I Don't - I'm Pretty Sure Donald Trump Hasn't.

They're Still A Subject Beholden To Special Interests, But At Least They Have A National Constituency. At Least They Have To Think About National Majorities.

In The 2004 Presidential Election, We Saw A Wonderful Example Of Citizens Making Contributions. In Fact, Individual Giving To Both The Kerry And Bush Campaigns Was The Highest In Our Nation's History.

Democrats Can Have A Different Version Of The Line, Or They Can Just Say, No, We Are The Party Of International Peace And Activism, And We're The Party That's Going To Have A Civilized Capitalism.

There's Never Been A Sense Of Public Service About Donald Trump.

The President Has To Have The Trust, Earn The Trust, Maintain The Trust Of People In Order To Lead. And There's Nothing That Will Lose It Quicker Than A Sense That He's In It For A Quick Buck.

Everyone Has To Take Donald Trump Seriously, And I Think That's What We're Seeing.

There's Nothing Wrong With Being Organized.things That Change History Tend To Be Organized.

If An Abduction Is Reported, It Is Dealt With In The Same Way As A Kidnap.

America Is Republican Until 5:00 Or 6:00 At Night.

Russia Today Is Nothing But A Propaganda Arm.

But The People At Home If We're Doing A Town Meeting Or A Town Format. You Have To Answer The Question That Is Asked. And What People At Home Are Gauging How Does This Candidate Respond To The Questioner? Do They Show Respect To The Questioner? Do They Try To Understand Why The Questioner Is Asking That? Do They Respond To The Question? Is There A Human Connection Between The Two? It's Where Barack Obama Beat Mitt Romney In 2012. He Lost The Voters On Who Was A Stronger Leader, Who Had A Vision For The Future, But On Who Cares About People Like Me, He Trounced Mitt Romney.

Basically, Global Capitalism, Basically To Support It, Or Is It To Be Opposed? Is International Order To Be Supported, Or Is It To Be Opposed? Republicans Have Taken A Very Clear Line.

The Organizing Principle Of The United States Defensive Foreign Policy Had Been Opposition To The Soviet Union. There Is No More Soviet Union.

[donald] Trump Is Instructive.for Trump, It Was That The Global Economy And The International World Order Were Failing Regular People.

Hillary Clinton Should Get A Bounce Out Of Her Convention, I Mean A Bounce In The Polls. I Think It's Probably Conceded That Donald Trump Got About A Three-point Bounce Out Of His Conventions. He's Closed The Gap That Much.

I Think Democrats Ought To Be Concerned, That The Party Has Become Almost Prideful About The College-educated Vote That It's Getting, The Support That Hillary Clinton Is Getting Against Donald Trump.

We Have Weakened The Parties And Strengthened All The Special Interests.

The Sheldon Adelsons, The Koch Brothers, The George Soroses, What We Want To Try To Do Is Force Them Into The Parties, Not So That Kasich Or Whoever Is Going To Straight To Them And Trying To Kiss Up To Special Interests, But So The Parties Have The Power And They Can Direct The Money.

As Long As Republicans Won't - Won't Raise Taxes And As Long As Democrats Won't In Any Way Make Entitlements Based On Need, Rather Than Just Across The Board, I Really Think That We're Doomed To This Deadlock.

Ronald Reagan Four Times Accepted The Limits In Contributions Of What He Could Take, What He Could Spend, And The Public Funding For The General Elections. So I Just Think The Idea That It Didn't Work, And Didn't Work - It Did Work. It Worked Brilliantly.

Drones Are Sort Of The Perfect Weapon For A Country That Doesn't Want To Go To War. It Only - There's No Fingerprint. There's No Direct Involvement. There's Human Beings Killed On The Other End. You Never See Them. You Don't Have To Worry About Them. You Don't Have To Meet Their Widows. It's Sort Of An Antiseptic Warfare.

I Do Think That Republicans Are Flirting With Their Tax Cut, Which Has Always Been The Narcotic Of Republicans, That They In Fact Have To At Some Point, With Any Remote Pretense Of Candor, Abandon Any Pretense Of A Balanced Budget.i Mean, They Talk About - Because They Are Going To Finance The Tax Cut By Tax Cuts. That's How They're Going To Do It. And I Do Think That The Will Is There Right Now In The Congress To Act. I Think They Will Be As Close To Unity As You Will See On Capitol Hill This Year.

You Can't Have Someone With A Pinkie Out There At The U.n. Or Any Other Place.

John Mccain Was Victimized In The South Carolina Primary.

If Donald Trump Does Lose, Being Revealed As This Bizarre Personality, Ted Cruz Is Not Going To Be What Republicans Are Looking For In 2020.

The Corporations Who Invest In Lobbyists, It Pays In Terms Of Tax Loopholes, Tax Subsidies, All The Rest. It Pays. Clearly, The Money Has A Big Effect.

I Thought Mike Pence, Upon Reflection To Me, Came Across A Little Bit Like Your Favorite Aunt Who Refuses, In Spite Of First-person Evidence That Grandpa Has Been Drunk And Disorderly In Public, That, Says, No, No, Grandpa Would Never Do That, Even Though Grandpa Is Being Taken Off In Handcuffs.

[democrats] Have Got To Start Winning Elections. That Involves Not Some Great Idea, But It Also Involves Recruiting Candidates. And Rahm Emanuel, The Mayor Of Chicago, Who Has Given Obnoxiousness A New Definition In His Personal Behavior, Oftentimes In His Dealings With The Press, Had A Very Good Point.

I Am Struck The Whole Litany Of People, Especially Of That Era, Who Were Involved In Some Scandal Or Another. Some Of It Was Sexual. Some Of It Was More Financial. And It Was Just All Concentrated In A Lot Of People All At Once.

All About Midterm Elections Is Turnouts. And Turnout Is Measured By Enthusiasm, Intensity, How Interested Are People. And President Obama - Candidate Obama Had It On His Side In 2008. The Democrats Had It On Their Side In 2006. The Enthusiasm, The Intensity, The Passion Was All On Their Side.

But Take The Russia Issue. You Open Up The Convention, And You Have Got A Report That The Democratic Party Has Been Hacked By The Russians, E-mails, The E-mails Of The Democratic Party, Which Is A Headline And Words That You Don't Want, If You're Hillary Clinton's Campaign.and Donald Trump Immediately Takes The Story And Basically Steps On The Advantage He Has And Say, Well, The Russians, Who Am I To Tell [vladimir] Putin? You Know, The Russians Ought To Come In And Continue To Hack Our - And Find Out Where The E-mails Are.

Steve Bannon Went To The Conservative Political Action Conference And He Said That There Was A Very Important Historical Turning Point, Getting Rid Of The Trans-pacific Partnership. And The Republican Party Has Stood For That For As Long As I Have Been Alive.

I Think Part Of Donald Trump's Appeal Is That He's A Guy That Does Cut Corners, That He's The Guy That Does Get Deals And Maybe Does Break A Speed Limit. I Think There Was Sort Of A Roguish, Rascally, But I Get Things Done Even If I Break The Rules.

Donald Trump Manages To Personalize Everything. He Brings Chaos. He Will Not Admit That He's Ever Made A Mistake, That He's Ever Been Wrong.

All Politics Is Personal With President Trump. And That Carries With It Great, Great Problems.

Mitt Romney Was The Man Who Stood Up To Donald Trump Early, Hard, Never Wavered.

Donald Trump Is Appealing To The Basest, The Most Selfish And The Most Literally Un-american Of Instincts.

[hillary] Clinton Is Much More Embracing Of The Global Economy And The International World Order. [ben] Sanders And [scott] Warren Are Much Less So.

I Think Guantanamo, Has Been Synonymous With The Staining Of American Values And American Legal Tradition.

American Values

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