Would that the simple maxim that honesty is the best policy might be laid to heart that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical.

I'll never get out of politics. I have friends in public office. I have things that I want to do. You can't go back in life. I won't go back to the existence I had before of running a political consulting firm and signing up clients and advising campaigns in exactly that way.

There are three critical ingredients to democratic renewal and progressive change in America: good public policy grassroots organizing and electoral politics.

Public life is regarded as the crown of a career and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure.

One of the big changes in politics has been because families individuals have felt worried insecure... worried about the economy worried about their jobs worried about their kids' futures... actually the disconnect between the public and media discourse and people's everyday concerns has become bigger not smaller.

Once the cry and the cause of a generation of progressives to make America safer fairer and cleaner 'regulation' is now a dirty word in our politics. Even Democrats are quick to talk about cutting regulations Republicans hate them with - how to put it? - evangelical fervor.

When a Cabinet Minister who is sacked for telling lies is re-appointed in the face of every constitutional convention only for the same man to be sacked again from the same Cabinet for the same offence by the same Prime Minister no wonder the public are cynical about politics.

I can tell you that too much money is corrupting American politics. Don't blame the American public. The U.S. Supreme Court has a lot to answer for because it has made it impossible for Congress to reduce the corrupting influence of money on American political life.

It isn't fate but fecklessness that has shoved Sarah Palin to the sidelines of national politics. The real tragedy is that she's taken a lot of other serious Republican women with her.

I honestly believe that there's an element in this country in our politics that does not want to see a businessman succeed at getting the nomination for the Republican party and does not want me to succeed at becoming President of the United States of America.

Democrats always like to brag that their guys are smarter than the opponents and Republicans always like to brag that their guys are more moral than the opponents. But if you're looking for morals in politics you're looking for bananas in the cheese department.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

Your every voter as surely as your chief magistrate exercises a public trust.

I was a woman in a man's world. I was a Democrat in a Republican administration. I was an intellectual in a world of bureaucrats. I talked differently. This may have made me a bit like an ink blot.

The largest party in America by the way is neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. It's the party of non-voters.

The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.

The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt too.

Republicans have nothing but bad ideas and Democrats have no ideas.

All the president is is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss in the Republican Party he is a leader.

I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats we will stop telling the truth about them.

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for as for me I rejoice that I am not a Republican.

But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea but of course I never really much got the chance to do it.