Larry Sabato Quotations | Page 2

This is both a substantive and a stylistic problem for Bush. Stylistically, he needs to convince people that he is in charge now and he gets it now .

This is a red state, he came in on Election Eve and he had no discernible effect. If anything, he may have cost Kilgore some votes.

This is going to be a very expensive race between an incumbent and a quasi-incumbent.

This is going to be a very difficult race just to get the nomination, not to mention winning the general election. The alternative is that he could practically ask for the Virginia governorship in 2009 and have it; his for the asking if he doesn't have a loss on his record in 2008.

This is red meat for Democratic activists. Many Democrats wonder if she can be elected in November 2008, so she has to keep the activist Democrats onboard. They're the ones who vote in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries.

They shore up the party base, making sure that the faithful turn out, and they show that they think the races are important, which sometimes they aren't.

This is a case where the Bush administration doesn't need to spell out what they did and why they did it. It's as plain as a wart on the nose of a Miss America. Any attempt by Bush's spokespeople to present this as anything other than an admission of error will be laughed out of the public square.

This is a middling scandal, but it could go higher.

This is a big election, about big things -- war and peace, the economy and all the rest. Real events over the next few months will have an impact.

They're trying to get the public's attention again and remind them of the arguments that once worked with the public.

They're watching, ... Warner has the responsibility as party leader to come up with someone who can give Allen a run for his money so Allen has to spend down the millions he's accumulating for his all-but-announced presidential bid.

A lot of people are watching that race.

A majority of Americans living today, a surprisingly small majority because of the large youthful population, still remembers Watergate. And when we hear the word eavesdropping, those of us who lived during Watergate, we think of the nefarious activities of the Nixon administration.

At a certain point, you have to accept reality, and it's an impressive reality. It should have been a blow-away. It wasn't just any congressional race - it was a race during Bush's summer of sorrow and it came in a state that was ground zero for '04 and possibly will be for '08.

Absolutely. The Republican campaign in Virginia will tell you that, at least privately. The president chose to nationalize that election by showing up on election eve. You don't want to do that unless you want to be associated with the results. I think they thought genuinely Bush could pull him across the race. It wasn't close. The result: Bush has to take the spanking.

Absolutely, ... The Republican campaign in Virginia will tell you that, at least privately. The president chose to nationalize that election by showing up on election eve. You don't want to do that unless you want to be associated with the results. I think they thought genuinely Bush could pull him across the race. It wasn't close. The result: Bush has to take the spanking.

It's just a question of who gets out more of their core voters.

It's a show. Maybe in the beginning of a presidency it matters, maybe after something like 9/11 it matters, but generally speaking, it's more of the same.

It was callous trying to shift the blame to the victim. His entire PR staff should be fired just for that.

It's awful. These two races are the worst possible combination ? nasty and dull. It doesn't get any worse.

It's awfully tough to attack someone who's served and sacrificed as much as she has.

It is really freezing a governor's administration. It's very damaging. These scandals always are.

It's a good thing for Richardson. What other presidential candidate in the Democratic Party would be called upon by an administration in a nonpartisan way to represent American interests in a dangerous place?

It's an unadulterated plus for his career. It's attention to an obscure senator who otherwise never would have stood out.

For Bush, it's a manmade political disaster on top of a natural disaster. The Bush administration could not have done much worse, it really couldn't. They appeared detached and slow to realize the seriousness of the situation.

For a first-year senator, that was a lot for him to try to chew on. It was a pretty successful bite.

It's the first time we have seen it since Bush became president.

It's almost been contempt of Congress -- not legal contempt of Congress, but contempt of Congress by baseball, ... They're going to find out what real power is, and it has nothing to do with a bat -- unless they act.

It's an important event. It's one of those moments in his presidency that people want to remember well and he has to give them an opportunity to do so.

It's good news for Tester and it's good news for Burns.

It should have been a blow-away. It wasn't just any congressional race ? it was a race during Bush's summer of sorrow and it came in a state that was ground zero for '04 and possibly will be for '08.

It's been a very successful term. It's hard to describe it any other way. He came in at a tough time. There was no money. The Republicans had just taken a landslide in the legislature. Things didn't look good. But he worked through the problems and ended up triumphant. It's a storybook ending. I didn't see that coming. Frequently these businessmen governors who've never been elected to anything before, flop. So he's the exception.

It's permanent now in peoples' minds. It will be in his obituary.

It splits his base, and it will be endless trouble for him if it goes forward, and I'm sure he won't let it happen.

Dole could be blamed for any losses, and that is unfair.

That's the great danger of the Republican candidates. If the president's popularity is low come November, there will be a substantial turnover and the Republicans will lose seats.

That is a major problem for President Bush and the Republicans. The Democrats are bound to benefit from it in the mid-term elections of 2006. The question is, to what degree?

It's spread pretty widely, at least in the political underground.

It's completely transparent that he's testing the waters and would very much like to run. He's wanted to run for president for years, and 2008 may be the best opportunity he has.

It's a matter of getting people excited and out to vote. Whether the Congress passes a lot of legislation is a separate issue. . . . They can get the electoral issues done just by debating some of the issues.

It's different in Washington. It's a lot easier to get lost in Washington, even if you're a senator.

I've had literally dozens of governors, senators and several presidents (talk to classes), and no one, other than the presidents, has gotten a better reception or more sustained ovation from these young people.

no longer the best of friends, if they ever were.

It's very likely that Virginia will eventually adopt the two-term governorship. But it won't be in the next few years, as far as I can tell.

It's very hard for governors to say they're on their own. Inevitably, there's going to be taxpayer funds involved in their social life because they're being guarded, they don't drive themselves, there's someone driving a limousine. Taxpayer funds are always used in one way or another, and that gives the press an opportunity to cover it.

It will be studied as one of the big ones -- an example of how a modest mishap goes completely out of control.

It will be a war between the desire for change and someone completely new and different, and the tendency to pick a stable political figure who won't embarrass the district, again.

It won't do any harm because no one will remember by November, but it will raise money,... and that's the key.

The use of the word 'plantation' is terribly unwise. It will just reinforce the view most Americans have of Hillary Clinton as being very liberal.

They can get away with less, but they don't recognize that truth. The cumulative effect on the public is to increase cynicism about government and politicians.

They violated every rule in the book. I've studied feeding frenzies. This is a classic feeding frenzy, and it was created in part by their inability to get the news out. You have to tell the truth, and you need to get the facts out completely as soon as possible. This was a public-relations disaster because they didn't do that.

This is Kaine's debate. It's Kaine's audience. It's probably Kaine's region, ... one of the most one-sided debates I've ever seen.

So each new justice has a major, really a tremendous impact on individual lives, on the exercise of our rights and responsibilities and I think most Americans already know that but they will be reminded in a dramatic fashion during the hearings.

That's all anyone was talking about this morning. It's the only thing people know about this, and it just made the nominee seem more human and sympathetic.

The Congress reads the polls; they know that the president is not where he was once and they're on the ballot next November.

I'm not sure $100 million could elect Katherine Harris. You can spend $100 million marketing dog food, but if the dogs won't eat, it isn't going to sell.

In another state, this could be devastating and could mean instant defeat. In New Jersey, it will take more than this.

I'll bet no one in New Jersey begrudges him that salary. Public officers ought to have set salaries that are sufficient for an average person to serve.

I'll bet no one in New Jersey begrudges him that salary. Public office ought to have set salaries that are sufficient for an average person to serve.

If the people of Louisiana are lucky, both the governor and the mayor will appoint personal representatives who will work with one another, ... In other words, they can get the bad blood out of the room by delegating it away.

If Warner doesn't find a strong candidate, he'll be held to account by national Democratic activists who vote in Iowa and New Hampshire.

If Warner can't swing the election to his own lieutenant governor with a popularity rating of 75 percent, then Democrats have the right to ask, 'Can this guy really swing any Southern states or was this a fluke?

If you end up separating yourself from the president of your party, you are going to turn off a certain number of partisans.

If you look at the polls carefully, they show that Americans are disaffected with the Bush administration policy in Iraq, but have very little confidence in the Democrats on that score either.

In Virginia, the press was very curious about Wilder from Day One, and the connection they used to report it was the use of a state helicopter,

In order to be nominated and elected, she has to try to demonstrate that she actually does have appeal in red states, and that she's more moderate than people think.

Clearly, Americans love golden oldies, but this golden oldie will have much more difficulty hitting the charts this time around.

Can he attract the 90-percenters? Or will they drift to someone else with a better chance of winning?

But his greatest problem is that it is hard to see him as offering voters anything other than George W. Bush's third term. And even Bush Republicans realize that the American people don't want that.

He's secretive by nature. It's a dumb thing for officials to do, especially someone as experienced as Cheney. Just imagine what Jon Stewart, Jay Leno and David Letterman are going to do to him for days. It's a self-inflicted wound.

He starts out as a clear favorite, and he'll be a heavy favorite if the congresswoman doesn't run again him,

He's radiating confidence; it may even be bravado, ... He was thinking ahead. This could have been a very damaging photo. Instead I think most people will look at this and chuckle.

I doubt that they will every be as unanimous as they once were.

I don't think they have the ability to work it all out together, because there are too many other key players in the legislature, much less the executive branch.

He bottomed out on Iraq even before Cindy Sheehan's protest started. Look at the poll numbers, Americans have been increasingly disaffected.

The national media will talk about (national problems) because it's something that everyone in all 50 states can understand, but the reality is these are minor factors. These are local races. ... The issues tend to be less ideological than for Senate races or races for president. ... It's about potholes and streetlights.

The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?

People are trying to decide whether the man-made disaster is worse than Mother Nature's disaster.

The Republicans I've been talking to have said, 'Oh, the public is cynical about indictments, they happen so often.' Well, that's whistling past the graveyard, because the average voter is only going to remember that one of the big Republican head honchos in Congress was indicted. They won't remember the name or position, but they'll remember it says Congress is corrupt and maybe the majority party is corrupt.

Shockingly, the Bidens donated under $1,000 to all charities combined every year for the ten years prior to 2008.

A dangerous thesis has taken hold among many in the GOP: that it might be better to lose the '06 election and re-group. In American history, when a faction in the majority party decides the party is tired and could benefit from some time in the wilderness, the voters usually oblige. Most recently, the latest issue of Washington Monthly includes a cover story [link] featuring seven such articles from prominent Republican strategists, insiders and commentators.

Politics is a good thing!

Every election is determined by the people who show up.

These areas tend to be home to high-income, highly educated voters who show up at the polls. These are areas that are changing the fastest, have people arriving in enormous numbers, have demands for better schools, better roads - and politicians have to be responsive to them.

Although he does not like backing down, Bush has realized that he was too ambitious.

The gap could shrink but I doubt very seriously they will eliminate it.

The devastation is so great and the stories of the victims have united Americans in sympathy.

An actual takeover in either house is very difficult. It's possible, but it will take a Democratic wave, even a tsunami. Everything must come together for the Democrats to do this.

The legislation might have passed if he had waited, but it would have been on Page 8 of the nation's newspapers.

The loser will have millions of people nursing that grievance for four years, and that will prove invaluable.