Mark McKinnon Quotes

If Democrats start consistently winning Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, the electoral outlook for Republicans in the future is mighty bleak.

Rand Paul comes off like an academic stiff who wants to give us a lecture on American civics.

Twitter is not a business. I know its founders would like to think it is. It is, for the most part, a diversion.

If we cannot come together to pause, to respect our dead and the heroic lives of meaning they led, then ours is truly a civilization lost.

Infrastructure spending does not create immediate jobs, and more than half of those jobs will pull from the pool of the already employed.

Wages, investments, and home values are the three legs of the economic stool for most Americans.

A Rick Santorum presidency would be very, very dangerous for America.

Go Hard or Go Home, but never go home hard!

I've spent the better part of my career in politics and public policy working on and fighting for education reforms.

Drone attacks subvert the rule of law - we become judge, jury, and executioner - at the push of a button.

Hypocrisy is the scarlet letter in politics.

As in nature, politics abhors a vacuum. Without a strong voice for more moderate leadership, the Tea Party is filling that vacuum.

Technology and social media have brought power back to the people.

Middle America believes in fair play, an equal opportunity to succeed or to fail.

In politics, not all lies are all lies. And not all truths are complete.

To pull off successful attacks in debates, you have to execute with nuance and subtlety. It has to be artful.

Reasonable people can reasonably disagree on policy.

Ah, political physics. Someone wins an election and, poof, they are a candidate for vice president. Ridiculous.

I prefer for government to err toward less regulation, lower taxation, and free markets. And I'm a radical free trader.

I'm no economist. I don't even play one on TV. I'm just a husband, a father, a taxpayer.

The office of the president is the most powerful in the world. It is also, at times, the most powerless.

The Republican Party needs to, first of all, quit electing people in primaries that have prehistoric notions about women's issues.

America as we know it will end unless we end Medicare as we know it.

Technology has had more of an impact on the presidency and how the presidency communicates than anything.

Negativity drove me out of politics in the mid-Nineties.

The Newtown massacre created a tipping point on the gun debate in America.

I'm saying it loud: I'm a Republican who supports gay rights.

I don't really care how or why Obama got to the right place on gay marriage. I'm just glad he got there.

A competition of the best ideas - that should be what Congress is about.

Donors, like voters, increasingly expect candidates to exercise fiscal discipline.

At some point he has to show that he has a vision of a better way. He can't just say 'The future is bleak, follow me.' Because no one will.

When people see political ads, they think someone's lying to them.

Immigration is the most explosive issue I've seen in my political career.

The Hippocratic Oath says do no harm. It's the Hypocritical Oath that says do no harm to one's political future.

It's much more powerful and compelling to create a positive vision than it is to tear somebody down.

Debates require a lot of hard work and preparation. If you try to wing it, it shows.

Public unions are big money.

Temporary tax cuts don't create permanent confidence, nor permanent jobs.

Immigration reform almost happened under President George W. Bush. Twice. And it was comprehensive.

CEOs make hard decisions; sometimes, the least worst is the right one.

Social Security and Medicare are necessary safety nets, but they are nearing insolvency as fewer pay in, more take out, and more take out more.

Life inside the Beltway bubble dulls your thinking.

A messy participatory process is representative democracy at its best.

Democracy is but an experiment in the long history of the world.

I met Barack Obama, I read his book, I like him a great deal. I disagree with him on very fundamental issues.

Elections are about the future. And the GOP will not win a campaign focused on the past.

Mitt Romney is a nice guy. But, we know where nice guys finish in politics.

As a Republican, I never expected to be working with Hillary Clinton.

The press doesn't just cover presidential campaigns, they influence them by making arbitrary decisions about who is 'top tier' and merits coverage.

If you're a Democrat and 'The New York Times' is calling for your head, you know it's time for an exit strategy.

Unfortunately, in American politics there are no standards for shame.

I'm amazed, as quirky, individual and selfish as most of us are, that anyone stays married for long.

Party switching has all the emotional edges and baggage of divorce.

Mitt Romney is a businessman, a turnaround artist, a CEO. That is who he is. The former governor has experience in the public and private sector.

My brother is one of my true heroes. Steady and sober where I am impulsive and emotional.

Running for president is hard. But it's good preparation. Because being president is a lot harder.

I think Barack Obama is one of the most exciting politicians to come along in a long time.

I think the press are good people; I think they're educated people.

Obama killed Osama. Yes, President Barack Obama gets to crow about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Politics at bottom is not all that complicated. It's all about timing.

When elected officials and others contribute to a climate and culture that fosters hyper-partisanship, we've got to blow the whistle.

The GOP cannot expect to win the presidency in the future by simply relying on running up big numbers with white voters.

For most of my life, I've considered myself a political centrist.

There's no question that many factors contribute to voters' perceptions about debates and who wins and who loses.

Politics only makes the difficult challenge of marriage even harder, with the demands of the job and the public spotlight it casts on a union.

America's commitment to religious freedom and tolerance should not be conditional.

People who know Paul Ryan say, 'He will be president one day.'

Democrats love to criticize Republicans on guns, but they are generally mute when it comes to taking on Hollywood or the gaming industry.

News is virtual now. It is not 24-hour news cycles; it is instant news cycles. It is live. News is live all the time, around the clock.

I don't think that the press in 2004 was any more unfair to Bush than they were to Kerry.

Defending birthright citizenship is about being on the right side of liberty. The 14th Amendment is a great legacy of the Republican Party.

It's rare when a president wins the campaign without winning independents.

One thing is clear: Ron Paul defies labels.

Limited government, low taxes, controlled spending and debt, and a restrained regulatory environment make Texas work.

It's never popular among young people to be part of the establishment.