I think the media is dangerously close to creating their own product. They used to cover the product, which was whatever's happening.
The thing you always have to remember is, you look at people and they might look like a failure but there's often a narrow thing they do very well.
I think it's unrealistic to believe that somewhere in outer space two big rocks crashed together with a bang and now I have a wonderful family, freedom, and opportunity." We're gathered here with love and fellowship and friends. You can bang rocks together all you want; you cannot create what we have here. Maybe God can create life from big bangs, but rocks can't.
Almost everything I do is related to my ability to hire good people. I don't take much of the credit myself. I think I have a good eye.
If you're running because you want a job that's prestigious or because you have this vague knowledge that you're better than everybody else, you're easier to beat.
Everybody fears the unknown. But I have a strong feeling there's something bigger than us. I don't think all this exists because some rocks happened to collide. I'm at peace. When it comes, I'll be fine, calm. I'll miss life, though. Especially my family.
Candidates rarely win battles with the media, and unless you really know what you're doing you should not tangle with them. The exception is when you know this is a search-and- destroy mission on the part of the media and your case is very strong, you are very articulate, you know what you're trying to accomplish - and you have no alternatives.
I have a soft spot for Joe Biden. I like him. But he’s dumb as an ashtray.
I think the worst decision is usually no decision. If you make the wrong decision you can usually course-correct, but if you don't make it, you've already made it, and it's usually the bad one.
Everybody who's in the news business today was influenced in a positive way by Walter Cronkite. He had ability, humility and integrity, a rare combination.
Television and I grew up together.
Just because someone thinks he is being attacked by the media doesn't mean he is. Many times the media actually is being fair, and they're attacking for good reason.
They [candidates] say, "I don't want to say anything controversial." And so nobody covers them. Then they blame the journalists, saying "Why don't they write down what I said?" In congressional races, 90 percent of the time the answer is, "Because you are boring and you don't have anything that makes me interested in listening to you. Why the heck should somebody write it down? There's nothing here worth hearing."
If you are a good communicator, be unique: put yourself in your own commercials and do something a little different. To the extent you can focus on what it is you want to change, what it is you know how to change, and what it is you think will make life better for other people, you're going to do better.
I think I have a good eye for talent. I think I'm smart enough to figure out what the mission is and achieve it. I achieve it by hiring good people.
It also has to do with how you look and how you sound. If you look like a mean SOB who's putting the other person down, that's different than if you're inquiring about the process they go through to make a decision on behalf of the public.
There's something about the American people: They have such an innate sense of fairness that the red light goes on and the bells go off the second you approach that line. Any kind of personal attack is verboten. You shouldn't do it; it's not worth it.
To be successful, you've got to get the kind of torque that's created by a push and a pull.
Anybody's position on an issue, anything they've said about an issue, and any way they've voted on an issue is fair game. You have every right to question that and go after it aggressively.
Show me a man or woman with a mission, and I'll show you somebody that's tougher to beat.
I hire people who can do their jobs and who will advise me of things they don't agree with. The worst thing you can do is get in a room with 14 people who say, "OK!" Then you really are making decisions about engineering and finance and other areas.
You've got to attract interest in your candidate. The problem when you're running far behind is that you've got to move through those positive phases very quickly. Then, you have to draw attention to the other guy. You've got to create interest in why you differ from him and you've got to create a desire to remove him.
One of the reasons I'm in this business is because I have absolute respect for the people who say, "You know what? I think I can make this a little better and I'm willing to get in and try." Because, I'll tell you, there are a hell of a lot of reasons to stay away from running for office today.
You can't sell a book in America if you don't dump on Bush. That's the cheapest shot in the world. You cannot get an advance, and you can't sell a book because the publishers are all people who hate Bush and hate Republicans.
You've got to find a difierent approach. You've got to create some interest in your language, in the words and pictures you create. If a candidate can't give a 10-minute speech and have reporters reaching for their pens in the first 90 seconds, he probably shouldn't be running.
