Evan Thomas Quotations

Victory must be assured in advance. And the American public must be all for it from the outset.

American boys should not be seen dying on the nightly news. Wars should be over in three days or less, or before Congress invokes the War Powers Resolution.

Rush Limbaugh is good for the party. Drive it all the way down, take it down as low as it can go, make complete fools of themselves, because it's always darkest before the dawn, and then maybe a moderate can come in and rescue them.

Wars should be over in three days or less... and the American people must be all for it from the outset.

I think in our lifetime there is a probability that one of these weapons is going to go off in New York or Washington or some big city like that. The CIA needs to be doing everything it possibly can to penetrate terrorist cells and outlaw states.

I think the biggest threat to the United States by far is weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists or renegades or outlaw states, which is a huge threat, ... The Very Best Men.

Yeah, sort of good. I mean, there's a split in the Republican Party. Republicans used to be, once upon a time, for fiscal conservatism, and there are a few of those left, and they're starting to murmur more, and, you know, people forget Ronald Reagan raised taxes, you know, he cut taxes, but then he raised taxes. George Bush, the father, raised taxes. It's not, there's no law in the Bible that says a Republican can never raise taxes.

There's only so much you can do when you're using loaner equipment from the universities.

It sounds funny to say it, but when I was getting ready to try out, I was thinking that I really wasn't going to have to work that hard to be what I needed to be - flirtatious, outgoing, crazy and fun.

I knew it couldn't get any worse. You've just got to trust your stuff.

I had confidence in the team, but I got a little nervous. But I knew once Malcolm fouled out we had it, because he's their whole team.

Wars should be over in three days or less...and the American people must be all for it from the outset.

A Lincolnesque leader is confident enough to be humble - to not feel the need to bluster or dominate, but to be sufficiently sure of one's own judgment and self-worth to really listen and not be threatened by contrary advice.

I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above — above the world, he's sort of God.

I don't think the Republicans would appreciate the comparison, but they're exactly like the Labor Party in England in the 1970s. They're letting their extremists take them straight down. The same thing is going to happen - they had to disappear for a while and when they reinvented themselves they did it with moderates, they did it with Tony Blair.

We're understanding what Obama is. He is the great teacher. He is this guy that stands above everybody. There's some condescension in it, but he stands above everybody and says, 'Now, listen. You people have to stop blaming each other unreasonably. You have to get along here and I am going to show you the way.' It is a pretty brave role in many ways.

There is a liberal bias. It's demonstrable. You look at some statistics. About 85 percent of the reporters who cover the White House vote Democratic, they have for a long time. There is a, particularly at the networks, at the lower levels, among the editors and the so-called infrastructure, there is a liberal bias.

Great historians can make the discovery of the real story more exciting than the romantic myth. Stacy Schiff, a great historian as well as a wonderful writer, peels away the layers to reveal the true Cleopatraa much more interesting woman than the Hollywood version and, as it turns out, a formidable queen after all.

With grace and a keen appreciation of human nature, Nicholas Thompson has written a revealing, moving history of the Cold War through two fascinating men.

Bush's life is that a fundamentally decent man presided over a moment when politics got meaner and rougher. '88 was the year of the handler, of bringing in political consultants who played very hard and very tough'.

The media, I think, wants Kerry to win.... And I think they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards ... I'm talking about the establishment media, not Fox - but they're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and opportunistic and all. There's going to be this glow about them - that's going to be worth maybe 15 points.

As a farmer, you learn quick: You don't get anything that you don't work hard for.