Stephen Hess Quotations

Very early on, she will work out her sound bite, and that will be her sound bite. And she will not deviate from that, so after a while, that will lose its sting.

She would be better off politically not making a commitment that she wouldn't run for president if she were re-elected, ... Clearly, if (her Senate race) were going to be a squeaker, she'd better give a lot of thought to how she responds to that. But, if, as it appears, she's going to have a pretty easy time of it, why put herself in a position of looking hypocritical or devious?

Maybe he's been ducking this one because he wants to keep his shirt clean,

Polls are a reflection of the headlines. When the news is bad, the president's numbers go down, and when the news is good, they go up,

If it were an ordinary year, a traditional year, sort of a simple first year of a president's second term, you would have to say he had a pretty good year.

He has come to symbolize how unprepared this administration was for this disaster, fairly or unfairly,

Had this been handled expeditiously, quickly, it might have been a story on the style page, or limited to the late night comedians and the cartoonists. There's simply no question they fumbled this one.

He has two major problems: the price of gas and the number of Americans killed in Iraq. Basically nothing is going to change for him until one or both of those problems are alleviated.

He doesn't put in the equal sign. But it's not so subtle that any Future Farmer of America wouldn't catch on pretty quickly.

He does hold the administration's feet to the fire, and that's awfully helpful at this point.

His name is thrown into the mix. Big time.

Katrina pretty much stops his legislative agenda cold.

It certainly has some effect on his immediate domestic agenda. He has no money for anything but Katrina.

It certainly made this presidency. There was no question that there was a new presidency that had a new agenda. ... It certainly did seem to focus him grandly and powerfully.

I think the president might have defused the situation if he had invited her in instantly.

I think the outcome is going to be pretty close to what we have now.

I think as we become more and more of a celebrity culture -- as we expect to learn more and more about the people who we elect president or make movie stars -- we are intrigued by their families.

Last year, he came out with a very robust agenda in the State of the Union.

Suddenly the campaign is over, they wake up and the press is not seeking their opinion. There's no more entourage, no Secret Service. It's very, very difficult.

It doesn't change the nature of the court.

That's the main thing he's got going for him,

We need to know how bad it is — but we want a little good news, too. We've heard a lot about how bad Americans are, or some Americans were in Katrina, but we're not a bad people.

The president has made it very clear: no looking back, no regrets. He feels this was the right thing to do.

The presidency is a huge echo chamber magnifying every little thing he does.

There has been so much game-playing on her behalf, ... Suddenly, Texas judges are popping up out of the ether to defend her, and she seems to have a gentleman caller who speaks on her behalf, and on and on.

Whenever a president is in trouble, as this one is, the pundits and observers in Washington say, 'Don't just stand there, do something.' So they give a speech -- he's done that. They appoint a blue-ribbon commission -- he's done that. They change personnel -- they are doing that. The point is, that is not what really ails this administration. They've got a policy problem, and either they can change the policy or they have to hope the policy starts working better for them.

The party needs him and, for all I know, the nation needs him. There hasn't been an African-American Democrat who has had an appeal broadly beyond his ethnic group.

The president was still Ike, and the presidency went on.

The president looks across the cabinet table at the vice president and has to realize, 'The only reason he's there is in case I die.

But life did not work quite as he designed it in the next year. He picked the wrong major item, Social Security. And then the war got worse and he had the hurricane. So now it's not only the sand that has run out of the hourglass but also the political capital has run out of the bank.

We're talking on a week in which a woman president was inaugurated in Africa and a woman was elected in Latin America, so this is not any longer so unique.

Ultimately, ... you have to stand for something.

This White House's problems are not personnel, they are basically problems of policy.

Those that are elected on Tuesday, we're likely to have as presidential candidates six and 10 years from now.

Washington is getting more and more of a reputation of being a pretty hard-knuckled place to operate, where you could end up leaving potentially tarnished by the experience.

Even in this context, I am not going to get too uptight about it. When (officials such as Griffin) make statements that can be interpreted as political statements, the government should not be underwriting it. You just caught the fellow with a little egg on his vest, looking untidy.

Besides, he's already spoken extensively about the hurricanes.

Bill Clinton is taking the biggest public policy risk of his career and Gore just has to be there with him all the way. Otherwise what happens -- it becomes a Hubert Humphrey situation.

There's a feeling that he's genuine, ... And that can be strange for a fellow with his dynastic history. But he's more Midland (Texas) than Greenwich, Connecticut.

There's no question it's a new strategy. Coming to Charlotte, as well as going to Cleveland, is not what used to be known as a 'Rose Garden strategy.' It's not to jolly people up. It's an attempt to ... keep Americans behind him -- and patient.

There's no way he can be in the inner, inner circle. He hasn't paid his dues enough for that. He can sit at the table, he can even say things, but he understands that.

Presidents never get everyone they want -- no one does. There's simply no doubt that while these are fascinating jobs and interesting times ... some people are pleased to be mentioned and happy not to accept.

People said it would be very hard for Eisenhower to get along without Sherman Adams, but he did, ... We quickly realized that it was Eisenhower who was running the administration all along.

No question about it. It is overwhelmingly the issue.

The most important thing in the long run in the United States was the appointment of two new justices to the Supreme Court.

A president's second term is like an hour glass with the sand running out.

That showed me he'll carry loyalty to a point - which is part of what presidents do,

This is a situation in which the vice president by definition is a shadow, ... He must move the way the president moves, he can't move independently and at this point he should move forcefully.

This is not a great shake-up. This is not the beginning of a great exodus. This is probably one person who stayed too long.

This is not a full-fledged mea culpa. But by presidential standards, it's there, or pretty close to it, ... The government did screw up, and he is president of the United States.

This gives him more opportunities to move up in political terms, He's tarnished, and you don't re-buff yourself with one exercise.

This could be the biggest investigation of 2006.

They took a story that was going to be laugh lines for late-night comedians and turned it into a front-page story. There was something in their attitude there that I think is going to have a lingering effect, about how a certain arrogance seemed to have crept into the White House complex.

They either refuse to comment or say rather pleasant things.

The year's gone well economically. The president has had moderate success in his legislative program, probably more than the public has given him credit for.

There were big, big items, and that was really quite exceptional for one of these speeches.

There isn't any money. For presidents to make pronouncements it usually means they have to spend money and he's not in a position to spend any more.

This may be something that is not as permanent as it may look at the moment.

They're in trouble. He's going to continue to have some victories, but they're going to be harder and harder to get.

A big, bipartisan vote sends a message to the Iraqis and the White House. It's very, very significant.

It's more likely that a president will be there -- wherever there is -- and will speak more promptly after a disaster to a very large audience,

Do not forget that it is a Congress in which the president's party has the majority.

That is not an unsubstantial year for the president.

It was not a speech of surprises. Assuming other foreign ministries have been listening, I don't what they would have learned today that they already didn't know.

It's very often a good thing in a second administration, because it's difficult to bring new people in from the outside ? time is short, all the creative things have already been done. Quite often the best you are capable of doing is moving things around.

At this stage of an administration, nearly six years into it, it's incredibly difficult to get new people. Time is short. The most creative, interesting things have already been done.

That's big guns, ... wants it clear that the administration is behind him.

I mean this is primarily about Iraq. There is no sense talking about his education policy or something like that. I mean he has been in office now for nearly six years. He has got one major policy in which he has thrown all the chips into the game. Is it going to work? We shall see.

In a strange way, the issue is not as salient, as important or resonates on Main Street as much as politicians or legislators think it does. The reason is simple ? Main Street already thinks politicians are taking favors from lobbyists.

If she had just gone home I think she would have been remembered importantly, but she didn't just go home.

I gather that there are drifts in different races. I don't see any great breeze bowing all the races in any one direction.

Cindy Sheehan had one glorious shining moment and she took advantage of it and the peace movement took advantage of her as it created the attention that the movement hadn't had previously.

But it's embarrassing when they're caught at it. This time, we caught them leaking from the top.

By never having used a veto, either everything has gone his way--which is never true in this world--or he's been able to reach an agreement. When politics gets into this range of right and wrong, religion and morality, it is increasingly difficult to compromise.

If he loses two houses of Congress, or even one, the last two years of his presidency are toast.

I don't want to call it only cosmetic, because these things do have an effect, but how profound the effect is, that I would question. Much of this is not about policy, it's about motion. It shows that they are responding; that they are moving.

I don't think they're necessarily better than some past administrations in terms of the spin. What they have done which distinguishes them ... is how close-mouthed they are.

I don't think this is going to be one of those historic State of the Union messages. When people talk about new initiatives, they cost money. He's run out of wiggle room there.

How much is this going to be a national election? Clearly, the Republicans will hope it's not. ?All politics is local will be their mantra.

He really came into his second term with a series of robust proposals, and he's accomplished none of them. His circumstances have shifted dramatically.

The front line is everywhere there is someone with an explosive.

A month from now, if Katrina is still dominating the headlines, he really is in bad shape,

An adequate withdrawal by mid-year 2006 could neutralize Iraq as the overriding issue of the mid-term congressional elections.