Mark Shields Quotes

The organizing principle of the United States defensive foreign policy had been opposition to the Soviet Union. There is no more Soviet Union.

There are people who know Hillary Clinton who tell wonderful stories about her, how likable she is, how funny she is; 99 percent of American people don't - have never seen that side of her.

You can't have someone with a pinkie out there at the U.N. or any other place.

If you only make fights that you're going to win, there would be no women's vote in America, there would be no civil rights laws in the country.

This is America, where a white Catholic male Republican judge was murdered on his way to greet a Democratic Jewish woman member of Congress, who was his friend. Her life was saved initially by a 20-year old Mexican-American gay college student, and eventually by a Korean-American combat surgeon, all eulogized by our African American President.

You have to understand that Republicans are on lockstep on one issue. They will not raise taxes. Democrats are in lockstep on another issue, pro-choice in all cases on abortion.

The advantage that hospitals have over other institutions is that hospitals are community-based. You can't outsource your work; you can't move your emergency department to Pakistan.

I think Hillary Clinton - first of all, it's a great victory, acknowledge it. She has made history.

All politics is personal with President Trump. And that carries with it great, great problems.

For the Democrats, they're trying to avoid having the [Ben] Sanders- [Hillary] Clinton debate over and over again. But, to some degree, they're sentenced to that debate.

Donald Trump, I hate to tell people who are concerned about it, is not going to be impeached. The American people believe in giving somebody a fair chance. He's a new president. There have been troubles, there have been problems.

Donald Trump is an independent presidential candidate who ran on the Republican label. He really did. He took it over. He transformed it into his image, in his likeness.

If I were John Bolton, I'd take great consolation in the words of my principal supporter on the committee, who gave a ringing endorsement, which was, There is no evidence that he has broken any laws.

The Democrats have tried the war against women in the past. It didn't really have that much traction.

There is no tougher job in America than being a cop on the beat in a major city in this country, big and brawling.

[Dwight Eisenhower was ] a citizen of the world.

Americans don't like the way Washington operates. They don't like Washington. They don't like the way things are going.

In the 2004 presidential election, we saw a wonderful example of citizens making contributions. In fact, individual giving to both the Kerry and Bush campaigns was the highest in our nation's history.

I think the Republican Party is cursed. And it's cursed itself.

Tim Kaine kind of gives the warmer, human face of the Democrats.

Democrats can have a different version of the line, or they can just say, no, we are the party of international peace and activism, and we're the party that's going to have a civilized capitalism.

The studies that show the reason Washington real estate is booming and there are so many lobbyists in town, it does pay.

The Republicans have, with some pride - George W. Bush won the White House by promising to restore dignity to the Oval Office. And they were or presented themselves as the family - the party of family values.

Mitt Romney looks like a president. I mean, he really does.

I do think that Republicans are flirting with their tax cut, which has always been the narcotic of Republicans, that they in fact have to at some point, with any remote pretense of candor, abandon any pretense of a balanced budget.I mean, they talk about - because they are going to finance the tax cut by tax cuts. That's how they're going to do it. And I do think that the will is there right now in the Congress to act. I think they will be as close to unity as you will see on Capitol Hill this year.

Something really serious has shifted in the minds of Republicans and certainly others.

The stated objective and the mission of Vladimir Putin's Russia is to destabilize the North Atlantic Alliance.

The way to solve all the money in politics is not to pretend we can get money out of politics. That will never happen. We have to channel it in ways where we can see it and hold it accountable. And I think the parties are the best vehicle for that.

Donald Trump is to traditional values what I am to marathon running.

We have weakened the parties and strengthened all the special interests.

To me, the fundamental thing - well, I guess I see a lot of people debating in the wrong way. A lot of the debate is, should we go to the coasts, should we go to the center, should we go to the left, should we go to the right?

Donald Trump picked a remarkably nice guy in Mike Pence.

Tim Kaine didn't come across authentic. It wasn't good. And it was - it just really - I think, for short-term benefit, I think the Democrats tarnished the brand, which is an awfully good brand.

Immigrants have been the sustenance and the survival and the treasure of America.

There's nothing wrong with being organized.Things that change history tend to be organized.

Donald Trump defies gravity. And so I guess he has to be Donald Trump. It's gotten him so far.

America is Republican until 5:00 or 6:00 at night.

President [John F.] Kennedy, after the Bay of Pigs, said to Turner Catledge of The New York Times: I wish you had written more, I wish you had investigated more, because it might have saved the country of the cataclysm of the Bay of Pigs.

You want a leader, Western leader, English-speaking? Mitt Romney.

If Donald Trump does lose, being revealed as this bizarre personality, Ted Cruz is not going to be what Republicans are looking for in 2020.

Kevin McCarthy, who is the House majority leader, was pretty open. He went out and recruited candidates. And the Republicans in the House have paid a price for it ever since, because they cannot pass anything comprehensive or real because of the Freedom Caucus, which is the child, the product, the progeny of the Tea Party.

The pattern of American presidential elections is that the more optimistic candidate, whether it's John Kennedy and let's get America moving again, Ronald Reagan, it's morning in America, or Barack Obama, yes, we can, always wins, or nearly always wins.

I saw money change votes.I mean, they just seem unaware of this, that money is something - if they want to see the appearance of corruption, all they had to do was look in Las Vegas last weekend.

I think that the people that are publicly on Hillary Clinton's short list all are very congenial people. They're not people with personality or Captain Queeg problems.

Barack Obama did get a higher percentage of the vote than anybody has in this country in 20 years. I mean, it was a resounding victory. I mean, whether his core constituency was 20 percent or what, his electoral constituency, which is how we measure elections, was 53 percent, which was, you know, historically high, the highest of any Democrat, other than Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.

Barack Obama knows that America cannot be strong abroad unless we are strong at home. People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than the example of our power.

Donald Trump manages to personalize everything. He brings chaos. He will not admit that he's ever made a mistake, that he's ever been wrong.

Character is destiny and character is important to American campaigns.