Speeches are more important in politics than talking points, as a rule, and are better remembered.

Candor is a compliment; it implies equality. It's how true friends talk.

Now he is a statesman, when what he really wants is to be what most reporters are, adult delinquents.

[democrats] have become the party of snobs. You have become the party of Americans who think they're better than other Americans.

The Democratic Party will now stick with its guy forever, no matter how harmful he is. Perhaps you call that loyalty, and perhaps there's something to it, but a bigger part, I believe, is that you have come to think that winning is everything-that victory is the purpose of politics.

Mr. Bush has squandered the hard-built paternity of 40 years. But so has the party, and so have its leaders. If they had pushed away for serious reasons, they could have separated the party's fortunes from the president's. This would have left a painfully broken party, but they wouldn't be left with a ruined brand,- as they all say, speaking the language of marketing. And they speak that language because they are marketers, not thinkers. Not serious about policy. Not serious about ideas. And not serious about leadership, only followership.

Morals are concerned with what aids or impedes the fulfillment of basic human needs.