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."

Just because somebody else likes a candidate doesn't necessarily mean everybody else will like him.

My doctor told me that I'm old, fat, and ugly, but none of those things is going to kill me immediately.

I only understand friendship or scorched earth.

I look for something unique, and I look for people who haven't reached their potential. I think I'm pretty good at developing talent.

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.

In general, I think man-on-the- street ads and endorsement spots are having less and less effect on people. The electorate's getting very sophisticated, and they want to make their own judgments.