Fighting with the media almost always is a mistake. You can't win the argument, the media has the last word, and most times your argument is not justified.

There is a - deep down, underneath all the work I do, I think there's a laziness in me.

Candidates rarely win battles with the media, and unless you really know what you're doing you should not tangle with them. The exception is when you know this is a search-and- destroy mission on the part of the media and your case is very strong, you are very articulate, you know what you're trying to accomplish - and you have no alternatives.

If you have a choice between qualifications and personal qualities when it comes to hiring people, go with personal qualities. You can teach them the job.

To be successful, you've got to get the kind of torque that's created by a push and a pull.

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."

People always describe my successes in life. My successes in life tend to be personal, not career.