Jeff Greenfield Quotes

• The niftiest turn of phrase, the most elegant flight of rhetorical fancy, isn't worth beans next to a clear thought clearly expressed.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Phrases, Fancy, Next

  45 Copy quote

• More things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by conspiracy.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Political, Politics, Conspiracy

  15 Copy quote

• Well, politics is war, and in war, truth is the first casualty.

  Jeff Greenfield

  War, Firsts, Truth Is

  Jeff Greenfield (1996). “The People's Choice”, Plume Books

  4 Copy quote

• Men and women in my lifetime have died fighting for the right to vote: people like James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were murdered while registering black voters in Mississippi in 1964, and Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan in 1965 during the Selma march for voting rights.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Fighting, Men, Rights

  25 Copy quote

• After immersing myself in the mysteries of the Electoral College for a novel I wrote in the '90s, I came away believing that the case for scrapping it is less obvious than I originally thought.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Believe, College, Mystery

  55 Copy quote

• In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge?

  Jeff Greenfield

  Narrative, Way, Rooms

  7 Copy quote

• There are good people who are dealt a bad hand by fate, and bad people who live long, comfortable, privileged lives. A small twist of fate can save or end a life; random chance is a permanent, powerful player in each of our lives, and in human history as well.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Powerful, Fate, Player

  52 Copy quote

• In politics, Bugs Bunny always beats Daffy Duck. Daffy's always going berserk, jumping up and down, yelling. Bugs's got that sly smile, like he always knows what's up, like nothing can ruffle him.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Jumping, Yelling, Ducks

  6 Copy quote

• If the court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act, is that a 'liberal' result enabling gay couples married in states where gay marriage is legal to enjoy the same economic advantages that federal laws now grant to straight couples? Or is it a 'conservative' ruling, limiting the federal government's ability to override state power?

  Jeff Greenfield

  Couple, Gay, Government

  4 Copy quote

• History doesn't turn on a dime; it turns on a plugged nickel.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Dimes, Nickels, Turns

  Jeff Greenfield (2011). “Then Everything Changed: Stunning Alternate Histories of American Politics: JFK, RFK, Carter, Ford, Reaga n”, p.9, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• This is part of the involuntary bargain we make with the world just by being alive. We get to experiences the splendor of nature, the beauty of art, the balm of love and the sheer joy of existence, always with the knowledge that illness, injury, natural disaster, or pure evil can end it in an instant for ourselves or someone we love.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Art, Evil, Joy

  10 Copy quote

• Victory has 1,000 fathers; defeat has 1,000 kibitzers.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Father, Political, Victory

  5 Copy quote

• As a personal matter, I stopped voting more than a decade ago, on the grounds that it helped me as an analyst not to think about making a choice in the voting booth.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Thinking, Choices, Voting

  4 Copy quote

• As a general proposition, campaigns do not linger on the vice presidential nominee. When they have, it's always meant very bad news for the ticket. Think of Spiro Agnew's foot-in-mouth disease; Tom Eagleton's medical history; the real estate holdings of Geraldine Ferraro's husband; the unbearable lightness of Dan Quayle; Sarah Palin's reading list.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Husband, Real, Reading

  4 Copy quote

• By every measure, John Kennedy's sex life was compulsive and reckless. At one level, it had clear public consequences. Knowledge of Kennedy's behavior gave FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover absolute job security, as well as the potential power to derail Kennedy's re-election had he survived assassination.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Jobs, Sex, Directors

  7 Copy quote

• Think about one of the most powerful influences on a young child's life - the absence of a father figure. Look back on recent presidents, and you'll find an absent, or weak, or failed father in the lives of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Children, Powerful, Father

  4 Copy quote

• When an office-holder facing a multi-count indictment says that he has decided to spend more time with his family, the proper response is a horse-laugh. When an accused politician explains that a charge of corruption is 'really' an attack on his or her race, religion, ethnic background or gender, the odds that something felonious happened jumps.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Horse, Race, Odds

  4 Copy quote

• Conservatives may worship Adam Smith's 'invisible hand,' but for Obama, the helping hand comes in large measure from the public, not the private sector. To call this 'socialism' is to do violence to the word and to the concept. To call it 'un-American' is a smear.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Hands, Invisible Hand, May

  7 Copy quote

• If Obama's vision of the public sector is socialism, then so too were the visions of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Harry Truman, Vision, Dwight Eisenhower

  4 Copy quote

• F.D.R. had to deal with Southern segregationists - and outright racists - who held power in Congress, so he had to yield to that power in order to get his New Deal legislation passed.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Yield, Order, Southern

  7 Copy quote

• I grew up in New York City, where we played highly unorganized sports: stick ball, stoop ball, and the occasional game of baseball with no adult supervision.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Sports, Baseball, New York

  4 Copy quote

• It strikes me as a sound, honest statement for a prospective voter to say: 'Look, I haven't given this election a minute's thought, and it's just not fair for me to cancel out the vote of someone who actually gives a damn.' Indeed, it's not just sound and honest - it's the ethically responsible thing to do.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Giving, Sound, Looks

  4 Copy quote

• Something about her eyes or voice has always suggested the hint of a free spirit, trapped in a Peck and Peck cage, dreaming of making rude noises at public gatherings of Republicans.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Dream, Freedom, Eye

  10 Copy quote

• For millions, Roger Ebert will be remembered as a writer and television personality who brought a sense of passion and excellence to his craft. For me, he is a man who fused joy and courage as few others ever have. My life was enriched by having such a friend; it is poorer for losing such a friend.

  Jeff Greenfield

  Passion, Men, Personality

  4 Copy quote

• George Washington, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses Grant, Rutherford Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower all rode their wartime heroics into the White House.

  Jeff Greenfield

  White, House, Dwight Eisenhower

  4 Copy quote

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