The problem with smear campaigns is that too often they work. Mark Shields More Quotes by Mark Shields More Quotes From Mark Shields You really have one bite at the apple. Mark Shields apples bites I thought Mike Pence, upon reflection to me, came across a little bit like your favorite aunt who refuses, in spite of first-person evidence that grandpa has been drunk and disorderly in public, that, says, no, no, grandpa would never do that, even though grandpa is being taken off in handcuffs. Mark Shields aunt taken reflection I think the Democrats did a terrible disservice, the Hillary Clinton campaign did, to Tim Kaine. Tim Kaine had the earned reputation of being one of the most respected and well-liked, and not cheap partisan members of the United States Senate. And they turned him into an attack dog. Mark Shields reputation dog thinking He who speaks the truth must keep one foot in the stirrup. Mark Shields stirrups speak feet The people who are rising, they're super ambitious. They have relationships with people above them. They have relationships, hierarchical, sort of people below them. A lot of people do not have relationships horizontally. And there's a lot of people who reach high political offices, but who are weirdly lonely, weirdly lacking in intimacy skills. Mark Shields office lonely skills I am struck the whole litany of people, especially of that era, who were involved in some scandal or another. Some of it was sexual. Some of it was more financial. And it was just all concentrated in a lot of people all at once. Mark Shields scandal eras people Washington is a city of money. It's a flood of money. Mark Shields cities flood The failure to invest in our public transportation and public life, I think, is a scandal and a shame, and it should be a national embarrassment. Mark Shields scandal shame thinking At a time when the public is sour on politicians, have no use for them, Bill Clinton has risen to a different level. Bill Clinton is endlessly interesting. Mark Shields bills levels interesting Every measurement of where you have more public confidence in creating jobs, American prosperity, controlling crime, health care, providing education, all of these standards, Bill Clinton has considerably higher marks... The sole exception is on protecting taxes, which is initially his attack. Mark Shields creating care jobs George W. Bush in 2000 went to private financing for the nomination, but he accepted public funding in the general. And, quite frankly, so did - it was broken in 2008, when Barack Obama decided he wasn't going to do that. Mark Shields nominations accepted broken Ronald Reagan four times accepted the limits in contributions of what he could take, what he could spend, and the public funding for the general elections. So I just think the idea that it didn't work, and didn't work - it did work. It worked brilliantly. Mark Shields four ideas thinking From 1976, Judy to 1996, we had six presidential elections. And it was run under the Campaign Finance Reform Act of 1974. In all six of them, every candidate agreed to limits of what he could collect in contributions and what he could spend in seeking a nomination. And they all abided by it. Mark Shields presidential reform running 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. Mark Shields party way thinking We have weakened the parties and strengthened all the special interests. Mark Shields interest party special For many years, we have had these campaign finance reforms, and they have been failures. Money is more coursing through our system than ever before. Incumbents have used the laws to advantage themselves. And one of the reasons I think they have been failures is we have tried to crush down the money in places like the political parties, and it has squished out into opaque super PACs and sort of hidden channels. Mark Shields crush party thinking In the past, in order to continue as a candidate, a serious candidate, you had to be in the top three finishes in Iowa. You had to be in the top two out of New Hampshire. All our presidents elected in the past half-century finished either first or second in New Hampshire and in the top three in Iowa. That changed with the Citizens United, when we gave unlimited amounts of money. Mark Shields iowa order past There's no question that there's been a breach in the trust between urban - especially urban community, African-American and minority communities and the police in major American cities. Mark Shields african-american community cities Politics is a contact sport - a question of accepting an elbow or two. Mark Shields elbows sports two I do think, over the last years, a lot of Republicans have decided it's not working, what the party believed in, free trade, global capitalism, open borders. Mark Shields party years thinking
