Ron Fournier Quotes
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Mandates are rarely won on election night. They are earned after Inauguration Day by leaders who spend their political capital wisely, taking advantage of events without overreaching.
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It's a deft trick to turn American exceptionalism into an exceptional political tactic.
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Every now and then, a presidential candidate surprises us with a truly human and honest moment.
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Obama ran a hard-edged and negative campaign against Romney, hoping to convince recession-weary voters that his rival was unworthy of the job.
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Anything may be possible in America, but a Palin presidency is virtually implausible.
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The 2016 presidential election is ripe for the emergence of a game-changing political leader who either dramatically reforms one of the existing parties or mounts an independent bid.
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You can almost see voters nodding their heads at home: The public's faith in politicians and political institutions has been on a steep and dangerous decline for decades, because elected leaders fail to deliver.
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In times of tumult, voters are likely to forgive a president, if not reward him, for compromises made in service of solutions.
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With gridlock the norm, Congress's approval rating is below 10 percent and the public has lost faith in its national leadership.
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Obama might do well to remember that his fast rise from the Illinois state Senate was due in large part to an uncanny ability to make friends and find mentors.
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Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt faced adversities that, in their times, seemed impregnable. Great presidents overcome great odds.
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President Obama is casting his lot in the middle of a debate as old as America itself: Are we rugged individualists pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps? Or are we a nation of community, all connected and counting on one another?
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The fact that Obama is getting criticism from the left and the right might reflect his understanding of the underlying political dynamics.
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American exceptionalism is the recurring character in the nation's narrative.
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Election night is the easiest time to act like a grownup.
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We're living in an era of unprecedented change, and I want to be a part of documenting it.
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If history is a guide, a victory for Obama means he faces the prospect of a second term dogged by scandal or inertia.
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By nominating Chuck Hagel to be his Defense secretary, President Obama is putting forward an aloof contrarian who doesn't suffer fools - a striving politician who considers himself above politics.
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I've been leading newsrooms for a while now and it's been an honor serving as Editor in Chief of N.J., but I really think that my best shot at moving the needle in politics is by getting close to it - by reading, reporting, tweeting and writing.
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most influential woman in Washington - for what she has accomplished and for what she may yet do: win the presidency.
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Obama will learn from his mistakes.
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Barack Obama won a second term but no mandate. Thanks in part to his own small-bore and brutish campaign, victory guarantees the president nothing more than the headache of building consensus in a gridlocked capital on behalf of a polarized public.
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Perhaps we should wait until his second term begins before carving Barack Obama's face in Mount Rushmore. Is that asking too much?
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Somebody must be up and somebody must be down. Trouble is, campaigns are messy, subtle creatures that don't follow convenient narratives.
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Climate change was a point of division between Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney. The president declared climate change a global threat, acknowledged that the actions of humanity were deepening the crisis, and pledged to do something about it if elected.
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Andrew Jackson was the first president to claim that the desires of the public overrode Congress's constitutional prerogatives. Virtually every president since Jackson has claimed the mantle, even while lacking two ingredients of an electoral mandate: a landslide victory and a specific agenda.
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Like a cowboy saddling a bucking stallion, Republican leaders tried to tame the Tea Party while riding it to victories.
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Obama is capable - as evidenced by his first-term success with health care reform. But mandate-building requires humility, a trait not easily associated with him.
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Obama still has work to do with the vision thing. Convincing voters that he has a credible, practical plan to turn the nation around is a process, not a speech.
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A concrete agenda and landslide victory might not even guarantee a president his mandate in a capital as polarized as Washington.
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