Quote

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

Jeff Greenfield

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jeff Greenfield
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: June 10
Journalist
Novelist
New York City
New York
First
Casualty
Casualties
Politics
War
Truth
Wells
Firsts
Well

More quotes by Jeff Greenfield

Image
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
Image
In early 1961 a new president, John F. Kennedy, was told by military leaders and civilian officials that the Kingdom of Laos - of no conceivable strategic importance to the U.S. - required the presence of American troops and perhaps even tactical nuclear weapons. Why? Because if Laos fell, Asia would go red from Thailand to Indonesia.
Jeff Greenfield
Image
Television is one of the most fickle businesses that there are, you are in favour one minute and out the next.
Jeff Greenfield
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Protestations of indifference to higher office are hard to take seriously when the 'non-candidate' is busily engaged in testing the waters.
Jeff Greenfield
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
More things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by conspiracy.
Jeff Greenfield
Image
Victory has 1,000 fathers defeat has 1,000 kibitzers.
Jeff Greenfield
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
In another life, before taking the veil of journalistic purity, I practiced the black arts of a political operative, including 'debate prep.
Jeff Greenfield
Image
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
Image
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
Image
There is no such thing as political science, but there are tenancies so strong that they might as well be called laws of nature.
Jeff Greenfield
Image
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