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Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.

Joe Klein

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Joe Klein
Age: 78
Born: 1946
Born: September 7
Biographer
Journalist
Novelist
New York City
New York
Cynicism
Mediocre
Passes
Insight
Among

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Americans who feel the most ignored these days are not the screamers. They are the solid citizens who are sick to death of pols who play to the rant.
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We`re facing a very different sort of threat now, a more amorphous threat, al Qaeda, terrorism, and so on. And so the military has abandoned the two-war strategy.
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For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp.
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The Democrats current crudeness is a function of their desperation, and the imminent ratification of Howard Dean, the least charming presidential candidate in recent memory, as their party chairman only serves to punctuate the problem.
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For those of us who consider ourselves political moderates, life is a dispiriting slog, a sorry mix of rectitude and ineptitude.
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I believe, I believe that the people who voted in those primaries for Donald Trump were at least helping him along with his message of hate toward immigrants, toward Muslims.
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Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap.
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In point of fact, 'Simpson-Bowles' has become a symbol, or SimBowl, rather than an actual plan, political shorthand for the process of long-term deficit reduction.
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You can be as critical as you want of Black Lives Matter. I'm critical of him, too. But to say that they have caused shooting of police officers, I think is a bridge too far.
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What do you do in a novel? You take recognizable characters from your own life, and you fantasize about what they're really like.
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You can't get all of your news from Jon Stewart, especially since it's a comedy show.
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Back in George W. Bush's second term, when diplomatic realism began to overtake foolish bellicosity, the president developed one of his patented nicknames for the two most powerful neoconservative journalists, William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer: he called them 'the Bomber Boys.'
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I'm in favour of politicians having extra-marital relationships. Oh yeah. It makes them more understanding of the flaws that the rest of us have.
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Ever since John Kennedy, Democrats have had a weakness for dashing younger men like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, I suppose, Jimmy Carter. They balance their tickets with senior statesmen - Lyndon Johnson, Joe Biden, Walter Mondale. (Al Gore was young but played ancient).
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We should never go to war unless we have been attacked or are under direct, immediate threat of attack. Never. And never again.
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Barack Obama's inspirational whoosh to the presidency in 2008 was unusual. Most campaigns are less exhilarating indeed, they are downright disappointing - until someone wins.
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Novel writing should never be confused with journalism. Unfortunately, in the case of Primary Colors, a fair number of journalists confused.
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George W. Bush will surely deserve that woolliest of all peace prizes, the Nobel.
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I came to political consciousness with John F. Kennedy's magnificent 1961 Inaugural Address. It seemed the start of something fresh and exciting, and it was.
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Bush promised a foreign policy of humility and a domestic policy of compassion. He has given us a foreign policy of arrogance and a domestic policy that is cynical, myopic and cruel.
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