Diversity has been written into the DNA of American life; any institution that lacks a rainbow array has come to seem diminished, if not diseased. – Joe Klein
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.’ – Joe Klein
This dilettante notion that the global economy is evil because big corporate leaders make too much money… they do make too much money, but the only way we’ve figured out how to generate wealth in this world is through the market economy. – Joe Klein
You know, larger-than-life politicians have larger-than-life strengths and larger-than-life weaknesses. – Joe Klein
For me, a really radical position for journalism to take is to stop being cynical. Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre. – Joe Klein
If he’d been negotiating Obamacare, Lincoln would have made the infamous ‘Cornhusker Kickback’ deal – $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska to secure a Senator’s vote – in a heartbeat, even if the press howled as it did when Barack Obama agreed to it, forcing its cancellation. – Joe Klein
You know that Moses was spinning like crazy in Exodus XIV through XVII when the Jewish people wanted to go back and become a place again because tramping through the desert was a bit too hard. – Joe Klein
I got into journalism because I came of age in the ’60s. It just seemed one way for me to get things done. – Joe Klein
When I started in the press there were really ink-stained wretches. Not everybody went to college. Now, everybody at the New York Times and the Washington Post and Salon and Slate, most of them have Ivy League educations. – Joe Klein
If there was one fact that sent me hurtling off to write ‘Politics Lost,’ it was when I learned that John Kerry had focus-grouped Abu Ghraib. We knew about the Justice Department memo in June of 2004, and Kerry didn’t raise that in any one of his three debates with George Bush. – Joe Klein
That was the miracle of Abraham Lincoln, politician. He pursued the high purpose of moving justice forward via the low arts of patronage and patronization. Indeed, in a democracy, it is usually the only way great deeds are done. – Joe Klein
When politicians began to see that every last thing that they did in public could be broadcast to a mass audience, the fact that the stakes were so much higher now that every moment became fraught caused them to become more cautious, and the consultants very gradually but inevitably became literal reactionaries. – Joe Klein
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. – Joe Klein
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. – Joe Klein
Throughout history, civilizations have built a common cause through coming-of-age rituals. But we don’t do that anymore. Maybe we should think about that. – Joe Klein
Anonymous sources are a practice of American journalism in the 20th and 21st century, a relatively recent practice. The literary tradition of anonymity goes back to the Bible. – Joe Klein
You know, when George Bush talks about freedom not being America’s gift to world but God’s gift to all humankind, it smells like market testing to me. – Joe Klein
Republicans should embrace the possibility that Obamacare could pave the way toward lower health care entitlement spending overall. That won’t be easy. But it’s not unthinkable, either. – Joe Klein
Bush the Elder’s stature as president grows with every passing year. He was the finest foreign policy president I’ve ever covered and a man who defied his party on tax increases while imposing budget restrictions on the Democrats. – Joe Klein
We journalists are never so idiotic as when we analyze things that we shouldn’t be analyzing. – Joe Klein
I invented the psychological histories and the relationship between Jack and Susan Stanton. I didn’t know anything about the Clintons. I don’t know more about the Clintons’ marriage than you do. – Joe Klein
Previous presidents, including great ones like Roosevelt, have used the IRS against their enemies. But I don’t think Barack Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. – Joe Klein
I believe that poverty is often the result of inappropriate behavior – out-of-wedlock births, dropping out of school, crime and drugs – which should not be rewarded. But often it isn’t, and common decency requires that we take care of the least of these. – Joe Klein
