When Obama was first proposed as a presidential candidate in 2007, the nation failed to have a meaningful debate concerning the serious constitutional issue of electing someone whose father was not a U.S. citizen.
Aaron Klein
Was Sen. Barack Obama a Muslim? Did he ever practice Islam? The presidential candidate officially rejects the claims, but the issue of Obama's personal faith has re-emerged amid conflicting accounts of his enrollment as a Muslim during elementary school in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance.
Abraham Lincoln
It would astonish if not amuse the older citizens to learn that I (a strange, friendless, uneducated, penniless boy, working at ten dollars per month) have been put down as the candidate of pride, wealth, and aristocratic family distinction.
What people are looking for are candidates and representatives that are going to work hard, tell it like it is. I'm unafraid to do things when it doesn't poll well.
Adam Hasner
There is a real diversity of talent and background on the A list so as to better reflect our society in all walks. There are people who have been candidates before, Councillors, Doctors, business leaders, charity campaigners.
Adam Rickitt
The idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal - that you can gather votes like box tops - is, I think, the ultimate indignity to the democratic process.
Adlai Stevenson I
The Republicans have a me too candidate running on a yes but platform, advised by a has been staff.
Adlai Stevenson II
You will readily believe me when I say that on leaving my country, I little imagined that I should ever become a Baptist. I had not indeed candidly examined the subject of baptism, but I had strong prejudices against the sect, that is everywhere spoken against.
Adoniram Judson
For all the tough talk about China during the presidential debates, Romney and Obama evaded any mention of China's suspect human rights record, corruption, and rule of law. By not tackling these controversial topics, the candidates are protecting a strategic partnership with China at the expense of essential human values and beliefs.
Ai Weiwei
Now the fact that terrorists throughout the world see this as an opportunity to defeat the United States, we have to be - and every Democratic candidate, even those who opposed us going in, now say we just simply can't cut and run.
Al D'Amato
Call-time has renewed my faith in the need for public financing of elections. 'Call-time' is where I as the candidate, sit in a room with my 'call-time manager,' and a phone. Then I call people and ask them for money. For hours. Apparently, I'm really good at it.
Al Franken
I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again.
Al Gore
I was the first candidate to come out against this war, spoke at every anti-war march.
Al Sharpton
I make charts of songs that are good candidates, good targets, so to speak. Then I try to come up with ideas for parodies. And 99% of those ideas are horrible.
Al Yankovic
There are a lot of songs that would ostensibly be a good candidate for parody, yet I can't think of a clever enough idea.
When I decide who to vote for as president, I ask myself who will be best for America and for the world. An important component of my answer involves my assessment of the candidate's willingness and ability to protect Israel's security, since I strongly believe that a strong Israel serves the interests of the United States and of world peace.
Alan Dershowitz
I figured I would always be a candidate for man of the year in the virtue-is-its-own-reward category. What that did was force me to concentrate on the work.
Alan Furst
Voluntary public funding of elections solves the free speech 'problem' with more speech instead of more regulation: by giving qualified candidates who show broad-based constituent support enough matching public funds to mount a credible campaign.
Alan K. Simpson
Anyway, I just haven't been able to find any humanity in any Republican candidate ever in my entire life.
Alan Rudolph
But when I was selected, after my very first tour of squadron duty, to become one of the youngest candidates for the test pilot school, I began to realize, maybe you are a little bit better.
I don't want to be Wall Street's candidate. I want to be Argentines' candidate.
We're talking about the lawyers for the United States of America. And I think it's very, very important that the lawyers be comfortable being very candid and open about their views on very sensitive issues affecting the United States.
There are a lot of people whose livelihoods depend on keeping lots of conservatives terrified and ill-informed. The groups that exist to raise funds raise more funds when they endorse the crazier candidate.
Our job is not to dictate the policies of our candidates or even influence them but simply to articulate them in the most clear and meaningful way to the relevant audience.
I do think that sometimes, especially coming into this going straight from activism to being a candidate or to being a person who potentially, you know, looks like will be holding political office soon, I think we expect our politicians to be perfect and fully formed and on point on every single issue.
I was nominated at first by a group called Justice Democrats. They were trying to essentially field non-corporate candidates in the 2018 midterm election. They were looking for people with a history of community service, and my name had come across their desk, and they called.
While I can't promise you that I'm going to be a perfect candidate and I can't promise you that I'm not going to make mistakes, I can unequivocally promise you that no one, no one, will work harder on your behalf, no one will fight harder with you and no one will make you more proud.
It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be Scandinavian or not.
Black Lives Matter, as a network, will not, does not, has not, ain't going to endorse any candidates. Now if there are activists within the movement that want to do that independently, they should feel free, and if that's what makes sense for their local conditions, that's fantastic.
In Obama's case, we've enabled affirmative action to find a home in the nation's highest office. There you have it. I said it and I stand by it. America fell for the gimmick candidate, disregarding every fact and warning sign in the rush to have 'the first African-American president.'
Dad never interferes in our personal matters. He is a very candid person and knows where to draw the line. He is always there for all of us in the family.
African-Americans who might have disagreed with candidate Obama's left-of-center politics voted for him in 2008 because electing a candidate with brown skin was too historic an opportunity to miss.
With a good education and a solid childhood, Marie-Antoinette might have become one of the most admired women in Europe. As it was, the empress paid no attention to her youngest daughter until an accident of nuptial politics made the girl a candidate to marry the French dauphin.
If a candidate at the MLA or chief ministerial level gets an advantage of belonging to a particular caste while fighting polls, that is one thing. But after having been elected, if you only look after the developmental needs of a particular caste or community, that is a different matter altogether. The BJP has never done that.
The solution to voters potentially being misled by a judicial candidate's political speech is more speech - not government censorship.
I read contrived memoirs by presidential candidates. For every 'Dreams From My Father' - Barack Obama's honest, literary portrayal of his biracial upbringing - there were a dozen cautious, formulaic vanity projects by politicians.
When it comes to Buttigieg, he doesn't want to reveal what his actual policies are, where his stances are - and for some reason, he is better than all these other candidates in the eyes of mainstream media pundits.
It's sobering to realize that there's a huge chunk of the U.S. voting population that doesn't think of sexual assault as something horrendous enough to disqualify a presidential candidate.
Candidates are up one day, down the other. Candidates' fortunes turn on a dime. They can be determined by a good or bad debate performance.
More than any other candidate, Mr. Trump embodies the evolving norms of communication that are being enabled and encouraged by technology and the matrix of connectivity that defines modern life: authenticity over authority, surprise over consistency, celebrity over experience.
Mr. Trump is an entertainer, bringing a rawness and wildness to the presidential race that no other candidate can come close to matching.
There is always a gap between what candidates say in the heat of the campaign, when they are not constrained by the realities of governance, and how they act after being sworn into office.
During the election in 1989, there was the first Soviet election with alternative candidates to local government. I myself arranged special training for them.
With its emphasis on star power, the Obama campaign from Day One emphasized the candidate's perfectly cut presidential presence.
If ever there were a candidate destined to shine on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' Sarah Palin would be that woman.
Whether you voted for me or not, going through the Democratic process had made me a better candidate. I am a smarter, better candidate.
I want to be the candidate placed on the ballot by the people, not the party.
I recognize out of the box that I am not the establishment candidate. There's nothing about me that would have anybody draw the conclusion that I am somehow preordained for anything.
Experience in other countries shows how big money, rather than the best political candidate, can influence politics.
