Joe Klein famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre.
-- Joe Klein

#Cynicism #Mediocre #Insight
Affirmative action was always racial justice on the cheap.
-- Joe Klein

#Justice #Action #Affirmative
For those of us who consider ourselves political moderates, life is a dispiriting slog, a sorry mix of rectitude and ineptitude.
-- Joe Klein

#Sorry #Political #Ineptitude
I think that if you make a strong statement of principle, even if the folks disagree with you, people will respect you for it.
-- Joe Klein

#Strong #Thinking #People
I've been described as a grizzled political veteran.
-- Joe Klein

#Political #Veteran
Political courage requires clarity.
-- Joe Klein

#Political #Clarity
We journalists are never so idiotic as when we analyze things that we shouldn't be analyzing.
-- Joe Klein

#Analyzing #Idiotic #Journalist
What do you do in a novel? You take recognizable characters from your own life, and you fantasize about what they're really like.
-- Joe Klein

#Character #Novel
You know, larger than life is always better than smaller than life in politicians. And, you know, God save us from mediocrities.
-- Joe Klein

#Mediocrity #Larger Than Life #Life Is
You know, larger-than-life politicians have larger-than-life strengths and larger-than-life weaknesses.
-- Joe Klein

#Weakness #Larger Than Life #Politician
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

#Believe #School #Drug
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.
-- Joe Klein

#Political #Addresses #Consciousness
George W. Bush will surely deserve that woolliest of all peace prizes, the Nobel.
-- Joe Klein

#Nobel #Prize #Deserve
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

#Inspirational #Winning #Campaigns
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

#Cynical #Journalism #Cynicism
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

#Dna #Diversity #Rainbow
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.
-- Joe Klein

#Understanding #Favour #Flaws
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

#Powerful #Boys #Two
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

#Party #Men #Years
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).
-- Joe Klein

#Senior #Men #Balance
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.
-- Joe Klein

#Long #Political #Facts
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

#Humility #Compassion #Cynical
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

#Practice #Journalism #Tradition
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

#Age #Done #Way
Novel writing should never be confused with journalism. Unfortunately, in the case of Primary Colors, a fair number of journalists confused.
-- Joe Klein

#Confused #Writing #Color
You can't get all of your news from Jon Stewart, especially since it's a comedy show.
-- Joe Klein

#News #Comedy #Shows
We should never go to war unless we have been attacked or are under direct, immediate threat of attack. Never. And never again.
-- Joe Klein

#War #Should #Threat

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