Barton Swaim Quotes & Sayings

He wrote so many letters that occasionally he would forget the name of the person he was writing to. "This is a letter to what's-his-name," he'd begin. "Jeane will know his name, ask Jeane." Jeane was our senate liaison and someone who knew nearly everyone. "Dear whoever," he would continue, "I just wanted to let you know how sorry I was to hear about your dad. I remember losing my dad when I was seventeen, and all I can say is it wasn't easy. Please know you'll be in our prayers over the coming weeks and months." I wondered if the governor would pray for somebody whose name he couldn't remember. Would he tell God to ask Jeane? — Barton Swaim

don't think we can handle another apology," Stewart went on, throwing down the magazine. "Because let me tell you, I know what an apology from this governor sounds like, and it ain't really an apology. It's more like - ." He paused. Someone said, "More like what?" "I'll just put it this way. His apologies tend to have an unapologetic tone." Another minute passed, and then the governor walked in. All went silent. He sat in the only remaining chair and made jokes with one of the interns. A week before, he had been openly talked about by influential commentators in New York and Washington as a presidential candidate. In national media reports, his name had been routinely used in conjunction with the terms "principled stand," "courageous," "crazy, — Barton Swaim

One of the melancholy facts of political life is that your convictions tend to align with your paycheck. — Barton Swaim

Boring. Total downer. Again - you have to remember the audience. This isn't some anti-abortion group. You've got to dig deeper. Remember who you're talking to." "Governor, I can guarantee you these people are anti-abortion." "You don't know that." I did know that, and so did he. "They're celebrating traditional motherhood, they're independent Baptists, and they're from Florence." Now it would become an argument about something else. He'd get impatient and say, "Never mind, I'll think of something," and walk into the event. It didn't matter what he said. At the Mother of the Year ceremony, middle-aged women cackled and cooed at anything the governor — Barton Swaim

What drives him is the thirst for glory; the public good, as he understands it, is a means to that end. So when a great statesman accomplishes a laudable goal by sagacity and bravery, we're right to give him the praise he craves. But when we're surprised and disgusted because the man we lauded has humiliated himself and disgraced his office, we haven't just misjudged a man - we've misjudged the nature of modern politics. — Barton Swaim

It's impossible to attain much success in politics if you're the sort of person who can't abide disingenuousness. This isn't to say politics is full of lies and liars; it has no more liars than other fields do. Actually one hears very few proper lies in politics. Using vague, slippery, or just meaningless language is not the same as lying: it's not intended to deceive so much as to preserve options, buy time, distance oneself from others, or just to sound like you're saying something instead of nothing. — Barton Swaim

Everybody complains that politics separates words from their meanings, and this is part of the reason why. Words are useful, but often their meanings are not. Sometimes what you want is feeling rather than meaning, warmth rather than content. And that takes verbiage. The — Barton Swaim

Successful politicians are people who know how to make us think well of them without our realizing that that's what they're doing; they know how to make us admire and trust them. — Barton Swaim