Mara Liasson Quotes

Republicans think that [Ted] Cruz would be like Barry Goldwater. He'd lose in a landslide and pull the party down with him. They'd lose Senate and House seats.

As one person said to me , Republicans know [Donald] Trump is a stain on their party.

Obama's even keel sometimes comes across as aloof or even cold.

For a long time, many Republicans thought if they just took two aspirin and laid down, [Donald] Trump would go away.

Donald Trump's staffing up a pretty traditional, very conservative Republican government, not a populist outsider government, at least not yet.

Romney still enjoys the Republicans' traditional advantage among voters who are veterans, but the Obama campaign is confident it can chip away at that.

If Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania wins, for instance, it will tell Republicans that their own brand hasn't been hurt too badly by [Donald] Trump's negatives.

You have [Donald] Trump and [Ted] Cruz battling it out, and the moderate establishment candidates like Chris Christie or Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich - they have formed a circular firing squad.

Senate races have tightened along with the presidential race. Watch to see how many Republican Senate candidates outperform Donald Trump - and how many hang on to their seats in states that he loses.

[Donald] Trump's path to victory depends on getting historic levels of support from white voters, and particularly large numbers of white, non-college-educated voters.

If Donald Trump wins, it will be a seismic event.

Hillary Clinton has had a small but persistent lead since June - anywhere from 2 to 5 points. The stock markets and the election betting pools are predicting a Clinton win.

Yes, the presidential race is very close, and some public polls show it getting closer as we go into the final hours, but in one sense it's actually been stable for months.

The establishment is divorcing itself from its base - from voters who are choosing a candidate who says he stands for things that are anathema to the establishment.

Hillary Clinton is also not a very exciting, inspiring candidate to a lot of the left-leaning Democratic base, especially in Iowa.

The lesson is that voters in both parties are in a very anti-establishment, populist mood. Hillary Clinton is the establishment candidate.

Donald Trump is a candidate who divided his own party more deeply than any presidential candidate has before.

Republican voters are coalescing behind [Donald] Trump, but many Republican elected officials still say they can't support him.

The aftermath of this extraordinary election [2016] could be just as surprising as the race itself.

What does [Hillary] Clinton do if she loses? Concede? Blame the Russians? Or the FBI?

What if he says [Donald Trump] plans to run again in 2020?

Even if [Donald] Trump concedes, some of his supporters have promised to take up arms against [Hillary] Clinton.

Does Donald Trump accept the results and concede graciously, pursue legal action, or tell his followers to take to the streets?

If [Donald] Trump wins narrowly, Democrats can blame the loss on FBI director James Comey, who inserted himself late in the campaign in an unprecedented way.

The winner's margin of victory also matters. If it's a squeaker, that will make the lessons learned for both parties much murkier.

After months and months at the top of the polls, there is a real possibility that Donald Trump could be the nominee.

While Romney has an overall deficit with women voters, his biggest disadvantage is with college educated women - wherever they work, at home, in an office, a store or a factory.

Ted Cruz is a small-government conservative.

The GOP establishment, in particular, is facing a pick-your-poison kind of decision. Many establishment Republicans dislike [Ted] Cruz personally. He has no Senate endorsements.

Republicans like Trent Lott, saying [Donald] Trump would be more flexible [then Ted Cruz].

The Republican Party, right now, is a conservative populist party.

People like Ted Cruz, who has tried to position himself as the best second choice for [Donald] Trump supporters, wouldn't condemn him.

The enthusiasm for [Donald] Trump had gone up. The net result was it made people more supportive of him.

There's a lot of anxiety about terrorism among the country at large. There's also a feeling the country has stagnated.

There was tremendous animus to President [Barack] Obama. Many of people said he was un-American, not a Christian and worse.

Many people feel he did cross a line in a way he hadn't even done before and also that Republicans had to speak out because they believe Trump poses a danger to the party.

If [Donald] Trump drags down a bunch of Senate Republicans, the post-election GOP assessment will be much more pessimistic.

There was another Cleveland rally [of Hillary Clinton] - this one with LeBron James.

In 2012, African-Americans were 13 percent of the electorate, and 93 percent of them voted for [Barack] Obama.

African-American voters are not nearly as enthusiastic about [Hillary] Clinton as they were about [Barack] Obama.

[Hillary] Clinton has also struggled with key groups of voters.

This year [2016], however, polls show [Hillary] Clinton winning white college-educated voters by double digits.

Republican candidates have won whites with college degrees in every presidential election since polling began.

As those states and others in the South and West become more diverse and educated, they will become harder for the Republican Party - in its current form - to win.

For Democrats, anything less than 15 net pickups will be a disappointing outcome [in presidency race].

No one is predicting that the Democrats will get the 30 pickups they need to take back the House majority.