In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge?

After immersing myself in the mysteries of the Electoral College for a novel I wrote in the '90s, I came away believing that the case for scrapping it is less obvious than I originally thought.

The niftiest turn of phrase, the most elegant flight of rhetorical fancy, isn't worth beans next to a clear thought clearly expressed.

Somebody is going to have to do fancy footwork to make sure Elizabeth and John Edwards get their prime-time shot .

More things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by conspiracy.

Something about her eyes or voice has always suggested the hint of a free spirit, trapped in a Peck and Peck cage, dreaming of making rude noises at public gatherings of Republicans.

History doesn't turn on a dime; it turns on a plugged nickel.

F.D.R. had to deal with Southern segregationists - and outright racists - who held power in Congress, so he had to yield to that power in order to get his New Deal legislation passed.

In politics, Bugs Bunny always beats Daffy Duck. Daffy's always going berserk, jumping up and down, yelling. Bugs's got that sly smile, like he always knows what's up, like nothing can ruffle him.

In another life, before taking the veil of journalistic purity, I practiced the black arts of a political operative, including 'debate prep.

Television is one of the most fickle businesses that there are, you are in favour one minute and out the next.

I sit there on the floor with the picture in front of me and think about how things get broken all the time by accident, and how sometimes you just don't get round to getting them fixed.

If you limit your choice only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is a compromise.

Human beings manifesting the fullness of who they were created to be would be inviting and correspondingly transformational in a manner almost mysterious.

I think what's most interesting about me is the work that I do.

To make certain that crime does not pay the government should take it over and try to run it.

Poetry is the harnessing of the paradox of earth cradling life and then entombing it.

There is nothing which any way pertaineth to the worship of God left to the determination of human laws.

While you're being creative, nothing is wrong. There's no such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the breakthrough.

It is not necessary for the public to know whether I am joking or whether I am serious, just as it is not necessary for me to know it myself.

Latest survey shows that 3 out of 4 people make up 75% of the world's population.