Frank Luntz

What matters most in politics is personality. It's not issues it's not image. It's who you are and what you represent.

There's a problem with political polling in that you have so much pressure to do what your client wants you to do and say what your client wants you to say. I've never felt that pressure. I am independent of the political parties.

Republicans use think tanks to come up with a lot of their messages. The think tanks are the single worst, most undisciplined example of communication I've ever seen.

Ideology and communication more often than not run into each other rather than complement each other. Principle and communication work together. Ideology and communication often work apart.

The way you communicate an idea is different than the way you communicate a product.

There are people still in the Republican Party that I believe practice the communication of anger, of disappointment, of regret, of pain, of sorrow, of suffering. That's not what the American people want to hear.

I don't understand why people whose entire lives or their corporate success depends on communication, and yet they are led on occasion by CEOs who cannot talk their way out of a paper bag and don't care to.

So often corporate America, business America, are the worst communicators, because all they understand are facts, and they cannot tell a story. They know how to explain their quarterly results, but they don't know how to explain what they mean.

We have put our words on steroids and amped the language up so high that unless we communicate in overdrive and hyperbole, we believe--perhaps correctly--that nobody will hear us. In the process, we've sacrificed nuance and judgement and distinction, and thereby cheapened the conversation.

Winners know what makes people tick by effectively tapping into our fears and aspirations. By listening very carefully and then repeating almost word-for-word exactly what they__e heard, winners know how to articulate compelling needs__nd products to satisfy those needs__hat people didn__ even know they wanted.

THE TRUTH ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION _ American fifteen-year-olds rank thirty-fifth out of fifty-seven developed countries in math and literacy. _ 30 percent of public school students don__ graduate from high school. _ Every day, 7,000 kids drop out of high school. _ Of the 50 million children currently in public school, 15 million of them will drop out. _ 25 percent of all public school math teachers did not major in mathematics or a math-related subject at a college or university. _ Less than two-thirds of high school graduates are accepted to college every year. _ One half...

Winners recognize that even when they aren__ physically selling a product, they are always selling themselves. Every human interaction is an opportunity to connect__nd then to sell.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. H. L. MENCKEN

Blame yourself when things go wrong, and give credit to others when things go right. The process of giving other people credit is what it takes to build a team._ Sandberg, one of America__ great team builders, knows exactly what it takes to win.

I have missed more than nine thousand shots in my career. I have lost almost three hundred games. On twenty-six occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot . . . and missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. __ICHAEL JORDAN