Donald Trump is not a politician and has not been around the Hill like many of the other candidates were.
I must admit I found it astonishing to watch the candidates below Donald Trump beat up each other and never lay a glove on the front-runner. I mean, when I was running, everybody went after the front-runner and pointed out my weaknesses and foibles, and that's part of the normal primary process.
I'm not wasting my time with any more non-straight-talking candidates.
The law requires a paper towel ad to be scrupulously honest, but allows political candidates to lie without reproach. What's wrong with this picture?
The reality is I have a job as a national party chair that, one, requires a thick skin. It requires me to be able to absorb the body blows so our candidates can stay above the fray.
The real fight is within the Republican Party to get it to nominate grassroots-type candidates who the public wants, and not just some 'echo' of the other side.
All of the candidates agree that the Democratic Party needs to undergo fundamental reforms.
Presidential candidates don't chew gum.
The overwhelming majority of Americans want decent and civil political dialogue, and candidates for office and elected leaders must continue to call for calm and unity, even when there are intense differences of opinion.
Which one of the three candidates would you want your daughter to marry?
But when I was selected, after my very first tour of squadron duty, to become one of the youngest candidates for the test pilot school, I began to realize, maybe you are a little bit better.
In politics there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those like John McCain who use their careers to promote change.
When you make the judgement as a network that there are only three candidates, you are censoring points of view.
I tend to support and get behind issues instead of candidates, because of the whole 'Super Bowl' generalization of our world - You're on this side, I'm on that side; you're a Republican, I'm a Democrat; you're country music, I'm rock music.
You're basically like glass: People see the candidates through you.
We tend to prefer candidates that don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
The fact is, when you hear the Republican candidates on immigration, when you see them and hear them talk about contraception, mammograms, abortion, and not the economy, it's clear to me they're moving farther and farther away from the mainstream.
Rather than fretting about IQ scores, voters should try to determine what candidates read - other than the Bible, which they all say they read - and the kind of people with whom they spend their time.
It will be about which candidate, which of the two candidates remaining, is best suited to make a positive difference in the lives of North Carolina families, and I submit to each of you tonight that I am that candidate and Elizabeth Dole is not.
The main influence on voters should be a series of robust debates among the candidates. It's a free country, so this is a tough problem to solve, but I'd love to see an election season with zero political ads, and all voters had to decide based on watching four national debates over the two months leading to election day.
Voters like to fall in love with presidential candidates, at least a little bit.
I like candidates who tell me something that is going to make a difference to me.
I've always said that climate change is the defining issue of our generation. I've set out to hold candidates and elected officials accountable and to push our democracy to truly represent the interests of our kids.
When members of a certain party concoct various devious schemes to suppress votes, purposely misinform potential voters, spread vile untrue filth about certain candidates, play the race, gender and religious cards, and literally tamper with vote tallies, then we are not a truly representative government!
Maybe instead of asking political candidates to submit tax returns, we really should be asking to see their brain scans.
If you're following candidates in a campaign, you get on their plane, and what they're generally doing is they're dividing the cost of that charter flight by the number of reporters they're carrying aboard. In effect, the press is buying them that campaign flight.
I loved covering presidential politics - not so much because of the candidates but because of the people it allowed me to talk to.
In my opinion, Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the great commandment. He cannot be bought; he's not a puppet on a string like many other candidates... who have wealthy donors as their puppet masters.
The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood was long and arduous.
A debate has one purpose, one purpose only, and that is to facilitate the exchange of ideas directly between two candidates, and that's it.
It's an unfortunate fact that in the male black population, a very significant percentage of them, more so than whites or other minority candidates, because of convictions, prison records, are never going to be hired by a police department. That's a reality. That's not a byproduct of stop-and-frisk.
If the elections are a mere fraud, why are terrorists being trained and infiltrated into India at the command of the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency of Pakistan to kill election candidates and to intimidate voters?
I believe we all have the right as private citizens to endorse candidates and participate in the political process.
Democracy, if it meant what our forefathers said, that would be great, but unfortunately it's been corrupted by this funding and funding of campaigns. There's a much better way to do it. There could be a small amount of money given by every taxpayer to be dedicated to candidates.
Enter the candidates on horseback: While military leaders can sometimes be dangerous in politics, our best generals and admirals embody the democratic values and leadership skills for which the country is yearning.
Far too many candidates wear their faith on their sleeve.
