Steve Elmendorf Quotations

No congressional party is ever going to speak with one voice. It?s not possible. And I?m not worried about that.

I think Kerry's dead because I don't think he has anything to say. Message has something to do with this, and I don't think he has anything interesting or compelling to say. He's a weak third in Iowa and a weak second in New Hampshire, and I think if you finish third in Iowa and a weak second in New Hampshire, you're through.

I think anybody who wants to be considered a significant national candidate needs to be out getting into the debate on policy.

We're not in power. We don't run anything. So the standard by which voters hold us to is lower than the president's party.

A large part of it is getting a sense from the candidates' point of view of whether or not they really want to do this. Lots of people want to be president, but they've got to figure out: 'What do I have to offer that's going to make people want me to be president?' It's not something people wake up with one morning crystallized in their head. A lot of it comes from being out there, talking to people, test-driving their message.

Not many other groups of this size are spending $40 million. I think it will have an impact.

I just don't think there will be a stomach for a major partisan program on one side or the other. You are going to have to figure out some things that let each side know that the other is acting in good faith, and build a relationship--which could take some time.

They're in charge of the government. To the extent voters get worried about this, they're going to blame the party in control. I really think there's a chance we could win the House in 2006.

Clearly Democrats are not united in what is the critique of what we're doing there and what is the answer to what we do next. The difficulty of coming to a unified position is that for a lot of people who voted for it, they have to decide whether they can admit that they were misled.

The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections,