Quotes by Dee Dee Myers - Page 2

The dirty little secret is that the pool man, who's making $30,000 a year, is subsidizing the million-dollar mortgage for the family whose pool he cleans. No wonder people want to get rid of tax breaks for corporate jets.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Men
Corporate
Dirty
Mortgage
Naughty
Pool
Tax Breaks
Wonder
Family Man People
Tax
Breaks
Jets
No Wonder
Rid
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It was what became something of a pattern in the first couple of years of the Clinton White House and maybe even longer, where information would drip, drip, drip, drip, drip out which would keep stories alive, alive, alive.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Alive
Clinton
Information
Stories
White House
Became
Drip
Longer
Maybe
Pattern
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My job is to be a spokesman - the spokesman, I suppose - for the President, for the White House, to do the daily briefings, to manage the press corps in terms of travel, day-to-day needs, access, interviews, all those issues.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Jobs
Travel
Access
Briefing
Day To Day
Manage
White
White House
Corps
Daily
Suppose
Spokesman
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Every press secretary faces an enormous amount of information. Events move really fast. You're responsible for a tremendous amount of information, and again, a tremendous amount on competing agendas. Not everybody grease in the White House.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
House
Moving
White
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There's no question almost press secretaries talk about the sense of serving two masters. On the one hand you want to protect the president's interests, and you represent his interests to the press. And the press is a proxy for the American people.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Hands
People
Two
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As women slowly gain power, their values and priorities are reshaping the agenda. A multitude of studies show that when women control the family funds, they generally spend more on health, nutrition, and education - and less on alcohol and cigarettes.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Alcohol
Funny Sarcastic
Nutrition
Priorities
Education Family Health
Cigarettes
Funds
Gain
Slowly
Multitude
Studies
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Obama seems like he tries to talk everyone into what he believes - and that's part of why we elected him, because he's a calm, reasonable guy - but behind that, there has to be some fight. You have to be able to take a few punches and throw a few punches.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Calm
Reasonable
Believes
Punches
Throw
Tries
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During my years as a press secretary, I developed a powerful internal filter, which worked to strip all things 'off message' from my thoughts before they came out of my mouth. It didn't always work, of course, and I said more than a few things I regretted.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
All Things
Filters
Powerful
Secretary
Years
Developed
Few Things
Filter
Internal
Mouth
Press Secretary
Regretted
Strip
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Washington is still very much a male-oriented culture. Being from Los Angeles, I think it is less so there - there is less attachment to tradition, perhaps, there is more flexibility, more acceptance of change generally. That is partly because of Hollywood.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Acceptance
Attachment
Flexibility
Los Angeles
Thinking
Angeles
Washington
Los
Partly
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Research confirms that both Republican and Democratic women are more likely than their male counterparts to initiate and fight for bills that champion social justice, protect the environment, advocate for families, and promote nonviolent conflict resolution.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Bills
Champion
Conflict
Counterparts
Democratic
Environment
Fighting
Initiate
Justice
Research
Resolution
Social Justice
Women Are
Advocate
Male
Fight
Likely
Nonviolent
Promote
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That's not to say that women's priorities are better than men's. Rather, when women are empowered, when they can speak from the experience of their own lives, they often address different, previously neglected issues. And families and whole communities benefit.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Men
Community
Empowered
Issues
Neglected
Priorities
Experience Men Women
Women Are
Benefit
Communities
Experience Women Men
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But research confirms that both Republican and Democratic women are more likely than their male counterparts to initiate and fight for bills that champion social justice, protect the environment, advocate for families, and promote nonviolent conflict resolution.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Bills
Conflict
Counterparts
Democratic
Initiate
Research
Resolution
Social Justice
Women Are
Advocate
Male
Likely
Nonviolent
Promote
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The press never accepts at face value that the President is taking a certain action because he wants to create jobs or because he believes that it is in the best interests of the American people or that he is genuinely committed to making life better for people.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Jobs
Believe
Committed
Face Value
People
Accepts
Life Best Better
American People
Believes
Best Interests
Genuinely
Interests
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'Not again!' I thought to myself this morning, as news trickled out that John McCain was set to pick Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Not again, because too often women are promoted for the wrong reasons, and then blamed when things don't go right.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Running
Morning
Alaska
Mccain
News
Palin
Wrong Reasons
Women Are
Blamed
Governor
John
Mate
Pick
Promoted
Sarah Palin
Reasons
Running Mate
Sarah
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I worked for a lot of candidates, in tough campaigns that lost. Most of my candidates lost until Bill Clinton. There was always a point where you look in their eyes and they knew it was over. And there was never that point with Clinton. He never quit. He never gave up.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Campaigns
Candidates
Clinton
Eye
Looks
Never Quit
Bill
Bill Clinton
Quit
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After I left the White House, I kept a foothold in the business of American politics; as a talk-show host, analyst, commentator, speechmaker, and occasional writer. I was no longer a practitioner, but I was still a partisan, a Democrat, a blue-stater through and through.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
American Politics
Blue
Host
House
Occasional
White
White House
Analyst
Commentator
Partisan
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There are people in the public sector with a range of experiences that have no equivalent in business, but are essential to governing, like keeping a kid in school or helping someone get and hold a job. The value of those skills can't easily be measured against a bottom line.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Jobs
Kids
Bottom
Bottom Line
Governing
Helping
Helping Someone
Public Sector
Range
School
Skills
Business Value People
Business People School
Easily
Equivalent
Essential
Experiences
Hold
Line
Measured
Sector
Value
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Women have a lot of power in private life. There are many men who would say, 'Hey, women already rule my life.' But with women, more is more. The more there are, the more the world gets used to seeing them. We change the culture. We begin to expand options and lead and manage.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Men
Culture
Hey
Manage
Private Life
Life Change Women
Life Change Power
Begin
Expand
Options
Rule
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Study after study confirms that even when you control for variables like profession, education, hours worked, age, marital status, and children, men still are compensated substantially more - even in professions, like nursing, dominated by women. No wonder there's a gender gap.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Birthday
Smile
Men
Children
Nursing
Profession
Variables
Wonder
Education Men Women
Dominated
Gap
No Wonder
Status
Substantially
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A lot of people over time have had this kind of pattern in their relationship with Bill Clinton. You first meet him and you're overwhelmed by his talent. He's so energetic and articulate and full of ideas and he calls himself a congenital optimist and that optimism is contagious.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Clinton
Contagious
Energetic
Ideas
Optimism
Overwhelmed
People
Talent
Articulate
Bill
Bill Clinton
Calls
Pattern
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President Clinton intentionally created a structure that was a little loose. And one that kept him a little in the center. He didn't want one person filtering all the information that went to him. He had always operated with a lot of information coming in and a lot of stuff going out.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Clinton
Going Out
President
President Clinton
Structure
Want
Center
Filtering
Intentionally
Loose
Operated
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Many differences are rooted in biology and reinforced through culture, so it's important to acknowledge that. Because if you say men and women are the same and if male behaviour is the norm, and women are always expected to act like men, we will never be as good at being men as men are.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Men
Acknowledge
Behaviour
Biology
Differences
Important
Men And Women
Norm
Rooted
Good Men Women
Women Are
Male
Good Women Men
Reinforced
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Bill Clinton sitting on Air Force One getting his hair cut while people around the country cooled their heels and waited for him, became a metaphor for a populist president who had gotten drunk with the perks of his own power and was sort of, you know, not sensitive to what people wanted.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Air Force
Clinton
Country
Cutting
Drunk
Hair
Heels
Metaphor
Perks
Populist
Sensitive
Power People Know
Bill
Bill Clinton
Gotten
Waited
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No doubt, the White House thinks the American people know Obama's story. But since the Inauguration, we've seen only the president's present: his perfect family, his Ivy League elegance, his effortless mastery of complex issues. We never see him sweat. And we forget that he ever had to struggle.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Doubt
Inauguration
Ivy
Ivy League
Mastery
No Doubt
Struggle
Sweat
Thinking
White House
American People
Complex
Thinks
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Even tax breaks that are supposed to help the middle class too often skew toward the wealthy. Consider the mortgage interest deduction. While political leaders in both parties have long considered it untouchable, it actually helps those at the top of the income scale far more than those at the bottom.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Income
Middle Class
Mortgage
Political Leaders
Tax Breaks
Tax
Scale
Considered
Both Parties
Breaks
Deduction
Untouchable
Helps
Parties
Toward
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You as the press secretary have to protect the president's interests and the White House's interests more broadly. And a lot of people inside the White House, as you learned, sometimes with painful experience, have competing agendas, have differing points of view, have priorities they're trying to protect.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Painful Experiences
Views
White
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On the day I started college in 1979, no woman had ever been on the United States Supreme Court or served as the Speaker of the House. None had been an astronaut or the solo anchor of a network evening news broadcast. Not one had been president of an Ivy League college or run a serious campaign for president.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Running
Anchors
Astronaut
College
Court
Evening
House
Ivy
Ivy League
League
President
Serious
Solo
States
Supreme
Supreme Court
Anchor
Broadcast
Campaign
Run
Evening News
Network
None
Speaker
Served
United States Supreme Court
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For generations, Americans who aren't rich have been generous and admiring of their wealthy compatriots - want a country where people who work hard can succeed, where the same rules apply to everyone. They expect to have their own shot at getting rich. But increasingly, they are seeing that the game is rigged.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Admiring
Generations
Rigged
Succeed
Work Game People
Apply
Shot
Increasingly
Work Hard
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While eschewing emotion - and its companion, vulnerability - Obama should be careful not to sacrifice empathy, the 'I feel your pain' connection that sustained Clinton. This connection is the shorthand people use to measure their leaders' intentions. If people believe you're on their side, they will trust your decisions.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Trust
Be Careful
Believe
Careful
Clinton
Companion
Emotion
Pain
Sacrifice
Shorthand
Vulnerability
Decisions
Obama
Side
Connection
Intentions
Measure
Sustained
While
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When I became White House press secretary, there were other limitations that were thrust upon me. Bill Clinton was under pressure to appoint women to visible positions. I was 31, I'd never worked in Washington. Was I ready for this large and visible job? Still he wanted the credit. So he gave me the job but diminished the job.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Jobs
Clinton
Credit
House
Secretary
Thrust
Visible
White
White House
Appoint
Bill
Bill Clinton
Washington
Diminished
Limitations
Positions
Press Secretary
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Palin was a political Hail Mary, a long bomb in the closing minutes of a game that John McCain and Co. were certain to lose. They didn't care if she had the policy or political or emotional capacity to serve as vice president, let alone president. They were willing to drive the country off a cliff, if that's what it took to win.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Capacity
Closing
Country
Emotional
Hail
Mary
Mccain
Palin
Vice President
Winning
Bomb
Cliff
John
Vice
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Campaigns often make standing on principle the highest of virtues - and listening to your opponents a sure sign of weakness. It's the virtual opposite of what it takes to succeed in office. Squaring the circle takes a powerful combination of skills. But presidents who can campaign and compromise are generally the most successful.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Combination
Compromise
Opponents
Opposites
Powerful
Skills
Standing
Succeed
Successful
Weakness
Campaign
Circle
Virtues
Presidents
Sign
Sure Sign
Virtual
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Obama seemed poised to realign American politics after his stunning 2008 victory. But the economy remains worse than even the administration's worst-case scenarios, and the long legislative battles over health care reform, financial services reform and the national debt and deficit have taken their toll. Obama no longer looks invincible.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Administration
American Politics
Deficit
Financial Services
Health Care
Health Care Reform
Invincible
Long
National Debt
Remains
Scenarios
Stunning
Taken
Worst Case Scenario
Battles
Legislative
Poised
Seemed
Services
Toll
Worse
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When I joined Bill Clinton's start-up presidential campaign in 1991, I was confident that women would play an ever more important role, but I never gave a minute's thought to what would happen if we won. When we did - and I became the first woman to serve as White House press secretary - it changed my life. But it didn't change the world.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Clinton
House
Play
Presidential
Presidential Campaign
Secretary
White
White House
Life Change Women
Confident
Bill
Campaign
Change The World
Important Role
Joined
Minute
Start-Up
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I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn't. Hey, it made me a better leader: you have to take a lot of people's needs into account; you have to look down the road. Trying to negotiate getting a couple of kids to watch the same TV show requires serious diplomacy.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Leadership
Children
Couple
Diplomacy
Down The Road
Fascinated
Football
Hey
Leader
Raising Children
Serious
Training
Football I Am Me
Account
Considered
Endlessly
Ground
Negotiate
Raising
Road
Requires
Training Ground
Tv Show
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When I first started working in politics, as a junior aide on Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign, it never occurred to me that I would one day work in the White House. There were plenty of women among the volunteers who stuffed envelopes and walked precincts. But there were fewer and fewer on each successive level of influence and access.
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
House
Volunteer
White
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I know I made plenty of mistakes in my tenure. But one of the things that you learn is to be very careful and to protect yourself down the road a little bit, which is to say you've got to think ahead and think where is the story going to go? What are all the possible outcomes? And how do I protect the president from unexpected twists and turns in the road?
Dee Dee Myers / Former White House Press Secretary
Mistake
President
Thinking
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Dee Dee Myers Quotes - Page 2

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