YouSaid · the spoken record

Frank Luntz

lines on the record
73
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2024-09-01
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2024-09-01
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  1. “British broadcasting company. My father got his news. Hold on, I got to pay respect to my dad. My dad was in World War II in the Korean War, and he used to listen to the BBC. I get hired by them to do work when Mark Thompson was in charge and my father was horrified that his son would actually have any impact on this great global institution that when he went over to Britain, he actually said to them, don't hire him. He doesn't take you guys seriously enough. I'm like, Dad, help me get the job. Don't get me fired. But no, I'm still a big fan.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “I am. British Airways is an institution. The BBC is an institution. These are things that I completely respect and it makes me so sad and so pained that someone of significance like yourself would be casting stones.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “That's not been my role. My role is to explain the American people to the American people. So I work for Fox News for 10 years. I work for ABC for five years, CBS for four years. I'm doing a lot of stuff now with CNBC, Squawkbox, and with CNN. In Britain, we're taping this in the morning. I'm going to be on Newsnight tonight explaining America to British audiences. I've kept my relationship with that.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “That is true. He invited me to fly on Air Force One. So I'd seen him, let's say eight times. He knew who I was. I was on a first name basis with him. I'm the one who asked him the question about John McCain. I'm the one who he blamed for that whole thing about John McCain. He's not a war hero. I like the guys who weren't captured and McCain was captured. The most offensive thing that any presidential candidate has ever said. And that's my interview. And he blamed me for that. He claimed that I was seeking to get a job with him, which wasn't true.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “I like by the way. I didn't know him then either. And Liam Fox never forgave me for that. I don't know if you know this, but he was angry at me for years thinking it was a setup. David Davis knew what I had done, but he never held it against me because he knew that I didn't know who these people were.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Of every single delegate to the party conference. That is what changed history. He at the time was polling second. So many people saw the news night segment which they should have, and that's all legitimate, that they said this is the guy we want to face the Labor Party at the next election.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yes, well, unfortunately, a lot of politicians cannot do that, and he excelled at it. And he did it without ever criticizing Tony Blair. And so our group is mixed of labor voters who had supported the conservatives, conservative voters who would consider voting labor, and then hardcore conservative voters. And Cameron was the only one who impressed everyone. And I'm being impressed because I'm not used to this in American politics. So we're all having this incredible reaction at the same time and the Cameron campaign, so it goes out on the air on Newsnight. And I feel really sheepish about this because, you know, I should know what I'm talking about. And I never met him before. I did not know what he looked like. I knew nothing about him until I saw the video. And they put it out and his people were watching it, copied it, got it into a DVD, and slipped it under the doors.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “No, actually, I know you're making fun of me, but this is serious. I'm supposed to have looked at the videos so I would know what to ask of my focus group. But I was flying over from the States. My flight was four and a half hours late. I get to the facility. I haven't seen anything and the reporters are standing right in front of me. So I can't watch the videos to acknowledge that I haven't done my homework. So we start the focus groups. We're running them. And of course, Cameron delivers a, and I only showed about five minutes of it, a speech with no notes, no teleprompter, just completely off the cuff. Taking Tony Blair's easy style and making it even easier. And I'm watching him as the group is, and I'm in awe. And the group is in awe.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “No, I think if it is the explanation of an ideology, which is what Tony Blair was so good at, and David Cameron as well. Because in the end, it's not just about policy. It's even how the message is delivered. I did not know who David. He went to Oxford when I was there. I did not know him. Okay, I'm going to admit something that I've never admitted publicly before. The BBC is going to go bat shit crazy when they hear me say this. I was doing focus groups for the BBC since about 1990. And it was 2005. 2006, it was after Blair had won the third time and the conservatives needed a new leader. And I had not watched my videos. I've been given videos of David Davis. I've been given videos of Ken, Clark, of a whole bunch of different politicians, Liam Fox. These are all people seeking the leadership. I didn't watch them.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “In some ways to mirror what you did, Alistair, by focusing on the policies much less than the politics. If you focus on the policies, then it's substantial, then it's real, and the politics will take care of itself.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Couple other examples are the government takeover of healthcare because that suggests something direct and something ominous versus government control. Government control is a negative. Government takeover is destroying healthcare. Something that you want, need, and deserve. I had to figure out how you can get multiple bites at the same issue, expanding the communication, but ensuring that the quote still gets used. So I'll give you an example with healthcare. The choice and control you want, the affordability you need, the quality you deserve delivered by the doctors and hospitals you trust, even though that's incredibly long, this is what, 30, 35 words, it still makes it into every article because every point is essential. Choice and control are about policy. Affordability is about policy. Want, need, and deserve and trust are attributes that we so strongly want. So I've tried to do this.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Who cares what the horse race is? What matters is what the horses are saying. I don't talk polling, even though I'm a pollster. I talk language and messaging. Is that the right word, the right phrase to connect to people? I'll give you a corporate example. Instead of carbonation, we realize that sparkling was a much more positive way to sell a soda. Carbonation is about chemicals. Sparkling is about how it makes you feel. The difference between gambling and gaming. Gambling is an addiction. Gaming is having fun. In politics, the estate tax is for rich people, the debt tax is for dying.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Credibility on either side of the Atlantic. And this is why what you do, Alistair and what I do is so difficult because the public on both sides believe that we don't say what we mean. We don't mean what we say and then we don't do what we say.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “But that's the point. He ran a campaign of no mistakes, that would be the language that I would use. And he did not use that lead because he should have given some of that up. He should have accepted that I'm going to be more specific. I'm going to lose a few seats, but I'm going to make fundamental change in the UK and return it to whatever values he wants to focus on. Clearly, the Conservatives had failed. Clearly, the Conservatives had been given, what, 14 years to get it right and they didn't? And this was his chance to say, this is what I'm going to do with education. This is what I'm going to do with taxes. This is what I'm going to do with regulations. This is what I'm going to do with British society. And if you like it, vote for us. If you don't, don't. He had such a lead that he could have been explicit, and that would have given him more momentum to make more change. But he chose not to. And this no mistake strategy, you can't do it when the public is so angry, dismissive. They don't trust.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “But it was exactly a casebook study in telling people what you're for, winning the election based on what you're for, and then following through based on what you're for. He did all of it. And the truth is, I don't see him as being left wing. And this is the thing that I don't understand because Blair today keeps talking about labor. He keeps talking about the left. I know you want to jump in. But I want to emphasize that the things that Blair has stood for and what he has said are perfectly centrist, that moderatories can support. And the problem in American politics and British politics is that we've gone to the extremes and that we've lost the center. We've lost the confidence.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Nothing particularly positive to say about him either. Blair came in with a mission. He came in with a purpose. I've got all the headlines of the newspapers from the day after and the day after that. And it was, we're going to change the UK. And he did it. He actually followed through in it. And I apologize if I'm talking too loud or too emotional.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “None in the least Starmer was a functionary. He was an apparatchic. He's perfectly fine. I have nothing negative to say about him.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “You were the best there was, and you worked for the best candidate, and I am jealous that I never got the chance to do that. Is not Ronald Reagan was amazing. Margaret Thatcher was awesome, but the single best campaign was Tony Blair in 1997, and you got to do it and you did it so well, and then you did it again in 2001, you did it again in 2005, and the BBC, thank God for the BBC, they brought me in to see this. That's how I got to meet Tony for the first time. And I'm in awe of your language and your communication. I'm in awe of your willingness to listen and learn from the voters and reach them on their level while still not compromising your principles. I know that sometimes you are on the left, sometimes you're on the right, but it didn't really matter you and Philip Gould, who's no longer with us. And Peter Manelson, of course, Jonathan Powell, and the greatest individual of them all, Tony Blair. What you did as a group is awesome.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “Yes, but why I wanted to do this podcast Alistair quite frankly is because of you. I wanted to sit next to you. I wanted to engage you because you are so effing amazing. You had the best campaign in modern Western history. You had the best team. And I know that you guys take shots at each other in private. I know that you guys aren't necessarily allies.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “And the people who are now running or were running your country until a few months ago were awful to me. And Boris Johnson was okay. Everyone else”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “I hated every minute of it. And this is what is so strange that I'm the biggest Anglophile you will ever meet. I'm the strongest with a special relationship. I love the British people. I love Great Britain. I appreciate what you all have done for democracy and economic freedom. And I hated Oxford every day.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “And this is one of the greatest challenges that you and I have is that the things we sometimes recommend is not what the press reports. Even when they're in the room, even when we see actually what's happening, we then read it and it doesn't have any semblance to reality, which is so frustrating.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “But they're all decent people, and that's because my past, I was more of a Republican. But the people that I want to help, such as your previous employer, these are people who are visionary, people who have integrity. And to me, the character of the individual is actually just as important.”

    2024-09-01 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 96. Frank Luntz: The World's Most Prolific Pollster · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source