Carol Moseley Braun Quotes

I really think that's the key, part of the spiritual renewal that America needs to have, the notion that we really can have confidence in a better tomorrow.

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.

We must invest in infrastructure development and rebuilding communities to create jobs.

There are a number of steps that we can take to reinvigorate and rebuild the economic and the physical infrastructure of our country and then to rebuild us, frankly, on a spiritual level.

I was the only person of color in the Senate, and my colleagues were Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms and Trent Lott.

Magic lies in challenging what seems impossible.

I am determined to try to rebuild and renew this country in ways that will build community and level the playing field. To me, that means making certain that the fight to preserve our civil liberties is waged, making certain the fight against discrimination is waged, making certain that women have opportunity in this country.

There are those who would keep us slipping back into the darkness of division, into the snake pit of racial hatred, of racial antagonism and of support for symbols of the struggle to keep African-Americans in bondage.

The really important victory of the civil rights movement was that it made racism unpopular, whereas a generation ago at the turn of the last century, you had to embrace racism to get elected to anything.

There are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, just permanent interests.

The Islamic community today is faced with a new version of an old struggle. My late mother used to say it doesn't matter whether you came to this country on the Mayflower or on a slave ship, through Ellis Island or the Rio Grande. We're all in the same boat now.

It's time to take the 'Men Only' sign off the White House door.

It's not impossible for a woman - a Black woman - to become President.

My parents were always philosophizing about how to bring about change. To me, people who didn't try to make the world a better place were strange.

And frankly, being a woman I think gives me a slightly different take on a lot of the issues and on a lot of the solutions to the problems we face.

The reason that minorities and women dont have a better shot at getting elected to the Senate or to statewide office is because the campaign finance rules are so skewed as to make it very difficult for non-traditional candidates to raise the money necessary to get elected.

I've always maintained that black people and women suffer from a presumption of incompetence. The burdens of proof are different. It just gets so tiresome.

Well, if you pick a fight with somebody that's smaller than you and you beat them, where's the honor in that?

It's hard to be the first. It's almost as if I'm subject to a different level of inspection.

I think the legacy of the civil rights movement is that now whites are more open to being represented by people of color or people who are women or, again, non-traditional candidates.

If I lose, I'm going to retire from politics, practice law, and wear bright leather pants.

I think it does suggest that the American people really do want to listen to somebody who actually has some solutions, some answers, and gives them some hope.

I think that we have a responsibility to make certain that we are fiscally responsible in order to assure, frankly, future generations don't have to pay our bills.

I'm used to people not paying me a whole lot of attention and underestimating me and, frankly, for me a big challenge is to have people believe that I can be the president of the United States.

New Zealand, by the way, where I was ambassador, has had two women prime ministers - one from either party.

If we can rebuild Iraq, we can rebuild Illinois and Indiana and if we can do Baghdad, we can do Baltimore.

The failure in Ohio to have adequate voting capacity for the people who were registered and eligible to vote was an absolute denial of their right to vote.

To me, that means getting back to the point where our Constitution means that you don't tap people's phones and poke into their e-mail and you don't arrest people and keep them hidden for a year and a half without charging them.

I think Americans want to believe in this country again.

People just want to hear some common sense... and I bring to bear the experience in local government and state government and national government - I was the first woman in history on the Senate Finance Committee - not to mention the diplomatic international experience.

Illinois has less than a 12 percent black population and I won with 55 percent of the vote.

We're failing our children with education, we're failing our environment.

All I really want to be is boring. When people talk about me, I'd like them to say, Carol's basically a short Bill Bradley. Or, Carol's kind of like Al Gore in a skirt.

Im committed to universal health coverage and education.

I think if we are actually going to accept our generation's responsibility, that's going to mean that we give our children no less retirement security than we inherited from our parents.

I think its time to get a reapportionment process that frankly takes out the incumbency protection and the raw politics of the process.

We have gone into a war, an unelected president sending us into a war that the Congress frankly had no right, I believe, to authorize.

Bush is giving the rich a tax cut instead of putting that cut in the pockets of working people.

I believe that our message of rebuilding America is one that will resonate with the American people.

I was very productive as a senator for my state.

I want to rebuild America.