My sense was that most of the elected officials in Washington - in their heart of hearts - really believe that the system can't be too bad because it produced them.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
One of my big beliefs about Washington is that we highly overstate the power of individuals and highly underrate seeing Washington as a system, in general, but, in particular, we highly underrate the power of Congress.
Too many people in Washington care about power institutions, not caring about changing the lives of everyday Americans.
I haven't been in Washington long, but I have learned that it is a place filled with people who say one thing to get elected and do the opposite once they get there.
When you live in Washington, D.C., you do get a sense, in a very direct way, of the durability of our government and really, the greatness of the American system.
I really enjoyed my time in state government. I thought we made a difference. I liked being a part of that effort. I had a different experience in Washington.
Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.
The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.
I'm not a career politician, so the ways of Washington may be a little obscure to me.
Power tends to corrupt. But the power in Washington resides in Congress, if it wants to use it. It can do anything - it can stop the Vietnam War, it can make its will felt, if it can ever get its act together to do anything.
People are fed up with the career politicians who created this mess or failed to prevent it and neither was acceptable, and the only way we could change that was by sending a different type of person to Washington.