Politics & Power Quote by Craig Armstrong

The joke lands because it pretends the highest office in the country has the same problem as a local 5K: you can be wildly ambitious, but you still need a route. Armstrong’s line turns the noble language of “platforms” and “visions” into slapstick logistics, exposing a cynical truth about modern campaigns: the act of running often comes before any coherent reason for it. The “obviously” is the knife twist. It mimics the smug clarity of political consultants who treat meaning as an accessory you bolt on after the candidate is already booked.

Armstrong, a composer, is a canny messenger here. Composers “run on” motifs; they build movement first, then make it feel inevitable. Read that way, the quote becomes a sly admission of process: decide the spectacle, then score it. Politics, like film music, can be engineered to cue emotions before arguments arrive. The audience hears momentum and assumes purpose.

The subtext is less “politicians are dumb” than “politics is a form of production.” A presidential run becomes a content pipeline that needs material, not conviction. “Something to run on” is a placeholder for policy, but also for branding, outrage, identity, whatever tests well. It’s funny because it’s plausible: in an attention economy, ambition is the product and the platform is packaging, assembled as late as possible to avoid limiting the market.