Notable Quotables - 09/05/1988
Campaign '88: Quayle
"Although Quayle
survived the initial storm, there were strong indications that the Quayle
factor could haunt the Republican team right through Nov. 8."
- Senior Writer Walter Shapiro in Time magazine, August 29.
"His academic
record is mediocre, his memory (just how did he get into the National Guard?)
is mediocre, his honesty (he fudged his resume) is mediocre, and his judgment
(who would go off on a golfing weekend, however innocent, with two pals and a
female lobbyist?) is mediocre."
- NBC News President Michael Gartner in The Wall Street Journal,
September 1.
"There's a double
standard, as well as hypocrisy aplenty, starkly evident in the media's
penetrating national look at one man's Vietnam war dilemma....Among the scores
of journalists of the Vietnam generation that I know, I can think of no more
than six, myself included, who went to Vietnam."
- Boston Globe Washington Bureau reporter Walter V. Robinson in the Globe's
"Focus" section, August 28.
"Quayle's Guard
unit had vacancy"
- USA Today, page one, August 24.
"Allegations Called
'Lies' By Quayle: Indiana Guard Overstrength When Candidate Joined"
- The Washington Post, page one, same day.
Campaign '88: Dukakis
"If eventually
Dukakis reaches the presidency of the United States and has the opportunity
and capacity to implement the policy he has announced during the Democratic
Convention, very important foundations would be laid....that constitutes hope
for the Latin American peoples, including Nicaragua."
- Statements by Sandinista dictator Daniel Ortega collected by Washington
Times reporter John McCaslin.
John McLaughlin:
"What do you think of Ortega's implicit endorsement of Michael Dukakis
this week?"
Jack Germond:
"George Bush has the endorsement of Jerry Falwell. I think it's a trade
off."
- exchange on the McLaughlin Group, August 13.
Dukakis campaign
chairman Paul Brountas: "I think that what you have in Governor Dukakis
is a progressive."
George Will:
"Progressive's a label. Why do you like that label and not the label
liberal?"
Brountas: "Well,
because I think it is more accurate."
Will: "What's
inaccurate about the word liberal as applied to Michael Dukakis?"
Brountas: "Well,
because it carries a lot of baggage these days."
- exchange on This Week with David Brinkley, August 21.
"I felt it was
misguided and the wrong thing for the United States to do, and ultimately
history has proven it."
- Michael Dukakis on the Vietnam War, in a report by ABC's Joe Bergantino, World
News Saturday, August 20.
"Sometimes he gives
me the impression that he's opposed to every new weapons system since the
slingshot."
- George Bush on Michael Dukakis, August 29.
Reagan Legacy
"As his Presidency
draws to a close, Ronald Reagan's relationship with the American news media
remains as charmed as ever. What will the press do when it doesn't have Reagan
to fawn over anymore? Television journalists in particular may be sorry to see
him go, judging from the celebratory coverage they accorded him at the
Republican convention last week....Upon Reagan's ascension to power, the media
quickly settled into a posture of accommodating passivity from which they
never completely arose....the American media have shown little stomach for
sustained, aggressive reporting on the Reagan administration."
- Freelance writer and The New Yorker contributor Mark Hertsgaard in
The Washington Post "Outlook" section, August 21.
Iran/Contra
"It was, in fact, a
significant moment in the Dukakis campaign, a frontal engagement of the Vice
President on an issue yet to be explored, or exploited, politically."
- Reporter Jim Wooten on Dukakis' Iran/Contra campaign speech, ABC's World
News Tonight, August 30.
Sam Donaldson
"You'd better be
glad I'm leaving the White House beat in November, because if Bush gets
elected, I'd savage him."
- ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, at the Republican Convention,
according to Newsweek's "Overheard" column, August 29.
Last Temptation of Christ
"You do not have to
lift the sewer cap to know what is in the sewer."
- Pat Buchanan when asked by Tom Braden why he has not seen the film, August
10 Crossfire.
Quote of the Month
"Bill Moyers
ordered two bomb commercials from the New York advertising firm of Doyle Dane
Bernbach. He oversaw and approved their production....Those bomb commercials
were the start of dirty political ads on television. It was the beginning of
what I call electronic dirt...that ugly development in our political history.
Over the years, I've watched Moyers appear on CBS News and the Public
Broadcasting Service. He has lectured us on truth, the public trust, a fairer
and finer America. He portrays himself as an honorable, decent American. Every
time I see him, I get sick to my stomach and want to throw up."
- Barry Goldwater reflecting on Bill Moyers' role in his 1964 Presidential
defeat, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal, August 15.
- L. Brent
Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Jim Heiser, Richard Marois, Patrick Swan, Dorothy Warner; Media Analysts
- Cynthia Bulman; Administrative Assistant
