Notable Quotables - 10/03/1988
Campaign '88: Quayle
"The fact of the
matter is that I've always said that I.Q. is a small part of the political
world....The minute he speaks his own mind, he reminds us of why Lady Di isn't
allowed to talk, the guy has nothing to say and when he speaks it's
frightening. He apparently doesn't know the holocaust occurred off this
continent, he thinks it occurred on this continent. He doesn't know it
occurred in this century....He explains his military policy in Europe on the
basis of what [Indiana basketball coach] Bobby Knight believes, ignoring the
history of World War II, this century's history. In terms of strategic policy,
he looks to Tom Clancy for his authority. These are not metaphors he
uses....What can he do? Can he talk or think? Which one can he do?"
- San Francisco Examiner reporter and CBS This Morning
"political columnist" Chris Matthews on The McLaughlin Group,
September 17.
"Overnight, it
seems Christopher Matthews has become the best television political analyst in
the business."
- CNN and Mutual Radio talk show host Larry King in USA Today,
October 3.
"On the surface, it
would be hard to imagine a character less likely to generate public sympathy
than the embattled Indiana Senator, Dan Quayle. He brings to mind a type of
person all of us have known. The guy who always took the easy way out and
never seemed to pay a price. The lazy, dull student who got into law school
anyway. The rich kid who just happened to find safe haven in the National
Guard during the Vietnam era."
- opening of an Electronic Media editorial, August 29.
"CIA Attempted to
Provoke Sandinistas, Wright Asserts: Aim Was to Erode Support, Speaker
Says"
- Washington Post, September 21.
"Wright draws fire
for spilling secrets"
- Washington Times, same day.
"[Elliott] Abrams,
a vigorous proponent of the Contra war, and [Jim] Wright, a champion of the
Central American peace process, have clashed in the past."
- Washington Post reporters Tom Kenworthy and Joe Pichirallo,
September 24.
Senate TV
"[Senator Robert]
Byrd had on so much pancake makeup, his hair was so stylishly fluffed, that I
thought he was about to step out on a dance stage for some nightclub
act."
- Barry Goldwater describing a development of televising the Senate, CNN Evening
News, September 18.
The Movie Betrayed
"Religions
generally are racist, because they accept just one truthfulness and reject the
other ones."
- Self-professed Sartean Marxist and Betrayed producer
Costa-Rivas in The Washington Post, August 27.
Campaign '88
"The last night a
story went around about Robert Healy, The Boston Globe's political
reporter, sitting up at a party with Kennedy people and saying, 'Dukakis needs
a theme, and I've hit on it - We Can Do Better. How does that sound?' (Healy
says it was 5 a.m., he's fuzzy on the details), and someone else in the room
saying they should get a Dukakis staffer on the phone."
- Philip Weiss on the media at the Democratic National Convention, in the
September/October Columbia Journalism Review.
Political Idols
"So far, the
cheekily skeptical Friedman (whose office sports a bust of Lenin and a plaque
reading NON CARBORUNDUM ILLEGITIMI- 'don't let the bastards get you down')
seems to be charming the anchor [Peter Jennings]."
- From a profile of Paul Friedman, the new Executive Producer of ABC's World
News Tonight. August Manhattan, Inc. magazine.
Miss America
"Do you live with your boyfriend?
Do you smoke?
Do you drink?
Have you ever tried drugs of any kind? Why not?
What is real on you and what isn't real?
Your hair's that natural color?
Have you had sex yet or
are you waiting to get married?"
- Questions from reporters to Miss America, CNN PrimeNews, September
12.
Presidential Debate Analysis
"Tonight he seemed
tenser to me, he seemed less relaxed, he seemed a little less certain. He is
not nearly as smooth or as articulate in the lawyerly sense as Governor
Dukakis is. And that showed."
- ABC's Brit Hume after the September 25 presidential debate.
"I thought that
Bush, having told us he was the poor debater, turned out tonight to be a
little bit better debater. I think he scored more points than Governor Dukakis.
I think he was looser. I think he was just a better debater."
- NBC's John Chancellor, same night.
"Painting rival as
a liberal has buoyed veep the most"
- Washington Times, September 26.
"Dukakis Keeps His
Hopes Alive: Democrat Fends Off Bush Effort to Place Him Far to Left"
- Washington Post, same day.
McLaughlin Group
"McLaughlin is an
idiot."
- Wall Street Journal Washington Bureau Chief Al Hunt on the host of
the McLaughlin Group. Quoted in the October Washingtonian.
- 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
