Notable Quotables - 10/07/1996
Really Helping Dole Make It A Close Race?
"Reporters want nothing more than, this
year and four years ago, to have a horse race. That's what we're in love with,
is the fight, the close call....So it's in our best interest to make it look
close, to make Bob Dole look good."
- Chicago Tribune reporter
Ellen Warren on CNN's Crossfire, September 20.
Reality Check:
"The former Senator argued that voters
have a choice between two different visions of government... The ex-deficit
hawk returned to the centerpiece of his campaign, a 15 percent tax cut.
Campaign aides claim they have private polls showing President Clinton
vulnerable on the tax issue. That's the reason for this attack. But between
now and election day the Republican nominee has to do more than criticize.
He's got to sell the Dole plan."
- Reporter Phil Jones, September 24 CBS
Evening News.
NBC reporter David Bloom: "So now Dole, who's complained about Clinton's
campaign of fear, is taking a similar tack." Bob Dole: "Secrets,
secrets. Remember the FBI files that went to the White House."
Bloom: "With the election just six weeks away, calling Bill Clinton a
liberal might soon look tame."
- September 24 NBC Nightly News.
"The same cynicism that may deflect attacks on Clinton seems to work
directly against Bob Dole, with many voters here calling his 15 percent tax
cut idea a political gimmick....Many of the voters we spoke with blamed
Gingrich for last year's government shutdown, for a mean-spirited attitude
generally, and for attempts to trim Medicare specifically."
- ABC's Dean
Reynolds in Michigan, Sept. 23 World News Tonight.
Just Three Months Until Bryant's Contract Expires
"Comments that he has made to others would seem to indicate a certain degree of, and not unjustifiably, a certain degree of anger, bitterness. Has he expressed that to you?"
"Why do you suppose it is that one year
after his acquittal, most white Americans at least, cannot accept the idea
that he's out walking around free, refuse to let him live his life?"
-
Bryant Gumbel to O.J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran in part one of three day
interview series, September 30 Today.
Gumbel: "Do you think if those two victims had been, say, Marguerite, his
first wife, and Al Cowlings, his best friend, that there would have been the
same amount [of media attention]?"
Johnnie Cochran: "Absolutely not.
And I think any person who wants to be honest about it would say the same
thing."
Gumbel: "Why? Because America doesn't care about black
victims?"
"Most white Americans still charge that O.J.'s jurors didn't do their job. You talk about a rush to judgment. They would claim the same. They would claim the verdict was race-based. Do you think their judgment of those jurors is race-based?"
"Do you think O.J. will ever get a fair
shake in this country? Will people ever let him live out his life and accept
the fact that he was acquitted?"
- Some of Gumbel's questions to
Cochran, October 2.
Clueless in Chicago
"In her Wednesday Commentary page column,
Linda Bowles stated that President Clinton and his former campaign adviser
Dick Morris both were `guilty of callous unfaithfulness to their wives and
children.' Neither man has admitted to being or been proven to have been
unfaithful. The Tribune regrets the error."
- Chicago Tribune,
September 5.
Tax Cuts: Crazy Candy
"Pollsters, pundits, look at these
numbers and they'll say this thing is locked....There is no way Dole can
overcome this. Why doesn't he just accept it and be himself? Try to hold the
Republican Congress and get rid of this book, and get rid of these crazy 15
percent tax cuts and speak from the heart?"
- NBC Washington Bureau
Chief Tim Russert to Dole campaign manager Scott Reed on CNBC's Tim Russert,
September 22.
"Americans are forever grumbling about
high taxes and big government. You'd think promising a tax cut would be like
giving away free candy. What's not to like? Everybody knows what happens when
you eat too much candy. You get cavities. You get sick. You get fat. A big tax
cut may feel good but it can cause problems...`Candy?' Dole says. `No thank
you,' the voters reply. `We're feeling much better now and we don't want to
get sick again.' Dr. Dole and Dr. Kemp are supply-side specialists. They have
a revolutionary theory that says `Candy is good for you! More tax cuts, more
growth. More growth, more income.' Now what a terrific theory! And so what if
Democratic doctors say they are a couple of quacks. Gene [Randall], have some
candy!"
- CNN analyst Bill Schneider on Inside Politics,
September 14.
Welfare Reform: Hate That, Too
"Even your own aides, many of them, and
advisers feel that the bill is too extreme. Two of your advisers recently
quit. Under the new bill a 60 year old federal guarantee of aid to needy
families will end. It's been estimated as many as a million children will go
hungry. What are you going to do about that?"
- Barbara Walters to Bill
Clinton, September 20 20/20.
"In light of the new welfare reform bill,
do you think the children need more prayers than ever before?"
- Bryant
Gumbel to Children's Defense Fund leader Marian Wright Edelman, September 23 Today.
Rapping the Republicans on Rape
"I think, generally speaking, most people
would agree that the partisan, that the smear tactics - I mean, the going
after the family, and since when has President Clinton said anything about
Elizabeth Dole? It hasn't happened, and yet you see the Republicans attacking
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who I agree has made mistakes, but they [Republicans]
have no boundaries, and I think that yes, both parties are guilty of using
smear tactics - it goes back to as I said the origin of American politics -
but I think the Republicans are quite frankly, better at it than the
Democrats, and I think most people see that and believe that....Why don't you
recognize some of the hypocrisy on the part of the Republicans?....Well, for
starters, a rape victim up on the podium in San Diego when the Republicans
oppose abortion."
- PBS To the Contrary host Bonnie Erbe responding to
conservative criticism on Westwood One's Jim Bohannon Show, August 30.
I Thought White People Were the Paranoid Anti-Government Wackos
"As Dick [Gregory] was saying, a
conspiratorial thing, something that is genocidal that many African-Americans
whisper and talk about that, or was it simply an economic situation that they
thought this was a quick way to make money to send to the Contras?"
-
MSNBC InterNight host Ed Gordon to activist Joe Madison on the San Jose
Mercury News report that the CIA sold crack to fund the Contras, September 19.
"[CIA Director John] Deutch reiterated
last week that he has asked the agency's inspector general to review the
Mercury's charges. The Justice Department has also launched a probe. But if
Deutch thinks anyone in black America is going to take the wordof those two
organizations, he's mistaken. Black Americans have been the targets of so much
hostility that many of them would not put it past their own government to
finance the war against communism by addicting thousands of people."
- Time
national correspondent Jack E. White, September 30 issue.
Rhymin' Rather
"Some of the first hard medical evidence
is in tonight for teenage smokers who think it takes years for cigarettes to
damage their health. Bottom line - don't hold your breath. You'll be a
wheezer long before you're a geezer."
- Dan Rather on the CBS Evening
News, September 25.
- L. Brent Bozell, Publisher;
Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Geoffrey Dickens, Gene Eliasen, James Forbes, Steve Kaminski, Clay Waters; Media
Analysts
- Peter Reichel, Circulation Manager; Brad Podliska; Interns
