Notable Quotables - 12/07/1992

 

What?


Is the Clinton Expansion Here? Rebound Seen, but a Slow One
- New York Times headline on July-October economic statistics, November 30

 

Media on Economic Growth: Whoops!


"Most economists agree that the U.S. recovery is far weaker than the recent 2.7 percent GDP growth spurt indicates. `That was a nice number, but not sustainable,' says Lea Tyler, manager of U.S. economic forecasting for Oxford Economics in Pennsylvania. The results included a temporary bulge in defense orders and a consumer shopping spree that blossomed in July but quickly faded in August."
- Time Senior Writer John Greenwald, November 23 issue.

vs.

"Gross domestic product leaped up at an annual rate of 3.9 percent in the third quarter, returning total output of goods and services to the pre-recession pace of mid-1990. Strong increases were registered by consumer spending, business investment, orders for durable goods, sales of existing houses and consumer confidence..."
- Time "The Week" section, December 7.

"[The 2.7 percent rate] is more than economists had projected, but in many cases, less than meets the eye."
- Peter Jennings on ABC's World News Tonight, October 27.

"The President may complain about the news media, but the economic growth figures which he is so pleased about are not that definitive, according to a great many independent economic analysts. The government reports that personal income and consumer spending were up in September, but orders for durable goods...were down for the third straight month."
- Jennings, the next night.

vs.

"Timing may not be everything, but it certainly is crucial in politics. Three weeks after President Bush lost the election, and several months after insisting the economy was on the verge of an outstanding recovery, President Bush finally got the numbers he was waiting for. The government reports today that the overall economy grew faster during the third quarter of this year than at any time since Mr. Bush became President, not by 2.7 percent as first estimated, but by 3.9 percent."
- Jennings, November 25.

 

October Surprise Spin


'October Surprise' Conspiracy Story Unsubstantiated, Senate Probe Finds
- Washington Post, November 24

'80s Hostage Dealings by G.O.P. Verged on Impropriety, Panel Says
- New York Times, same day

 

Anti-Women Republicans


"There are many women in the press, and you couldn't have fought the battles you have fought to get where you are and not find what the Republicans said about women offensive...It's not possible, you cannot be that objective. When Marilyn Quayle says that I have given up my essential nature as a woman and that I don't take care of my family because I'm working, I cannot help but feel offended by that."
- Time Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson in a Freedom Forum special report on campaign coverage titled The Homestretch.

 

Coddling Clinton


"Bill Clinton hugs other men. It's not a bearhug, usually - more like a Full Shoulder Squeeze. Women get it, too, but the gesture is more striking in its generational freshness when applied to the same sex. He softens the old-fashioned backslap into some-thing more sensitive. These guys are touching each other! It's unself-conscious, gender-neutral, very '90s."
- Newsweek Senior Editor Jonathan Alter, November 16.

"The President-elect's unique trait is a mix of cunning and kindness; he uses both to learn from others in order to make his own decisions...One presidential precedent that Clinton - and perhaps the country - can take comfort in is the fact that the last Democratic challenger to win by a healthy margin shared these traits of ideological expediency and diffuse authority. In his day, Franklin Roosevelt had what might be called a Slick Frank reputation....Of course, if Clinton revives the economy as did FDR, then his decisions - and how he makes them - will come to be viewed with nostalgia. If not, they will be merely remembered as bad habits."
- U.S. News & World Report Atlanta correspondent Matthew Cooper, November 23.

 

Sucking Up to Stephanopoulos


"His too-good-to-be-true face looks out from a gallery of photos lining the wall of his parents' apartment....Critics think the soft-spoken Stephanopoulos has insufficient heft to speak for the President; yet this brooding, dark presence has a quiet authority. His power whisper makes people lean in to him, like plants reaching toward the sun."
- Time Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson, November 30.

"Like the President he will serve, Stephanopoulos is the ultimate political meritocrat. Like Clinton, too, he's hard to pin down. Those who know him best cherish his decency and thoughtfulness."
- U.S. News & World Report Atlanta correspondent Matthew Cooper, December 7.

"Of all the aides surrounding Clinton, Stephanopoulos is the one everybody seems eager to learn more about these days, partly because of his newfound power and attractiveness but also because he seems to have more depth and complexity. Here is the student of theology making a living in the spiritual void of inside politics. Here is the cheerful countenance with the brooding soul. Here is a fellow who looks so young and dresses so hip yet behaves with such maturity."
- Washington Post reporter David Maraniss, Nov. 23.

 

Belly-Up in the Reagan Years


"Even before his breakfast on Capitol Hill, Clinton jogged across Pennsylvania Avenue to McDonald's. This used to be a fancy French restaurant. It went belly-up in the Reagan years."
- NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, November 19 Nightly News.

 

Happy Thanksgiving and All That


"The Pilgrims, if they actually celebrated Thanksgiving at all, were only taking a break from hanging adulterers, flogging dissenters, denouncing democracy, and banning Christmas merriment and the singing of lewd songs....The one scrap of national dignity that remains after all of the self-ridicule, revisionism and election-year degradation is the majesty of America's ideas. That one of the most mean-spirited presidential campaigns in recent memory can end in gracious words of conciliation and in acts that solemnly place two centuries of democratic principle above any factional ends is still something Americans can give thanks for - even if their bigoted, intolerant and totalitarian- minded Pilgrim forebears would not have."
- U.S. News & World Report Senior Writer Stephen Budiansky, November 30.

 

Persecuted Wolves


"Wolves have long been a source of fear and persecution by mankind, and until recently, federal and state governments paid out bounties to eliminate the animal many considered vermin. CNN's Greg Lefevre reports on an eradication program with some controversial motives."
- CNN anchor Patrick Greenlaw, November 23, World News.

 

- L. Brent Bozell III; Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Brant Clifton, Nicholas Damask, Steve Kaminski, Marian Kelley, Tim Lamer; Media Analysts
- Jennifer Hardebeck; Circulation Manager
- David Muska; Intern