Political Quotes

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GOP leaders need to learn how to fight like a girl. - Sarah Palin, Madison Wis.

Thus far, the President has been unable to construct a foreign policy, any foreign policy. - Mitt Romney, April 2011

We should try to have a more serious and a smaller group. - John Edwards to Hillary Clinton, July 2007, discussing their desire to exclude lesser-known candidates from future debates

If you are not a strict constructionist, I believe you imperil the American democracy because you take the role of a legislator. - Giuliani on judges, July 2007

(I refuse to) shrink to the level of 40-second answers, standing like a trained seal, waiting for someone to throw me a fish. - Newt Gingirch, July 2007, on the presidential debates so far

Liberals are driven by Satan and lie constantly. - Ann Coulter commentary, July 2007

I haven't heard the president state that we're at war. That's why I too am not knowing -- do we use the term intervention? Do we use war? Do we use squirmish? What is it? - Sarah Palin, on the U.S. and NATO bombing of Libya, March 29, 2011

[Bush] seeks guidance, like every other president does, in prayer. And that means trying to be sure he's doing the right thing. And if you've got that set, all the criticism, it doesn't faze you very much. You're answering to God. - Michael Novak, July 2, 2007

I don't drive. I navigate. - Rudy Giuliani on his driving habits, May 2007

There are going to times when I get weary. There are going to be times when I make mistakes. - Sen. Barack Obama explaining how he misstated the deathtoll from a Kansas tornado as 10,000, not 12, May 2007

As for the one Mormon running for office, those that really believe in God will defeat him anyway, so don't worry about that. - The Rev. Al Sharpton on Mitt Romney. Sharpton said his comments were taken out of context, May 2007

I think Oprah is far more powerful than a Vice President - Sen. Barack Obama, on the 'Oprah' effect in politics, May 2007

We've had a Congress that's spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop - Mike Huckabee, referring to Edwards's $400 haircut, May 2007

Many of the predictions that Chuck made about how the war might go have come true. -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Chuck Hagel, May 2007

Remember, this is a state that started the Civil War. -- SC GOP Chair Katon Dawson, on not allowing FL to leapfrog SC's primary, May 2007

The fact that I'm raising obscene amounts of money for this presidential race doesn't make me a hypocrite. - Barack Obama, April 2007

Nobody ever said we were going to walk away with it. - Clinton fundraiser Terry McAuliffe, April, 2007

Nobody will out-mud the Clintons. - Newt Gingrich, March 2007

If you're not a liberal when you're 20, you have no heart, but if you're not a conservative by the time you're 40, you have no brain. - Rudy Giuliani, quoting Winston Churchill, Feb. 2007

Our leaders in Washington seem incapable of working together in a practical, common-sense way. - Sen. Barack Obama, Jan. 2007

I am cursed with the responsibility gene. - Sen. Hilllary Clinton, Jan. 2007

There is a certain ...audacity to this announcement. - Barack Obama announcing that he is running for president in 2008, Feb 2007

I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism. And I have a communications degree. - Sarah Palin, Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, Nov. 22, 2010

As the leader of twelve apostles, even Jesus had more executive experience than Obama. - Ann Coulter

Obama is inspirational, and he's not from the Bush royal family and he's not from the Clinton royal family. - Hollywood mogul David Geffen, Feb. 2007

You got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean. - Sen Joe Biden on Sen. Barack Obama's bid for president

I'll probably get into trouble, but what's wrong with sucking up to everybody? John McCain Feb., 2007

It was a thumpin'. - G.W. Bush on the 2006 mid-term elections

I'm the decider, and I decide what's best. - G.W. Bush 2006

America is addicted to oil. - G.W. Bush, State of the Union, 2007

I've been called an anti-Semite. I've been called a bigot. I've been called senile. I've been called a liar. I've been called a plagiarist. And so forth. - Jimmy Carter, defending his book about the Arab-Israeli conflict, 2007

Where does [G.W. Bush] get his advice? - Gerald R. Ford, 2006

I had my glass of ethanol this morning, and I'm feeling good. Sen. John McCain, 2007

Everybody in politics lies, but they [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it's troubling. David Geffen, 2007

[Barack and Michelle Obama] have power in their words. They could refudiate what it is that this group is saying. – Sarah Palin, on the NAACP charge of racism in the Tea Party movement, The Sean Hannity Show

[John] McCain is mentally unstable and vindictive and out of control. -- Arizona Republican state commiteeman Rob Haney, 2007

The Clinton candidacy is a Grand Deceit, an entirely artificial construct built around a person who... is nothing more than an enormous, overpowering and rather terrifying ego. - London Times, Jan 2007

Number one, money is the Lord your Saviour. You shall have no other lords besides money. Jefrey Pollok, a veteran strategist, Jan. 2007

It's kind of like the nuclear arms race. No one's willing to disarm. - Joe Trippi, on raising money Jan. 2007

When I vote to send young men and women into harm's way and fight a war, I'm committing to accomplishing the mission. Maybe some others did not understand that when they voted to support the war. - John McCain Jan. 2007

(Mitt Romney's) been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly. - Romney adviser Michael Murphy, 2005

Is this a little bit like David and Goliath? A little bit, but as I recall, David did okay. - Evan Bayh 12/06

We are once again learning a very hard lesson in foreign affairs: America cannot impose a democracy on any nation - regardless of our noble purpose. - Chuck Hagel 12/06

I warn all of you, all of you making more than a million bucks... I'm taking away your tax cut. I'm not joking. - Joe Biden, South Carolina 11/06

We crossed paths. Are there pictures of us dancing naked on a bar together? No. I don't have that. - Sen. John F. Kerry on his days at Yale with George W. Bush 7/99

John McCain is tough as nails. He never disappointed me. I would go to hell with him again. -James Stockdale 7/99

I've decided to cut out the part of the speech where I say anything nice about Democrats.- Ann Coulter

I would not say impossible, but, boy, it feels awfully close to it. - Bob Kerrey on the possibility of simultaneously running as Bill Bradley's vice president and remain one of Nebraska's Senators. 7/99

What major decisions of your Administration has the Vice President participated in? - If you give me a week, I might think of one. — Dwight D. Eisenhower, August 24, 1960

Isn't this country wonderful, where RuPaul and Dan Quayle both use M.A.C. cosmetics? - John Demsey, president of the M.A.C. cosmetics company 6/99

Right now he is totally devoid and absent a serious message. - Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press on Dan Quayle 6/99

Steve Forbes is a rich loser who has bought enough national prominence with his dead father's money and one superficially appealing, but inequitable and stupid, idea: the flat tax. He has the charisma of a squid, and about as much chance to be President as he has to be Miss America. - Bob Garfield of Advertising Age 6/99

Q: Who was the U.S. President voted "most likely to succeed", though he graduated 64th out of his high school class of 112?
A: John F. Kennedy

Q: Which president, while a student at Duke University Law School, broke into the dean's office to find records indicating he was at the top of his class?
A: Richard Nixon

Q: Who was the youngest person to serve as U.S. President?
A: Teddy Roosevelt, who was 42 when he became president following William McKinley's assassination.

There's nothing so good for the inside of a man as an outside of a horse. - Ronald Reagan

Ironically, since Obama was elected, for the first time in my life I'm sometimes not proud of my country.- Ann Coulter

You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference. - Richard Nixon, after losing in his bid to become governor of California in 1962

America is not like a blanket - one piece of unbroken cloth. America is more like a quilt - many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes all woven together by a common thread. - Rev. Jesse Jackson

You may fool all of the people some of the time...you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all the people all the time. - Abraham Lincoln

I have been driven to my knees many times because there was no place else to go. - Abraham Lincoln

We cannot do everything, at once, but we can do something at once. - Calvin Coolidge

She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness. - Adlai Stevenson on Eleanor Roosevelt

No thank you. I do not propose to be buried until I am really dead and in my coffin. - Daniel Webster, when offered the chance to run for vice-president.

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. - Herbert Hoover

The preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country. - John Adams

A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy. - Teddy Roosevelt

A Radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air. A Conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. A Reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A Liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at his behest, at the command, of his head. - Franklin Roosevelt

The ballot is stronger than the bullet. - Abraham Lincoln

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. - Thomas Jefferson

That government is the strongest of which every man feels a part. - Thomas Jefferson

I would rather be in my grave than in the Presidency. - George Washington

I am a compromiser and a maneuverer. I try to get something. That's the way our system works. - Lyndon Johnson

The history of liberty is the history of resistance. - Woodrow Wilson

By "radical" I understand one who goes too far; by "conservative" one who does not go far enough; by "reactinary" one who won't go at all. - Woodrow Wilson

A statesman is any politician it's considered safe to name a school after. - Bill Vaughan

We're going to move left and right at the same time. - Jerry Brown

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. - James Madison

When one may put out two million dollars to presidential and congressional campaigns, the U. S. Government is virtually up for sale. - John Gardner

I should like to be known as a former president who minded his own business. - Calvin Coolidge

No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it. - Thomas Jefferson

I would rather be right than president. - Henry Clay

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage. - H. L. Mencken

From our perspective a straw poll is a fund-raiser for the party, it's not an election - Iowa Republican Party Executive Director Dee Stewart, 7/99

The succession from Perot to Ventura combines the dignity of a professional wrestling match with the subtlety of a skit on Saturday Night Live, but it proves the Reform Party is not just a Perot subsidiary. - The Houston Chronicle

The water was not spilled. There was power generated with it. - Pacific Gas & Electric official Cleve Kapala on the 97 million gallons of water released on the Connecticut River the day of Al Gore's canoe trip 7/99

I have a feeling that if Bush makes mistakes, he'll be Quayle-ized. - Orrin Hatch

At a white house reception, a guest approached President Coolidge and said, "Mr. President, I'm from Boston!" Coolidge replied, "You'll never get over it."

Harry Truman was known all his life for his plain speaking. When he made a speech at the Washington Garden Club, he kept referring to the "Good manure" that needed to be used on the flowers. Some society women complained to his wife, Bess. "Couldn't you get the President to say 'fertilizer'?" they asked. Mrs. Truman replied, "Heavens no. It took me twenty-five years to get him to say 'manure'".

It's dangerous for a national candidate to say things that people might remember. - Eugene McCarthy

Hubert has been clocked at 275 words a minute with gusts up to 340. - Barry Goldwater on Hubert Humphrey

Hubert, a speech, to be immortal, doesn't have to be eternal. - Muriel Humphrey to her husband

In most of my campaigns, I find it best not to mention my opponent by name because, by doing so, it just gives him the chance to get into headlines. - Harry Truman

Herbert Hoover once ran on the slogan "Two cars in every garage!" Apparently the Republican candidate this year is running on the slogan "Two families in every garage!" - Harry Truman

The General dedicated himself so many times, he must feel like the cornerstone of a public building. - Adlai Stevenson on Eisenhower's 1956 presidential campaign

The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning. - Adlai Stevenson

Informed by academics that he enjoyed "the support of all thinking Americans," Adlai Stevenson joked, "That's not enough. I'm going to need a majority."

There is no city in the United States in which I get a warmer welcome and fewer votes than Columbus, Ohio. - John F. Kennedy

I'm too young to retire and too old to go back to work. - Barry Goldwater on his 1964 presidential candidacy

Barry Goldwater wants to give control of nuclear weapons to commanders in the field. Now, that's my idea of high adventure. General Eisenhower says he could live with a Goldwater administration. Well, I suppose he'd have as good a chance as anyone else. - Robert Kennedy

During a political campaign, everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected, except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected. - Everett Dirksen

There were so many candidates on the platform that there were not enough promises to go around. - Ronald Reagan on a 1984 New Hampshire Primary debate

As we all know, the truth is a frequent casualty in the heat of an election campaign. - Eugene O'Neill

Some of you might feel cheated, paying five hundred bucks for a lousy chicken dinner, but just think about me: I spent ten million dollars to get here. - Sen. Jay Rockefeller at a fundraising dinner

People say to me, "Like Harry Truman, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." That's the only room in the house I don't want to leave. - Bill Clinton

[Being a politician is] the ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year--and to explain afterward why it did not happen. - Winston Churchill

He's got no more backbone than a chocolate eclair. - Teddy Roosevelt on William McKinley

The fact that a Republican is in the late Senator Kennedy's old seat probably must have him rolling in his grave, probably spilling his drink. - Ann Coulter

[He] is one of the few men in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides. - Harry Truman on Richard Nixon

Mothers may want their sons to grow up to be President, but, according to a famous Gallup poll of some years ago, some 73 percent do not want them to become politicians in the process. - John F. Kennedy

Jack Kennedy... played the game by his own rules... During his early years in politics, he hated shaking hands, which was highly unusual in a city where some politicians had been known to shake hands with fire hydrants and wave to telephone poles. - Eugene O'Neill

Nelson, you're a great guy, but you couldn't get elected dogcatcher in New York. - Gov. Tom Dewey on Nelson Rockefeller's chance of becoming governor of New York

Keeping up with Governor [Jerry] Brown's promises is like reading Playboy magazine while your wife turns the pages. - Ronald Reagan

I haven't had Jimmy Carter's experience. I wouldn't be caught dead with it. - Ronald Reagan

Depression is when you're out of work. A recession is when your neighbor is out of work. Recovery is when [Jimmy] Carter's out of work. - Ronald Reagan

I had a dream the other night. I dreamed that Jimmy Carter came to me and asked why I wanted his job. I told him I didn't want his job. I want to be President. - Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan doesn't dye his hair--he's just prematurely orange. - Gerald Ford

Frankly, I don't mind not being President. I just mind that someone else is. - Ted Kennedy

Whether they are defending the Soviet Union or bleating for Saddam Hussein, liberals are always against America. They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America's self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. - Ann Coulter

The voters have spoken--the bastards! - Morris Udall

If nominated, I will run to Mexico; if elected, I will fight extradition. - Morris Udall on the 1980 Presidential race

Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser. - Jimmy Carter

I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town. - William Howard Taft

There they are: see no evil, hear no evil, and... evil. - Bob Dole on a gathering of Presidents Carter, Ford, and Nixon

There are blessed intervals when I forget by one means or another that I am President of the United States. - Woodrow Wilson

I always figured the American public wanted a solemn a** for President, so I went along with them. - Calvin Coolidge

I've always said it would be a cold day when I get to be President of the United States. - William Howard Taft commenting on his snowy inaugural

All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway. - Harry Truman

Any man who has had the job I've had and didn't have a sense of humor wouldn't still be here. - Harry Truman

If I hadn't been President of the United States I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house. - Harry Truman

Unlike presidential administrators, problems rarely have terminal dates. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

They pick a President, and then for four years they pick on him. - Adlai Stevenson

In America, any boy may become president, and I suppose that's just the risk he takes. - Adlai Stevenson

It's a great country, where anybody can grow up to be President...except me. - Barry Goldwater

I have a nice home, the office is close by, and the pay is good. - John F. Kennedy on being President

History is no easy subject. Even in my day it wasn't, and we had so much less to learn then. - Ronald Reagan

I've laid down the law to everyone from now on about anything that happens that no matter what time it is I'm to be awakened, even if it's in the middle of a cabinet meeting. - Ronald Reagan

My country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. - John Adams, first Vice President of the United States

All Hubert [Humphrey] needs over there is a gal to answer the phone and a pencil with an eraser on it. - Lyndon Johnson on his Vice President

The President [Johnson] looked at me and said, "Hubert, do you think you can keep your mouth shut for the next four years?" I said, "Yes Mr. President," and he said, "There you go interrupting me again." - Hubert Humphrey

It's important for a Vice President not to upstage his boss, and you don't know how hard it has been to keep my charisma in check these last few years. - Vice President George H. W. Bush

If you want to talk to someone who's not busy, call the Vice President. I get plenty of time to talk to anybody about anything. - Walter Mondale

I Robert J. Dole, do solemnly swear... Sorry, wrong speech. - Bob Dole upon receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Clinton after losing to him in the 1996 Presidential Race

Stolen from the White House - Text imprinted on free souvenir matchbooks kept in the White House during Franklin Roosevelt's Presidency

The finest prison in the world. - Harry Truman on the White House

The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse. - Jacqueline Kennedy

My father was a Methodist, my mother was a Quaker. They got married and compromised and my father became a Quaker, too. - Richard Nixon

Don't worry about polls, but if you do, don't admit it. - Roaslynn Carter

There is a myth around I don't dress well. I dress very well -- I just don't look so good. - Barbara Bush

Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps and preside over the White House as the President's spouse. I wish him well. - Barbara Bush

Washington, D.C. is a city filled with people who believe they are important. - David Brinkley

Tom Dewey is not an American. He's a New Yorker. - Chicago Tribune editor Col. Robert R. McCormick

Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady, except that a newspaper can always print a retraction. - Adlai Stevenson

Journalists do not live by words alone, although sometimes they have to eat them. - Adlai Stevenson

An editor is one who separates the wheat from the chaff and prints the chaff. - Adlai Stevenson

I can think of nothing more boring for the American public than to have to sit in their living rooms for a whole half hour looking at my face on their television screens. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

I won't say the papers misquote me, but I sometimes wonder where Christianity would be today if some of those reporters had been Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. - Barry Goldwater

There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians. When bought they stay bought. - Bill Moyers

I have to admit we considered making one final shipment to Iran, but no one could figure out how to get Sam Donaldson in a crate. - Ronald Reagan on the Iran Contra affair

Reading about one's failings in the daily papers is one of the privileges of high office in this free country of ours. - Nelson Rockefeller

The puppies are sleeping on the Washington Post and New York Times. It's the first time in history these papers have been used to prevent leaks. - George H. W. Bush

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. - Bill Clinton

Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business. - Calvin Coolidge

I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times. - Everett Dirksen

Government is like a baby -- an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. - Ronald Reagan

One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it. - Ronald Reagan

Government doesn't solve problems; it subsidizes them. - Ronald Reagan

The nine most terrifying words in the English Language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Ronald Reagan

Actually, I do have a vision for the nation, and our goal is a simple one: By the time I leave office, I want every single American to be able to set the clock on his VCR. - George H. W. Bush

I don't know what to do or where to turn in this taxation matter. Somewhere there must be a book that tells all about it, where I could go to straighten it out in my mind. But I don't know where the book is, and maybe I couldn't read it if I found it. - Warren Harding

The American tax code produces more liars than anything but golf. - Will Rogers

Now that I'm back at a law firm, maybe I'll take a case arguing that our current tax code is unconstitutional because it is "cruel and unusual punishment". - Bob Dole

I am not worried about the defecit. It is big enough to take care of itself. - Ronald Reagan

Bob Dole's Top Five ways to Balance the Budget: Stop paying Clinton speechwriters by the word; Saving government ink by replacing the long William Jefferson Clinton signature with the 66% shorter Bob Dole signature; Making Gore and Gingrich pay for those good seats at State of the Union addresses; Firing the White House gardeners and requiring Al Gore to do something to earn his keep. And the number one way to balance the budget? Sell Arkansas.

Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. - Herbert Hoover

The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything he produces at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways. - John F. Kennedy

Do you remember back in the days when you thought that nothing could replace the dollar? Today it practically has. - Ronald Reagan

[President] Carter said he'd do something about unemployment. He did. In April, 825,000 Americans lost their jobs. - Ronald Reagan

If it moves, tax it; if it keeps moving, regulate; if it stops moving, subsidize it. - Ronald Reagan on big government

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money. - Everett Dirksen

I've still got a lot to learn about Washington. Why, yesterday I accidentally spent some of my own money. - Sen. Fred Thompson

Balancing the budget is like going to heaven. Everybody wants to do it, but nobody wants to make the trip. - Phil Gramm

If a Republican can be elected mayor of Los Angeles and New York City in the same year, then who among us can doubt the existence of miracles? - Bob Dole

We are told that God is dead. Well, He isn't. We just can't talk to him in the classroom anymore. - Ronald Reagan

In the Bible it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said seventy times seven. Well, I want you all to know that I'm keeping a chart. - Hillary Clinton

My war injuries have always prevented me from playing golf, but even if they hadn't, I don't know if I would like the game. After all, how could a proponent of a balanced budget enjoy a sport where you go for the green, and end up in the hole? - Bob Dole

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate, and while the debate goes on, the canal does, too. - Theodore Roosevelt

If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. - Harry Truman

My experience in government is that when things are noncontroversial, beautifully coordinated, and all the rest, it must be that there is not much going on. - John F. Kennedy

I will remember Watergate as good, unclean fun. - Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game... and dumb enough to think it's important. - Eugene McCarthy

That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude. - Al Haig

Running for President, you get more advice than votes. - Bob Dole

Some damn fool sent me this letter and signed your name to it. - Senator Steve Young, replying to hate mail

The most successful politician is he who says what everybody is thinking most often and in the loudest voice. - Theodore Roosevelt

A man that has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad. - Theodore Roosevelt

This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come. - Harry Truman

If you can't convince them, confuse them. - Harry Truman

Nothing so dates a man as decrying the younger generation. - Adlai Stevenson

Sweet praise is like perfume. It's fine if you don't swallow it. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. - John F. Kennedy

I have learned that one of the most important rules in politics is poise -- which means looking like and owl after you behaved like a jackass. - Ronald Reagan

If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused. - Walter Mondale

Now, I have long enjoyed the friendship and companionship of Republicans, because I am by instinct a teacher, and I would like to teach them something. - Woodrow Wilson

Whenever a fellow tells me he's bipartisan, I know he's going to vote against me. - Harry Truman

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants. - Alben Barkley

I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai Stevenson

The Democratic Party is not one, but two political parties with the same name. They unite once every two years -- to wage political campaigns. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

I think it's very important that we have a two-party system. I am a fellow that likes small parties, and the Republican party is about the size I like. - Lyndon Johnson

The Democrats are in a real bind. They won't get elected unless things get worse -- and things won't get worse unless they're elected. - Jeane Kirkpatrick

I can't think of two people, let alone two hundred million, who have identical views on every issue. I belong to a political party, not a cult. - Bob Dole

Conservatism is the policy of making no change and consulting your grandmother when in doubt. - Woodrow Wilson

A conservative man is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits. - Woodrow Wilson

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Do you know the difference between cannibals and liberals? Cannibals eat only their enemies. - Lyndon Johnson

We don't need another president that needs on-the-job training for foreign policy. - Dan Quayle, making a reference to George W. Bush - 8/99

I don't know where I'm going to be in August of the year 2000, so I'm not going to make any statement like that... I'm going to follow my star... If my party is going to move off in a different direction, fine. But it goes in that direction without me. - Pat Buchanan on whether he would support George W. Bush as the Republican nominee 8/99

...funerals often bring out exaggerated praise. - Lamar Alexander commenting on praise coming his way after he dropped out of the presidential race - 8/99

I'll miss the flinty, independent, congenial nature of the people in New Hampshire. It reminds me of where I grew up in the mountains of Tennessee. - Lamar Alexander after his decision to pull out of the 2000 presidential race - 8/99

At the straw poll, we served some 3,000 lunches and bought about 2,400 tickets at $25 a ticket. All we had to do was make sure the people went over and voted, but somehow they all did not get there. - Former NH congressman Bill Zeliff, Lamar Alexander's co-national campaign adviser on the Iowa straw poll 8/99

I'll go to my grave believing that, of the group running for president, Lamar Alexander would be the best. But I'll also go to my grave believing there is no way he would be elected president this time around, so it's time to fold the tent and move on to something else. - Ted Welch, Lamar Alexander's chief fund-raiser - 8/99

If you wake up every day and hear a report that (Texas) Governor (George) Bush has already been inaugurated and Governor Alexander has no chance to win, and I ask you for $1,000, you're likely to say, 'Why should I give you $1,000?'. - Lamar Alexander after announcing he was quitting the presidential race after the Iowa straw poll - 8/99

That would be a disaster for humanitarian organizations without that charitable deduction, and for a lot of homeowners without the mortgage deduction as well. - Elizabeth Dole about the idea of a flat tax - 8/99

I have been in favor of continuing what we are doing now. I just want to be sure exactly what the current situation is. Let's don't pursue that further now because I need to check that. - Elizabeth Dole, when asked about the issue of limited federal funding of abortions

Rural Americans are real Americans. There's no doubt about that. You can't be sure with other Americans. Not all of them are real. - Vice President Dan Quayle

You read what Disraeli had to say. I don't remember what he said. He said something. He is no longer with us. - Sen. Bob Dole

Our entire administration opposes chaos and lawlessness. - President George H. W. Bush

Chivalry is only reasonably dead. - Pres. George H. W. Bush offering a chair to a woman.

There are lots more people in the House. I don't know how many exactly - I never counted - but at least a couple hundred. - Vice President Dan Quayle

Clinton's an unusually good liar. Unusually good. - Sen. Bob Kerry

We see nothing but increasingly brighter clouds every month. - Pres. Gerald Ford

(He is getting suppport) from the extreme right wing, the extrachromosome right wing. - Vice Pres. Al Gore

I hope that history will present me with maybe two words. One is peace. The other is human rights. - former Pres. Jimmy Carter

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president. And that one word is 'to be prepared' - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

I'm someone with a deep emotional attachment to 'Starsky and Hutch'. - Pres. Bill Clinton

I hope that Spiro Agnew will be completely exonerated and found guilty of the charges against him. - Texas governor John Connolly

Democracy used to be a good thing. But now it has gotten into the wrong hands. - Sen. Jesse Helms

Desert Storm was a great victory for the forces of aggression and lawlessness. - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

A zebra cannot change its spots. - Vice Pres. Al Gore

You know, your nose looks just like Danny Thomas's. - Pres. Ronald Reagan to the Lebanese Foreign Minister

(It's) time for the human race to enter the solar system. - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

I have enormous personal ambition. I want to shift the entire planet. And I'm doing it. I am now a famous person. - former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

Democrats did very well in Democratic primaries. - Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers

The other thing we have to do is to take seriously the role in this problem of... older men who prey on underage women... There are consequences to decisions. - Pres. Bill Clinton

I'm glad I'm not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin, you never know if someone's tape-recording what you say. - Pres. Richard Nixon

When I need a little advice about Saddam Hussein, I turn to country music. - Pres. George H. W. Bush

It's a question of whether we're going to go forward into the future, or past to the back. - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls. - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. - Vice Pres. Al Gore

Sooner or later, I need to begin to do what any candidate does in a presidential race. I need to begin to win. - Tenn. Gov. Lamar Alexander

Mr. Nixon was the thirty-seventh president. He was preceeded by thirty-six others. - Pres. Gerald Ford

Boy, they were big on crematoriums , weren't they? - Pres. George H. W. Bush during visit to Auschwitz

My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will never, never surrender to what is right. - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

Women are hard enough to handle now without giving them a gun. - Sen. Barry Goldwater

Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here. - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at a time. That's the kind of customers we need! - Sen. Jesse Helms

If the wife comes through as being too strong and too intelligent, it makes the husband look like a wimp. - Pres. Richard Nixon

We, as Republicans, need to start rowing with one oar. - Rep. John Kasich

Who? - pres. candidiate Ronald Reagan, when asked about French president Valery Giscard d'Estang in an interview

It gets into quota, go into numerical, set numbers for doctors or for, it could go into all kinds of things. - Pres. George H. W. Bush

(President Reagan) doesn't want any yes-men or yes-women around him. When he says no, we all say no. - Elizabeth Dole, then assistant for public liason

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy. But that could change. - Vice Pres. Dan Quayle

I want to make sure he is a ruthless S.O.B. - Pres. Nixon on selecting a new IRS commissioner

I think that one of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don't encourage you to be nasty. We encourage you to be neat, obedient, and loyal and faithful and all those Boy Scout words, which would be great around the campfire, but are lousy in politics. - Newt Gingrich, 1978

I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. - Georgw W. Bush 04/06

And Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. - George W. Bush to FEMA director Mike Brown who resigned 10 days later 09/05

It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. - Bill Clinton '98

I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. - Bill Clinton, '98

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. — George W. Bush 05/05

In this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis; you don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, 'How do you think my standing will be?' — George W. Bush 03/05

This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table. — George W. Bush 02/05

My answer is bring them on. — George W. Bush On Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces, 07/03

This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating. — George W. Bush 04/02

The war on terror is not over, yet it is not endless. We do not know the day of final victory, but we have seen the turning of the tide. - George W. Bush 05/03

[W]hen I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale. - Bill Clinton 03/92

I am writing too in the hope that my telling you this one story will help you to understand more clearly how so many fine people have come to find themselves still loving their country but loathing the military - Bill CLinton, '69

This vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President. - Hillary ClintonI think the ethical standards established in this White House have been the highest in the history of the White House. - Al Gore, '96

Who ARE these people? - Al Gore while looking at busts of the Founding Fathers at Monticello

Bill Clinton is an unusually good liar. - Bob Kerry, Democrat, '96

Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find. — James Carville, after Paula Jones made a sexual harassment allegation against Bill Clinton

Delaware is a much better microcosm of the nation than New Hampshire. But New Hampshire's lack of racial diversity and a rural-urban mix is its problem, not ours. - Editorial from Wilmington, Delaware's News-Journal 6/99

I don't need a poll or a focus group to know what I believe. - George W. Bush 6/99

Handsome, sexy, a little reserved. Watch out, America. - Tipper Gore on her husband 6/99

So much attention has been focused during the 76th Legislature on Gov. George W. Bush's presidential aspirations that one lobbyist recently quipped that Texas lawmakers were wrapping up their "New Hampshire" session. - The Houston Chronicle's Clay Robinson 6/99

He's handsome. He's charismatic. But really we can't find out why he's so popular. - Tokyo Broadcasting System's Ellchiro Inai on George W. Bush 6/99

Currently dominated by fat cats and social friends, the Gore campaign lacks driven, idealistic young people. - Joel Connelly of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 5/99

Why not protect our children with child safety locks on guns? - Elizabeth Dole 5/99

We've done some things wrong in education, and here's one of them: herding all students in a 2.5-mile radius into overcrowded, factory-style high schools. - Al Gore 5/99

China has been helped...by an American Administration that has failed in its most basic duty, to protect our nation. - Gary Bauer 5/99

Al Gore has selected the former skipper of the Titanic to save his sinking presidential campaign. - Dick Morris on Tony Coelho 5/99

I'd rather say I despise him. I think hatred is a form of respect, after all. I have nothing but bottomless contempt. - Vanity Fair's Christopher Hitchens on President Clinton 5/99

You've got members of congress supporting him, and they've never even met him. What it shows is, the party is nervous. They are nervous, and if they end up just going with polls, I think it's going to be a recipe for disaster. - Dan Quayle on George W. Bush 5/99

A new poll shows that if the presidential election were held today, it would be eighteen months too early. - Dennis Miller 5/99

One of the things we're going to do at our straw poll in Ames is make it Iowans-only so it is a high- quality event and it means something when someone wins or someone doesn't win. - Iowa GOP Chairman Kayne Robinson 5/99

People can float every rumor they want and people can try to destroy the reputations of candidates, but as we head into the 21st century, it's necessary for somebody to say the past is the past and judge me for what I am today. - George W. Bush 5/99

I told him it wouldn't mean a thing. - Former NH Senator Warren Rudman on what he said to John McCain on whether McCain could afford to miss the NH GOP Primary "Kick-Off" Dinner in Manchester, NH 5/99

I wouldn't fly it. I think it sometimes offends a large portion of the population. - Bill Bradley on the Confederate flag 5/99

{Elizabeth Dole} gets a lot of attention outside New Hampshire, but she also gets some tough-going here. People in New Hampshire like their guns...So she created some problems for herself. - The Boston Globe's Jill Zuckman, 5/99

Ask trial lawyers what they'll be doing in the 2000 presidential campaign, and the answer is simple: working to elect anybody other than George W. Bush. - David Byrd 5/99

The idea of big things for the country is not over. You can't capture people's imaginations, much less their loyalty, if you don't have any content to what you are doing. - Bill Bradley 3/99

Having Clinton be the warm-up act for Al Gore would be like the Rolling Stones opening for K. C. and the Sunshine Band. - Paul Light 3/99

If Gore invented the internet, I invented spell-check. - Dan Quayle 3/99

I want you to know, here in New Hampshire, I'm going to be back early and often. - Al Gore 3/99

Sometimes I feel like a fire hydrant looking at a pack of dogs. - President Clinton 3/99

Well, they've been shooting at me and I'm still standing. I'm sitting right now, but I am standing tall. - Dan Quayle 2/99

It is irrelevant what I did 20 to 30 years ago. What's relevant is what I have learned from my mistakes that I made. I do not want to send signals to anybody that what Governor Bush did 30 years ago is cool to try. - George W. Bush 2/99

We're not supposed to gloat, but I can't control this crowd. - NH Party Democratic Chairman Jeff Woodburn at a Clinton speech in NH 2/99

New Hampshire is not a gloat-free zone. - E.J. Dionne on President Clinton's trip to NH 2/99

I'm going to give you an answer in one word: no. - Gray Davis, Gov. of Calif. when asked if he would be Al Gore's running mate

Al Gore is the one who will pay the ultimate political price for Bill Clinton. Al Gore will never be President. - Republican strategist Mike Murphy 2/99

I always walk a lonely path. - Republican John Kasich in NH 2/99

Our message has been completely smothered. - Rep. Thomas Davis III, Republican National Chairman

Nobody had more to do with the decisions we made and the success we had than Vice President Al Gore. - President Clinton, in Manchester 2/99

The dog is limping, but still going. If you had listened to the political experts, the dog would have died. - President Clinton, in Manchester 2/99

We need to climb up on the deck . . . get a firm hand on the ship's wheel and navigate this ship of state past these icebergs into the 21st century. - NH Senator Bob Smith 2/99

We need an honest conversation with the American people, even if it endangers our poll standing for a while. - Bill Bradley 2/99

We will win and we will beat Al Gore. There is no question in my mind. - Dan Quayle 2/99

We like Bill {Bradley}, but you can like someone and not marry him. -NJ Democratic Rep. Pascrell 2/99

Even some of Mrs. Dole's supporters... said they fear she may lack the spontaneity needed to seek the presidency. On Monday, it was clear she had not shed those traits. - Richard L. Berke, New York Times 2/99

It was her (Elizabeth Dole's) request not to be exposed to the media. - Manchester Chamber of Commerce Vice President Bill Hamilton 2/99

A candidate who wants to do well there (New Hampshire) will have to visit 15 to 20 times a year. - Michael Dennehy, NH Republican Party Executive Director, referring to New Hampshire and Iowa 2/99

Quayle has probably been in each state about 10 times in the past year. - Michael Dennehy, NH Republican Party Executive Director 2/99

Our goal has to be to get him in front of every person possible (in New Hampshire and Iowa). - Quayle campaign Chairman Kyle McSlarrow 2/99

I got into politics because I want to change the world. - John Kasich 2/99

Forget the Y2K problem for the millennium right now. Are you ready for the fast-spreading Campaign 2000 bug? - Dan Rather 1/99

No one has asked. - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, when asked if she wants to be Vice President 1/99

I think it would be a disaster if they nominated Elizabeth Dole. - Orlando Sentinel's Charley Reese, a conservative columnist 1/99

I am astonished at how well he stands up under this fire. - Pat Buchanan on President Clinton 1/99

I'm only going to say this once, I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky. - Pat Buchanan 1/99

If adultery is part of your baggage, forget it. - William J. Bennett 1/99

There's almost an irrational gold rush with these guys. It's like you get a prize if you announce by the end of January. - Republican consultant Mike Murphy 1/99

{The potential Republican presidential candidates are} the strongest field that we have had since 1980. - Republican consultant Ralph Reed 1/99

I have ordered my staff to never - ever - utter the words compassionate conservative. - Dan Quayle 1/99

In this campaign, I'm not really running against (Vice President) Al Gore. I'm not going to be in the business of criticizing the Clinton-Gore administration. - Bill Bradley campaigning in NH 1/99