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web posted May 25, 2009

"At some point someone is going to file a suit in Federal court asking for clarity as to just where in the U.S. Constitution it is provided that the Executive Branch can buy a bankrupt car company." --political analyst Rich Galen

"So far, the Obama administration has yet to lay out its magical thinking on how the homegrown auto makers are to become 'viable' when required to subordinate every auto attribute that consumers find desirable in favor of achieving a passenger-car average of 39 miles per gallon by 2016. Nonetheless the answer has quietly seeped out: Taxpayers will write $5,000 or $7,000 rebate checks to other taxpayers to bribe them to buy hybrids and plug-ins at a price that lets Detroit claim it's earning a 'profit' on its Obamamobiles." --columnist Holman Jenkins Jr.

"The Obama administration is bent on becoming a major player in -- if not taking over entirely -- America's health-care, automobile and banking industries. Before that happens, it might be a good idea to look at the government's track record in running economic enterprises. It is terrible." --author John Steele Gordon

"Does anybody really believe that adding 50 million people to the public health-care rolls will not cost the government more money? About $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion more? At least. So let's be serious when evaluating President Obama's goal of universal health care, and the idea that it's a cost-cutter. Can't happen. Won't happen. Costs are going to explode." --economist Larry Kudlow

"Just how much government debt does a president have to endorse before he's labeled 'irresponsible'"? --columnist Robert Samuelson

"We live in an era in which conservatives have not effectively outlined the proper and limited role of government, and as a direct consequence of our failures, more and more of our citizens are turning to an ever-encroaching government in times of crisis. Yet to allow the balance of power in this nation to continue to shift further and further toward government and thus further and further from liberty is to surrender the very thing that makes America so historically unique." --South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford

"I don't think that, left to its own devices, capitalism moves along smoothly and everyone gets treated fairly in the process. Capitalism is like a child: If you want the child to grow up free and productive, somebody's got to look over the shoulder of that child." --PBS's Tavis Smiley

"If the gas tax reduces dependence on foreign oil and changes the foreign political dependency immediately, why not be for it, right now?" --ABC's Diane Sawyer

"Well some say [Dick] Cheney's refusal to move on reminds them of 'Groundhog Day' but you could also say it's like that more frighteningly relentless Glenn Close in 'Fatal Attraction.' Like Cheney, she was not gonna be ignored." --MSNBC's Chris Matthews

"Cheney has replaced Sarah Palin as Rogue Diva. Just as Jeb Bush and other Republicans are trying to get kinder and gentler, Cheney has popped out of his dungeon, scary organ music blaring, to carry on his nasty campaign of fear and loathing." --New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

"[A] stupid, silly, one-line aside. I think it's an incorrect statement to say I was, in any way, trying to disparage legitimate protests. I don't think it's my job to disparage, or encourage, which oddly other networks seemed to be doing. Protest is the great right of all Americans, and it's not my job in any way to make fun of people or disparage what they're doing. If people took offense to that and felt that I was disparaging their legitimate right to protest, and what they were doing, then that is something I truly regret, because I don't believe in doing that." --CNN's Anderson Cooper claiming to regret -- but not actually apologizing for his vile comments last month about the participants of the Tea Parties

"We've become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn't reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us where we are, but hard work and smart ideas -- quality products and wise investments. We started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings." --Barack Obama

"In the first 77 days of the two-year Recovery Act program, 150,000 jobs have been created or saved." --Vice President Joe Biden, who, with the caveat "saved," can pretty well claim whatever he wants

"Families should not have to stare down loaded AK-47s on nature hikes." --Brady campaign president Paul Helmke on the credit card bill that passed the Senate last Tuesday, which contains a provision allowing concealed carry (including pistols) in national parks

"I waited two years after I left office to make statements that were critical. Talk about somebody that shouldn't be talking about making the country less safe, invading a country that did not attack us and posed no serious threat to us at all." --Al Gore on Dick Cheney

"I believe sometimes the war on terror is really a euphemism for the wars for oil and natural gas. Maybe if it were the Hindus who had oil under their feet there would be Hindu fundamentalists and extremists. ... America has the opportunity once again to lead -- to lead the world against the new terror: climate change." --Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, director of outreach at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Virginia

"In discussing the sort of person he'd like to appoint to the Supreme Court, replacing Justice Souter, who, in announcing his retirement, made his first good decision in 19 years, President Obama emphasized compassion. I'm afraid that's exactly the sort of statement you have to expect when you put an ex-community organizer in a job above his pay grade. Compassion should no more be a prerequisite for sitting on the Supreme Court than the ability to balance a basketball on one's nose or to juggle flatware." --columnist Burt Prelutsky

"The U.S. Mint honored Abe Lincoln Friday with a new image of him on the penny. It shows him sitting on a log as a young man, studying a textbook. The teachers' union is angry at the mint for advertising that you can get a better education without them." --humorist Argus Hamilton

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that she was misled by the CIA on waterboarding. She spent eight years complaining about how dumb President Bush was and the minute she's in trouble, she says he fooled her." -- Jay Leno

"The administration seems to pride itself on searching for some kind of middle ground in policies addressing terrorism. ... But in the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed. You cannot keep just some nuclear-armed terrorists out of the United States, you must keep every nuclear-armed terrorist out of the United States. Triangulation is a political strategy, not a national security strategy. ... There is never a good time to compromise when the lives and safety of the American people are in the balance." --former Vice President Dick Cheney in his speech opposing Barack Obama's war on terror policies

web posted May 18, 2009

"The rule of law, not of men -- an ideal tracing back to the ancient Greeks and well-known to our Founding Fathers -- is the animating principle of the American experiment. While the rest of the world in 1787 was governed by the whims of kings and dukes, the U.S. Constitution was established to circumscribe arbitrary government power. It would do so by establishing clear rules, equally applied to the powerful and the weak. Fleecing lenders to pay off politically powerful interests, or governmental threats to reputation and business from a failure to toe a political line? We might expect this behavior from a Hugo Chávez. But it would never happen here, right? Until Chrysler." -- George Mason University law professor Todd Zywicki

"Ford has about $26 billion in automotive debt -- about the same as GM's $27 billion. Ford's debt is secured by its assets. And secured lenders must be repaid -- unless they happen to be Chrysler lenders and get clipped by a company bankruptcy plan that's backed by President Obama. So Ford is like a homeowner who planned prudently and can pay his mortgage, while his spendthrift neighbors get their mortgage reduced by some new federal program." -- Wall Street Journal Detroit bureau chief Paul Ingrassia

"Proponents of today's world-turned-upside-down economic policies say the policies might seem wrong but really are boldly modern in their rejection of markets in favor of pervasive government intervention in economic life. Hence New York, which until eight months ago was the financial capital of the world, is no longer even the financial capital of the United States. Washington is." -- columnist George Will

"If you attack President Barack Obama's policies, are you attacking America? According to today's left, the answer is yes: Barack Obama is America. And opposition to Barack Obama or any of his policies is therefore, by definition, anti-American." -- columnist Ben Shapiro

"Conservatism is the political belief that best mirrors human nature across time and space; but because its precepts are sometimes tragic and demand responsibility rather than ever-expanding rights, it requires adept communicators -- not triangulators and appeasers whose pleasure is only for the moment." -- columnist Victor Davis Hanson

"Republicans actually have plenty of ideas. That's the problem. The party's ideas -- about economic issues, social issues and just about everything else -- are not popular ideas. They are extremely conservative ideas tarred by association with the extremely unpopular George W. Bush, who helped downsize the party to its extremely conservative base. ... A hard-right agenda of slashing taxes for the investor class, protecting marriage from gays, blocking universal health insurance and extolling the glories of waterboarding produces terrific ratings for Rush Limbaugh, but it's not a majority agenda." -- Time magazine's Michael Grunwald

"[I]f they lost their heart in the 1980s, and they lost their mind in the 1990s, what we've seen in the 2000s is Republicans losing their image, and they lost it on national security." -- Newsweek's Richard Wolffe

"Health care is ... the Obama administration's number one priority for the rest of the year. They believe now the decks are cleared on coming back to the taxpayers for money from the banks. They will be able to make a real push for health care this summer. And they are going to drive to get it done before October. And they think the stars are aligning." -- ABC's George Stephanopoulos

"The U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota that could give President Barack Obama's Democrats the margin to pass legislation without Republican interference remains unfilled six months after the votes were cast." -- Reuters

"To call something an 'enhanced interrogation technique' doesn't alter the fact that we thought it was torture.... [I]t's almost the moral equivalent of saying that rape is an enhanced seduction technique." -- ABC News anchor Ted Koppel

"The Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout. Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset. I'm sorry." -- Barack Obama

"I think we had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years and I think we need some regulation now." -- former Vermont Governor, DNC chief and now CNBC contributor Howard Dean

"We are not asking people to trust us, we are asking people to trust government."-- Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, urging government hyper-regulation of private medical insurance

"Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails, so you're saying, 'I hope America fails', you're, like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You know, you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight. ... Rush Limbaugh, I hope the country fails -- I hope his kidneys fail, how about that? He needs a good waterboarding, that's what he needs." -- "comedienne" Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents dinner, where Obama laughed at her "jokes"

"It's not because he's black and it's not because we're afraid. It's just that he's, just so far, just a little too d*** competent and we ain't used to that." -- Late Show writer Bill Scheft on why writers aren't coming up with many jokes about Obama

"It's great to have a nice home. It's great to have nice homes! It's great to have a nice home that just escaped the fire in Santa Barbara. It's great to have a private jet. Anyone that tells you that having your own private jet isn't great is lying to you." -- Oprah Winfrey

"Government is the organized crime of healthcare." -- pediatric otolaryngologist John Donaldson

"As the general [Colin Powell] sees it, the Republican Party ought to be a 'big tent': Right now, the tent is empty, with only a few 'mean-spirited' and 'divisive' talk-radio hosts chewing the limbs off live kittens while gibbering to themselves. By comparison, over in the Democrat tent, they've got blacks, gays, unions, professors, Ben Affleck: diversity on parade." -- columnist Mark Steyn

"The Earth stood still, the seas parted and a member of the U.S. political class admitted last week that the Federal Reserve helped to cause the financial meltdown. OK, only the last of those happened, but it's a welcome miracle nonetheless. The revelation came from Timothy Geithner...." -- The Wall Street Journal

"I'm not even a Christian, but I find it bizarre that people who pooh-pooh the idea that Christ raised the dead or walked on water are totally convinced that a guy who's tossing trillions of dollars into the air is a financial miracle worker. Talk about blind faith! It makes me wonder if these same people, were they facing personal bankruptcy, would think that the answer to their own financial difficulties would be to give their wife an American Express card and drop her off at Tiffany's." -- columnist Burt Prelutsky

"Government bureaucrats in China have been ordered to smoke more locally produced cigarettes in order to set an example for citizens and stimulate the Chinese cigarette industry. And health officials are worried that smoking could become the number one cause of death now because of this government mandate. But do you know what the number one cause of death is in China now? Disobeying a government mandate. So, you're kind of stuck." -- Jay Leno

"So my statement is clear, and let me read it again. Let me read it again. I'm sorry. I have to find the page. I was informed that the Department of Justice opinions had concluded that the use of enhanced interrogations was legal. The only mention of waterboarding was that the briefing -- in the briefing was that it was not being employed. When -- when -- when my staff person -- I'm sorry, the page is out of order -- five months later, my staff person told me that there had been a briefing -- informing that there had been a briefing and that a letter had been sent. I was not briefed on what was in that briefing; I was just informed that the briefing had taken place. So -- so let's get this straight." -- Nancy Pelosi, on what she knew and when she knew about waterboarding

web posted May 11, 2009

"[T]he Supreme Court has ruled in a direction that gives more opportunity for people to have guns. We never denied that right. We don't want to take their guns away. We want them registered ... and we have to rid the debate of the misconceptions that people have about what gun safety means." -- Nancy Pelosi

"Everywhere I go, crowds spontaneously assemble. They start to cheer, whether I go to a play on Broadway or I'm going home to Wilmington, Delaware. I walk on the train. People stand up and clap." -- Vice President Joe Biden

"If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine." -- Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), who fits in just fine with his new party

"That President Obama has made 'empathy' with certain groups one of his criteria for choosing a Supreme Court nominee is a dangerous sign of how much further the Supreme Court may be pushed away from the rule of law and toward even more arbitrary judicial edicts to advance the agenda of the left and set it in legal concrete, immune from the democratic process. Would you want to go into court to appear before a judge with 'empathy' for groups A, B and C, if you were a member of groups X, Y or Z? Nothing could be further from the rule of law." -- Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell

"Mr. Obama will make Supreme Court history, all right. He will become the first president in American history to make lawlessness an explicit standard for Supreme Court justices. ... He has boldly proclaimed that he intends to make sure his nominees to the Supreme Court don't harbor any crusty fealty to the written Constitution, or the millenniums of Western law that undergird its principles, or to the timeless truths that underlie our Declaration of Independence." -- Judicial Confirmation Network counsel Wendy E. Long

"There is a reason that Lady Justice wears a blindfold. Justice is supposed to be blind to the race, gender, finances, politics -- and every other 'empathy'-eliciting -- characteristic of those who seek it in good faith." -- columnist Carol Platt Liebau

"It is dangerous in this day and age to use the word 'fascism' lightly. Liberals sling around the term 'fascism' without regard to its meaning -- for the Left, 'fascism' applies to everything from religious social perspectives to conservative tax cut prescriptions. But economic fascism has a precise, defined meaning. And Barack Obama's economic policy fulfills that meaning in every conceivable way." -- radio talk-show host Jerry Doyle

"Liberals do not win elections for Republicans. Conservatives win elections. Whenever conservatives try to placate liberals and show how sensitive and caring and in touch with the feelings and concerns of the other party they are, they lose. But when Republicans stand on principles and demonstrate conviction and give evidence that their ideas work, they win." -- columnist Cal Thomas

"The killer virus for Republicans hasn't been intolerance inside the party for moderates. What cost Republicans control of the White House and Congress was alleged conservatives behaving too much like Democrats, especially on spending." -- columnist Brendan Miniter

"The fact that Obama is essentially replacing -- and I'm going to use these terms loosely -- but a more liberal judge with what will eventually probably be a liberal judge doesn't really change things a lot, but if John McCain were the president of the United States today, this court would be changing in extreme ways, wouldn't it?" -- CNN anchor Rick Sanchez

"They're very comfortable, the core of the Republican Party, with their message of skepticism about government. ... Cut taxes, shrink government. ... But it doesn't sell with, with people outside of their base demographic which are white males. There's something about that message that turns off families, that turns off women, that turns off people who think that caring matters about other -- I know that this sounds silly, but caring about other people." -- Newsweek's Howard Fineman

"Can they get past the cacophony of Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney, Newt Gingrich? These are sort of trollish figures. These aren't the caring people, are they?" -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews in response

"Barack Obama is a truly flabbergasting President. And in a good way -- not the way some of his predecessors were. He's not flabberghastly.... His verbiage is a melting pot that's always bubbling." -- Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales

"Let me just say, I thought that in terms of mastery of the issues, we have rarely had a president who is as well briefed and speaks in as articulate a way as this president does." -- CNN political analyst David Gergen

"Everybody, including Republicans, would have to say that his first 100 days have been great." -- CBS News executive producer Rick Kaplan

"The Republican Party is in deep trouble. Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less." -- former secretary of state Colin Powell

"It's their best issue that these tea baggers, they turned everybody off. There were a bunch of, like, 75-year-old cranky white guys mad at everything. It just couldn't have been a better event for the Democratic Party. I hope they come back and tea bag some more. ... I think that the Democrats are going to be smart enough to- when this recession is over and it will be over, to jump back on top of the spending issue like President Clinton did back in the '90s. ... Republicans shouldn't be worried. They should be in agony. They should be throwing up. Republicans had better get a better policy on prescription drugs and quickly they're going to need a lot more Prozac." -- CNN analyst James Carville

"I really hope that every citizen of the United States would imitate the rest of the world because they're all for Obama. Every other country adores what happened, in our great country, to have him as president. ... I love everything he's done and everything he's doing. I think we should give him all-out support for anything he wants to do. We should all help. He's giving our country back to us." -- singer Tony Bennett

"Under Obama's reasoning, the judge's job isn't to interpret the law: the judge should walk a mile in the appellant's Birkenstocks." -- Human Events editor Jed Babbin

"It seems the Hog Producers have squealed a bit about their product getting a bad name so, according to the NY Times, it will no longer be called the Swine Flu. Henceforth it will be called Influenza A(H1N1). ... I have a better idea for a new name. How about Montezuma's Revenge?" -- political analyst Rich Galen

"President Obama's strongest talent is not his speechifying, which is frankly a bit of a snoozeroo. In Europe, he left 'em wanting less pretty much every time (headline from Britain's Daily Telegraph: 'Barack Obama Really Does Go On A Bit'). That uptilted chin combined with the left-right teleprompter neck swivel you can set your watch by makes him look like an emaciated Mussolini umpiring an endless rally of high lobs on Centre Court at Wimbledon. Each to his own, but I don't think those who routinely hail him as the greatest orator since Socrates actually sit through many of his speeches." -- columnist Mark Steyn

"Segway's inventor revealed plans to make a hybrid electric car powered by an engine which uses cow manure for fuel, and then use that engine to light Third World homes. Imagine generators that run on manure. Every time President Obama says he doesn't want to run private industry a third of the planet could be electrocuted by the power surge." -- comedian Argus Hamilton

"In fact, just a day after saying he wouldn't go anywhere in confined places like an aircraft or a subway because of the swine flu, Vice President Biden rode a train from Washington to Delaware. You know what that means? Not even Joe Biden listens to Joe Biden." -- Jay Leno

web posted May 4, 2009

"With market capitalism under assault and polling showing voters quite concerned about spending, debt, and bailouts, you'd think Republicans could find a message which resonates with a wide audience. Although perhaps rank amateurs, the tea party protestors have found the message around which conservatives can unify and which might also bring in independents. Personal responsibility, ending corporate welfare and bailouts, reasonable budgets, and the rule of law might form the basis of a winning message." -- columnist Jennifer Rubin

"[Arlen] Specter's switch ... greatly enhances his own re-election changes. Whereas he seemed certain to lose to Toomey in the Republican primary, he must be reckoned the strong favorite if the two are matched up in the general election." -- Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto

"Specter often votes for liberal Democratic initiatives and infuriates conservative Republicans. Still, his surprise defection was a crushing setback for the GOP, instantly reducing what limited power Republicans have in the Senate. The GOP's ability to stop liberal legislation is now weakened if not eliminated in some instances." -- Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes

"Climate change is the cause of -- and caused by -- everything. Reputable news pieces regularly allege, without any evidence, that climate change is the culprit in hundreds of dreadful events. From the decline of outdoor youth hockey, to the scourge of teenage drinking, to the massacre in Darfur, you guessed it, global warming is always the boogeyman. Who knew that a shift of 0.04 degrees Celsius in a decade could be so terrible?" -- columnist David Harsanyi

"Since January, President Obama and his team have schmoozed, ineffectively, American enemies over allies in almost every corner of the globe. If you're, say, India, following Obama's apology tour even as you watch the Taliban advancing on those Pakistani nukes, would you want to bet the future on American resolve? In Delhi, in Tokyo, in Prague, in Tel Aviv, in Bogota, they've looked at these first 100 days and drawn their own conclusions." -- columnist Mark Steyn

"At the rate that Obama and the liberals are going, when it comes to piling up the national debt, nationalizing banks and major companies, scuttling our missile defense system, reaching out to Islamic and Communist tyrants, funding ACORN, AmeriCorps and Hamas, discussing nuclear disarmament with Russia at the same time that Iran, Pakistan and North Korea are gearing up, talking tough to Israel while currying favor with the Arabs and the Islamists, I have no idea what will be left to salvage a year-and-a-half down the road."-- columnist Burt Prelutsky

"[Arlen] Specter blames the party's increasingly conservative tilt." -- CBS's Chip Reid

"It seems like some Republicans still have not figured out that they lost big-time last November, in part, because the American people are sick and tired of their style of politics. Exhibit A: a conservative faction of the Republican National Committee wants the party to brand Democrats as socialists." -- CNN's Jack Cafferty

"I think we've learned that [Obama is] more moderate than we had expected. I think we've learned that he is quite determined to follow through, almost as a checklist, on his campaign promises. And I think we've also learned that we don't really know his bottom line. Whether it's the banks or Iran, we haven't yet figured out whether or not there's an element in this personality that wavers a bit." -- New York Times correspondent David Sanger

"I'm a huge Obama fan. I think it's such an unbelievably great thing to have a president who's competent and not insane." -- New York Times Magazine columnist Randy Cohen

"[L]ook, this isn't about the failure of government and the Republicans are on the wrong tact talking about big government. This is a failure of capitalism. [Obama is] trying to save capitalism. ... People are looking to Washington and to government for help, and to argue to get government out of the way makes no sense in this political climate." -- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift

"Reagan's dead and he was a lousy president." -- MSNBC's anchor Keith Olbermann

"I realize it's been a slow weekend in terms of news. The president went out and played golf on Sunday. The White House reporters don't have much to work with today, so they're trying to get a piece of this swine flu story, which you know, all the cable news channels are agog about, bug-eyed about. But so far, it doesn't amount to much in the United States of America." -- Fox News' Brit Hume

"Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. ... Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right." -- Sen. Arlen Specter

"We were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used." -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who attended briefings about waterboarding in 2002

"Look, I don't know anybody in the world who thinks [Obama's] a weak president." -- Vice President Joe Biden

"[N]obody in this country realizes that cap-and-trade is a tax, and it's a great big one." -- Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)

"[N]one of [my family or friends] wants to own an assault weapon, because we have no desire to kill policemen or go to a school or workplace to see how many victims we can accumulate before we are finally shot or take our own lives. That's why the White House and Congress must not give up on trying to reinstate a ban on assault weapons, even if it may be politically difficult. ... We can't let the N.R.A.'s political blackmail prevent the banning of assault weapons -- designed only to kill police officers and the people they defend." -- Jimmy Carter

"I know [Venezuela's] President Chavez well. Whether or not one agrees with all his policies, what is certainly true of Chavez is that he is a warm and friendly man with a robust sense of humor (who daily risks his own life for his country in ways Dick Cheney could never imagine)." -- actor Sean Penn

"A report yesterday held that Vice President Joe Biden has been lobbying [Arlen] Specter for six years trying to get him to switch parties. If that's not torture, I don't know what is: Six years of having to listen to Biden? Talk about political waterboarding." -- political analyst Rich Galen

"'Man-caused disaster.' That's a perfect description of the Scare Force One torture photo-op that took place this week and an apt summary of the last 100 days. Say cheese." -- columnist Michelle Malkin

"[Thursday] was 'Take Your Kid to Work Day.' It used to be 'Take Your Daughter to Work Day,' but political correctness took over. Thanks to the economy, there's a new special day for parents and kids -- 'Take Your Child to Where You Used to Work Day.'" -- comedian Jimmy Kimmel

"Fox Network turned down President Obama's request for air time tonight for his White House press conference. Instead the network will air the drama, 'Lie to Me.' Anybody who can tell the difference wins two free tickets to the American Idol finale." -- comedian Argus Hamilton

"You learn a lot about the system. You know, like, people say, "Oh, where do hospitals get the nerve to charge $10 for an aspirin?" See, this is why President Obama wants to do something about healthcare in this country. See, under his plan, hospital aspirin only costs a dollar maximum. Of course, there would be a $9 tax on it." -- Jay Leno

"Those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security. But let's not play games and pretend that the reason [for the deficit] is because of the Recovery Act." -- Barack Obama

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