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web posted March 24, 2008

"[Barack] Obama says Rev. [Jeremiah] Wright is no longer among his campaign's ‘spiritual advisers.' Obama should not be asked which of Rev. Wright's outrageous statements he disagrees with, but rather which ones he does agree with. That Obama remains a member in good standing of Trinity United Church of Christ indicates that he prefers the company of many people who have demonstrated that they believe what their pastor has said." -- Cal Thomas

"We don't need a President of the United States who got to the White House by talking one way, voting a very different way in the Senate, and who for 20 years followed a man whose words and deeds contradict [Barack] Obama's carefully crafted election year image." -- Thomas Sowell

"All you really need to know about Barack Hussein Obama is this: Louis Farrakhan really, really, really wants him to be president." -- Don Feder

"Barack Obama is, of course, a very talented politician with a first-rate political organization at his back. But it does not detract from his merit to say that his race is also a large part of his prominence. And it is undeniable that something extremely powerful in the body politic, a force quite apart from the man himself, has pulled Obama forward. This force is about race and nothing else." -- Shelby Steele

"It's equally obvious... that if Hillary was male -- and not married to Bill Clinton -- she wouldn't be in her position. Hillary came to national prominence not through her own efforts but through the success of her husband. Virtually all her ‘experience' prior to being elected Senator is in fact Bill Clinton's experience. She wouldn't even have been elected to the Senate without Bill." -- Dinesh D'Souza

"[T]here's a general right to bear arms quite without reference to the militia either way." -- Justice Anthony Kennedy during Tuesday's hearings on the Second Amendment

"It's also frustrating just from a news standpoint because on the one hand people talking about it, it's clearly an issue that's bubbling up on the campaign trail so we end up covering it... At the same time it does feel just completely off track and -- and there have been other issues in this campaign which have just felt completely off track from -- from the real differences between these candidates, the real issues." -- CNN's Anderson Cooper, not wanting to cover comments made by Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

"[It was] best speech ever given on race in this country... I think this is the kind of speech I think first graders should see, people in the last year of college should see before they go out in the world. This should be, to me, an American tract." -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Obama's writing abilities

"All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country." -- Barack Obama being specifically vague

"I have concrete, detailed plans to end this war, and I have not wavered in my commitment to follow through on them... In uncertain times, we cannot afford uncertain leadership." -- Hillary Clinton

"The mistakes in Iraq are not the responsibility of our men and women in uniform but of their Commander in Chief. From the decision to rush to war without allowing the weapons inspectors to finish their work or waiting for diplomacy to run its course." -- Hillary Clinton , who voted to send troops to Iraq

"Let's just go with the anger thing for a second. Let's say, theoretically, I don't know if he has them or not, that's what they say. That he kind of has a short fuse, McCain. I don't think that, that's a great thing to have when you're dealing with foreign nations in this kind of a world. It's a little shaky. To me that's more scary than, you know, getting some action in the oral off- Oval Office. ...Call me wacky!" -- Joy Behar of "The View"

"This is a disaster for Hillary Clinton. According to the wiretaps, New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was delighted to be getting the prostitute ‘Kristen' again. At least he knew her name. It took Monica Lewinsky's boyfriend six sexual encounters to remember her name (raising his lifetime average to 8.2). You know that queasy feeling you get thinking about Bill Clinton back in the White House again? Now you remember why. Hillary Clinton couldn't feel worse about the Spitzer case if she were an actual New Yorker." -- Ann Coulter

"The Obama campaign, if not necessarily the man himself, seems determined to make tough questioning of the man and his qualifications off-limits. Mild, general criticism is OK, barely, but pressing too hard with the wrong questions is taken for racism, bigotry, fanaticism, zealotry and other forms of treachery. Once upon a time, presidential candidates labored mightily to find a log-cabin birthplace in their past, but some Democrats think they've come up with a candidate born in a manger." -- Wesley Pruden

"Barack, I'm going to help you out here. If you're going to try the lying routine, you're going to have to get better at it, because the standard for great liars has already been sustained: Bill Clinton owns it, and you're not in his league." -- Rush Limbaugh

"Hillary Clinton entertained congressional superdelegates at her Washington, DC, home, where she served them cocktails and lobbied for their convention votes. However, the people who came uncommitted left uncommitted. It's a lot like her marriage." -- Argus Hamilton

"With all the bad news about the economy, John McCain started distancing himself from President Bush. In fact, McCain was running so fast from President Bush, he ran into Barack Obama, who was running from his minister, and Hillary, who was running from Geraldine Ferraro. And they all just collided." -- Jay Leno

web posted March 17, 2008

"Had New York Governor Eliot Spitzer reached out for the Gideon Bible in his fancy Washington, D. C., hotel room instead of, allegedly, a high-priced prostitute, he might have been forewarned of the dangers in such liaisons." -- Cal Thomas

"Just once, I'd like to see a politician caught with his pants down (so to speak) not trot out his wronged wife to stand beside him as he issues his mea culpa... I guess the point of the exercise is to show voters that Spitzer is not such a creep that his wife won't stand by him. Problem is, by dragging his wife before the public, Client-9 shows himself to be an even bigger creep." -- Debra Saunders

"Many in the media refer to Eliot Spitzer as some moral hero who fell from grace. Spitzer was never a moral hero. He was an unscrupulous prosecutor who threw his power around to ruin people, even when he didn't have any case with which to convict them of anything." -- Thomas Sowell

"The biggest beneficiary of Hillary's ‘3 a.m.' ad is -- John McCain. Of the three candidates, Americans believe he is best suited to be commander-in-chief by a lopsided margin. Hillary argued that when the tough times come, ‘You have to be ready to make a decision.' You do, and Hillary isn't... In truth, neither Obama nor Hillary can name an accomplishment that qualifies them for the office they seek." -- Ben Johnson

"McCain's greatest advantage is himself. His life story is compelling and something neither Clinton nor Obama can match. He can own the issue of national security. He must now convince voters that on domestic issues he is better able to manage the economy while reducing the size and cost of government." -- Cal Thomas

"Who ever said that it is the responsibility of government to make life easy?" -- Jim Geraghty

"[T]he Constitution is not a living organism. It's a legal document." -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

"[Obama] would win the urban areas and the upscale voters, and she wins the traditional rural areas that we lost when President Reagan was President. If you put those two things together, you'd have an almost unstoppable force." -- Bill Clinton on a joint Hillary/Barack ticket

"I am not running for vice president, I am running for president... I don't know how somebody in second place is offering vice president to the person in first place." -- Barack Obama

"It may be the first time in history that the person who is running number two would offer the person running number one the number two position." -- former Senate Democrat leader Tom Daschle

"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland." -- Hillary Clinton
"I don't know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton]... She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience...[B]ut being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player." -- Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey and the Ulster Unionist Party

"Hillary successfully recast herself in Ohio as a beer-drinking former waitress. Only after last week's reversals did the Obama camp raise a louder ruckus about her tax returns. Obviously, Ms. Night Shift does not want to reveal the details of the fortune that Bill Clinton has made, sometimes through dubious associations." -- New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

"Oil was $28 a barrel when George Bush was sworn in. It's $104 right now and could go to $120 soon. Now, why do you suppose that is? It wouldn't have to do with the policies of the Bush administration or the relationship they have with the oil companies, would it? Come on." -- CNN's Jack Cafferty

"The percentage of registered voters who would rather disembowel themselves with a wooden spoon than vote for Hillary has just slipped below the magical 50 percent mark. We're surging, Hillary! If you want to be even more likable, you should go on ‘The View.' Next to those four harpies, you seem almost agreeable." -- Ann Coulter

"Well, we will have Hillary Clinton to kick around some more, at least for another few weeks. The Mummy (as my radio pal Hugh Hewitt calls her) kicked open the sarcophagus door and, despite the rotting bandages dating back to Iowa, began staggering around terrorizing folks all over again." -- Mark Steyn

"The big pooh-bahs of the Democratic Party were so sure that Hillary had succumbed in the dust of Barack Obama's that after Texas and Ohio the only task left would be the delegation of one of their rank to go to Hillary (and Bill) and tell them it was time for the undertaker to close the coffin lid and the preacher to read Tennyson's ‘Crossing the Bar.' Someone suggested that Al Gore was the man for the job, but he didn't want it. If he went on such a fool's errand, to tell Hillary to give up the ghost, he knew he would soon be delivering lectures on global warming in high soprano." -- Wesley Pruden

"Barack Obama's adviser Samantha Power resigned after she called Hillary a monster. It broke a truce. The Clintons don't bring up Barack's drug use and the Obamas don't mention Hillary's genealogical connection to the von Frankenstein family." -- Argus Hamilton

"Neither Barack nor Hillary can win the nomination outright. You know, because it's so close. So Hillary's kind of caught between Barack and a hard place. ... Technically, neither of them can win. It shows you how bad it's gotten for the Democrats. Forget winning the general election, they can't even win their own election. ... You know, there's talk in some Democratic circles of letting the states of Michigan and Florida re-vote. Today, Al Gore said, 'Oh, now you think of this! Great!' ... They're talking about a re-vote primary where people would mail in their ballots. That's a great idea, combine the reliability of the people in Florida who count the ballots with the efficiency of the Post Office. What could go wrong there?" -- Jay Leno

"The Democratic party is very close to being the [Communist-controlled Progressive] party of Henry Wallace... Today's left sees the world pretty much in the same terms as the Stalinists did. What has happened is that it has lost its faith in the working class, so its agenda is entirely negative. They've dropped the dictatorship of the proletariat and they all say they're democrats, but so did Lenin. The vast bulk of the American left is a Communist left and they've introduced some fascist ideas like ‘identity politics,' which is straight out of Mussolini. They don't talk about the working class, they talk about women and race. There's not much that they've learned from the history of the 20th century." -- David Horowitz

web posted March 10, 2008

"Bill and Hillary [are now] faced with this problem: If they continue to utilize all of the tools available -- including urging a large percentage of the 796 super delegates to ignore the will of the majority of the elected delegates -- they will likely dismantle the 70-year-long Democratic coalition. Now, there's a legacy for you." -- Rich Galen

"Hillary Clinton has made a career out of being a victim and her staffers have honed playing the victim card. That's why you see articles about whether the media are tolerant of sexism, but not racism... Does America want four years of a shameless victim in chief?" -- Debra Saunders

"Voters need to understand that the supposed ‘new politics' of Obama smells very similar to that of the same old lies and empty rhetoric we have heard from the Beltway for decades. And without that ‘new politics', Obama is nothing more than an empty suit with a pleasant voice." -- Ed Morrissey

"Great leaders have to be great communicators, not just orators. Throughout history, they have used more than mere appeals to emotion." -- Jed Babbin

"I have some news. Al-Qaida is in Iraq. Al-Qaida is called ‘al-Qaida in Iraq.' My friends, if we left, they wouldn't be establishing a base...[T]hey would be taking a country. I will not allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender." -- John McCain

"The September 11 attacks took six years to engineer, and while we've managed to disrupt a few of the subsequent plans, there is plenty of evidence that those who intend to harm us are trying as hard as ever to do so. We must remain vigilant." -- Horace Cooper

"Gun advocates favor freedom, choice and self-responsibility. If someone wishes to be prepared to defend himself, he should be free to do so." -- John Stossel

"For everyone here in Ohio and across America who's ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you." -- a victorious Hillary Clinton in Ohio last week

"No matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead as we had this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination." -- Barack Obama reminding Mrs. Clinton that she isn't out of the woods yet

"And we turn the tables on ourselves. Have all of us in the media used boxing gloves on Clinton and kid gloves on Obama? Have we been unfair?" -- ABC's Diane Sawyer

"Women have waited decades to see the first woman president and it's actually something of a tragedy that a talented African-American guy comes along at the same [time] -- this isn't liberal guilt." -- Newsweek's Eleanor Clift

"After saying she found her ‘voice' in New Hampshire, she has turned into Sybil. We've had Experienced Hillary, Soft Hillary, Hard Hillary, Misty Hillary, Sarcastic Hillary, Joined-at-the-Hip-to-Bill Hillary, Her-Own-Person-Who-Just-Happens-to-Be-Married-to-a-Former-President Hillary, It's-My-Turn Hillary, Cuddly Hillary, Let's-Get-Down-in-the-Dirt-and-Fight-Like-Dogs Hillary." -- New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

"The Iraqi people do not like the Americans. Six years ago, there were no terrorists in our region. As soon as the others landed in this country and the region, we witnessed their arrival and presence." -- Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad

"The first rule of politics is, ‘Never count out the Clintons.' Their political conglomerate, Clinton Inc., is like Glenn Close in that bathtub scene in the movie ‘Fatal Attraction': It always comes back to life a second or third time." -- Salena Zito

"These Clintons are like cockroaches. They'll be the last thing left after a nuclear blast." -- Rush Limbaugh

"'Change' is the season's mantra for the star-struck masses. Obama's latest slogan is ‘Change to believe in.' Hillary promises ‘real change.' But how do you ‘believe' in ‘change'? Change, after all, is process. ‘Change to what?' Barack Obama does not say, the genius of the promise. Everyone gets to fill in the blank now, and be disappointed later." -- Wesley Pruden

"Hillary Clinton asks in a new ad whom you want as president if the White House phone rings at three in the morning. Only she knows how to handle that call. Nine times out of ten it's just Bill saying don't believe what it says in the morning paper." -- Argus Hamilton

"What I find fascinating is the image of Hillary Rodham Clinton, answering the phone at 3 A.M., dressed in a fresh suit, fully made up with lipstick at the ready, and even wearing a necklace." -- Rich Galen

"It looks like John McCain has clinched the Republican nomination. He was very excited when they woke him up to tell him." -- Craig Ferguson

"The first rule of politics is, ‘Never count out the Clintons.' Their political conglomerate, Clinton Inc., is like Glenn Close in that bathtub scene in the movie ‘Fatal Attraction.' It always comes back to life a second or third time." -- Pittsburgh Tribune's Salena Zito

"We f***ed up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it... She is a monster, too -- that is off the record -- she is stooping to anything. It looks like desperation. You just look at her and think, ‘Ergh'... The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive." -- Barack Obama's foreign policy advisor Samantha Power

web posted March 3, 2008

"If you've never been to an Obama rally before, a word of advice, go early. Think Springsteen concerts, but the tickets are free. First come, first serve. In Boise, Idaho, a few weeks back it couldn't have been more than 15 degrees out. But outside Taco Bell Arena early on a Saturday morning, everyone waited patiently because inside --  inside, they felt the warm glow of hope." -- ABC's David Wright

"I'm in the demographic where everyone I know among my friends is in love with Obama... It's kind of like being 13 and seeing Shawn Cassidy and we're all just on board... So we're not embarrassed when we get together. We just talk about how much we love Obama. ... We know we're being fooled, but we kind of like it. I can't get off his ride, it's too good." -- Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein

"By a 53% to 14% margin, voters believe that Obama opposes NAFTA while there are mixed perceptions on where Clinton stands. Thirty-five percent (35%) believe she favors NAFTA, 31% believe she opposes it and 34% are not sure." -- Rasmussen Reports

"You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized and disrespected. You go from Iraq, to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts. In that context, I have decided to run for president." -- perennial contender Ralph Nader

"Is there any possibility that, I'm just throwing this out... that the right wing of the party, the real conservative Limbaugh, Huckabee, that group, planted this [New York Times] article [against McCain]? Like they're behind it?... Because they're the ones who are trying to really cut him out, cut his legs off... Is that too conspiratorial?" -- Joy Behar of "The View"

"Both Senator Obama and I would make history. But only one of us is ready on Day One to be commander in chief, ready to manage our economy and ready to defeat the Republicans. Only one of us has spent 35 years being a doer, a fighter and a champion for those who need a voice." -- Hillary Clinton "She's ready on day one ‘to defeat the Republicans'? If there is a day one, wouldn't she already have defeated them? But we suppose what she's really promising is another ‘permanent campaign.' Anyone want to vote for that?" -- James Taranto

"As Senators Obama and Clinton try to outdo each other in blaming government for our lack of individual responsibility and promising solutions by raising taxes to give us more government, they offer little change and less hope." -- Victor Davis Hanson

"Nothing... will assuage Clinton supporters' sense of injustice if the upstart Obama supplants her. Their, and her, sense of entitlement is encapsulated in her constant invocations of her ‘35 years' of ‘experience.' Well. She is 60. She left Yale Law School at age 25. Evidently she considers everything she has done since school, from her years at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm to her good fortune with cattle futures, as presidentially relevant experience." -- George Will

"Hope must be grounded in objective truth otherwise it quickly becomes wishful thinking." -- Cal Thomas

"Eloquence is deep thought expressed in clear words." -- Peggy Noonan

"Why McCain? After all, somewhat similar allegations about recent Democratic nominees were precisely the sort of thing that [The New York Times] scrupulously avoided as trash journalism. And the Times' attitude toward Bill Clinton's various sex scandals was hardly one of unbridled enthusiasm. During those years, the Gray Lady published many, many articles lamenting the fever of ‘sexual McCarthyism' in American politics. It seems that such concerns are unwarranted if the subject is a Republican." -- Jonah Goldberg

"Our elected officials don't make America great, nor do temporal policies. America is great because of its people, its defining institutions and its freedoms." -- Linda Chavez

"Are the Democrats so intent on denying George Bush retroactive vindication for a war they insist is his that they would deny their own country a now-achievable victory?" -- Charles Krauthammer

"If this presidential thing doesn't work out, Obama might consider joining the NASCAR circuit. It's the only occupation we can think of where you win by turning faster to the left than anybody else." -- Investor's Business Daily

"[Barack Obama's] got probably the greatest support in the national press I've seen since John McCain [in 2000]. And that's one of the things he's had going for him. But as I said, there are going to be more and more questions... [D]oes he have enough experience? This is something Democratic Party polls were still showing ten days ago: The majority of Dems say he needs several more years of experience. That's why I was saying Hillary has done such a poor job of [raising the inexperience issue] because she's made it an attack issue rather than an issue for people to consider." -- Democrat pollster Patrick Caddell

"What's remarkable about watching the rise of Barack Obama is its similarities to the ascent of another seemingly bulletproof Democratic politician: Bill Clinton. Like Clinton in ‘92, Obama gets every benefit of the doubt from the media and from the voters. He's been allowed to make mistakes and apologize for them; just like Clinton ‘92. It's particularly frustrating for the Clinton campaign because, literally, what's gone around has come around. Now, Mrs. Clinton isn't allowed to make a mistake without being called on the carpet. It's a far cry from the treatment Bill Clinton received in ‘92." -- Chuck Todd, Political Director, NBC News

"The Clintons have met their Waterloo but it's not some doughty conservative warrior who gets to play Duke of Wellington, only some freshman pap peddler of liberal boilerplate whom no-one had heard of the day before yesterday." -- Mark Steyn

"The junior senator from New York is as spontaneous and emotion-laden as a space shuttle launch. It's all planning, calculation and stage-management with the Clintons. She's like the Tin Man in ‘The Wizard of Oz': heartless, creaking her campaign joints and unable to prove the humanity voters want in a president." -- Jed Babbin

"McCain may seem unappealing when he's debating policy with Mike Huckabee or even Mitt Romney. But let him start taking fire from Al Gore, Gloria Steinem, antiwar groups, environmental activists and teachers' unions -- not to mention The New York Times -- and suddenly he will look lovelier than the Taj Mahal at sunset." -- Steve Chapman

"Hillary Clinton's campaign manager said she will make a much better commander-in-chief than her rivals. She's well schooled in the use of force. How many presidential candidates can honestly say that they have thrown a lamp at an important world leader?" -- Argus Hamilton

"In political news, Ralph Nader has decided to run for president. Well, you thought Mike Huckabee didn't know when to quit, huh? There you go. In fact, Ralph Nader's campaign slogan -- 'It's me again.' ... What do you call somebody at a Ralph Nader campaign rally? Ralph Nader. He's the only one there. ... He's gonna be 74 next week. In fact, the good news: If Ralph gets sick, his younger brother, Raul Nader, will then take over. ... Well, you know who's thrilled that Nader is back in the race? John McCain. He's not the oldest guy anymore." -- Jay Leno

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