Monday, December 22, 2008

• Item by David Huntwork

The year 2008 was politically the most exciting and unusual in a generation. It hosted a long, divisive and drama filled campaign season that featured the rapid rise and fall of Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, the unlikely rise of John McCain and Barack Obama, and the eventual bitter defeat of Hillary Clinton. It brought us an unusually long and brutal primary with emotional charges of racism and sexism, the rise of the Superdelegate, and the explosion of Sarah Palin upon the national stage. All of this was followed by a rough and tumble presidential campaign whose outcome may have never been truly in doubt but was still a never ending soap opera of charges, counter charges, personal attacks, character assassinations, rumors, smears and the occasional, unexpected surprise.

46. “I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.” –Sarah Palin

47. “The nation will live to regret what the court has done today.“ - US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after the court rules foreign terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay can challenge their detention in US courts.

48. “Every US President has to have a war.“ - Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet President, claiming the US military buildup risks leading to a new cold war with Russia

49. “They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything.“ - The Dalai Lama inviting Chinese authorities to investigate whether he was behind the rioting in Tibet

50. “Can I explain to you what happened? First of all it happened during a period after she was in remission from cancer.” -  John Edwards on cheating on Elizabeth Edwards

51. “I believe [Hillary Clinton] would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee. Our voters and Edwards’ voters were the same people. They were older, pro-union. Not all, but maybe two-thirds of them would have been for us and we would have barely beaten Obama.“ -former Hillary Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson on the impact of the media’s refusal to cover the John Edwards’ sex scandal

52. “I’m offering myself up. I’m saying that if I have the background, the capability and the concern to do this and I’m doing this for the right reasons… but I’m not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I’d make a good president. Nowadays, the process has become much more important than I think it used to be.” – Fred Thompson

53. “Thanks, Your Holiness. Awesome speech!” – George Bush after a speech by the pope

54. “I think that, in retrospect, I could have used a different rhetoric. Phrases such as ‘bring them on’ or ‘dead of alive’ indicated to people that I was, you know, not a man of peace.“ – George Bush

55. “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.“ –George Bush’s parting words to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at his final G-8 Summit, punching the air and grinning widely as the two leaders looked on in shock, Rusutsu, Japan

56. “Although we weren’t able to shatter this highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it, and the light is shining through like never before.“ –Hillary Clinton

57. “I can’t begin this great effort without honoring the achievements of Geraldine Ferraro back in 1984, and of course, Senator Hillary Clinton who did show determination and grace in her presidential campaign. It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America, but thankfully as it turns out the women of America aren’t finished yet and the voters will shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.” – Sarah Palin in Pennsylvania during her second stop on the campaign trail as the Republican vice presidential candidate

58. “If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.“ – former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro

59. “I have to tell you that what I find is offensive is that everytime somebody says something about the campaign, you’re accused of being racist. Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?‘ – Geraldine Ferraro enjoying the tolerance of the Democratic party

60. If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context. That’s cruel, It’s mean-spirited. It’s immature. It’s unprofessional and those guys are jerks if they came away with it, taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It’s not fair, and it’s not right.” -Alaskan Governor and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin on whether or not she thought Africa was a “country”

61. “I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door. Show me where the open door is. Even if it’s cracked up a little bit, maybe I’ll plough right on through that and maybe prematurely plough through it, but don’t let me miss an open door.” -  Sarah Palin on running for president in 2012

62. “John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush
90 percent of the time. That’s not a maverick. That’s a sidekick.” - Senator Robert Casey Jr. in a speech at the Democratic National Convention

63. “Maybe a hundred…That would be fine with me.“ - John McCain, to a questioner who asked if he supported President Bush’s vision for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 50 years, Derry, New Hampshire, Jan. 3, 2008

64. “That wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I’m running for president. So thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude, and I want America to know I’m, like, totally ready to lead.” – Paris Hilton responding to John McCain’s ad comparing her to Barack Obama

65. “I think if you’re just talking about income, how about $5 million?“ - John McCain, after being asked by Rev. Rick Warren to define “rich,“ Lake Forest, California, Aug. 16, 2008

66. “I think—I’ll have my staff get to you. Its condominiums where—I’ll have them get to you.“—John McCain after being asked how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own, interview with Politico, Las Cruces, N.M.

67. “I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” -John McCain discussing his support of the Iraq troop surge at a town hall meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire

68. “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” - General Wesley Clark on Face the Nation questioning John McCain’s experience to be president

69. “Our enemies will test the new president early. Remember that the truck bombing of the World Trade Center happened in the first year of the Clinton administration. 9/11 happened in the first year of the Bush administration.” – Senator Joe Lieberman on Face the Nation describing why he thought John McCain would be better prepared in January 2009 to lead the nation

70. “I think it’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.” – John McCain in a conference call with bloggers discussing an endorsement of Barack Obama by Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Prime Minister of Hamas

71. “That old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran… bomb, bomb, bomb.” – John McCain at a town hall meeting in South Carolina singing Bomb Iran to the tune of Barbara Ann in response to a question about possible military action in Iran

72. “There was unqualified people in charge, there was a total misreading of the dimensions of the disaster, there was a failure of communications.”  - John McCain standing in New Orleans discussing a list of mistakes made by the White House in response to the Hurricane Katrina Disaster

73. “It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.” – McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb

74. “The court got this one right—but only by a 5-4 decision. Citizens of the United States of America [darn] near lost a critical God-given legal right to self-defense by one stinking vote. … Thanks to these three Supreme Court decisions, many conservatives may now feel compelled to return to the GOP flock, hold their noses REAL tight, and vote for John McCain in November.” – political consultant Chuck Muth

75. “This election is not about issues, this election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” - Rick Davis, McCain campaign manager

76. “This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin. For God’s sake, McCain, stop it. For once in this campaign, put your country first” – an apparently hysterical Andrew Sullivan

77. “If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me. Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.” - Joe Biden, addressing the National Guard about the time his helicopter had to make a landing due to a sudden snowstorm

78. “Mark my words.It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.” – Joe Biden

79. “Joe Biden wasn’t even on Barack Obama’s short list until August 7, when Russia suddenly invaded the neighboring country of Georgia. That’s the word from key Democrats meeting here in Denver who say the Obama campaign’s need to shore up its foreign policy bona fides helped push the Delaware senator to the top of the pack. ‘We didn’t pick our nominee. Vladimir Putin did,’ is how one Democrat, who professes to be pleased with the Biden choice, put it.” –  Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund

80. “Stand up, Chuck, let ‘em see ya.“ –-Joe Biden, to Missouri state Sen. Chuck Graham, who is in a wheelchair, Columbia, Missouri

81. “Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative…I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.” – John McCain’s confusing campaign tactic regarding the Wall Street Bailout

82. “Wall Street got drunk and now it’s got a hangover. And the question is how long will it sober up and not try to do those fancy financial instruments?“ - George Bush’s analysis of America’s financial services meltdown

83. “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse.” – President George Bush on corporate bailouts

84. “It’s not based on any particular data point, we just wanted to choose a really large number.“ - Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the US bailout, quoted on Forbes.com.

85. “Just because God created the world in seven days doesn’t mean we have to pass this bill in seven days.” -  Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas on the bailout

86. “It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in high hat and tuxedo. It kind of makes you a little bit suspicious.“ - Congressman Gary Ackerman, on the big three carmakers arriving in a private jet to beg the government for financial aid.

87. “I’m here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Huckabee or McCain]
get the nomination, it’s going to destroy the Republican Party, it’s going to change it forever, be the end of it.” - Rush Limbaugh on his radio show, January 15, 2008

88. “I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago….I want to know that, I really do, because she’s going to have the nuclear codes.” - Celebrity Matt Damon attempting to make a point and showing his ignorance of the role and power of the vice president

89. “That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He’s getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he—he dove for the floor.“ – Mike Huckabee after his speech to the National Rifle Association was interrupted by a loud noise

90. “It tastes like squirrel.” – Mike Huckabee on what squirrel tastes like

91. “It was the most memorable time of my life. It was a touching moment because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he’s gonna help me.” – Obama supporter Peggy Joseph at an Obama rally

92. “And guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be about socializing…uh, um… would be about, basically, taking over, and the government running all of your companies.” – Congresswoman Maxine Waters sharing her vision of free market principles if the oil companies didn’t lower prices

93. “Many of the indices for the GOP are dreadful, especially that they lost the vote of two-thirds of those aged 18 to 29. They lost a generation! If that continues in coming years, it will be a rolling wave of doom.” – Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan

94. “If you believe the left is tolerant, open-minded and democratic, you’re in for a rude awakening.” – columnist David Limbaugh

95. “In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, ‘We can’t drill our way out of this crisis.’ What does that mean? This is like telling a starving man, ‘You can’t eat your way out of being hungry!’ ‘You can’t water your way out of drought!’ ‘You can’t sleep your way out of tiredness!’ ‘You can’t drink yourself out of dehydration!’ Seriously, what does it mean? Finding more oil isn’t going to increase the supply of oil? It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race.”  – Ann Coulter

96. “They would prefer it if I would simply distance myself from my religion, say that it is more a tradition than my personal conviction, or disavow one or another of its precepts. That I will not do. I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers. I will be true to them and to my beliefs.” – Mitt Romney from his “Faith in America” speech

97. “The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave.“—Patrick Fitzgerald, attorney in Chicago, as Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is accused of trying to auction Barack Obama’s senate seat in return for favors

98. ”I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.” – Barack Obama, friend and ally of Gov. Blagojevich

99. “I should say if anybody wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly and notoriously. Those who feel like they want to sneakily and wear taping devices, I would remind them that it kind of smells like Nixon and Watergate.“ – Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich the Monday before his arrest on corruption charges

David Huntwork

Part I: http://americandaily.us/index.php/item/54

David Huntwork is a conservative activist and freelance columnist in Northern Colorado, where he lives with his wife and three daughters. You may view his bio and past columns at http://DavidHuntwork.tripod.com/

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