Political Chat
by Bob Chieger


1. "I don't know what sort of president he'd make.   He talks and talks and talks.   He'd make a helluva wife."
    -- Groucho Marx describing Hubert Humphrey.

2. "Remember his slogan, 'In your heart you know he's right'; the implication being that your head tells you he's way off base."
    -- Dick Cavett on Barry Goldwater.

3. "It's all those famous sayings that he uses from Lincoln and Shakespeare and people like that.   I want you to find me a lot of new trite sayings I can use in my speeches."
    -- Lyndon Johnson referring to John F. Kennedy.

4. "He is a genuine original. Or at least he was before he got elected.   God only knows what he is now."
    -- Hunter Thompson talking about Jimmy Carter.

5. "She knows nothing, apparently, but that doesn't mean she won't talk."
    -- Deep Throat on Martha Mitchell.

6. "He would have defied a few people. He would have scared them to death.   He has a file on everybody."
    -- Richard Nixon referring to J. Edgar Hoover.

7. "It is necessary to investigate before legislating. But the line between investigation and persecuting is a very fine one, and he has stepped over it repeatedly."
    -- Edward R. Murrow on Joseph McCarthy.

8. "I hear that whenever anyone in the White House tells a lie, he gets a royalty."
    -- Johnny Carson on Richard Nixon.

9. "He was the last president who spoke clear, plain English.   When he hired a man he called him a 'good man' -- not the greatest or the best, as Nixon would have."
    -- Eugene McCarthy describing Harry Truman.

10. "He is California's way of celebrating the Year of the Child."
    -- Jimmy Carter talking about Jerry Brown.

11. "He had an extraordinary ability to put public issues into simple language.   ... Today, I still meet people who tell me they miss his voice in their living rooms."
    -- Eleanor Roosevelt on Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

12. "I am not sure that he believes all the poison that he preaches, but he is artful enough to convince others that he does."
    -- Martin Luther King describing George Wallace.

13. "He steps out of the pages of Reader's Digest. He's not mean, he keeps on smiling, and he has no capacity for complexities.   He's as direct as Donald Duck."
    -- Richard L. Strout ("TRB") on Ronald Reagan.

14. "He remains the liveliest reminder of our time that there are admirable reasons for failing to be president."
    -- Alistair Cooke referring to Adlai Stevenson.

Send any comments or questions to: David Pleacher