I think that this place has its problems. What a shame. It was a good place when it first got going. Very friendly community. No longer. My mistake. I thought perhaps it was idiosyncratic. Folks were once quite nice.
Nancy Pelosi has inspired me to write down what I consider to be the top ten political gaffes during the time I have been following politics (roughly since 1972):
1. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. Jimmy Carter, July 15, 1979 (the malaise speech).
2. It depends on what the meaning of the word is is. Bill Clinton, August 17, 1998 (grand jury testimony).
3. I am the decider. George W. Bush (in a television interview, when ask if he was in fact the walrus).
4. I am not a crook. Richard Nixon, November 17, 1973.
5. The CIA lied to me. Nancy Pelosi, May 15, 2009.
6. There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration . . . [Poland] is independent, autonomous; it has its own territorial integrity. Gerald Ford, October 1976 (second Presidential debate).
7. No new taxes. George H.W. Bush, Republican National Convention, August 1988.
8. Peace in our time. Neville Chamberlain, 1938. (Ok, its neither in my lifetime, nor a statement by an American politician, but it is about the most boneheaded political statement of all time.)
9. I am in control, here, at the White House. Alexander Haig, March 1981.
10. I am opposed to the death penalty. Michael Dukakis, second Presidential debate, 1988.
Brilliant one-liners:
1. When I came here tonight, I promised myself I would not make my opponents youth and inexperience an issue in this debate. Ronald Reagan, second Presidential debate, 1984.
2. There you go again. Ronald Reagan, Presidential debate with Jimmy Carter, 1980.
3. Wheres the beef? Fritz Mondale in the democratic primaries on opponent Gary Hart.
4. I didnt know Ted Kennedy could swim. Unknown source, 1971.
Nancy Pelosi has inspired me to write down what I consider to be the top ten political gaffes during the time I have been following politics (roughly since 1972):
1. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America. Jimmy Carter, July 15, 1979 (the malaise speech).
2. It depends on what the meaning of the word is is. Bill Clinton, August 17, 1998 (grand jury testimony).
3. I am the decider. George W. Bush (in a television interview, when ask if he was in fact the walrus).
4. I am not a crook. Richard Nixon, November 17, 1973.
5. The CIA lied to me. Nancy Pelosi, May 15, 2009.
6. There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration . . . [Poland] is independent, autonomous; it has its own territorial integrity. Gerald Ford, October 1976 (second Presidential debate).
7. No new taxes. George H.W. Bush, Republican National Convention, August 1988.
8. Peace in our time. Neville Chamberlain, 1938. (Ok, its neither in my lifetime, nor a statement by an American politician, but it is about the most boneheaded political statement of all time.)
9. I am in control, here, at the White House. Alexander Haig, March 1981.
10. I am opposed to the death penalty. Michael Dukakis, second Presidential debate, 1988.
Brilliant one-liners:
1. When I came here tonight, I promised myself I would not make my opponents youth and inexperience an issue in this debate. Ronald Reagan, second Presidential debate, 1984.
2. There you go again. Ronald Reagan, Presidential debate with Jimmy Carter, 1980.
3. Wheres the beef? Fritz Mondale in the democratic primaries on opponent Gary Hart.
4. I didnt know Ted Kennedy could swim. Unknown source, 1971.