“Over all, the poll found that if the election were held today, 53 percent of those determined to be probable voters said that they would vote for Mr. Obama and 39 percent said they would vote for Mr. McCain.”
Category: Best Line of the Day
Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
Redux line of the day
“Now when I try to watch there is so much scrolling and popping up that I can’t see the play on my television. I don’t care that LaDainian Tomlinson has two receptions for 8 yards in the first quarter of another game that I am not even watching.
“There’s a reason why people watch TV — because they don’t want to read.”
Comedian Lewis Black on “Inside the NFL” on HBO quoted via Sideline Chatter.
First posted here three years ago today.
Best headline of the day, so far
“Fact-Checking the Ayers Allegations: So Wrong, It’s ‘Pants on Fire’ Wrong”
CQ Politics has the facts. Their summary:
In short, this was a mainstream foundation funded by a mainstream, Republican business leader and led by an overwhelmingly mainstream, civic-minded group of individuals. Ayers’ involvement in its inception and on an advisory committee do not make it radical – nor does the funding of programs involving the United Nations and African-American studies.
This attack is false, but it’s more than that – it’s malicious. It unfairly tars not just Obama, but all the other prominent, well-respected Chicagoans who also volunteered their time to the foundation. They came from all walks of life and all political backgrounds, and there’s ample evidence their mission was nothing more than improving ailing public schools in Chicago. Yet in the heat of a political campaign they have been accused of financing radicalism. That’s Pants on Fire wrong.
Congressional Quarterly (CQ) has been considered one of the best, most objective sources on Washington and politics for more than 60 years.
Line of the day
“For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act.”
Stephen Branchflower, Report to the Legislative Council
Amen
“Every day, people are straying away from the Church and going back to God.”
Lenny Bruce, who was born on this date in 1925.
Most descriptive line of the day, so far
“Even the most hardened cynics find themselves continually surprised by the ability of Rove and his minions to always hit that evasive new low, coming up with things that would shock a 60-year-old Greyhound-station hooker.”
And the best analysis of the day, also from Taibbi:
Rove is not a genius, or even very clever: He’s totally and completely immoral. It doesn’t take genius to claim, as Rove ludicrously did last fall, that it was the Democrats in Congress and not George W. Bush who pushed the Iraq War resolution in 2002. It doesn’t take brains to compare a triple-amputee war veteran to Osama bin Laden; you just have to be a mean, rotten cocksucker.
The reason Rove continues to survive is the same reason that Johnnie Cochran was called a genius for keeping a double-murderer on the golf course — because this generation of Americans has become so steeped in greed and social Darwinism that it can no longer distinguish between cheating and achieving, between enterprise and crime, and can’t bring itself to criticize winners any more than it knows how to be nice to losers. He survives because an increasing number of Americans secretly agree with Rove’s vision of rules, laws and “the truth” as quaint, faintly embarrassing rituals that only a sucker would let hold him back.
Best line of the day
OK, NewMexiKen has decided to cut back on the political stuff somewhat, but I can’t pass on Gail Collins, from her terrific column today:
Remember how we used to joke about John McCain looking like an old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn? It’s only in retrospect that we can see that the keep-off-the-grass period was the McCain campaign’s golden era. Now, he’s beginning to act like one of those movie characters who steals the wrong ring and turns into a troll.
During that last debate, while he was wandering around the stage, you almost expected to hear him start muttering: “We wants it. We needs it. Must have the precious.”
Best line of the day, so far
The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.
David Brooks (of all people)
Unfortunately true best line of the day
“We are near total financial and corporate meltdown dude.”
New York University economist Nouriel Roubini to Felix Salmon, October 7th
Roubini has been one of the primary doomsayers leading into the current crisis. Alas, he’s been an accurate sayer too as it turns out.
Here’s what Roubini wrote today. Not for the faint of heart. The lead sentence:
“The US and advanced economies’ financial system is now headed towards a near-term systemic financial meltdown as day after day stock markets are in free fall, money markets have shut down while their spreads are skyrocketing, and credit spreads are surging through the roof.”
A best line of the day
“Ralph Nader attracted only 8 people to a campaign appearance at Dartmouth College.”
Best sense of how I feel T-shirt of the day
Most fascinating ‘how the world turns’ line of the day
“The coordinated rate cut was unprecedented and surprising. Never before has the Fed issued an announcement on interest rates jointly with another central bank, let alone five other central banks, including the People’s Bank of China.”
Best line of late night
“I like John McCain. He looks like the guy who thinks he’s the neighborhood sheriff, you know? One of those guys. ‘You better tie up those trash bags or we’re going to get raccoons.'”
David Letterman
Best catch line of the day
“I saw this on CNN early this morning. John Roberts was talking about the smear campaign, trying to do the equivalency dance, and actually said (I’m paraphrasing) ‘Obama is trying to tie McCain to the Keating Five’. Now, maybe I’m wrong, but isn’t that like saying John Lennon was ‘tied’ to the Beatles? He was a Beatle! John McCain WAS one of the Keating Five.”
Best lines of Monday night
And now we got like 28 more days and the campaign is getting ugly. Barack Obama called John McCain “erratic.” And in response to those charges, McCain responded by yelling, “Turn down that damn music!”
Are you excited about Sarah Palin? Well, yesterday she referred to Afghanistan as our neighboring country. Yeah. Apparently, she can see bin Laden’s cave from her house.
And now she’s going crazy, Sarah Palin. She is ready to go, she is saying now, “the heels are on, and the gloves are off.” And that’s the kind of thing that used to cost Eliot Spitzer a thousand bucks.
— David Letterman
Best line of the day, so far
“The times ahead will be tough, but at least we won’t have George Bush as President.”
Bob Woodward on Real Time with Bill Maher via Crooks and Liars.
Best line of the day, so far
“[W]ondering…what might be left of my 401k. I’m worried that it’s now a 301k.”
Embarracuda
“But what a desperate empty embarrassment the McCain campaign has become.”
Best line of the day, so far
“At Sarah Palin’s old church in Wasilla, they spoke in tongues. Maybe that’s where she picked it up.”
Best line of the day, so far
“McCain sprung his vice-presidential selection on us at the last minute, possibly under the impression that the country felt things had gotten too boring lately, and would appreciate the excitement of having a minimally experienced political unknown serving as backup to a 72-year-old cancer survivor.”
Best line of the day, so far
“[B]ut would somebody like to explain what in the name of pole-vaulting Jesus Tom DeLay was doing on Hardball the other night? Was it Take A Crook To Work Day? Folks, this greasy little homunculus is under indictment.”
Best line of the day, so far
“The important thing is that she opposes taxes that will hurt the umbrella of job creation while standing tall and fighting for a diverse family that rejects the white flag of surrenderdom.”
Best Groucho lines of the day, so far
Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx was born on this date in 1890.
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
“I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.”
“I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.”
“I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.”
“Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.”
“Room service? Send up a larger room.”
“I intend to live forever, or die trying.”
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them — well, I have others.”
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Best line of the day, so far
“Joe Biden will be judged on whether he gets anything wrong; Palin, on whether she gets anything right.”
Insightful line of the day
“We’re debating whether being part-time mayor of a small town in Alaska qualifies you to be president.”