“[B]ecause of low expectations, Sarah Palin need only get through tonight’s debate without accidentally endorsing Obama in order to be successful.”
Category: Best Line of the Day
Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
Two best lines
“1) Given that Palin is now personally responsible for saving Katie Couric’s job, is there any kickback scheme in the offing?”
. . .
“3) Do we really know whether or not Sarah Palin is Sacha Baron Cohen’s greatest role?”
Best summing up line of the day, so far
“This guy [Obama] is the furthest thing imaginable from an extremist; McCain, by his own admission, is the bomb-thrower in this race.”
Strangest line of the day, so far
“Sales of new homes fall to a 17-year low in August, government data show, raising further concern about conditions in the housing industry.”
Hello. Further concerns!?!? Housing?!?!
That makes as much sense as “The fact that President Kennedy was shot through the head in 1963 and would be 91 years old in 2008 raised further concerns that he was dead.”
What Do U.S. Oil Production and Mick Jagger Have in Common?
“They both peaked in the late 1960’s.”
Best line of the day, so far
“[N]otwithstanding McCain’s puffed-up and vainglorious claims to have suspended his campaign to go to Washington and destroy the giant meteor hurtling toward earth save the economy.”
Tar and feathers would also work
It may be that this bailout is necessary to stabilize the economy — but someone’s going to have to be held accountable.
We need more stocks — not the financial instruments, but those things where people are clamped in place and exhibited on the public square.
Best line this morning
“Interest rates on Treasury bills this morning: incredibly low on one-month, negative on three-month bills. This didn’t even happen in the Great Depression.
“Professionally, I’m fascinated. As a citizen, I’m terrified.”
Best line yesterday
“And today is Sept. 17. This is Constitution Day, or, as the Bush Administration calls it, Wednesday.”
Jay Leno
The Investor’s Creed
Bulls make money.
Bears make money.
Pigs get slaughtered.
Best self incriminating line of the day, so far
“The point is, I was chairman of the commerce committee. Every part of America’s economy, I oversighted. I have a long record, certainly far more extensive of being involved in our economy than Senator Obama does.”
Senator John McCain today.
Holy liquidation, Batman, does he even know what he’s saying any more?
The very best line of the day
“If the security of our financial system had been Senator McCain’s number one issue, would he have chosen a spunky mom from Jersey City because, from her window, she could see Wall Street?”
Best line of the morning
“But you can only get away with parroting McCain surrogate talking points for so long before people start laughing at you and asking you to become an Amway distributor.”
Best line summing up Monday
“More than 200 years after it was born at the base of a buttonwood tree, Wall Street as we have known it is ceasing to exist.”
Carrick Mollenkamp and Mark Whitehouse in The Wall Street Journal.
Best line of the night (from Tuesday’s newspapers)
“Democracy is not average people selecting average leaders. It is average people with the wisdom to select the best prepared.”
Best line of the day, so far
“I could walk from here to Lansing, and I wouldn’t run into a single person who thought our economy was doing well, unless I ran into John McCain…”
Joe Biden
Best line of the day, so far
I have had a strong and a long relationship on national security, I’ve been involved in every national crisis that this nation has faced since Beirut, I understand the issues, I understand and appreciate the enormity of the challenge we face from radical Islamic extremism.
I am prepared. I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training.
I wasn’t a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn’t a governor for a short period of time.
— John McCain, Republican debate, October 21, 2007
Best line of the day, so far
“General Petraeus kept saying, ‘Things are going to be worse before they get better.’ . . . He wasn’t trying to sell anything. He was very adamant about telling it like it is: ‘Don’t put lipstick on the pig.’”
From “The General’s Dilemma” in last week’s New Yorker. Quoting Petraeus is his executive officer, Peter Mansoor.
Best line of the day, so far
“[I]f the mainstream press were a detective it would say ‘Well, a lot of people commit crimes’ as John McCain walked past with his hands covered in blood.”
I Do Kind of Like That Sarah Palin
Well, anyway, everybody’s out there campaigning. And today, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sen. John McCain was there with Sarah Palin. And they were having lunch at a diner, and I thought this was so sweet. She was cutting his meat for him.
McCain was sitting there at the counter, wearing his Diamondbacks baseball cap, muttering about hippies.
John McCain is old. In fact, he is so old that his blood type has been discontinued.
I do kind of like that Sarah Palin. She looks like the flight attendant who won’t give you a second can of Pepsi. “No, you’ve had enough. We’re landing.”
Sarah Palin looks like the waitress at the coffee shop who draws a little smiley face on your check.
— David Letterman
Today, Barack Obama took his daughters to their first day of school, which was sweet. And in a related story, John McCain took his daughters to pick up their Social Security checks.”
Experts say that since Sarah Palin became the vice presidential nominee, there’s been an actual spike in the sales of her style of eyeglasses. … Yeah, with Palin’s glasses, you’ll be able to see everything, except what the hell your teenage daughter’s up to.
— Conan O’Brien
Another good line from Senator Clinton
“Asking the Republicans to clean up the mess they made is like asking the iceberg to save the Titanic.”
Best line of the day, so far
“To slightly amend my comments from Denver – no way, no how, no McCain, no Palin.”
Hillary Clinton in Florida today.
Loses a certain rhythmic quality this way, but I like the thought.
Best line of the day, so far
I’m finding the Republican attempts to derail the conversation from the actual state of the country really depressing and disgraceful this year. They practice Orwellian politics of the crudest sort. They are trying to sell a big lie–that the election is about the social issues of the 1960s, or Barack Obama’s patriotism or his eloquence, or the “angry left,” when it’s really about turning toward a more moderate path after the ideological radicalism and malfeasance of the past eight years.
If you’re on-board with what the GOP is doing, fine — but at least admit it to yourself.
But as for NewMexiKen, their America is not the America I live in.
Two best lines
Two best lines from Charles Pierce:
The other night, I heard John King on CNN earnestly explaining to me the difference between “Wal-Mart Moms,” “Soccer Moms,” and “Hockey Moms.” Basically, it caused me to wonder why smart women don’t just go around to the cable news outlets explaining things with Louisville Sluggers. As Alison Porchnik says to Alvy Singer in Annie Hall, “No, I love being reduced to a cultural stereotype.”
Worst visual of the convention: watching the Palin family hand baby Trig down the line every time the camera went on. They could teach something to the U.S. 4X100 relay teams, I’ll tell you that.
Never thought of it that way before
“The thing about nuclear bombs and hand grenades and hurricanes is that close counts.”
Mark Goodman, emergency management director, North Carolina’s Onslow County, to The Jacksonville Daily News.