I saw an ad on the internets a little while ago. It asked “What would you say to the next president.”
I’d say “Aloha.”
Category: Best Line of the Day
Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
Best line of the night, so far
“With Rudy’s speech, to riff on the brilliance of the immortal Molly Ivins, I think I preferred this speech in the original German.”
Best line of the day since the previous best line of the day
“Yesterday, the New Kids on the Block canceled their outdoor concert on the ‘Today’ show because Hurricane Gustav struck Louisiana. Victims of the hurricane are describing it as ‘totally worth it.'”
Conan O’Brien
Best line of the day, so far
“Well in 1984, Sarah Palin came in second in the Miss Alaska Beauty Pageant. Now she could be vice president of the United States. So for the first time in history, a beauty pageant contestant might actually bring about world peace.”
Jay Leno
Best line of the campaign, so far
All across America there are quiet storms taking place. There are lives of quiet desperation. People who need just a little bit of help. Now, Americans are a self-reliant people, we’re an independent people. We don’t like asking somebody else to do what we can do ourselves but you know what we understand is that every once in a while somebody’s going to get knocked down. Every once in a while somebody’s going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it tragedy may strike. And what has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation, that values and family, community and neighborhood, they have to express themselves in our government. Those are national values. Those are values that we all subscribe to. And so that the spirit that we extend today and in the days to come as we monitor what happens on the Gulf that’s the spirit that we’ve got to carry with us each and every day. That’s the spirit that we need in our own homes and it’s the spirit that we need in the White House. And that’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America.
Because if there’s a poor child out there, that’s my child. If there’s a senior that’s having trouble, that’s my grandparent. If there’s a guy who’s lost his job, that’s my brother. If there’s a woman out there without healthcare, that’s my sister. Those are the values that built this country. Those are the values we are fighting for.
Barack Obama, Milwaukee, September 1, 2008
Best line of the day, so far
“McCain has been running for president for ten years! Ten years! He has had ten years to do due diligence on His running mate! Yet here we are!”
Best line of September, so far (but there should be many to come)
“McCain’s selection of the first secessionist VP candidate since Jefferson Davis tapped Alexander Stephens”
Best line of the morning
“In England, an elderly Swedish tourist lay down on the luggage conveyor belt, after her suitcase, believing that was how she was told to board her plane. Confused? Or prophetic?”
Best line of the day, so far
“I’ve heard of trophy brides before, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard of a trophy vice presidential candidate.”
NewMexiKen
Best line ever
“Republicans talk about putting ‘country first,’ but tell that to Marion, Indiana. They sent my job overseas. America can’t afford more of the same. We need a president who puts the Barney Smiths before the Smith Barneys.”
Marion, Indiana, resident and former Republican Barney Smith
Best line of the evening, so far
“John McCain may pay hundreds of dollars for his shoes, but we’re the ones who’ll pay for his flip-flops.”
Governor Bill Richardson
Best line of the day, so far
“There is a middle class in this country for one reason and only one reason: the union movement.”
Senator Joe Biden
Best line of the day, so far
“I love to watch people who can do something really well. You love to see a homerun hitter hit a homerun. You like to see Michael Phelps swim. Bill Clinton knows how to make a political speech.”
Bob Schieffer, CBS
Best line of the night, so far
“No way. No how. No McCain.”
Senator Hillary Clinton
Where do I get the bumper sticker made?
And the lines keep on coming
“John McCain calls himself a maverick, but he votes with George Bush more than 90% of the time…that’s not a maverick, that’s a sidekick.”
Best line of the evening, so far
“Barry Goldwater ran for president, and he lost. Mo Udall ran for president, and he lost. Bruce Babbit ran for president, and he lost. For this next election, that’s one Arizona political tradition I’d like to see continue.”
Best line of the day
“Barack Obama could cure cancer and [Fox News would] figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster.”
Jon Stewart quoted at Altercation.
Two best lines from The Daily Howler
We love it when Dems know enough to mention people who work on “the day shift” and “the night shift”—and “military families, who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table.” (On Saturday, Biden specifically cited the “cops” and the “firefighters.”) We love it when Dems know enough to say: We know what real people really do.
But let’s get back to those families. Forget Obama’s Kenyan father; even on his mother’s side, his personal story is very unusual in the American presidential context. No one has ever run for president talking about a decent, lovely, sweet-natured mother who spent years doing doctoral work in anthropology in Indonesian villages. Many American voters have never known anyone remotely like that ….
Best redux line of the day
The truth is that there’s no difference in principle between saying that every American child is entitled to an education and saying that every American child is entitled to adequate health care. It’s just a matter of historical accident that we think of access to free K-12 education as a basic right, but consider having the government pay children’s medical bills “welfare,“ with all the negative connotations that go with that term.
Paul Krugman, first posted here one year ago today.
Of course, Krugman overlooks the fact that many on the right would eliminate public schools as well.
Best line of the morning
Back in 2004 the media were obsessed with the idea that if the Dems showed any negativity about Bush they’d be doooooooooooooooomed.
Now they’re obsessed with the idea that the Dems aren’t showing enough negativity.
Whatever.
Best line of the Olympics, so far
“Pete McEntegart of SI.com, on Olympic sprint sensation Usain Bolt: ‘He’s so fast, he’s literally invisible to American viewers until 13 hours after he finishes.'”
Best line of the day, so far
At FunctionalAmbivalent, Tom feels he could do a “viciously satirical blog” just with comments from Squidley (who used to lurk around these parts too).
Here is Tom’s example of Squidley’s insight:
“Many Americans feel, for reasons that have nothing to do with racism™, that a black man is an inappropriate choice for POTUS.”
Best line of the day
From the Borowitz Report:
Biden Prepares 50,000-Word Acceptance Speech
Senator to Address Convention on Wednesday, Thursday
Maybe we overlooked Mitt Romney
Not for President. Egad, no.
But for husband of the First Lady. I like her style. According to Mitt:
“I asked Ann, my wife, ‘Did you ever in your wildest dreams believe I would be running for President?’ She told me, ‘You weren’t in my wildest dreams.’”
Best line of Friday evening
Would President McCain have handled the Georgia-Russian thing as well as Bush:
“It’s hard to know since he’s a corrupt, pandering politician who is clearly willing to do anything to get elected, but if we take him at his word, we’d have to assume that we’d have declared war on Russia.”
“I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed. 20-30 million tops…”