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"We offer the party as a big tent. How we do that (recognise the big tent philosophy) within the platform or whatnot, that remains to be seen. But that message will have to be articulated with great clarity."--Dan Quayle, Washington Post,
quoted in The Guardian, 10/10/91
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"You do the policy, I'll do the politics."--Dan Quayle, to an aide,
quoted in The Observer, 19/1/92
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"Let's ask ourselves, does America really need 70 per cent of the world's lawyers?"--Dan Quayle quoted in The Observer, 18/8/91,
(Dano being sensible? Well, he is a lawyer...)
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"Eight signs Dan Quayle is getting more respect:
- Tour groups no longer allowed to use his bathroom.
- Network news anchors no longer make quotation marks with fingers when they say 'The Vice President.'
- His confidential Secret Service code name now differs from his actual name.
- No longer gets newspapers after the White House puppies.
- Credibility soared when public found out he wasn't the captain of that Exxon tanker.
- Gets to use deep end in White House pool.
- People now tell him he's no Ted Kennedy.
- No longer has to wear paper hat saying, 'Trainee.'"
--from Late Night With Letterman,
quoted in The Guardian, 8/7/91
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"President Bush, demanding that Congress speed up confirmation hearings for his choice of CIA director, accused Sentate intelligence panel members of getting 'under the bush like a quail and hoping you don't get flushed out.'"--Simon Tidsall, The Guardian, 13/7/91
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"Vice President Quayle astounded his hosts at an Air Force Academy function with an after-dinner speech that was intelligent, light-hearted, and at times positively hilarious. Much rolling in the aisles and reassessment of his presidential chances ensued. Next day, still at the Academy, J. Danforth attended a memorial service for the Gulf dead, and delivered the same speech."--Tom Bussmann, Zeitgeist, Weekend Guardian, 13/7/91
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"Personally, I was ready to give Quayle the benefit of the doubt until I shook hands and looked into those blue eyes - 'like looking through a window,' as someone said."--The Guardian
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"The loss of life will be irreplaceable"--Dan Quayle,
in San Francisco after the '89 earthquake
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"Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here."--Dan Quayle, in Hawaii, September 1989
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"You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I'm concerned, happy campers you will always be."--Dan Quayle, Samoa, April 1989
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"El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans...I have heard a single voice..."--Dan Quayle, El Salvador, 1989
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"We expect [Salvadoran officials] to move toward the elimination of human rights."--Dan Quayle, El Salvador, 1989
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"Mars is essentially in the same orbit...somewhat the same distance from the sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."--Dan Quayle, on why America should send a mission to Mars,CNN, 18/11/89, Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 1 Number 2
A quick note - remember that Dano was at this
time in charge of the USA's's space program...
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"Japan is an important ally of ours. Japan and the United States of the Western industrialised capacity, 60 percent of the GNP, two countries. That's a statement in and of itself."--Dan Quayle, MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour, 2/10/89,
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 1 Number 2
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"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared.'"--Dan Quayle, Larry King Live, 6/12/89Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 1 Number 2
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"If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure."Dan Quayle,addressing the Phoenix Republican Forum, March 1990,
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 1 Number 2
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"On June 14 [1990], Quayle played golf in
Fort Wayne, Indiana. From the Indianapolis Star account:
'Perhaps the most sobering sight was the ever-present 'football,'
the black case that holds the codes necessary for Quayle to
properly instruct the military should he have to order such
action. The Air Force major guarding the codes...followed the
Vice President down the fairways and onto the greens, keeping the
codes that Quayle would use to order a nuclear attack.'"
"--The Quayle Quarterly, Volume, Volume 1
Number 3
"Teachers are the only profession that
teach our children."
"Dan Quayle, Washington Post, 19/9/90
"Speaking at the Society of Professional
Journalists convention in Louisviller, KY, Quayle was asked about
former KKK leader David Duke, who nearly won the senate race in
Louisiana. 'Unfortunately,' said Quayle, 'the people of Loiusiana
are not racists.' (San Francisco Chronicle, as reported
in the Weekly World News, 11/12/90)"
"--The Quayle Quarterly, Volume, Volume2 Number
1
"It was just a job...the attorney general
said that I would be best to go down there, because he knew I was
anti-consumer."
"--Dan Quayle,about his first job, in the consumer protection
divisionof the Indian attorney general's office,
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 2 Number 1
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or
not to have a mind. How true that is"
"--Dan Quayle
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"I stand my all my misstatements."
"--Dan Quayle
"The American people would not want to
know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make."
"--Dan Quayle, AP 11/4/91
"[The Persian Gulf war was] a stirring
victory for the forces of aggression against lawlessness."
"--Dan Quayle, AP, 11/4/91
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 2 Number 2
"The London Observer reported
that while on BBC television, Dan Quayle inadvertently revealed
the precise location of the U.S. Air Force's Stealth bomber base
in Saudi Arabia. Quayle visited the base over the new year, and
blurted its whereabouts in the course of a televised address to
te 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at Lakenheath, Suffolk. According
to the Observer, military secrecy and press restrictions
at the time Quayle made his blithe slip were 'so intense that
reporters in the Gulf [had], on occasion, been warned not to
mention some countries where allied forces were based.' (The
London Observer, 3/2/91)"
"--The Quayle Quarterly, Volume, Volume 2 Number
2
"I love California. I grew up in Phoenix,
Arizona."
"--Dan Quayle,The San Francisco Chronicle, 9/2/91
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 2 Number 2
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"No, I don't have to do things
differently. But I'm sure that there'll be a lot of unsolicited
advice, and since it's free and unsolicited, I have the privilege
of ignoring it with contempt."
"--Dan Quayle,on the possibility of his becoming president,USA
Today, 10/5/91,
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 2 Number 3
On President Bush being taken ill:
"When Dan Quayle became vice-president of the United States,
the most dreaded sentence in the English language was said to be
George Bush's complaining he didn't feel well. Suddenly, the joke
isn't funny."
"--Joe Haines, Daily Mirror
On President Bush being taken ill:
"Well, la-de-da-de-da, here we are just ambling along,
average goofy Americans without a thought in our heads,
and...'WHAT? PRESIDENT Quayle? OH, GOD, PLEASE, NO, NO, NO!' Get
real, folks."
"--The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, 8/5/91,
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 2 Number 3
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"You cannot, for a second, talk of a new world order and pretend that J. Danforth Quayle is the man most fitted to inherit it."--Guardian Leader, 6/5/91
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On President Bush's recovery from illness:
"President Bush is back in the White House and Americans have their fingers crossed."--The Flint Journal, 7/5/91,
Quoted in The Quayle Quarterly, Volume 2 Number 3
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On President Bush's recovery from illness, attributed in part to the prospect of Dan Quayle becoming President:
"Has medicine inadvertantly stumbled upon a cure for the scourge of heart disease, much in the same way that a bit of mould gave the world penicillin? Though comparing Dan Quayle to a bit of mould is unfair on the mould."--Weekend Guardian
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"Republications understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."--Dan Quayle
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"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change."--Dan Quayle
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"[The Holocaust was] an obscene period in our nation's history...this century's history...we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."--Dan Quayle
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"The U.S. has a vital interest in that part of the country."--Dan Quayle, on Latin America
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"It's rural America. It's where I come from. We always refer to ourselves as Real America. Rural America, real America, real, real America."--Dan Quayle
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"May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope to the world."--The Quayles's Christmas card (sic)
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"[I will never have] another Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy, Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy Carter grain embargo."--Dan Quayle, during the Bentson debate
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"Certainly, I know what to do, and when I am Vice President - and I will be - there will be contingency plans under different sets of situations and I tell you what, I'm not going to go out and hold a news conference about it. I'm going to put it in a safe and keep it there! Does that answer your question?"--Dan Quayle, 1988,when asked what he would do if he assumed the presidency
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"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."--Dan Quayle
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"The real question for 1988 is whether to go forward to tomorrow or past to the - to the back!"--Dan Quayle
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"We're going to have the best educated American people in the world."--Dan Quayle
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"This election is about who's going to be the next President of the United States."--Dan Quayle, 1988
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"It is lovely. There is so much to do."--Dan Quayle,
telling John Major about Camp David,quoted in The Guardian
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"In El Salvadore, he [Dan Quayle] said the US 'condoned torture.'"--the Observer magazine, January 1990
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"Some people spend a lot of time thinking:should I do this or should I do that? I don't."Dan Quayle, The Observer magazine, January 1990
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And now - Just a reminder, after that little lot, that (then US President) George Bush was almost as bad himself, when it came to public speaking. Could the mind behind these little gems go some way to explaining Dan Quayle after all?
President George Bush, on the environment:
"And I look out on - I'll give you a problem out on the Northwest. All across the country, we have a spotted owl problem. And yes, we want to see that furry little guy protected and all of that."
(quoted 30/1/92 by Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury)
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President George Bush on Faith:
"Somebody said to me, we prayed for you over there. That was not just because I threw up on the Prime Minister of Japan, either. Where was he when I needed him? I said, let me tell you something...And I say this - I don't know whether any ministers from the Episcopal Church are here - I hope so. But I said to him this: You're on to something here, you cannot be President of the United States if you don't have Faith...It's been great. I'll go back to Washington all fired up for tomorrow and tackle the President or the Prime Minister of This or the Governor of That coming in. But I'll have this heartbeat..."
(quoted by Garry Trudeau, Doonesbury, 1/2/92)
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"Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial and the civil war and all that stuff: You can't be, and we are blessed. So don't feel sorry for - don't cry for me, Argentina."
"--U.S. President George Bush,
On the campaign trail,
Dover, New Hampshire,
15th January, 1992,
Quoted in Doonesbury, 27/1/92, Garry Trudeau
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"I've got to run now and relax.
The Doctor told me to relax.
The Doctor told me to relax.
The Doctor told me.
He was the one.
He said: 'Relax.'"
"--President George Bush,
quoted by Simon Hoggart, the Observer, 17/5/92
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President George Bush, on the President's right to veto sections of Bills passed by Congress:
"I'm all for Lawrence Welk [a 50s TV bandleader]. Lawrence Welk is a wonderful man. He used to be, or was. Wherever he is now, bless him."(quoted by Simon Hoggart, The Observer, 15/3/92)
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"Somebody - somebody asked me, what's it take to win? I said to them, I can't remember, what does it take to win the Super bowl? Or maybe Steinbrenner, my friend George, will take us what it takes for the Yanks to win - one run. But I went over to the Strawberry Festival this morning, and ate a piece of shortcake over there - able to enjoy it right away, and once I completed it, it didn't have to be approved by Congress - I just went ahead and ate it - and that leads me into what I want to talk to you about today..."
--President George Bush, quoted by Simon Hoggart, Observer, 17/5/92
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"It's no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or the other."
"--President George Bush, quoted by Simon Hoggart, Observer, 17/5/92
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President George Bush, on extending some unemployment benefits:
"If a frog had wings he wouldn't hit his tail on the ground."
"(quoted by Simon Hoggart, The Observer, 2/2/92)
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"President Bush, demanding that Congress speed up confirmation hearings for his choice of CIA director, accused Sentate intelligence panel members of getting 'under the bush like a quail and hoping you don't get flushed out.'"
--Simon Tidsall, The Guardian, 13/7/91
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"I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. I'm president of the United States, and I'm not going to eat it [Broccoli] any more."
"--President George Bush, quoted in the Weekend Guardian
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"For seven and a half years I've worked alongside him, and I'm proud to be his partner. We've had triumphs. we've made mistakes, we've had sex...Setbacks...We've had setbacks..."
"--Presidential candidate George Bush,
speaking at the College of Southern Idaho in 1988.
(and Bush still got elected President...)
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I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions --but I don't always agree with them."George Bush, US President
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