Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.
~ Frank Dane
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
~ Charles De Gaulle
He brings disaster upon is nation who never sows a seed, or lays a brick, or weaves a garment, but makes politics his occupation.
~ Kahlil Gibran
Sooner or later politics will be faced with the task of finding a new postmodern face. A politician must become a person again, someone who trusts not only scientific representation and analysis of the world, but also the world itself. He must believe not only in sociological statistics but also in real people. He must trust not only an objective interpretation of reality, but also his own soul; no only an adopted ideology, but also his own thoughts; not only the summary reports he receives each morning, but also his own feelings.
~ Vaclav Havel, in a speech at the World Economic Forum in 1995
Let us never sacrifice our principles for anybody’s politics – not now, not ever.
~ Mike Huckabee
If you truly wished to find out what is best for the country you would listen more to those who oppose you than those who try to please you.
~ Isocrates
The ballot is stronger than the bullet.
~ Abraham Lincoln
We learned once and for all that compromise makes a good umbrella but a por roof; that it is a temporary expedient, often wise in party politics, almost sure to be unwise in statesmanship.
~ James Russell Lowell
Being in politics is like being a football coach; you have to be smart enought to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it’s important.
~ Eugene McCarthy
A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
~ H. L. Mencken
All politics is local.
~ Tip O’Neill
In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man; if you want anything done, ask a woman.
~ Margaret Thatcher
After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.
~ Fred Thompson
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself.
~ Mark Twain
There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
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Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
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The aim of great books is ethical: to teach what it means to be a man. Every major form of literary art has taken for its deeper themes what T.S. Eliot called “the permanent things” – the norms of human action.
~ In Enemies of the Permanent Things (La Salle, IL: Sherwood Sugden and Co., 1984), page 41.
Without that Resurrection, which prefigures our own resurrection and life everlasting, one might as well turn again to the gods of the Greeks, or to Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca. The Resurrection is critical both to my personal faith and to the whole elaborate edifice called Christianity. It is now more rationally possible to believe in the Resurrection than it was in Saint Paul’s time.
~ Quoted in Nearer, My God by William F. Buckley, Jr. (NY: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1997), page 124.
Every right is married to a duty; every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility; and there cannot be genuine freedom unless there exists also genuine order, in the moral realm and in the social realm.
~ Russell Kirk, in Redeeming the Time (Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1996), page 33
The Naked Ape-theory of human nature, the “reductionist” notion of man as a breathing automaton, is reinforced by ignorance of literature’s moral imagination.
~ in in Redeeming the Time (Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1996), page 81
All things begin and end in mystery.
~ in in Redeeming the Time (Wilmington: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1996), page 83
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During the last 24 hours I have been asked no less than a couple dozen times what I think of John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin to be on the Republican ticket with him. I have no great insights into the selection (so you might want to stop reading now), but I share here four or five quick observations.
One of the great things about attending RightOnline and the Defending the American Dream Texas Summit was meeting lots of great bloggers. Check out the blogs of some of the neat people we met in Austin this weekend.
http://www.insideronline.org/blogarchive.cfm
http://wesbenedictforlnc.blogspot.com
http://prairiepundit.blogspot.com
We are on our way to Austin where my wife and I will be blogging the Defending the American Dream Texas Summit. It is being sponsored by some great organizations; Americans For Prosperity, The Sam Adams Alliance, RightOnline, etc.. And, there are some great speakers scheduled; Michael Steele, Grover Norquist, John Fund, Bob Barr, Michelle Malkin, etc. Come on back to the blog over the next few days as I share my thoughts on the experience. Or, go on over to Susan’s blog and get some more well thought out reflections on the event.
I was invited to attend the Republican Party of Texas Convention held last week in Houston. I was offered full media credentials to “blog the convention.” It would have been fun, but I didn’t have the time and energy to participate right now.
Although I could not personally attend, I have enjoyed reading what others have had to say. It seems that a video clip that was shown at the convention has prompted The Left to really get their panties in a bunch. They are cringing in horror about the Big John video put together by Senator John Cornyn’s staff to introduce him at the convention. It would seem that just like public policy, the left just doesn’t get it. The video was obviously what my dad used to call “a half jest.” For him, a half jest was something that sent a serious message but that was framed in a way that is sufficiently over the top so as to bring a smile to your face. Not humorous, but almost humorous — a half jest.
As a “half jest” this Cornyn video is brilliant. Check it out and let me know what you think.
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While the Republican primaries were in full swing, I heard talk radio hosts say some of the most inane things I have ever heard. Not that radio talk show hosts don’t say some pretty stupid things on a continuing basis, but these were things so outrageously idiotic that I would not expect them even from such people as Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levine (all of whom must be taken with about 32 grains of salt).
Among the many misstatements of fact and inconsistencies in reason were Read more
Who should John McCain select to be his running mate. The selection of a Vice President running mate has historically been a small factor in the success or failure of elections. However, I believe that the dynamics are different in this particular election such that the VP candidate will be absolutely crucial for both Republicans and Democrats.
In the video below Laura Ingraham discusses with Greta Van Susteren her preferences for who John McCain should ask to join him.
