Blast from the past


Dan Quayle

  • I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."

  • "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

  • "Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."

  • "Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts."

  • "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?" -- Vice President Dan Quayle when asked what he would do if he assumed the Presidency,1988

  • "I happen to be a Republican President, ah, the VIce President."

  • "What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

  • "The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

  • "One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'."

  • "Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."

  • "I deserve respect for the things I did not do."

  • "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."

  • "I would guess that there's adequate low-income housing in this country."

  • "The global importance of the Middle East is that it keeps the Near East and the Far East from encroaching on each other."

  • "May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope to the world." -- The Quayles' 1989 Christmas card. [When will be get to be a nation of literacy?]

  • "I have made good judgements in the Past. I have made good judgements in the Future."

  • "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." -- Vice President Dan Quayle, Hawaii, September 1989

  • "We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination of human rights."

  • "You all look like happy campers to me. Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you will always be." -- Vice President Dan Quayle, to the American Samoans, whose capital Quayle pronounces "Pogo Pogo"

  • "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."

  • "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change."

  • "It's rural America. It's where I came from. We always refer to ourselves as real America. Rural America, real America, real, real, America. "

  • "I not going to focus on what I have done in the past what I stand for, what I articulate to the American people. The American people will judge me on what I am saying and what I have done in the last 12 years in the Congress."

  • "I want to be Robin to Bush's Batman."

  • "We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have prevailed without them in 'Red Storm Rising' "

  • "..getting [cruise missiles] more accurate so that we can have precise precision." -- Vice President Dan Quayle referring to his legislative work dealing with cruise missiles

  • "[I will never have] another Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy, Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy Carter grain embargo." -- Vice President Dan Quayle during the Bentson debate

  • "Lookit, I've done it their way this far and now it's my turn. I'm my own handler. Any questions? Ask me ... There's not going to be any more handler stories because I'm the handler ... I'm Doctor Spin." -- Vice President Dan Quayle responding to press reports his aides having to, in effect, "potty train" him.

  • "The real question for 1988 is whether we're going to go forward to tomorrow or past to the -- to the back!"

  • "The future will be better tomorrow."

  • "We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world."

  • "People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."

  • "We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."

  • "This election is about who's going to be the next President of the United States! "

  • "I feel that this [1981] is my first year, that next year is an election year, that the third year is the midpoint and that the fourth year is the last chance I'll have to make a record since the last two years, I'll be a candidate again. Everything I do in those last two years will be posturing for the election. But right now I don't have to do that."

  • "We will invest in our people, quality education, job opportunity, family, neighborhood, and yes, a thing we call America."

  • "We'll let the sunshine in and shine on us, because today we're happy and tomorrow we'll be even happier."

  • "A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."

  • "When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame."

  • "For NASA, space is still a high priority."

  • "Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."

  • "It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

  • "[It's] time for the human race to enter the solar system."

  • "I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."

  • "Public speaking is very easy." -- Vice President Dan Quayle to reporters in 10/88


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