Elizabeth Drew Quotes
The … most important thing that happens in a debate is a candidate delivering an effective one-liner. Now, we all know, or should know, that the one-liner has most likely been proposed by the candidate's advisers and that it's been rehearsed. It has all the spontaneity of a can of tuna. And it has nothing to do with governing. It's nice if a president is clever, but that's not required
Elizabeth Drew, “Don't base your vote for president on a debate”, The Washington Post, September 25, 2016
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Dr. Sovern played Ronald Regan in the debate preparation of Walter Mondale
Dr. Sovern played Ronald Regan in the debate preparation of Walter Mondale
He was one of the very few American politicians who could truthfully make that statement.
For the first time a woman was running for the presidency and she had a large following. However, there were still many who saw women as too emotional to be in leadership positions. Sarkozy did not want to anger many egalitarian French voters by appearing to be a sexist and attack a woman’s generic ability to lead. However, he cleverly waited for a moment in the debate where his opponent was particularly passionate about something. He gently chided her about it and she took the bait and very passionately and excitedly said that she had a right and obligation to be passionate about issues that affected millions of French lives. But as she did so she grew ever more passionate and forceful. Then Sarkozy struck with this quotation. The impression that the audience was left with is that Royal was a good woman who was properly concerned with issues but was just not ready for such a high position and did not quite have the demeanor that was needed for the Presidency. Sorkozy won the election the following week.
Adlai Stevenson had just finished a particularly good speech at the University of Texas.
He was the first Jewish White House Chief of Staff serving Ronald Reagan.
Ryan told the national audience that President Obama had come to a factory in his district that as rumored to be closed. Obama had told the workers that the Federal government could assist and keep the factory open for many years. Then as Ryan explained, the factory closed the following year. He gave this as an example of Obama not keeping his word. However what Ryan did not say was that Obama had made the speech at the factory when he was a candidate for the Presidency, and then the factory was closed while George W. Bush was President and by the time he took office, the closure was done and the factory machines gone. And when Obama took office, our national economy was within days of complete bank and finance collapse. Obama saved most of the banks and then the American automobile industry. To suggest that Obama could have or should have done something for the factory that closed was shockingly misleading. It would have been a minor issue if some party hack had lied and made the same accusation. But this was the Vice Presidential Candidate whose acceptance speech was assumedly vetted by the Presidential Candidate’s staff. That is why the quotation was so memorable.
Expert and political opinion is divided on this view. Kennedy himself did not hold it. His first year in the White House was a triumph of oratory, but he felt privately that he had failed thus far in his Presidency.
Governor Cuomo happens to be an accomplished orator and very glib.
Lame was not opposed to civil rights as some who read this quotation sometimes conclude. He did think that much of the lack of success of minorities in America could be ameliorated by many self-improvement and individual efforts. His reference to destroying America, was an interesting rhetorical technique of assuming that what you advocate is not implemented and showing that it leads to disaster. Phrased this way, it gets and focuses the attention of an audience.
_0_PostageStamp_47x47.jpg "Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen gives an interview to John Dickerson during the CBS news program Face the Nation in Washington, D.C., July 5, 2009. During the interview, Mullen discussed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, North Korea's recent missile tests and his recent visit to Russia. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy/Released)"){kind=small}
Elizabeth Drew is an American political journalist and author.
