2012 Presidential Debates Quotes

Having an energy conversation without talking about climate is like talking about smoking and not talking about cancer. ~ Chris Hayes

One of the most critical strengths of a superior competitor in any discipline - whether we are speaking about sports, business negotiations, or even presidential debates - is the ability to dictate the tone of the battle. ~ Josh Waitzkin

The Commission on Presidential Debates must be replaced if we want to have a democracy in this country. ~ John B. Anderson

You want to know whether we're better off? I've got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! ~ Joe Biden

Mitt Romney has won the 2012 presidential nomination by promising Republicans that he would end a so-called 'culture of dependency' on welfare - welfare defined as 'free stuff' and food stamps for poor folks, not tax breaks for Big Oil or tax shelters for Bain executives. ~ Christine Pelosi

The 2012 presidential campaign's turn away from the classic, straight-up, American election - where the candidate who gets the most votes nationwide wins - is another sad reminder of the extreme political polarization distorting today's politics. No one talks about a 50-state strategy for winning the presidency these days. ~ Juan Williams

Acceptance speeches can make or break presidential candidacies. It was Al Gore's 2000 acceptance speech that relaunched his candidacy and nearly saved him. John Kerry's speech and overall ineffective convention nearly sank him in 2004 (though he was almost saved by the debates). ~ Chuck Todd

Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit. The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. ~ Joe Biden

The world of TV debates is antiquated. What looked smart and modern in 1960, with Kennedy versus Nixon, looks quaint and over-rehearsed between Obama and Romney. We need a new format; even if we have the same moderators and candidates, there needs to be a more nuanced way for audiences to connect with and shape presidential debates. ~ Ruzwana Bashir

These are party-sanctioned debates. This is a presidential election, you show up at the debates. These are the rules. We have a series of unwritten rules of how campaigns are run, and everybody has followed those rules consistently over the decades. And no one has really even seriously thought about breaking them. ~ Ryan Grim

Al Gore adopted three utterly different personas in three national presidential debates. ~ Rich Lowry

The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. ~ Barack Obama

As someone who is in awe and grateful every day to be in a country where freedom of the press, free speech and free elections are a way of life, I am wowed, amazed and excited by the opportunity to moderate a 2012 presidential debate. ~ Candy Crowley

[O]nce demagogy and falsehoods become routine, there isn't much for the political journalist to do except handicap the race and report on the candidate's mood. ~ George Packer

or the need for a Trump 2012 presidential campaign ("This is what I've been waiting for my whole life, a president who's not afraid to tell the truth about being a lying asshole!"), ~ Chris Smith

I had hoped that the current presidential campaign debates might educate the public as to what is really involved in the ongoing controversy over campaign financing. ~ James L. Buckley

The author's alliterative description of politics since the 1960 presidential debates: "Government by Gotcha". ~ David Pietrusza

Presidential election results in 2008 and 2012 clarified that talk radio was not, in fact, running the country. ~ Timothy Noah

The weak economy, widening income inequality, gridlock in Congress and a presidential election: Those were perhaps the dominant economic and political themes of 2012. ~ Steven Rattner

For those suggesting criticisms of drone kills should wait until the election: that'd be reasonable if he stops killing until the election. ~ Glenn Greenwald

We also have to consider the many different kinds of rape we have learned about over the past few years as conservative politicians blunder through trying to explain their stances on sexual violence and abortion.

For instance, Indiana treasurer Richard Mourdock, running for the US Senate in 2012, said, in a debate, "I struggled with it myself for a long time, and I realized that life is a gift from God, and I think even when life begins int hat horrible situation of rape, that is something God intended to happen." I've been obsessing over these words, and trying to understand how someone who purports to believe in God can also believe that anything born of rape is God-intended. Just as there are many different kinds of rape, there are many different kinds of God. I am also reminded that women, more often than not, are the recipient of God's intentions and must also bear the burdens of these intentions.

Mourdock is certainly not alone in offering up opinions about rape. Former Missouri representative Todd Akin believes in "legitimate rape" and the oxymoronic "forcible rape," not to be confused with all that illegitimate rape going on. Ron Paul believes in the existence of "honest rape," but turns a blind eye to the dishonest rapes out there. Former Wisconsin State representative Roger Rivard believes some girls, "they rape so easy." Lest you think these new definitions of rape are only the purview of men, failed Senate candidate Linda McMahon of Connect ~ Roxane Gay

If we take into account that women have had the right to vote only for some 100 years - in some countries even less - and that we have already won seats in governments or presidential offices, I understand that men look at this rise with some anxiety. ~ Dalia Grybauskaite

I have often been accused of being obtuse, however one must dig well below the top-soil to get my drift".

~R. Alan Woods [2012] ~ R. Alan Woods

Absolute freedom of the press to discuss public questions is a foundation stone of American liberty. ~ Herbert Hoover

SN: how's your day, Ms. Holmes?

Me: Not bad. Yours?

SN: good. been doing my homework in listicle form, because, you know, anything to make it more interesting.

Me: Do you think college will actually be better? For real?

SN: hope so. but then again, I just read about a guy who lost a ball in a frat hazing incident.

Me: Seriously? What is wrong with people?

SN: can you imagine wanting to be liked so badly that you'd give up one of your testicles?

Me: I can neither imagine having testicles nor giving one up.

SN: you won't let me use emojis, but an 'i heart my testes' one would be appropriate right about now.

Me: You know what I heart? Nutella. And pajama pants. And an awesomesauce book. Not necessarily in that order, but together.

SN: awesomesauce? 2012 texted and wants its word back. btw, do you eat the Nutella right out of the jar with a spoon?

Me: Used to. Now I share a kitchen with the Others, so I can't. Wanted to label it, but my dad said that would be rude. ~ Julie Buxbaum

Here is the thing, though, the real, true thing I still have trouble admitting: I can't protect you from everything...I can't protect you from spending a lifetime caught between the beautiful dream of a diverse nation and the complicated reality of one. I can't even protect you from the simple fact that sometimes, the people who love us will choose a world that doesn't. ~ Mira Jacob

As you know, the separation of church and state is not subject to discussion or alteration. Under our Constitution no church or religion can be supported by the U.S. Government. We maintain freedom of religion so that an American can either worship in the church of his choice or choose to go to no church at all. ~ Richard M. Nixon

A million dollars in the presidential election is a spit in the ocean. It's not a lot of money. ~ Kenneth Langone

I heard this today and I thought this was fascinating and interesting. President Bush has two daughters, two beautiful daughters, and they may work on their father's presidential campaign after they get out of college and I thought, well, that's a pretty good move because in this economy, they won't be able to find real jobs. ~ David Letterman

We ... joked a little about presidential portraits. He [Bill Clinton] told me that he and Harrison Ford had been joking recently about how chins drop with age, and he didn't want to look that way. ~ Nelson Shanks

I feel like God wants me to run for president. I can't explain it, but I sense my country is going to need me. Something is going to happen. I know it won't be easy on my family, but God wants me to do it. ~ George W. Bush

Some people think the world will end in 2012. I think we've got until 2014. I'm an optimist. ~ Garry Shandling

I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the preceding year, I had form'd most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which we called the JUNTO; we met on Friday evenings. The rules that I drew up required that every member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss'd by the company; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Access to presidential materials should be as wide as possible. ~ Robert Dallek

Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening. ~ William J. Clinton

He'll come around. He's just shy." "Maybe I should lie down on a table in the workroom and wait to see if he welds something to me." "I think that's the way most great love stories begin."
Bardugo, Leigh (2012-06-05). Shadow and Bone (The Grisha) (p. 190). Henry Holt and Co. (BYR). Kindle Edition. ~ Leigh Bardugo

Institutions that adopt systems and use them in certified ways in 2011 and 2012 could getting about $50,000 per doctor in total payments by being meaningful users of certified EHR technology over the period from 2011 to 2016. ~ Fred Trotter

But did you know that during the past quarter century, no presidential election has been won by more than ten million ballots cast? Yet every federal election during the same time period had at least one hundred million people of voting age who did not bother to vote! ~ Andy Andrews

I have always thought that all philosophical debates are ultimately between the partisans of structure and the partisans of goo. ~ Alan W. Watts

Political consultants are pugilists, masters in the dark art of negativity. Which is why it's surprising to hear Democrats such as Steve McMahon and Republicans like Rich Galen urging their presidential candidates to be more, well, positive. ~ Ron Fournier

Listening to the debates about public schools on the Christian Right, one hears plenty of opposing opinions and a great deal of confusion. Some want to change the schools, others want to leave them. But the smart money seems to know what it is doing. It provides support for programs like the Good News Club, which slowly erode the support for public education in the country at large and in their own constituency in particular. And then it lays the groundwork for dismantling public education in favor of a private system of religious education funded by the state. ~ Katherine Stewart

In 2012, an estimated 14,827 persons were murdered in the United States.
-- Federal Bureau of Investigation ~ Gennaro F. Vito

The emigrants although of different parties and different religious sects all flew from persecution in pursuit of liberty. ~ James Monroe

Four years in the White House and two presidential campaigns is an awful long time. In politics, every year in the White House is like dog years, six years off your life. ~ George Stephanopoulos

In the second and third debates the jacket has a generally padded shape across a large part of the entire back which tapers inward toward the spine in a downward direction. ~ Robert Nelson

Think of social media as the Internet. I can't think of anyone betting against the Internet in 2012. ~ Gary Vaynerchuk

From the 12th Congressional District Hopeful William Jefferson Clinton during the Nixon investigations.
I wanted to share some information I've turned up regarding two of your Clinton quotes. ~ Keith Richards

The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth. ~ William J. Clinton