Chris Matthews famous quotes

I'm so glad we had that storm last week.
-- Chris Matthews

#Storm #Lasts #Week

We in America count on the profit motive to get people to do the right thing. That's our basic American notion when it comes to business.
-- Chris Matthews

#America #People #Profit

America's the one country in the world where anybody who comes here does better than where they came from.
-- Chris Matthews

#Country #America #Doe

I think we all [americans] think we're a special country. But the question is, what - what call does that give us?
-- Chris Matthews

#Country #Thinking #Giving

I look back to the Great Depression, and what Roosevelt was able to do in very difficult times, to get Social Security through back in the time when it was seen as - well, it wasn't what it is today. It was sort of a last-ditch, if you really need it, you got it, but, today, it's much more a part of your retirement program.
-- Chris Matthews

#Retirement #Needs #Looks

Medicare, getting through that in the '60s, after Kennedy's assassination, where there was such an emotional desire to do something to carry on his agenda.
-- Chris Matthews

#Emotional #Desire #Agendas

Every party and every movement tends to need a hero.
-- Chris Matthews

#Party #Hero #Needs

I am no longer going to go along with this idea that we're going to keep spending and borrowing and taking over and raising taxes, that I'm going to do everything I can to change things.
-- Chris Matthews

#Ideas #Spending #Taxes

What happens to conservatives when they get near the White House? How come they only seem to be talking the good talk at, say, the Senate level, when they don't have to run the show?
-- Chris Matthews

#Running #Talking #White

I think, any politician, you have to hold them to their word. And conservatives run on fiscal conservatism. .
-- Chris Matthews

#Running #Thinking #Politician

The whole reason we organize grassroots is, we think any politician that gets elected needs to be held accountable 365 days a year.
-- Chris Matthews

#Thinking #Years #Needs

Paying tax is not a punishment. It's a responsibility.
-- Chris Matthews

#Responsibility #Punishment #Paying Taxes

The president of the United States, whoever it is, deserves a certain level of reverence and respect just because of the office he holds.
-- Chris Matthews

#Office #President #United States

People don`t like getting dirty or living in an environment that`s been contaminated and is covered in hazardous waste.
-- Chris Matthews

#Dirty #People #Waste

There ought to be an onus on the people that want a law, rather than people that don`t need a new law.
-- Chris Matthews

#Law #People #Needs

People do have a - people, unlike politicians, are allowed to change their minds. People are allowed to look back and say, you know what, all things considered, I don't think that was the smart move.
-- Chris Matthews

#Smart #Moving #Thinking

Presidents aren`t supposed to spit, at least not obviously.
-- Chris Matthews

#President #Spit

I used to love hand raising.
-- Chris Matthews

#Hands #Used #Used To Love

Wouldn`t it be great for some of the Republican candidates to stand up to the money guys and say, if you want a presidential nominee who will do what the Bushes did, go from war to war, look elsewhere.
-- Chris Matthews

#War #Guy #Presidential

It's a fact of life that positive reasons don't always get people to vote. You need some negative reasons.
-- Chris Matthews

#People #Negative #Needs

Stop calling me communist. Stop calling the rest of us communists. You`ve got to stand up for what you believe should be the American government`s spirit, not what you`re just attacking people`s credibility.
-- Chris Matthews

#Believe #Government #People

Natural-born American means you don`t have to be naturalized. You were born to an American mother, like President Obama, no matter where you were born.
-- Chris Matthews

#Mother #Mean #President

Nothing is as important as the biggest day in your life.
-- Chris Matthews

#Important

In the world of late-night comics, Letterman made us feel any hometown boy from Indianapolis could poke fun at celebrities and politicians and do it right to their faces.
-- Chris Matthews

#Fun #Boys #Night

It doesn't serve an American interest. It really doesn't really serve Israeli interests - it serves the interests of the political party that's getting the votes of the settlers on the West Bank.
-- Chris Matthews

#Party #Political #Literature

My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often.
-- Chris Matthews

#Mean #Thrill #Legs

Everything he's done is clean as a whistle. He's never not only broken any law, he's never done anything wrong.
-- Chris Matthews

#Law #Broken #Done

Keep you enemies in front of you.
-- Chris Matthews

#Life #Enemy

And then there's Israel - a lot of people support Israel, and it's important to Israel to take out Iraq. So it's all mixed together. It's a combination of motives.
-- Chris Matthews

#Israel #Iraq #People

We've always had a dual role in the region - friend of Israel, and honest broker. We've given up the honest broker role completely.
-- Chris Matthews

#Israel #Roles #Honest

How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al-Qaida. Is that the point at which you say, "This guy is dangerous?" That's not a crime to call up al-Qaida, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?
-- Chris Matthews

#Moving #Mean #Phones

Sarah Palin - now don't laugh - is writing a book. Not just reading a book, writing a book. Actually, in the word of the publisher, she's 'collaborating' on a book. What an embarrassment! It's one of these 'I told you,' books that jocks do.
-- Chris Matthews

#Book #Reading #Writing

The more failure you can accept, the greater your chance of success.
-- Chris Matthews

#Failure #Chance #Accepting

My audience is much more center right, or centrist.
-- Chris Matthews

#Audience

I tell my staff, we're riding a tour bus around, and we're going to stop and look at some weird stuff - but we're taking our viewers around safely. They're just looking out the window at it. I'm trying to create a sense of comfort for my center audience.
-- Chris Matthews

#Trying #Comfort #Riding

The overall campaign launch is designed to break through the clutter and reach out to consumers. At the end of the day, consumers are the ones who benefit from the convenience and value never before seen in a free checking account.
-- Chris Matthews

#The End Of The Day #Campaigns #Benefits

Toastmasters changed my life. They really did. Put me on the stage. I don’t know what I would have done without that positive boost.
-- Chris Matthews

#Done #Boost #Stage

If you want to play a game, go to where it's played and find a way to get in. Things happen when you get in the game.
-- Chris Matthews

#Graduation #Games #Play

Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is, 'We are above that now. We're not just parochial, we're not just chauvinistic, we're not just provincial. We stand for something.' I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world. He's sort of God. He's going to bring all different sides together.
-- Chris Matthews

#Country #Mean #America

The world is not checking in with us to see what skills we've picked up, what idea we've concocted, what dreams we carry in our hearts. When a job opens, whether it's in the chorus line or on the assembly line, it goes to the person standing there. It goes to the eager beaver the boss sees when he looks up from his work: the pint-sized kid standing at the basketball court on the playground waiting for one of the older boys to head home. "Hey, kid, wanna play?"
-- Chris Matthews

#Basketball #Dream #Jobs

Then the administration tied it in to the regional dispute between Israel and its enemies, as if that's about international terrorism. No, it's not.
-- Chris Matthews

#Israel #Enemy #Administration

Here's our policy. It's Unite the world against terrorism.
-- Chris Matthews

#World #Terrorism #Policy

How is this any different than the big boat argument of people when it came to African-Americans after the Civil War, decided, 'Put them on a boat and send them back where they came from?' You know, he says it in polite language, but that's what Romney's been saying, 'Get home where you came from, start all over again.'
-- Chris Matthews

#War #Home #People

It does look like it's almost like South Africa to this extent: You have a white - what's the word - feeble minority. It's losing its majority status. And it says, the Republican Party, 'We can only get so many white votes. So, we got to reduce the votes of others.' It does look that way. Only the - maybe you're non-partisan, but only Republicans have pushed this in these 31 states. No Democratic legislature. You gotta look at the pattern here. You talk about profiling. I'm sorry, Republicans do this stuff.
-- Chris Matthews

#Sorry #Party #White

The problem is there are people in this country - maybe 10%, I don't know what the number, maybe 20% on a bad day - who want this President to have an asterisk next to his name in the history books, that he really wasn't President....They can't stand the idea that he is President, and a piece of it is racism. Not that somebody in one racial group doesn't like somebody in another racial group. So what? It is the sense that the white race must rule. That's what racism is. And they can't stand the idea that a man who is not white is President.
-- Chris Matthews

#Country #Book #Bad Day

Rush Limbaugh is beginning to look more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody's going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he's going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come. Not yet, but we'll be there to watch.
-- Chris Matthews

#Giants #Watches #Looks

This looking down our noses at tea party people has got to stop,
-- Chris Matthews

#Party #People #Tea

And on the war, I think my numbers would be a lot higher if I were out there beating the drum for this war. In fact, I don't think it, I know it. But I can't be for the war.
-- Chris Matthews

#War #Thinking #Numbers

I forgot he [Barack Obama] was black tonight for an hour.
-- Chris Matthews

#Black #Tonight #Hours

Just look at who won the third debate between Bush and Gore. I knew Bush won, because people liked him more. People just didn't like Gore. But all the journalists thought Gore won big, he cleaned the guy's clock.
-- Chris Matthews

#People #Guy #Looks

Once it was suggested that Saddam Hussein might give his weaponry to terrorists, or might use weapons himself in the region, then it became hard for the Democrats to say, 'Well, that can't happen.'
-- Chris Matthews

#Giving #Use #Literature

Someone needs to talk sense to the president. But these people are not world travelers. This president, much as I like him, had all the opportunities in the world.
-- Chris Matthews

#Opportunity #People #President

The difference between me and them is that I'll look at Jesse Jackson and I'll see four Jesse Jacksons, and they'll just see one, the clown ambulance chaser.
-- Chris Matthews

#Differences #Looks #Literature

We've got to recognize that when we march into Iraq, we're setting up the card tables in front of every university in the Arab world, the Islamic world, to recruit for al-Qaida.
-- Chris Matthews

#Islamic #Iraq #Cards

You don't know whether he's thought through how this is going to affect the Middle East.
-- Chris Matthews

#Middle East #East #Literature

You don't say, like the Bush crowd, 'I got this guy over here and I don't like him and I'm gonna get him, whether you back me or not.'
-- Chris Matthews

#Guy #Literature #Crowds

I don't know why his lawyers didn't tell him, 'You don't have to answer any questions about your private life, Mr. President. Let them sue you. Take the heat. You don't have to answer.'
-- Chris Matthews

#President #Answers #Literature

While we may not mind being used, we resent deeply being made to feel discarded.
-- Chris Matthews

#Relationship #Mind #May

Five years from now, 10 years from now, there's going to be a huge Islamic population in the world, they're going to be nationalistic, they're going to be religious, and they're going to be militant.
-- Chris Matthews

#Religious #Islamic #Years

I'm not just gonna go after the black Jesse Jackson they all want to make fun of, but I know the wrong people are gonna laugh at that. I don't want to play to that crowd. I don't.
-- Chris Matthews

#Fun #Play #People

I don't believe he had a responsibility to even answer that question - you have no responsibility to answer personal questions that people have no right to ask you.
-- Chris Matthews

#Believe #Responsibility #Hygiene

I mean, the idea that Bar could have sent him off on a Grand Tour. But he wasn't the least bit interested. Why? Why isn't he interested in the world? Because here's the bad news for him: He's in the world now.
-- Chris Matthews

#Mean #Ideas #Bars

I know one thing: There are a billion Islamic people in the world today, and there will be about 2 billion by the time we're dead. They're not going to give up their religion.
-- Chris Matthews

#Giving Up #Islamic #People

All the 'too close to call' announcements are not due to incompetence ... It's caution.
-- Chris Matthews

#Incompetence #Announcements #Caution

Unity is the most important thing on the road to stamping out terror. You need global rules of law and order, and they have to be enforced. Start with that principle.
-- Chris Matthews

#Order #Law #Unity

I mean, if somebody said to me, junior year of college, you can go anywhere, your old man's paying for it, I'd have been gone in a flash. But I had to work. Every summer my mother would say, 'Get that job and hold on to it until August 30.'
-- Chris Matthews

#Summer #Mother #Jobs