February 11, 2020

"Let me just tell you how thrilling it really is... because... the question is whether we're going forward to tomorrow or whether we're going to go past to the back!... That's a Hoosierism. You've got to get used to that!"

Are you getting used to Hoosierisms?

But that's not the Hoosier Pete Buttigieg. The elision after "because" was "in 1988." The quote is from Dan Quayle speaking to the California delegates at the Republican National Convention in 1988.

That just happens to be the top quote on the Dan Quayle page at Wikiquote where I went looking for another quote.

I also found this really Trumpesque line: "This is what I say about the scorn of the media elite: I wear their scorn as a badge of honor."

And here's one where it really seems that he's talking about Trump: "People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history."

Quayle really was a man who looked into the future: "In George Bush you get experience, and with me you get the future"/"The future will be better tomorrow"/"I believe that I've made good judgments in the past, and I think I've made good judgments in the future." So why not credit him with predicting the Trump presidency?

The quote I was actually looking for was his awkward riff on "A mind is a terrible thing to waste":
What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind is being very wasteful, how true that is.
I was thinking of that and how true it is, when I saw the headline "The Great Liberal Freakout Has Begun/Biden is fading fast, and Democrats are losing their minds." That's by Robert Stacy McCain in American Spectator. Excerpt:
In a panel discussion following Friday night’s debate in New Hampshire, [Chris] Matthews went on a rant against socialism, recalling his Cold War–era visits to Vietnam and Cuba: “Being there, I’ve seen what socialism is like. I don’t like it, OK? It’s not only not free, it doesn’t freaking work. It just doesn’t work.” As his fellow MSNBC panelists looked aghast, Matthews continued, saying that if “the Reds had won the Cold War, there would have been executions in Central Park, and I might have been one of the ones getting executed, and certain other people would be there cheering, OK?”

64 comments:

Meade said...

if “the Reds had won the Cold War, there would have been executions in Central Park,

Yet another argument for putting Pete Rose in Hall.

Amadeus 48 said...

You are burying the lede here. Isn't that a clear call for Bloomberg to come forward and save our country? What's all this Dan Quayle nonsense?

Amadeus 48 said...

I agree. Pete Rose was one of the greatest ball players in history, and he is a non-person in the Hall. Trump is right again.

rehajm said...

Oh Jeez, Farmer will be quite upset with Chris equating the socialist candidates with Cuba. Farmer says they just want to be more like Sweden...

Got a link, Chris?

/sarc off

Whirred Whacks said...

Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle” is littered with Hoosiers and Hoosierisms! And most of ‘em are pretty good. I recently reread it (along with the Sirens of Titans). Holds up very well.

BarrySanders20 said...

I often think of this sage advice when I ponder that new-fangled diet idea:

What a mind it is to lose one's waist, or not to have a waist is being very mindful, how true that is.

A waist is a terrible thing to waste.

Michael K said...

In the first edition of Sir John Winthrop Hackett's "The Third World War," published in 1977, the Soviets win the war and, upon occupying Britain, begin execution of the Labour Party communists.

The 1985 edition changed the ending. Robespierre would understand the first edition.

henry said...

So in the future spelling of potato[e] becomes more flexible? I'm not sure how that helps anything.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

The reason it sounds Trumpesque is that scorn, rather than reason, has been the Democratic playbook from that time to this. I had no TV and listened to the Quayle-Gore debate on the radio, and marveled at how Dan had cleaned Al's clock. I was still a Democrat at that point, though I was drifting away. I learned immediately that the TV public thought the opposite, I believe because of Gore's manner, and the immediate post-debate spin by the announcers and press.

MayBee said...

That is one of the most hilarious/unfortunate slip-ups ever.

It had totally slipped my mind that Quayle was GHWB's VP. He was the first they hounded as absolutely too stupid, and the press has latched onto it for every GOP President/Vice President since.

Sebastian said...

"I wear their scorn as a badge of honor."

Would Trump put it that way? I'm not sure he'd give them the satisfaction of treating their scorn as "scorn."

So, if I understand that headline correctly, for Dems going on a "rant against socialism" is equivalent to losing one's mind? Whereas going on a rant in favor of socialism isn't?

Big Mike said...

Matthews isn't wrong.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Yes, henry, that's the important thing. Keep the sneers coming.

Amadeus 48 said...

"This is what I say about the scorn of the media elite: I wear their scorn as a badge of honor."

You have a problem with that? Every Republican since Ike should have had that tattooed on their biceps.

Anonymous said...

Yikes. When you've lost Chris friggin' Matthews, your party has a problem.

Ann Althouse said...

"You are burying the lede here."

There are no "ledes" on this blog. There's nothing to bury. You have me mistaken for someone who has a point.

Ken B said...

good for Matthews.

mccullough said...

Quayle is younger than Biden and Bernie. And Trump. And Clinton. And W.

Amadeus 48 said...

"You have me mistaken for someone who has a point."

Good point.

narciso said...

well they probably would have kept foot and benn, but Corbyn would likely have been liquidated early on, since he was a Trotskyite,

Carol said...

Farmer says they just want to be more like Sweden...

That's what they all say. Sweden was working out pretty well until the EU gave them diversity good and hard.

Yeah it'll be more like Vietnam here. They had their ethnics and Catholics to get out of the way.

Amadeus 48 said...

Isn't Mike Pence Hoosier enough for us all? I don't want to OD.

Sebastian said...

"You have me mistaken for someone who has a point."

A woman doing humor!

I like it.

hawkeyedjb said...

This dalliance with socialism fascinates and horrifies me. I can only think that those who favor it think they will be the nomenklatura who will run things. Hint: they won't.

Seeing Red said...

Oh, give it up about Sweden bs.

Keep an eye on Malmo.

And California. The decay is already happening. The poop, the needles, the homeless are just the beginning.




Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Everything you’ve seen about Cuba is a lie

Michael Moore Riefenstahl's propaganda about the glories of Cuba, the wonder of dictator for life Castro family, and the its government controlled health care would make Goebbels proud.

Matthews is a hack. He's warning everyone about the far left - but he is well encased in it and does its bidding.

Seeing Red said...

Lord of the Flies every single time.

narciso said...

the subtext of clockwork orange, was it was happening under a soviet controlled uk,

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

You have me mistaken for someone who has a point.

Point well taken.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Dammit Amadeus.

Amadeus 48 said...

Bill, Republic of Texas--
I respect and admire your elegant phrasing.

Paul Snively said...

Amadeus 48: Isn't Mike Pence Hoosier enough for us all?

"Got nothin' 'gainst a big town./Still Hoosier 'nough to say 'Hey, look who's in the big town.'" — John Mellencamp, "Pink Houses," live performance lyrics

J. Farmer said...

Ludwig von Mises on Friedman’s Chicago School: “You’re all a bunch of socialists!”

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I stopped reading all the Robert Stacy McCain links at Instapundit because it seemed like they were never worth finishing. This one isn't too bad, but it seems like it's full of stuff I read 5 other places.

Nonapod said...

When reality doesn't meet with your expectations, your options are either to ignore reality and attempt to generate your own version of events within your imagination or to adjust your expectations. If you choose to ignore/overwrite reality, you create all sorts of new problems for yourself because you are no longer operating in the real world.

When Trump won in 2016, the media and the Democrat party chose to imagine a reality where Russia stole the election for Trump. This caused them to ignore the deep problems within their own party. The two most prominent problems being the rise of Bernie Sanders and the deep corruption among their own ranks (Hillary, Biden, Epstein and so forth) being widely revealed.

For years and years, the media has abdicated its responsibility by ignoring and downplaying obvious corruption by Democrats. Hillary Clinton would never have been the Dem candidate in 2016 if the media actually did its job and drove home the point that she blantantly broke the law. Biden wouldn't have been either if the media followed up on Biden's obvious corruption in Ukraine and China. Who knows? If the media actually did it's job during the whole Benghazi affair and held the Obama administrations feet to the fire we might have been finishing up the second term of President Mitt Romney (seems like we might've dodged a bullet on that one)!

But instead of dealing with reality, the media and the Dems have been tilting at windmills for the past 4 years. It's not a surprise that they're "losing their minds" now. They put all their eggs in the impeachment basket rather than addressing the real porblems.

MikeR said...

Quayle was never stupid. I guess he had a tendency to say awkward things in the midst of speaking, like so many of us. The press slandered him.
He was head of the National Space Council. https://books.google.com/books?id=q09J3OlmlGIC&pg=PA577&lpg=PA577&dq=pournelle+niven+space+quayle&source=bl&ots=m6am1KNq0y&sig=ACfU3U0OXvyk42M1_iaZkiNDdbYadl5BEQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwinxMnG68nnAhXBpFkKHeRdDrMQ6AEwDnoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=pournelle%20niven%20space%20quayle&f=false
The people involved remember him as clear-thinking as anyone else.

MD Greene said...

Assistant Village Idiot said: "...scorn, rather than reason, has been the Democratic playbook from that time to this."

Actually it goes back much further. I've spent recent months reading Robert Caro's 4-volume bio of LBJ (a tough job but someone has to do it) and when LBJ, a thorough jerk but a very smart politician, becomes JFK's vice president, he is immediately sidelined by the president's elite advisors who refer to him as "Rufus Cornpone." Classy.

Bear in mind that Kennedy was from a nouveau riche (very riche) Irish Catholic family whose grandparents would have been personae non gratae to Boston's ruling class in their day. It's interesting that people in this country crave membership in a perceived elite class and claim such membership by sneering at the proles.

Dan Quayle was no genius, but was he any more stupid, in speech or in fact, than Joe Biden?

MD Greene said...

Assistant Village Idiot said: "...scorn, rather than reason, has been the Democratic playbook from that time to this."

Actually it goes back much further. I've spent recent months reading Robert Caro's 4-volume bio of LBJ (a tough job but someone has to do it) and when LBJ, a thorough jerk but a very smart politician, becomes JFK's vice president, he is immediately sidelined by the president's elite advisors who refer to him as "Rufus Cornpone." Classy.

Bear in mind that Kennedy was from a nouveau riche (very riche) Irish Catholic family whose grandparents would have been personae non gratae to Boston's ruling class in their day. It's interesting that people in this country crave membership in a perceived elite class and claim such membership by sneering at the proles.

Dan Quayle was no genius, but was he any more stupid, in speech or in fact, than Joe Biden?

Bob Boyd said...

I recall hearing a joke back in the Dan Quayle days.

What do Marilyn Quayle and Marion Berry have in common?
They both like to blow a little dope now and then.

TrespassersW said...

MikeR said...
Quayle was never stupid. I guess he had a tendency to say awkward things in the midst of speaking, like so many of us. The press slandered him.

That's been their M.O. for my entire life (and probably beforehand as well). They just used to be more subtle about it.

robother said...

"Past to the back" is a Hoosierism? Maybe just a mistranscription, a reference to 50s Notre Dame football innovation of passing to the (half) back Paul Hornung.

rcocean said...

Chris Matthews executed? Makes you think Communism would've had an upside.

Bay Area Guy said...

If the Commies ever take over the USA, the Commentariat here is toast!

Skeptical Voter said...

Credit "Tingles" with a bit of self awareness re if the Russkis won the Cold War.

But even a blind squirrel finds an acorn of truth now and then---and Matthews horrified the other blind squirrels at MSNBC by his departure from their orthodoxy. The rest of the MSNBC bunch won't be finding many acorns in the future.

rcocean said...

Moron Jerry Ford advised Bush to drop Quayle in 1992 and replace him with Colin Powell. A move that would've guaranteed Bush's defeat. What a blockhead he was!

Bob Boyd said...

Who's more likely to trample on the Constitution and individual rights in pursuit of his goals, Bernie or Bloomberg?

JPS said...

About the great liberal freakout:

Biden’s greatest strength was the perception that he was better able to beat Trump than anyone else up there. I’ve thought right along that if he lost that, he’d crater. Which may sound like circular reasoning, and it is somewhat, but only because his candidacy is hollow.

We will find out this year whether the Clintonite faction of the Democratic Party truly believes Hillary “really” won the last election, or whether that’s just talk. Meanwhile my lefty friends are quitting Facebook on the grounds that it is actually helping Trump get re-elected, that it’s activities amount to a trillion-dollar in-kind donation.

(I read this and do the online equivalent of smiling and backing away slowly.)

J. Farmer said...

@MikeR:

Quayle was never stupid. I guess he had a tendency to say awkward things in the midst of speaking, like so many of us

True. And the famous "potatoe" incident was because Quayle had been given a flashcard in which a teacher had spelled the word wrong, leading him to wrongly correct the student's spelling. I guess you could knock Quayle for not realizing the flashcard was wrong, but come on. I was in the 5th grade during the '92 election, and it was the first I followed with any degree of interest, though I have some vague recall of the Bush/Dukakis election.

Quaestor said...

"A mind is a terrible thing to waste"

Depends on what thoughts the mind is wont to think, no?

Sander's mind has been eminently wasteable for decades.

Bay Area Guy said...

Does anybody remember VP Dan Quayle? In the pre-Twitter era (1988 - 1992), he was hammered by the media, characterized as a shallow, rich boy, fool, but had no effective means to fight back. He was rendered useless and just faded away.....,,

Another reason why Trump succeeds, where others fail. He fights back against the leftist media.

Sam L. said...

Ah, the Dems! They have once more stepped into the quicksand and slow-marched to the center of it.

Quaestor said...

Yet another argument for putting Pete Rose in Hall.

Most career hits – 4,256.
Most career singles – 3,215.
Most career times on base – 5,929.
Most career kulaks collectivized – nil.

cubanbob said...

If "Tingles" Chris Matthews really believes what he said about the Reds he would be a Republican.

Yancey Ward said...

Would Matthews have gone on the same diatribe against Elizabeth Warren? Note, Warren's policy proposals are essentially identical to those of Sanders. Buttuvwxy's policy proposals aren't much to the right of the first two either, and there is good reason to think he is basically lying to get that far right. The just a tiny bit further to the right you find Klobuchar and Biden. The only candidate in the Dem field who might be described as centrist is Bloomberg, but he is a gun control nutjob and has already moved to the left just since announcing his candidacy.

narciso said...

a newspeg


https://babalublog.com/2020/02/11/those-cuban-cia-men-were-as-tough-dedicated-and-impetuous-a-group-of-soldiers-as-ive-ever-had-the-honor-of-commanding-legendary-anti-communist-mercenary-in-africa-mad-mike-h/

Meade said...

"Most career kulaks collectivized – nil."

🤣

Francisco D said...

Quayle was never stupid. I guess he had a tendency to say awkward things in the midst of speaking, like so many of us

Quayle had a deer-in-the-headlights look that was easy (but incorrect) to characterize as stupid.

Most of us would do poorly in public speaking when faced with bright lights and intense questioning. Quayle tried too hard to say the right thing rather than being spontaneous. He needed a media advisor who didn't have him try to memorize talking points.

A colleague went to a business roundtable in LA when Quayle was VP. He was very impressed and surprised at how well he came off under those conditions.

alanc709 said...

Is a Hoosierism anything like a Spoonerism?

Bilwick said...

Since "Progressivism" is going backwards to a more statist, pre-capitalist society while using the dodge of "going forward," how would Indiana's most prominent "Progresstive," Red Diaper Pete, define this "Hoosierism"?

mikee said...

I was gonna aks how do I get tickets to the Matthews shindig?
But then I realized the commies haven't won yet, so it'll be on Pay-Per-View.

I wish I was as funny as Laslo.

Paul Snively said...

Small Town, not Pink Houses, of course.

Anyway, we Hoosiers knew Quayle and knew he wasn’t stupid. But he did seem to struggle with finding phrases extemporaneously when under pressure.

Re: “Hoosierism” vs. “Notre Dameism...” Notre Dame is in Indiana.

Narayanan said...

Is Chris Matthews is the frog ready to jump out?

He has been tweaking the fire himself so far.

Big Mike said...

Dan Quayle was no genius, but was he any more stupid, in speech or in fact, than Joe Biden?

My recollection was that Quayle had been pushed onto Bush by the party’s right wing as the cost of their support. This was back when there were still liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats (the “Scoop Jackson wing”). But Dan Quayle wasn’t ready for the intense, unrelenting, uniformly hostile screening that the press dished out.

Bob_R said...

Pete Rose has, and deserves, a lifetime ban. Hall should put him in after the ban is no longer in effect. (Same with Shoeless Joe.) I say this as a Phillies fan who is extremely grateful to Pete.