Although smoking is either banned or not tolerated in most meetings today, the idea of a meeting of power brokers making deals behind closed doors “in a smoke-filled room” is…
Category: Political quotes
“Now he belongs to the ages” – or maybe to the angels…
Three famous quotations are linked to the assassination and death of President Abraham Lincoln. Many history and quotation books say that after John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on April 14,…
“Workers of the World, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
You can find many different lists of “books that changed the world” on the Internet. Those lists vary considerably. But there are some books that show up on almost all…
True or false: Stephen Colbert coined the word truthiness? (Hint: you’re right!)
During the very first Colbert Report show on October 17, 2005, the witty faux Conservative media pundit Stephen Colbert unleashed the word truthiness on the world. (Click here to see…
“About one-fifth of the people are against everything all of the time.”
Some observers have expressed surprise that two populist, anti-establishment candidates who many people view as “extremists” won sizeable percentages of the votes in the 2016 presidential primary elections. But in…
The origins of the “The Domino Effect”…
Contrary to what many sites on the Internet say, President Dwight D. Eisenhower did not coin the famous Cold War term “the Domino Effect.” He did use the phrase “falling…
“I am not a crook!”
In retrospect, it’s ironic that one of the slogans used by Richard M. Nixon during his first presidential campaign in 1968 was: “The ‘I’ in Nixon stands for integrity.” Today,…
The origins of the Cold War term “hot line” and the mythical “red phones”…
Many books and websites note that the famed “hot line” communication link between the Pentagon and the Kremlin was established on August 30, 1963. Press reports about this new tool,…
“Preserve, protect and defend…"
The oath an American president recites upon taking office includes the famous promise to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Interestingly, one of the first decisions…
“I’m mad as hell” — the misquote of a movie line that is itself a misquote!
During almost every recent election season, political commentators seem to talk about “angry voters” of one kind or another. These disgruntled voters are usually said to be angry about certain…