Below, in chronological order, are my picks for the top quotations of 2009 — the quotes that seemed to get the most attention during the past year in the news…
Category: Political quotes
Lee Atwater and the Republican Party’s “big tent.”
In November of 1989, the first year of George H. W. Bush’s presidency, there were two closely watched gubernatorial elections — one in Virginia, the other in New Jersey. The…
Jefferson’s bloody “Tree of Liberty” quote still fertilizes freedom and fanaticism
One of the signs held by a gun-toting protester against the Democratic health care proposal earlier this year said “IT IS TIME TO WATER THE TREE OF LIBERTY!” This is…
OCTOBER 16 – Castro said “History will absolve me,” but it doesn’t seem likely
On October 16, 1953, Fidel Castro made a four-hour speech, but it wasn’t one of his long stem-winders to his followers. It was a speech he gave as a prisoner,…
SEPTEMBER 18 – Was Lincoln a Great Emancipator or a Great Obfuscator?
An Abraham Lincoln quotation that is often noted in modern, clear-eyed accounts of his life comes from one of his debates with Stephen Douglas, during their 1858 contest for an…