Debate Quotes - Page 38

• In a body [like Congress] where there are more than one hundred talking lawyers, you can make no calculation upon the termination of any debate.

  Franklin Pierce

  Talking, Body, Lawyer

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• For three decades, Senator Arlen Specter served the people of Pennsylvania with independence, toughness, determination and an unflinching devotion to the best interests of his constituents and our country. From the committee room to the Senate chamber, Senator Specter offered a voice of reason and passion in every debate - always willing to reach across the aisle and work across party lines to get the job done, regardless of political gamesmanship or gain.

  Nancy Pelosi

  Country, Determination, Jobs

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• We urgently need a debate about the best ways of supporting families in modern America, without blinders that prevent us from seeing the full extent of dependence and interdependence in American life. As long as we pretend that only poor or abnormal families need outside assistance, we will shortchange poor families, overcompensate rich ones, and fail to come up with effective policies for helping families in the middle.

  Stephanie Coontz

  America, Long, Needs

  Stephanie Coontz (2016). “The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap”, p.73, Basic Books

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• Too much of our political debate...has become a race to the bottom. An exchange of insults and slanders more appropriate to reality television than a legislature.

  Jeanne Shaheen

  Reality, Race, Political

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• Tonight the Republican presidential candidates had a big debate, 10 candidates. The last time that many rich white guys got together, I think Exxon merged with Mobil.

  Jay Leno

  Thinking, White, Guy

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• During last night's Republican debate, Mike Huckabee got a big laugh when he said that Congress has been spending money like John Edwards at a beauty salon. Then Huckabee got an even bigger laugh when he said he's running for president

  Conan O'Brien

  Running, Night, Laughing

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• Debates require a lot of hard work and preparation. If you try to wing it, it shows.

  Mark McKinnon

  Hard Work, Wings, Preparation

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• Mention the name George W. Bush in mixed company, and you're likely to spark a lot of debate and emotion - hot and cold, good and bad. Not a lot of neutral reaction. He was elected in the most controversial contest in American electoral history and governed during one of the most tumultuous decades.

  Mark McKinnon

  Hot And Cold, Names, Sparks

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• There's no question that many factors contribute to voters' perceptions about debates and who wins and who loses.

  Mark McKinnon

  Winning, Perception, Voters

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• I don't mind the debates, they're good for America, but we shouldn't be out there attacking each other all the time.

  William J. Clinton

  America, Mind, Attacking

  Source: www.foxnews.com

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• The show with Buckley and Vidal was happening live. There was no editing. There was no delay. So they were aghast. How America reacted is sort of the most interesting thing because as these debates progressed, the ratings were going up. So people began to program these sort of point-counterpoint setups, where two people with opposite sides would come on.

  Morgan Neville

  Editing, Opposites, Two

  Source: www.npr.org

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• God forbid I should be the last one to criticize, but I think may be Howard Dean has a bit of a problem because earlier today during a debate in New Hampshire, he bit off Joe Lieberman's ear.

  David Letterman

  Thinking, Ears, May

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• If Allah wants for a people ill, he gives them debates and takes away from them actions.

  Umar

  People, Giving, Want

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• During the debate, Bush was asked by a lady to name three mistakes he's made. And Bush responded, this debate, the last debate and the next debate.

  Bill Maher

  Mistake, Names, Three

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• A man is the prisoner of his power. A topical memory makes him an almanac; a talent for debate, disputant; skill to get money makes him a miser, that is, a beggar. Culture reduces these inflammations by invoking the aid of other powers against the dominant talent, and by appealing to the rank of powers. It watches success.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Memories, Power, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.363

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• My position is that it is high time for a calm debate on more fundamental questions. Does human spaceflight continue to serve a compelling cultural purpose and/or our national interest? Or does human spaceflight simply have a life of its own, without a realistic objective that is remotely commensurate with its costs? Or, indeed, is human spaceflight now obsolete?

  James Van Allen

  Doe, Purpose, Cost

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• Our political debates today are corrosive and not reflective of the belief that Abe Lincoln espoused back in his day: that we are a great country because we are a good country.

  Jon Huntsman, Jr.

  Country, Political, Today

  "Huntsman joins WH race, promising jobs, civility" by Beth Fouhy, www.realclearpolitics.com. June 21, 2011.

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• Political success is often dependent on the ability to be heard above the din of controversy and debate and to set a course with one's own compass.

  Madeleine M. Kunin

  Political, Politics, Compass

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• The Shah regarded politics as the province of demagoguery, an art in which only charlatans could excel. He had no time for what he saw as the tedious process of achieving consensus through debate and discussion and tried to justify his solitary exercise of power by insisting it was what Iran needed to catch up with lost time. He believed he was more patriotic than anyone else and needed no advice on how best to promote and protect the highest interests of the nation.

  Mohammed Reza Pahlavi

  Art, Patriotic, Exercise

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• Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one's own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people's, preserve dignity.

  Doug Stanhope

  People, Acquiescence, Dignity

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• We can't accommodate terrorism. When someone uses the slaughter of innocent people to advance a so-called political cause, at that point the political cause becomes immoral and unjust and they should be eliminated from any serious discussion, any serious debate.

  Rudy Giuliani

  People, Political, Use

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• Of course, there's been a real debate about where to invest and where to cut, and I'm committed to working with members of both parties to cut our deficits and debt. But we can't simply cut our way to prosperity.

  Barack Obama

  Real, Party, Cutting

  "President to Meet with Senate Leaders; Minot Evacuees Can't Go Back Home Yet; Indonesian Workers Banned From Saudi Jobs; TSA Forces 95-Year-Old to Remove Adult Diaper; Bachmann to Declare Bid Monday". "CNN Newsroom", www.cnn.com. June 26, 2011.

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• Multiculturalism is a campaign to lower America's moral status by defining the American experience is terms of myriad repressionsand their victims. By rewriting history, and by using name calling ("Racist! Sexist! Homophobe!") to inhibit debate, multiculturalists cultivate grievances, self pity and claims to entitlements arising from victimization.

  George Will

  Self, Names, America

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• The debate can be put in the form of the question: Resolved, that the best of money managers cannot be demonstrated to be able to deliver the goods of superior portfolio-selection performance. Any jury that reviews the evidence, and there is a great deal of relevant evidence, must at least come out with the Scottish verdict: Superior investment performance is unproved.

  Paul Samuelson

  Investing, Able, Portfolios

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• John Kerry said today he wants to debate President Bush once a month. Hey good luck, if Bush couldn't make it to the National Guard once a month, he's not going to show up for this.

  Jay Leno

  Good Luck, President, Hey

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