Chris Matthews Quotations

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.'

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.'

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.

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.

C'mon. He'd be embarrassing upstairs at the White House. So I think she'd have a hard time. I think a woman president would have to be very conservative to get elected.

Well, the right-wing policy with regard to Israel - the people who don't want to deal with Arafat, who don't want a Palestinian state - the whole sort of right-wing view is consistent with the view toward Iraq. It's the same policy and the same people.

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.

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.

My audience is much more center right, or centrist.

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.

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.

They were unable to stand up and say: 'Here's our policy. It's Unite the world against terrorism.'

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.

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.

I can't find a reason to be for this war. I've looked, and I can't, so I'm not.

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.

We supported the contras. We're not against all opposition to government, or all paramilitary operations.

Why didn't we recognize how much it bothered them spiritually and politically?

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

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.'

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.

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.

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.'

The Democrats just don't have a foreign policy that they're willing to defend, that they're willing to use to take down the president's. We're dealing with the power of suggestion here.

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.

I was real nervous at the start, but I feel like I stepped up.

Jacob just wasn't himself tonight. He's been sick and so we didn't start him, but I thought he could go in the second half.

Hitting that first shot helped a lot. I felt like I was hot, even though I missed a lot of shots after that.

Texans for a Republican Majority did tender cause to be delivered and delivered to the Republican National Committee a check in the amount of $190,000, the check being for the same bank...

Our trading statement in January showed 8% sales growth, but we feel this is the right time to move into the fast-growing online market. We are doing this from a position of strength.

Katrina and Monica, huh? Never made that connection, go ahead.

I think this country needs a higher crank-up of democracy now. Louder, more boisterous democracy would be better for us right now.

You know, there were 29 Democratic votes for censure in the Senate. And if the Republicans had any sense, they would have censured him before the '98 midterm election, and they would have won the election.

Will George Bush be haunted by New Orleans to the last day of his presidency?

There is a big difference between the expenditures of his PAC and his own particular activities.

We thought of her with Barbra Streisand, Barbara Boxer, Rob Reiner, Charles Schumer, even. Now I see her on a drift to the center.

We graduated five starters and eight kids in all from last year's team (which made its second trip in as many years to the state playoffs). Even with that nearly every kid we have on this year's team played some varsity last season.

We're awaiting a news conference at the bottom of the hour. New York City Police-

Seems like we're gonna be hearing Dusty Springfield and . . . the chopper blades again.

Daniel could challenge for a starting spot on the defense, but all those guys are important because we can make changes and move people around if we have to. This is the fastest team by far that I've ever been involved with. And that's always a good thing.

It not that bad. It's bad, but it could have been a lot worse.

Any team in this district can give anyone else a good game. We're not taking anything for granted. We have to take these games on at a time, and that's what we're doing.

The most incredible thing about Austin is how far been his attitude and work ethic have come. I'm really proud of the way he's taken on the leadership role.

I don't think they will run. I think they'll find a conservative who is one of them... a George Allen.

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

Canonization in modern times is a very, almost scientific process.

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

Keep you enemies in front of you.

It was like an aphrodisiac. Actors would say let's have another cigarette on that great scenes, and they'd blow smoke in each other's face.

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.

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.

All Hollywood endings - the bad endings have to be the bad guys to be falling about 50 stories to his death and you have to see his eyeballs as he goes to his doom.

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

It's no good to shoot a guy anymore. It's not enough.Nobody is throwing anybody off of buildings after seeing these movies, but they are smoking after seeing some good-looking celebrity smoke.

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

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.

Isn't Hollywood - and I love movies - a lot of it about a big lie?

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.

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.

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.'

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

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?"

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.

People - Hollywood doesn't talk about how bad cigarette smells when it smells like they wake up in bed with somebody who has been smoking the night before.

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.

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

Whether the Bushes, or whoever they are, they always end up in the end with the money and the ability to really blow away anybody who dares challenge them.

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

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.

Ben Carson`s not really a factor anymore. I hate to say that of anybody, but he isn`t a factor anymore.

You can't be loved for long if you're not feared.

[Hillary] Clinton was able to assemble a winning Democratic coalition out here, beating Sanders among African-Americans, women, among women, and voters from union households, so, unions, women, African-Americans.

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

Any jackass can talk about bombing Iran.

The big lie is that the people who make a lot of money were the only ones that worked hard.

Hillary Clinton did better among working-class whites when she`s running against Barack Hussein Obama. How is she doing now against an older, a professor type, who seems very unthreatening, very likable.

Sarah Palin is an empty vessel ready to be filled by ideology that she doesn't even understand, and that is really scary. Nothing is more frightening than an empty vessel in power.

I wonder... if the Republican Party really wants to be branded right now as the party of tax cuts and torture? I mean that's what they're selling.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

If Bernie Sanders hasn`t been able to draw a contrast with Hillary Clinton, why is he doing so well, a guy - most people never heard of this fellow before.

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.

Bernie Sanders even reminded me of the way I felt at parties over the years. You go to a party, you don`t know anybody, you sort of wander around. You hold a drink in your hand, you don`t know what to do. This poor guy Bernie, he was at a loss with this group of people he didn`t know.

That is the voice of God because its the voice of truth and experience.

I know, when I look into the eyes of my own children, the look of wonder when I speak of life back in the '60s. That's why the Rolling Stones are such a hit even in their 60s, why Dennis Hopper is so compelling, even when he's making pitches for something unhip as long-term financial planning.

His [John Paul II] humanity, combined with his extraordinary spiritual authority, was unlike anything I've ever met.

The holy father John Paul II made a profound impact wherever he went. And, of course, his trip to Boston was one of the earliest ones. But I must say every time that I met the holy father and mentioned Boston, he would immediately say, rain. So, it made quite an impact on him, too.

I think, like Ronald Reagan, in another way, in a secular way, John Paul II was a great communicator, but he was also a man of deep conviction.

I had the good fortune of living in Rome for seven years, from 1994 to 2001. So, I kind of saw firsthand the impact that Pope John Paul II had on people.

I think, internally, we Catholics have known this for a long time. I think we're just thrilled and grateful that the rest of the world now is sharing in the esteem and gratitude that we've had for Pope John Paul II for 26 and a half years.

Pope John Paul II spoke with a lot of clarity and consistency. But he always spoke with immense compassion. He's the one who said the best way to love somebody is to tell them the truth. So, he did that well.

Pope John Paul II was fascinated by the United States. And I think he was initially surprised at the vigor of the Catholic Church in the United States. Maybe some of the press that we had gotten he found wasn't true. No, I think he suspected the church in the United States. Did he challenge us to some things? Sure, he did. But, no, I always - I think there was a good alliance. There was a good gel there.

The pope has been called many things, historic figure, spiritual leader, moral force. But a growing chorus of voices has begun to refer to him as John Paul II the Great, in other words, as a saint.

Those who saw Pope John Paul II either in person or through the mass media glimpsed a man who millions of Catholics believe may be one of the greatest popes in the history of the church.

The last person to be beatified by Pope John Paul II was Mother Teresa of Calcutta in 2003.

Public opinion aside, it will be up to the future pope to continue John Paul II's journey to sainthood. Many of the late pope's followers believe he is already there.

Even if you're not a Catholic, even if you're not a Christian, in fact even if you have no religious faith at all, what people could see in Pope John Paul was a man of true and profound spiritual faith.