Chris Matthews Quotations | Page 2

John Paul II spoke to the commoner and to the king, to the tyrant and to the democrat in that same language of freedom.

Most politicians have to find a way past that allergy. They have to find a way to go door to door, person to person, or else they don`t win.

I think Bernie`s [Sanders] setting a direction in the way that [Barry] Goldwater when he lost - I`m not saying he`s going to lose. We don`t know what is going to happen. It`s early. But I think he`s already set a lot of themes.

I wanted to know how Jackie felt about [John F. Kennedy], and I got to know Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. Bunny and her were buddies. I asked, "How do you know what Jackie knew?" And Bunny said, "She told me."... Jackie called him "Magic." Bunny said she just picked her man. That was it. This was the guy she loved.

I see some parallels [with Barack Obama] but I don't see the leadership that this guy [John F.Kennedy] had of other men and women. It's more than being the smartest guy in room.

I don't sense an [Barack] Obama party. I think politics is transactional for him.

The real difference between relationship politics and transactional politics is loyalty. [Barack] Obama doesn't seem to expect it.

The Kennedys formed a Kennedy party.

This is a fundamental question, Mr. Mayor [ Rudy Giuliani ]. Is the president of the United States legitimate or not? Do you believe it? If you believe it, why doesn't your candidate state it.

A couple of Donald Trump people, including his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, and of course, Dr. Ben Carson, have both come out in the last days, hours, practically, and said they believe President [Barack] Obama is a legitimately elected president of the United States.

Anybody can say anything they want. Hillary Clinton can control her own campaign.

There is absolutely no record ever of Hillary Clinton or anyone in her campaign ever saying that President [Barack] Obama is not legitimate.

I'm trying to put the ridiculousness to bed. The president of the United States is the president of the United States.

We are trying to pick the next president, not review the birth of the current president.

[John F. Kennedy] was Arthur, the guy in the middle of the room with all the swords pointed at him. ... He wanted control of the situation.

[ John F.Kennedy's friend] Chuck Spalding at the wedding said Jack was two guys: the groom and somebody else observing from a distance. ... It must have been maddening to be married to a guy like that, but you could at the same time argue that characteristic kept the world from being blown up.

[John F.Kennedy] liked fresh company, new people to come visit and then leave. ... I think he liked the protection of numbers too.

[Donald] Trump faces the perhaps accumulation of all the wealth in the world on the head of [Marco] Rubio, because Rubio`s the last gasp of hawks and establishment Republicans.

I`m surprised people are that hopeful about what government can do, because if you believe in socialism, society can run a pretty decent government, it can provide services, it can regulate the economy effectively.

A new poll out taken by a Republican group that shows most Democrats prefer socialism to capitalism. Those terms don`t mean what they did maybe 40, 50 years ago.

I never wrote off [Donald] Trump.

While I have questions about the language used in describing the two economic systems, I think people have fairly good gut sense of the difference between socialism and capitalism.

The fact that younger people are more inclined to socialism may well come with the fact that so many young people`s first experience with capitalism is as a debtor.

I always thought of him [Jack Kennedy] as a prince, with a charmed life. He was a guy who was sick and in horrendous pain all the time - who would say, "I wish I had a few good days."

How much he was shaped by being in the hospital so much as a kid. Because he was sick, he was a reader, and because he was a reader, [John F.] Kennedy had heroes. Because he had heroes, he went into politics. (Kennedy liked Sir Walter Scott, King Arthur's knights, and biographies of political leaders.) If he hadn't been sick, he might have been like everybody else in the family, a jock.

Jean [Kennedy Smith, JFK's sister] told me she thinks the whole sports angle has been overplayed, that politics was central to him. This nonsense that he only went into politics because his older brother Joe was killed is not true. He was determined he was going to be in politics, but he would have waited his turn.

[John F. Kennedy] kept a diary and in the White House dictated his thoughts. He felt real guilt at the killing of [Ngo Dinh] Diem, the leader of South Vietnam.

The fact is he [John F.Kennedy] always had to have somebody around besides Jackie [Kennedy]. Whatever their relationship, he wanted company. I think it gets back to all those years in a hospital bed.

The FBI had a right to review that. And they did and they found Hillary Clinton not in any criminal violation.

Presidents aren`t supposed to spit, at least not obviously.

President [Barack]Obama benefits from the shared experience and wisdom of top national security and foreign policy advisers, many of them career professionals.

Are Democrats for expanding U.S. trade with the world and perhaps creating new jobs, or are they out to protect existing U.S. jobs?

Why are some people like Chuck Schumer, who`s probably going to be leader of the Senate, why is he switching from a big city financial center pro-trader to being an anti-trader? Is that because of upstate New York? What`s going on? I can`t figure this out.

Bill Clinton was for NAFTA. I heard him over in Tokyo he came out all said it was a great bill. Secretary Clinton was for it. She called it the gold standard when she was secretary of state.

I think the Clintons are going to make their decision based on the merits. And their focus, like mine, is on middle class jobs. We`re in a different world than 1994. The China we dealt with in 1994 is a lot different than the China today in 2015.

The President [Barack Obama] said if we get out of this business of trade expansion, we turn it over to the Chinese. This brings us into partnership with 11 other Pacific Rim countries.

I truly believe that America`s greatness and billions and billions of dollars of our wealth flows away because China doesn`t treat us fairly.

Hillary Clinton does very well in Pennsylvania generally. I think she connects with the working white people and all kinds of people that normally would have a problem with the modern Democratic Party.

I think in places like Pennsylvania, there`s folks who want our next president to talk like a hawk, but fly like a dove.

Be tough, hold a tough line, but don`t be running off into another war, especially since even if you support our troops and you want to have a robust foreign policy, you recognize that we have - we have been overdeploying our men and women, and we have been spilling our blood and treasure, and we need to be more careful.

The president of the United States, whoever it is, deserves a certain level of reverence and respect just because of the office he holds.

We in America count on the profit motive to get people to do the right thing. That's our basic American notion when it comes to business.

I think also people in states like Pennsylvania know that a lot of money and effort and time needs to be spent on knitting America back together, on the bridges and the roads and the infrastructure and the education.

I used to love hand raising.

Wouldn`t it be great for some of the Republican candidates to stand up to the money guys and say, if you want a presidential nominee who will do what the Bushes did, go from war to war, look elsewhere.

It's a fact of life that positive reasons don't always get people to vote. You need some negative reasons.

Stop calling me communist. Stop calling the rest of us communists. You`ve got to stand up for what you believe should be the American government`s spirit, not what you`re just attacking people`s credibility.

Natural-born American means you don`t have to be naturalized. You were born to an American mother, like President Obama, no matter where you were born.

Nothing is as important as the biggest day in your life.

People do have a - people, unlike politicians, are allowed to change their minds. People are allowed to look back and say, you know what, all things considered, I don't think that was the smart move.

There ought to be an onus on the people that want a law, rather than people that don`t need a new law.

People don`t like getting dirty or living in an environment that`s been contaminated and is covered in hazardous waste.

Paying tax is not a punishment. It's a responsibility.

It was fascinating what a total interest he [John F. Kennedy] had in his tradecraft of being a politician. I didn't realize before that he was working on his memoirs all along, how he ran for Congress, that sort of thing.

I`m impressed that people out there in Pennsylvania , deer hunter country, have had it with these stupid wars, that they don`t go along with the neocon theology, they don`t go along with the big money people or the evangelicals that always seem to want to fight, especially in the Middle East.

[Barack] Obama believes you can hold enemy combatants, unlawful enemy combatants at Gitmo without a criminal trial because this is law of war detention.

I do still think there is a big disconnect between Republicans in Washington, D.C., and Republicans everywhere I go. When you start talking about, you know, foreign entanglements, they just don`t want any part of it.

People in a state like Pennsylvania, especially in the middle of the state, as you say, want the focus on repairing the state. Pennsylvania is a mess in terms of infrastructure. They don`t want to blow up bridges over there. They want to build them here.

Let's not forget, Sarah Palin may not have a golden touch, but, she gave Christine O'Donnell candidate a big touch that got her over the top.

You can be Mitt Romney with three marriages and a disastrous speakership, kicked out of the speakership, being reprimanded by the House of Representatives and fined and all that stuff, it doesn`t matter if you sing the right tune with the right tone these days.

President [Barack] Obama`s staking his reelection hopes on rebuilding America`s middle class. He wants higher taxes on the wealthy, tougher rules on Wall Street, and everyone else to get a fair shot to succeed. Republicans can cry "class warfare" if they want, but as the president put it today, it`s about this country`s welfare.

I`m closer to anybody who believes that we should lead not from behind, but from the front. Rand Paul is one step behind, leading from behind. So, yes, even [Barack] Obama is more aggressive. Obama believes you can kill Anwar al-Awlaki without getting a court order.

You could see Newt Gingrich, who`s a member of Donald Trump`s country club, already getting together and talking about the new episode of "The Apprentice," with the poor kids in the city.This was a very smart thing to do. He shows that he is the grown-up in the Republican Party.

I think that the candidates who are doing it [not debating] are doing a great disservice to the party. It`s a sign of an unhealthy institution.

Once having said no to Donald Trump, Mitt Romney can`t go back and say, I changed my mind, I`m bowing to the pressure from you.

When I hear Rand Paul, who is much younger, saying wars are verkakte, I agree with him.

Pope John Paul II is the great. Only two other popes had that title. Does that suggest there is going to be a move for canonization?

Around the globe, millions more are mourning the death and celebrating the life of Pope John Paul II . Could any other world leader have drawn so many people to one place?

It looks to me like the Republican Party`s in no mood to give them a reasonable choice with this clown show going on right now from the likes of, well, Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump. What a duo.

The reason I had unfaithfulness in one of my marriages is because I was too patriotic.

I have never heard a president in bad times running against ,let`s face it, that`s what he`s doing here running against bad times, when he`s the presiding officer.

Being a little older is not going to win election. Being a little younger might, especially if the older candidates, Hillary Clinton included, can`t make the case that they have learned something that the younger crowd doesn`t know.

The old rule in Massachusetts politics is shape of the field determines the winner. If you have got a whole bunch of hawks, all the way from [Mike] Huckabee all the way across to [Chris]Christie, that covers the spectrum on every other issue, all hawks, all hawks, and one guy out there saying, not me, Jimmy Carter won that way back in `76. I know it`s 1,000 years ago.

Here`s the Republican Party with round heels for anybody who says the right thing at the current moment. Regardless of their record, regardless of their character, and regardless of who they are, it seems that if you say the right stuff now to the Republican ear, Steve Schmidt, they will say yes, no matter who you are.

To become a saint in the Catholic Church, the normal procedure is, beatification, requiring one miracle in your name, then canonization, roughly in five years or longer, to become a saint, a second miracle.

I think, any politician, you have to hold them to their word. And conservatives run on fiscal conservatism. .

What happens to conservatives when they get near the White House? How come they only seem to be talking the good talk at, say, the Senate level, when they don't have to run the show?

Pope John Paul II himself was kind of a rather independent, creative man. I remember being told by somebody who worked very close with him in preparation for his first visit to the United States in 1979, he studied our normative documents, Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution. And he was amazed. He called his priests first thing in the morning and he said, he said, I thought America was a pagan country.

I think we all [americans] think we're a special country. But the question is, what - what call does that give us?

In life, as in death, Pope John Paul II was one of the most visible people on Earth.

I tried to talk to the graduates who haven`t figured what they`re going to do next. The kids who are heading in medical school or law school, they`ve got pretty much figured where they`re headed in life.But there are so many kids out there, that are just going,they`re still kids. They`ve always been promoted from grade to grade.

Over the last 2,000 years, 10,000 saints have been named, among them, 78 popes. At the time of his death, Pope John Paul II had the distinction of naming 482 saints, more than all of his predecessors combined.

America's the one country in the world where anybody who comes here does better than where they came from.

I look back to the Great Depression, and what Roosevelt was able to do in very difficult times, to get Social Security through back in the time when it was seen as - well, it wasn't what it is today. It was sort of a last-ditch, if you really need it, you got it, but, today, it's much more a part of your retirement program.

Medicare, getting through that in the '60s, after Kennedy's assassination, where there was such an emotional desire to do something to carry on his agenda.

Every party and every movement tends to need a hero.

I am no longer going to go along with this idea that we're going to keep spending and borrowing and taking over and raising taxes, that I'm going to do everything I can to change things.

The whole reason we organize grassroots is, we think any politician that gets elected needs to be held accountable 365 days a year.

I never know what all of these guys are thinking, but Marco Rubio sounded desperate, like, We`ve got a leak in the dike, we got to stop this thing.

I'm reading Joe Eszterhas biography; it's fabulous. Every time he made a movie, he fought with the director or the producer over the ending.

I think a lot it was the theology, that the road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad, that somehow if we broke apart the rejectionist states, like Iraq, then the whole Middle East would reconfigure itself into a more favorable environment for democracy and Israel and us.

I love what Joe Eszterhas written about Bill Clinton. It's hilarious, Clinton as a rock star, which is the way we should remember him.

When lightning strikes you want to be there, right there in the room. You, not everybody`s going to say yes to you. Just don`t ever say no to yourself, ever.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, always do what you`re afraid to do.

I`ll make it official. I care about Don Draper and what happens to him and I`m not the only one who does.

I care about Roger Sterling, one of the most subtle and amazing characters in dramatic history [Mad men]. This guys who knows precisely who he is, yet leaves us time after time hoping desperately for him to finally grab control of his life and some responsibility for those around him.

Republicans woke up Sunday with an undeniable reality. Donald Trump`s the clear front-runner now for their party`s nomination. Trump, celebrated, of course, his big win in South Carolina.

The Republican Party, which I`ve been watching all my life. They always seem to win. I mean, there was the exception, of course, with Goldwater back in `64, which turned out to be a catastrophe. But it always seems that the Mitt Romneys and the East Coast types always end up winning the fights.

Another wing of the party seems to be putting its hands up. They`re not all resisting and accepting the [Donald]Trump - the fact that he could very well win the nomination.

The Republican Party`s reacting now to the news of [Donald] Trump`s dominance in different ways. For some, they are pushing resistance.