Napoleon famously said, “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap” – and as if we needed more proof, here are the top ten dumb things said by U.S. politicians – and a little more.
Most of these quotes are so well known that if we will play a game, where you the reader, match the politician to the quote, you are sure to win. For instance, everyone knows which arrogant gasbag spoke of “binders full of women” but given the choice of Ed Koch, Sarah Palin and Gerald Ford, can you match the following three statements to the names? A. “We’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.” B. “Life is indeed precious and I believe the death penalty helps to affirm that fact.” C.”If Lincoln were alive today, he’d be turning over in his grave.”
Granted, this one was easy. The North Korea quote gave it away as Sarah Palin, and Ed Koch’s surreal comment on the sanctity of life have his ‘stamp’ on it, just as surely as Gerald Ford’s tenuous theories on the afterlife belongs to him.
When the name Al Gore arises – less often these days, we immediately peg him as the guy who boasted in 1999 that he’ invented the internet.’ We’ve had such great fun imagining Al in his workshop, fiddling with the tubes and such, while Tipper burns his dinner, that it’s a shame to destroy the image. Gore said he ‘took the initiative’ for obtaining the economic backing to make the internet more widely available…Or words to that effect.
Saintly Ronald Reagan got us off to a running halt that is costing us dearly in our environment, by saying things like “trees cause more pollution than automobiles!” (True – the Chain Smoking Birch is a major polluter). Whatever he was thinking, it was reason enough to deny funding to the Environmental protection Agency. Nixon said: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.” It would then follow that when the president says something idiotic (see Reagan’s trees) it is not stupid.
I have cut Sarah Palin short with only one quote from her bounty of quotable statements, and I’ve done the same with George. Bush, although the video does expand a bit. Our site has an entire section of Bushisms. Here is a taste. “Our enemies never stop thinking about ways to harm our country, and neither do we.” Truer words were never spoken by the Bush/Cheney team.
Mike Huckabee, darling of the conservative Republicans, recently weighed in on faith and country, advising parents to discourage their offspring from joining the military under the current presidential administration, saying: “I’d wait a couple of years until we get a new commander-in-chief that will once again believe ‘ One Nation Under God’ and believes that people of faith should be a vital part of the process of not only governing this country, but defending this country” Nicely done, Huck. He has once again pointed to President Obama as ‘the other’ as well as a non-Christian. Furthermore, he enforces the popular fantasy that this is a government created by, and designed for Christians only. To paraphrase an earlier gaffe by Gerald Ford, ‘The Founding Fathers would be spinning in their graves if they were alive.” Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be killers – unless there’s a bible believing Christian sending them to war…Just like Dubya.
There are many more quotes in the video and elsewhere, stupid political remarks are one of our major exports – and fresh ones are made daily; but I am compelled to end by one of the ‘ Doozies of the Decade’ by the dubious ‘winner’ TODD AKIN.
Akin’s memorable remark follows: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
This is a double whammy, not only does Akin introduce the idea of ‘legitimate rape’ but demonstrates the ignorance rampant in his party. Akin (and others who hold his views) have even claimed that women who haven’t been raped will claim to have been raped in order to obtain an abortion. Furthermore, those wily women “may claim to be raped as a strategy during divorce proceedings.”
Todd Akin, regardless of his comments on pregnancy and lack of health sciences education, Akin currently serves on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
If that isn’t terrifying, you have wandered onto a liberal site by accident.
Akin, was of course, exorcising the demon of abortion, for any reason including violent “legitimate” rape. You see? We do not need abortion, when the mommy’s body ‘has ways to shut that whole thing down.’ I’ll bet babies can only be conceived when a married mommy and daddy who love each other very, very much, ask God to place a baby in the cabbage patch (or whatever they’re calling it these days) via carrier stork. Akin has since reiterated that his ignorant remarks constitute his ‘TRUE belief!’