quote/unquote

From St. Louis, another in a series on the zeitgeist.

"If Appalachia were a country, Hillary Clinton could be elected its president."
* Ron Reagan, son of the late president, on MSNBC on May 20th, on Hillary's appeal to poor whites

"As a middle-aged Indian, I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s in a sub-continent dominated by political dynasties.
. . . The United States in recent times has found itself facing the temptation of continuing its flirtation with dynastic politics. But being the USA, it refuses to come to terms with a fact that most other observers find pretty evident. Since 1988, we have had a Bush (4 years), a Clinton (8 years), Bush II (8 years), and now the prospect of a second Clinton. In South Asia, one supposes there would be nothing particularly unusual about this, nor would Argentina or some other countries find this objectionable. . . . The problem however is the South Asian example. The truth is that once you blatantly ride a male coattail, you cannot liberate yourself from the awful underlying principle. The next possible female US president after (a hypothetical) Hillary would surely then have to be another spouse, daughter, or dynastic derivative. Would this be a blow on behalf of American feminism or against it?"
*- blogger "Nandybull," Manchester (UK) Guardian, May 21 in reaction to piece by Michael Tomasky

"We're goin' back to Podunk, Texas, again . . . Damn. They're like cockroaches. They won't die."
*-- Charles Barkley, on how the San Antonio Spurs survive the play-offs

"I just say I'm not getting high today. I'm not promising them I'm not getting high tomorrow. I'm trying to figure it out. I'm in an abysmal world trying to figure it out."
*- Mike Tyson in NY Times piece about a documentary film about him, Sunday May 11