“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.” –Russian dictator Joseph Stalin

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
— H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

“Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.”
–Russian dictator Joseph Stalin

I think that the undecideds could go one way or the other.
— George Bush, 1988

Honest businessmen should be protected from the unscrupulous consumer.
— Lester Maddox, then governer of Georgia, on why his state should not create a consumer protection agency.

Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
— Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, D.C.

I did what any normal person would do at that age. You call home. You call home to mother and father and say, “I’d like to get into the National Guard.”
— Dan Quayle, vice-presidential hopeful, defending his National Guard service during the Vietnam War.

I’m not against the blacks, and a lot of the good blacks will attest to that. — Evan Mecham, then governor of Arizona

You always write it’s bombing, bombing, bombing. It’s not bombing, it’s air support. — Air Force Colonel David Opfer, complaining to reporters about their coverage of the Vietnam War.

Capital punishment is our societies recognition of the sanctity of human life. — Orrin Hatch, Senator from Utah.

If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war. — Senior Pentagon official, explaining why the U.S. military censored footage showing Iraqi soldiers sliced in two by U.S. helicopter fire.

I love California. I grew up in Phoenix. –Vice-President Dan Quayle

I have no weakness for shoes. I wear very simple shoes which are pump shoes. It is not one of my weaknesses. — Imelda Marcos, owner of 3,400 pairs of shoes.

Facts are stupid things. — Ronald Reagan

Where would Christianity be if Jesus got eight to fifteen years, with time off for good behavior? — New York Senator James H. Donovan commenting on capital punishment.

Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind. — General William Westmoreland on why the media should be controlled in wartime.

I stand by all the misstatements. — Dan Quayle, then vice-presidential hopeful, defending his verbal gaffes.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy. But that could change.– Vice-President Dan Quayle

I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue.– Richard Nixon, discussing Watergate in 1978