Chris Matthews Quotes

The media elite thought Gore proved he knew so much, but the fact was, as they say, Gore knew a lot, but Bush knew enough. People liked Bush.

You don`t know whether he`s thought through how this is going to affect the Middle East.

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.

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.

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

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.

Why didn`t we recognize how much it bothered them spiritually and politically?

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.

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.`

Why don`t we just go set up the card tables ourselves, right now? Sign them up to commit suicide. And you never hear anybody talking about this.

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.`

I don`t understand how we can justify the occupied territories. It serves no goal, except the political goal of Sharon within Israel.

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

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.

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.

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.

My audience is much more center right, or centrist.

Keep your enemies in front of you.

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.

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.

Motives are so hard to get to. There are people opposed to this war who are trying to stop it, and there are people who are just posing as critics.

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.`

I still think I could defend myself by pointing to the value of the presidency. I don`t think the Democrats protected the value of the presidency.

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

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.`

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.