Dan Quayle: Not Quite There

My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will never, never surrender to what is right.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle speaking to the Christian Coalition about the need for abstinence to avoid AIDS, 11/15/91 (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

Okay, I won't open it until then.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle after having been presented with an empty box that was to contain a gift from a sailing team in South America. He was told that the gift was not ready yet, but that it would be presented to him when they arrived in the United States.

I happen to be a Republican president -- ah, the vice president.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle (Newsweek 4/9/90)

Maybe you guys will get lucky this year and face the Orioles in the World Series.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle encouraging the Milwaukee Brewers after throwing out the opening pitch of the season. Both teams are in the American League. (5/3/92 Sunday Detroit News)

Are they taking DDT?
-- Vice President Dan Quayle asking doctors at a Manhattan AIDS clinic about their treatments of choice, 4/30/92 (reported in Esquire, 8/92, and NY Post early May 92)

A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle

I just don't believe in the basic concept that someone should make their whole career in public service.
-- Vice President (former senator, former congressman, etc..) Dan Quayle

This isn't a man who is leaving with his head between his legs.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle discussing John Sununu's resignation and apparent lack of flexibility, 12/6/91

Unfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, regarding David Duke's candidacy, 10/12/90, (reported in Esquire, 8/92)

We lead in exporting jobs.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle committing a Freudian slip while speaking to the Chamber of Commerce of Evansville, Indiana, a city which lost 4 large companies in the last four years. He quickly changed the word 'jobs' to 'products'. (NY Newsday 7/26/92 - taken from The Quayle Quarterly, Summer/Winter, 1992)

My grandfather... saw where inherited wealth ruined people. And my grandfather was right.
-- Vice-President Dan Quayle giving an analysis of his own situation: he has a half-million dollars worth of his family's newspaper stock holdings. (ABC's 'Prime Time Live', August 10, 1992)

You can't just walk into a store and buy a gun. There's all sorts of registration, there are all sorts of state laws.
-- Senator Dan Quayle after criticizing Michael Dukakis for the Massachusetts furlough program. Quayle was soon informed that indeed in many states a person could just walk into a store and buy a gun. (reported in the NY Times, 8/27/88)

If you give a person a fish, they'll fish for a day. But if you train a person to fish, they'll fish for a lifetime.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle while at a job training center in Atlanta celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Job Training Partnership Act, which Quayle helped to sponsor while a senator, 10/13/92. (reported in the NY Times, 10/14/92).

I'm glad you asked me that. This gives me the perfect opportunity to talk about the problems with this Congress...
-- Vice President Dan Quayle responding to reporters' questions about his use of Air force 2 to go on golf trips at the cost of $26,000/hour.

We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.
-- Vice President Dan Quayle, (USA Today 4/22/92 - taken from The Quayle Quarterly, Summer/Fall 1992)

I've been told to keep my remarks relatively brief. I understand Quayle-hunting season begins at noon.
-- Senator Dan Quayle to a crowd in Eau Claire, Wisc. (LA Times 10/16/88)