Notable Quotes

Skillful diplomacy might have headed off the crisis in Crimea. But we did not field skillful diplomats. We sent John Kerry, backed up by Barack Obama, Susan Rice, and Joe Biden. As in 1854, “someone had blundered.” Tennyson recorded the result. Today, the “reset button” turns out to have been disconnected at the source. Obama really did push it. Comrade Putin paid it no heed. He had taken the measure of the man long ago. And if there was any doubt, in 2012, in a candid-camera moment, Obama pleaded with Putin’s protege Dmitry Medvedev to give him more “space” about missile defense. “This is my last election,” Obama confided quietly to Medvedev. “After my election, I have more flexibility.” Noted.

The microphones weren’t supposed to pick that up. In any normal world, the remark would have gone a long way towards sealing Obama’s defeat in 2012. But this isn’t any normal world. It is the world according folks like Wolf Blitzer, who mocked Romney for describing Russia as, “without question, our number one geopolitical foe.”

Oh, how Obama jumped all over that during the debates. Remember? The mockery was non-stop "The 1980s Are Now Calling To Ask For Their Foreign Policy Back" Harkh, harkh, harkh! Good line, Barack. But it looks like Mitt was right, doesn’t it? And having temporized, preened, tergiversated about American foreign policy for five years, what are you going to do now?

R. Kimball

...am I the only one laughing that the Democrats filibustered themselves this week to talk about the crisis of climate change? They control the Senate but stayed up all night to talk about how something must be done while refusing to propose actually doing something.

...And yes, “filibustering yourself” sounds dirty. You thought I missed that.

J. Goldberg

I also think all Republican candidates should be trained with shock collars and cattle prods to automatically respond, upon hearing some combination of the words "abortion," "rape" and "incest": "Yes, of course there should be exceptions in the case of rape or incest, and I also support giving rapists the death penalty, unlike my Democratic opponent, who wants to give rapists the right to vote. Now, back to what I was saying about Obamacare ..."

A. Coulter

...in 2009, the incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association said: "(Canadian doctors) all agree that the system is imploding. We all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize." What did the outgoing CMA president propose? He said: "A health care revolution has passed us by" and "competition should be welcomed, not feared." So while the Canadian Medical Association urges more competition and privatization, America moves toward even more government involvement in health care.

L. Elder

Speaking in favor of new food labels, first lady Michelle Obama presented shopping for groceries as a nearly unbearable ordeal. "So you marched into the supermarket, you picked up a can or a box of something, you squinted at that tiny label, and you were totally and utterly lost. So there you stood, alone in some aisle in a store, the clock ticking away at the precious little time remaining to complete your weekly grocery shopping, and all you could do was scratch your head, confused and bewildered, and wonder, Is there too much sugar in this product?...So you felt defeated, and you just gave up and went back to buying the same stuff you always buy." Ladies and gentlemen: This is how your rulers view you.

The Editors of National Review