Opinion

Quips and quotes


Published: August 30, 2008

"Clearly, the job of the next president is to rebuild the American dream and restore America's standing in the world. Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I've done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job."

Former President Bill Clinton addressing the Democratic National Convention.

"The complaints have settled down."

Ed Callahan, president of Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H. on bingo customers' response to the state's year-old smoking ban.

"Our goal was to have no more than 20 kids in kindergarten and first grade."

Haverhill schools Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan, on impending class sizes of 23 to 25 for those grades because of budget restraints.

"I'll censure you. I'll put you on 30 days (notice)."

Atkinson, N.H. selectmen Chairman Paul Sullivan to police Chief Philip Consentino, for what Sullivan said was Consentino's speaking out of order in discussing the town's elderly affairs program and donation accounts.

"The contract says 'shall' and not 'may.'"

Lawrence School Committee attorney Naomi Stonberg, telling the committee it must grant Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy a raise of at least 3 percent because the committee found he met performance goals.

"I think the whole thing is a disgrace, a health hazard and it wasn't constructed correctly in the first place."

Haverhill City Councilor James Donahue, explaining why he blocked a request for up to $5,000 to clean the Merrimack Street parking garage stairwells of bird and bat droppings.

"I own this decision. I wanted to confront NEASC on some disagreements I had."

North Andover schools Superintendent James Marini, defending his decision not to notify the School Committee until August that the New England Association of Schools and Colleges had placed the district on warning status in May.

"If he really thinks that, by liberating Iraq from a dangerous tyrant, America somehow set a bad example that invited Russia to invade a small, peaceful, and democratic nation, then he should state it outright because that is a debate I welcome."

Presidential candidate John McCain on rival Barack Obama's comparison of Russia's invasion of Georgia to the U.S. incursion into Iraq.

"I'm panicking. I keep thinking, 'Did the Corps fix the levees?,' 'Is my house going to flood again?' ... 'Am I going to have to go through all this again?'"

Evelyn Fuselier of Chalmette, La., at midweek, whose home was submerged in 14 feet of floodwater when Hurricane Katrina hit three years ago, while watching Gustav swirl toward the Gulf of Mexico.

"This is a monumental moment in our nation's history. And it becomes obviously an even greater moment in November if he's elected."

Martin Luther King III, the civil rights icon's oldest son, on the nomination of Barack Obama as the Democratic presidential nominee, the first black man to claim such a prize.

"You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership. No way. No how. No McCain."

Hillary Clinton in urging her supporters to vote for Barack Obama for president.

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