From: puccio@media.mit.edu (Jim Puccio)
Subject: Oh, Danny Boy
Organization: M.I.T. Media Laboratory
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 22:29:29 GMT

I don't normally read the Boston Herald, but yesterday's cover was so
hilarious, I had to pick up a copy.  I'll do my best to share the mirth with
the rest of you.  The temptation is to quote the whole article, but for
copyright's sake, herewith follow only selected portions.  If you want the
whole thing, buy a copy.


Cover headline:  "Hot potato(e)"


Sidebar:

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                          |
| Dan Quayle's greatest hits:                                              |
|                                                                          |
| * 'I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret        |
|    I have was thet I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could      |
|    converse with those people'                                           |
|       -- April 1988                                                      |
|                                                                          |
| * 'What a waste it is to lose one's mind.'                               |
|       -- May 1989                                                        |
|                                                                          |
| * 'You [natives of American Samoa] all look like happy campers to me.    |
|    Happy campers you are, happy campers you have been, and as far as     |
|    I am concerned, happy campers you will always be.'                    |
|       -- April 1989                                                      |
|                                                                          |
| * 'We are ready for any unforseen event that may or may not occur.'      |
|       -- September 1990                                                  |
|                                                                          |
| * 'For NASA, space is still a high priority.'                            |
|       -- September 1990                                                  |
|                                                                          |
| *  Hails U.S. victory in Gulf war as a 'stirring victory for the forces  |
|    of aggression.'                                                       |
|       -- April 1991                                                      |
|                                                                          |
| *  P-O-T-A-T-O-E.                                                        |
|       -- June 1992                                                       |
|                                                                          |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+


Captioned pictures:

'[Vice President Dan Quayle is] the best political mind in the White House.'
        -- Gov. William F. Weld

'Given the performance of this administration, Quayle may very well be the
 brightest mind.'
        -- Democrat Michael Goldman

'I think he [Quayle] has the best golf swing of anyone in the White House.'
        -- Republican Sen. David H. Locke


Weld feels heat over praise of VP Quayle
  by Robert Connolly

  Dan Quayle may not know how to spell potato, and may not be tops with fans
of "Murphy Brown," but Gov. William F. Weld yesterday deemed the much-maligned
vice president "the best political mind in the White House."
  "I don't expect any of you to agree with this," a somewhat chagrined Weld
told startled reporters.
  The governor's pronouncement seemed to stun even members of his own
Republican Party.  Predictably, perhaps, the remark sent Democrats into gales
of laughter.

[...]

  The man in charge of making political calculations for the Bush 
administration, White House political director Ronald Kaufman, seemed taken
aback by Weld's comment.
  "Are you kidding me?" Kaufman  said, after Weld's remarks were read.  After
that, Kaufman uncharacteristically clammed up.
  David H. Locke, the Republican leader in the Massachusetts Senate, was
reluctant to accept the governor's assertion.
  "I think he [Quayle] has the best golf swing in the White House," deadpanned
Locke (R-Wellesley).
  "I've never seen his SATs," added Locke [...]

[...]

  Weld, who described Quayle as "the best political mind in the White House"
during a State House press conference, later told reporters that Quayle gets
a bum rap when he is dismissed as a wooly-headed political fluke.

[...]

  Weld aides later stressed that the governor was talking about the behind-
the-scenes, political strategist Quayle -- not the vice president who misspells 
"potato," frequently appears dazed and wooden on television, and utters
hilarious pronouncements.
  There was the luncheon with the United Negro College Fund in May 1989 when
Quayle, struggling to repeat the fund's long-used slogan, said "What a waste
it is to lose one's mind."

[...]

  Weld's comments come as Quayle -- Four years after he was plucked from
political obscurity -- continues to be monologue fodder for talk show hosts
and served as a rhetorical punching-bag at the recent Democratic National
Convention.

[...]

  Last week, 100 Democratic and independent "swing voters" gave Quayle a
horrifying 7-84 favorable/unfavorable rating in an electronic focus group
conducted for the Herald.

[...]


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