Chris Matthews

“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.”

“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.”

“Anecdotes came with his DNA.”

“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.”

“He was making the inevitable pivot from critic to manager.”

“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.”

“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.'”

“You don't know whether he's thought through how this is going to affect the Middle East.”

“The author defines professionalism as exemplified by his subjects in their mutual unwillingness to take expected opposition personally. They would not allow grudges to get in the way of more important business.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“My audience is much more center right, or centrist.”

“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.”

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

“The Russian people were just like us. They were victims of their own government. Ronald Reagan”

“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.”

“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.”