Reality Check

Presidential Blunders

Today is President's Day. Rather than dressing up as Abraham Lincoln and addressing the office, I thought I would spread a little holiday cheer on the blogs. Thanks to Al Gore's invention of the internet, I have amassed some memorable slip-ups from some of our past American Presidents. Because of the mud slinging mentality of politics today, we have plenty of information on the verbal slip-ups of our most recent presidents and their closest political companions.

Abraham Lincoln:

"If I were two-faced would I be wearing this one?"

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

"I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace."

"God must love the common man, he made so many of them."

"No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens."

Dwight Eisenhower:

"The world is more like it is now than it ever has been before."

Richard Nixon:

"Solutions are not the answer."

"I would have made a good Pope."

Gerald Ford:

"Solar energy is not something that is going to come in overnight."

"If Lincoln were alive today, he'd roll over in his grave."

"When a man is asked to make a speech, the first thing he has to decide is what to say."

"I watch a lot of baseball on the radio."

Ronald Reagan:

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles."

"I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."

"I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."

Bill Clinton:

"I am in support of the NRA position on gun control."

"You can put wings on a pig, but you don't make it an eagle."

"You know, everybody makes mistakes when they are president."

"You know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say."

Hillary Clinton:

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers."

"We are the president."

"In the Bible it says they asked Jesus how many times you should forgive, and he said 70 times 7. Well, I want you all to know that I'm keeping a chart."

Al Gore:

"I invented the internet."

George H. W. Bush:

"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them."

"It's no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another."

George W. Bush:

"More and more our imports are coming from overseas."

"In the long run, the right answer to unemployment is to create more jobs."

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."

"They misunderestimated me."

Dan Quayle:

"It's a question of whether we're going to go forward into the future, or past to the back."

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."

"It is wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago."

"I love California-I practically grew up in Phoenix."

"My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will, never, never surrender to what is right."

"For NASA, space is still a high priority."

"We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world."

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."

"It isn't pollution that is hurting the environment, it's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

"Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here."

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy -- but that could change."

"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future."

"We have a firm commitment to NATO. We are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."

"I deserve respect for the things I did not do."

"I feel that this is my first year, that next year is an election year, that the third year is the mid point, and that the fourth year is the last chance I'll have to make a record since the last two years; I'll be a candidate again. Everything I do in those last two years will be posturing for the election. But right now I don't have to do that."

"This President is going to lead us out of this recovery."

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."

"Bank failures are caused by depositors who don't deposit enough money to cover losses due to mismanagement."

"The future will be better tomorrow."

"Illegitimacy is something we should talk about in terms of not having it."

"We're all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made."

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any Vice President, and that one word is 'to be prepared.'"

"We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward."

"Votes are like trees, if you are trying to build a forest. If you have more trees than you have forests, then at that point the pollsters will probably say you will win."

"Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out, and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can't do that. It's gone, gone forever."

"The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make."

"I stand by all the misstatements that I've made."