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Authors: William Safire
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the candidate of avoiding the issue. The candidate, who later became a champion of gay rights, came back with “I feel your pain, I feel your pain, but if you want to attack me personally … go support somebody else for president.” He ameliorated that with “I know you’re hurting, but you won’t stop hurting by trying to hurt other people.”
Tied for second place, thanks to its repetition thousands of times on television, is his statement of Jan. 26, 1998: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” What made it memorable was not only its unequivocal tone but also its accompaniment by a wagging finger. More than the words, the stern digit fixes it firmly in the national memory.
A charge leveled by Hillary Rodham Clinton at her husband’s nattering, battering cottage industry of vilifiers makes it into the political lexicon. On Jan. 27, 1998, during the month that the most memorable Clinton locutions were launched, the first lady told a television interviewer, Matt Lauer of the Today show, that she and her husband were targets of “a vast, right-wing conspiracy.” (That is most frequently written without a comma between the adjective vast and the compound adjective right-wing; such an error is not attributable to Mrs. Clinton but to the vast right wing.)
“I didn’t inhale,” which was widely quoted in derision early in the Clinton era, seems to be on the decline in quoted recollection. Regarding the use of drugs, Governor Clinton of Arkansas said in 1992 that “when I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale it and never tried it again.” (The phrasal verb experimented with became the operative term in such admissions, giving the action an almost scientific connotation, rather than smoked or used. ) It was the careful plea of guilty with an explanation—of smoking but not inhaling—that struck many as ludicrously clever, but the phrase was overtaken by “‘is’ is.”
Clinton enthusiasts are proud of “The era of big government is over,” spoken in his 1996 State of the Union address, a stunning statement from a Democrat, somewhat tempered by “but we cannot go back to the time when our citizens were left to fend for themselves.” This was described by his public-opinion aide, Richard Morris, as triangulation, the positioning of a politician above two contending ideologies, a geometric updating of “stealing the opposition’s clothes.”
Another Clintonism that those who remember his administration fondly like to recall is the campaign semislogan, “It’s the economy, stupid.” This was a sign posted by his campaign manager, James Carville, and not a statement by the candidate. Clinton did say in his stump speeches, “My responsibility is to grow this economy,” which was effective though it drew the ire of grammatical purists who objected to the use of the intransitive verb grow in a transitive form.
Students of regional dialect recall with fondness Clinton’s use of Ozark expressions. The most memorable of these was spoken at a Feb. 15, 1992, rally where the Arkansas governor said that he hoped people would see him “working hard, reaching out to them and fighting until the last dog dies.” (As ’til the last dog is hung, this has been traced to a 1902 novel set in Michigan.) Clinton also contributed this proverb to the political lexicon: “Even a blind hog can find an acorn.”
Perhaps the most poignant of the memorable Clintonyms was recalled by Uzi Amit-Kohn of Jerusalem. In a farewell to Yitzhak Rabin on Nov. 5, 1995, after the Israeli leader’s assassination, Clinton said, “ Shalom, chaver, “ which translates from the Hebrew as “Good-bye, friend” or “Peace, friend.”
These statements are hardly the relics of a forgotten age. But as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his notebook, “There are no second acts in American lives.” And “show me a hero, and I will write you a
Tied for second place, thanks to its repetition thousands of times on television, is his statement of Jan. 26, 1998: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.” What made it memorable was not only its unequivocal tone but also its accompaniment by a wagging finger. More than the words, the stern digit fixes it firmly in the national memory.
A charge leveled by Hillary Rodham Clinton at her husband’s nattering, battering cottage industry of vilifiers makes it into the political lexicon. On Jan. 27, 1998, during the month that the most memorable Clinton locutions were launched, the first lady told a television interviewer, Matt Lauer of the Today show, that she and her husband were targets of “a vast, right-wing conspiracy.” (That is most frequently written without a comma between the adjective vast and the compound adjective right-wing; such an error is not attributable to Mrs. Clinton but to the vast right wing.)
“I didn’t inhale,” which was widely quoted in derision early in the Clinton era, seems to be on the decline in quoted recollection. Regarding the use of drugs, Governor Clinton of Arkansas said in 1992 that “when I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale it and never tried it again.” (The phrasal verb experimented with became the operative term in such admissions, giving the action an almost scientific connotation, rather than smoked or used. ) It was the careful plea of guilty with an explanation—of smoking but not inhaling—that struck many as ludicrously clever, but the phrase was overtaken by “‘is’ is.”
Clinton enthusiasts are proud of “The era of big government is over,” spoken in his 1996 State of the Union address, a stunning statement from a Democrat, somewhat tempered by “but we cannot go back to the time when our citizens were left to fend for themselves.” This was described by his public-opinion aide, Richard Morris, as triangulation, the positioning of a politician above two contending ideologies, a geometric updating of “stealing the opposition’s clothes.”
Another Clintonism that those who remember his administration fondly like to recall is the campaign semislogan, “It’s the economy, stupid.” This was a sign posted by his campaign manager, James Carville, and not a statement by the candidate. Clinton did say in his stump speeches, “My responsibility is to grow this economy,” which was effective though it drew the ire of grammatical purists who objected to the use of the intransitive verb grow in a transitive form.
Students of regional dialect recall with fondness Clinton’s use of Ozark expressions. The most memorable of these was spoken at a Feb. 15, 1992, rally where the Arkansas governor said that he hoped people would see him “working hard, reaching out to them and fighting until the last dog dies.” (As ’til the last dog is hung, this has been traced to a 1902 novel set in Michigan.) Clinton also contributed this proverb to the political lexicon: “Even a blind hog can find an acorn.”
Perhaps the most poignant of the memorable Clintonyms was recalled by Uzi Amit-Kohn of Jerusalem. In a farewell to Yitzhak Rabin on Nov. 5, 1995, after the Israeli leader’s assassination, Clinton said, “ Shalom, chaver, “ which translates from the Hebrew as “Good-bye, friend” or “Peace, friend.”
These statements are hardly the relics of a forgotten age. But as F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his notebook, “There are no second acts in American lives.” And “show me a hero, and I will write you a
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