Chris Matthews Quotes

I never know what all of these guys are thinking, but Marco Rubio sounded desperate, like, We've got a leak in the dike, we got to stop this thing.

I`m closer to anybody who believes that we should lead not from behind, but from the front. Rand Paul is one step behind, leading from behind. So, yes, even [Barack] Obama is more aggressive. Obama believes you can kill Anwar al-Awlaki without getting a court order.

It looks to me like the Republican Party`s in no mood to give them [voters] a reasonable choice with this clown show going on right now from the likes of, well, Newt Gingrich and Donald Trump. What a duo.

My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often.

Rush Limbaugh is beginning to look more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody's going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he's going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come.

The pope has been called many things, historic figure, spiritual leader, moral force. But a growing chorus of voices has begun to refer to him as John Paul II the Great, in other words, as a saint.

The establishment of the Republican Party, which I've been watching all my life. They always seem to win. I mean, there was the exception, of course, with Goldwater back in '64, which turned out to be a catastrophe. But it always seems that the Mitt Romneys and the East Coast types always end up winning the fights.

I thought, giving Jeb Bush the benefit of the doubt all these years, that he was sitting, saying, what a numbnut, what an idiot. My brother's a fool. He's listening to these neocons that talked him into this war. Dad would have never done this.

A couple of Donald Trump people, including his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana, and of course, Dr. Ben Carson, have both come out in the last days, hours, practically, and said they believe President [Barack] Obama is a legitimately elected president of the United States.

My audience is much more center right, or centrist.

Keep you enemies in front of you.

I look back to the Great Depression, and what Roosevelt was able to do in very difficult times, to get Social Security through back in the time when it was seen as - well, it wasn't what it is today. It was sort of a last-ditch, if you really need it, you got it, but, today, it's much more a part of your retirement program.

You could see Newt Gingrich, who`s a member of Donald Trump`s country club, already getting together and talking about the new episode of "The Apprentice," with the poor kids in the city.This was a very smart thing to do. He shows that he is the grown-up in the Republican Party.

The president of the United States, whoever it is, deserves a certain level of reverence and respect just because of the office he holds.

It's no good to shoot a guy anymore. It's not enough. Nobody is throwing anybody off of buildings after seeing these movies, but they are smoking after seeing some good-looking celebrity smoke.

I've never heard anybody [of president's candidates] talk about the poorly educated.

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.

You can be Mitt Romney with three marriages and a disastrous speakership, kicked out of the speakership, being reprimanded by the House of Representatives and fined and all that stuff, it doesn`t matter if you sing the right tune with the right tone these days.

The Catholic Church [with Pope John Paul II] has lost its shepherd. The world has lost a champion of human freedom.

Another wing of the party seems to be putting its hands up. They're not all resisting and accepting the [Donald] Trump - the fact that he could very well win the nomination.

I still think a reasonable question is, would we be better off with [Muamar] Gadhafi and Bashar al-Assad still in there and Mubarak still there and Saddam [Hussein] there than the crap we have got looking at us now?

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

This is a fundamental question, Mr. Mayor [ Rudy Giuliani ]. Is the president of the United States legitimate or not? Do you believe it? If you believe it, why doesn't your candidate state it.

I'm trying to put the ridiculousness to bed. The president of the United States is the president of the United States.

I think a lot it was the theology, that the road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad, that somehow if we broke apart the rejectionist states, like Iraq, then the whole Middle East would reconfigure itself into a more favorable environment for democracy and Israel and us.

The Kennedys formed a Kennedy party.

How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al-Qaida. Is that the point at which you say, "This guy is dangerous?" That's not a crime to call up al-Qaida, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy?

In the world of late-night comics, Letterman made us feel any hometown boy from Indianapolis could poke fun at celebrities and politicians and do it right to their faces.

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.

Hillary Clinton follows a cardinal rule in politics - don't commit to a decision before you have to.

Why are some people like Chuck Schumer, who`s probably going to be leader of the Senate, why is he switching from a big city financial center pro-trader to being an anti-trader? Is that because of upstate New York? What`s going on? I can`t figure this out.

The whole reason we organize grassroots is, we think any politician that gets elected needs to be held accountable 365 days a year.

To become a saint in the Catholic Church, the normal procedure is, beatification, requiring one miracle in your name, then canonization, roughly in five years or longer, to become a saint, a second miracle.

People do have a - people, unlike politicians, are allowed to change their minds. People are allowed to look back and say, you know what, all things considered, I don't think that was the smart move.

I think Bernie's [Sanders] setting a direction in the way that [Barry] Goldwater when he lost - I'm not saying he's going to lose. We don't know what is going to happen. It's early. But I think he's already set a lot of themes.

Pope John Paul II spoke with a lot of clarity and consistency. But he always spoke with immense compassion. He's the one who said the best way to love somebody is to tell them the truth. So, he did that well.

Sarah Palin is an empty vessel ready to be filled by ideology that she doesn't even understand, and that is really scary. Nothing is more frightening than an empty vessel in power.

Once having said no to Donald Trump, Mitt Romney can't go back and say, I changed my mind, I'm bowing to the pressure from you.

Canonization in modern times is a very, almost scientific process.

All Hollywood endings - the bad endings have to be the bad guys to be falling about 50 stories to his death and you have to see his eyeballs as he goes to his doom.

Hillary Clinton did better among working-class whites when she's running against Barack Hussein Obama. How is she doing now against an older, a professor type, who seems very unthreatening, very likable.

I`m impressed that people out there in Pennsylvania, deer hunter country, have had it with these stupid wars, that they don`t go along with the neocon theology, they don`t go along with the big money people or the evangelicals that always seem to want to fight, especially in the Middle East.

I forgot he [Barack Obama] was black tonight for an hour.

Here`s the Republican Party with round heels for anybody who says the right thing at the current moment. Regardless of their record, regardless of their character, and regardless of who they are, it seems that if you say the right stuff now to the Republican ear, Steve Schmidt, they will say yes, no matter who you are.

Public opinion aside, it will be up to the future pope to continue John Paul II's journey to sainthood. Many of the late pope's followers believe he is already there.

The fact that younger people are more inclined to socialism may well come with the fact that so many young people's first experience with capitalism is as a debtor.

Ben Carson's not really a factor anymore. I hate to say that of anybody, but he isn't a factor anymore.

I think, internally, we Catholics have known this for a long time. I think we're just thrilled and grateful that the rest of the world now is sharing in the esteem and gratitude that we've had for Pope John Paul II for 26 and a half years.