The top quote as selected by Yale associate librarian Fred Shapiro is not one I would have selected. It may be one of the least known quote among the list. But at Yale it tops the list because
"That struck me as embodying the friction and polarization on the role of government." - Fed Shapiro
The number 1 quote is:
"Keep your government hands off my Medicare." Speaker at health care reform town hall meeting in Simpsonville, S.C., commenting on the government-created Medicare program, quoted by The Washington Post on July 28
I can understand the thought behind the quote, and I agree with it. But it still does not ring number 1 to me.
I would likely select the nuber 4 choice as the top of the list:
"You lie!" Wilson's shouted retort to Obama's address before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9
Not only because it is a first to my knowledge, and an affront to the Office of the Presidency, but because it turns out it was true. Still it was an act that should never have occured, the apology that followed seemed sincere enough.
Number 3 on the list is one that is so popular it reminds me of a catchphrase that defined the 80's (Where's the beef?):
"There's an app for that." Apple's advertising slogan for the iPhone
A quote from early on in the year was perhaps the bravest and most heroic of quote all year:
"We're going to be in the Hudson." Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, responding to air traffic controllers asking on which runway he preferred to land US Airways Flight 1549 on Jan. 15 before he landed in the Hudson River.
And of course no one can forget the gaffe of President Obama that revealed an insensitivity and distrust of authority that honestly seems to abide in all people of color in this nation - normally with reason:
"The Cambridge police acted stupidly." Obama, commenting on a white police officer's arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home in Cambridge, Mass., at a news conference July 22
The rest of the quotes really don't seem that big to me. They are either too obscure to have been widely known (Jesse Ventura's quote), or just so damn stupid it isn't worth repeating (Kanye West).
If I had to pick a couple more top quotes I might go with
"I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start. Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people." - Latoya Jackson on the death of her brother Michael, Jul 13, 2009. She turned out to be at least partially right.
"The officer leaned (in), was straddling over him and pointed his gun directly into the backside and shot (Grant)." - Attorney John Burris describing the Jan 1, 2009 murder of Oscar Grant by then-BART officer Johannes Meserhle. The trial of the case has been delayed 1 year.
"What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?" - House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), July 27 2009. Perhaps the clearest explaination why Government and the economy is screwed up.
Those are some of my top quotes of 2009. What would you pick as the top quote to define the year?
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