Dan Rather leaves a legacy of unforgettable lines before final broadcast
By JOHN MAYNARD of The Washington Post
Some call them “Ratherisms.” Others prefer “Danisms.”
Either way, it was election time that inspired television anchor Dan Rather,
who will be making his final broadcast for CBS Evening News tonight, to
come up with his most memorable sayings. A sampling:
November 1984
•“Walter Mondale has seen the light at the end of the tunnel
— and it's out.”
November 1986
•''You can pour water on the fire, call in the dogs, the hunt is
over, Terry Sanford has won the North Carolina Senate race.”
November 1988
•“George Bush is sweeping through the South like a tornado
through a trailer park.”
•Bush went through Dukakis's hopes in Georgia “like a jackknife
through peaches.”
•In Florida, “where the flamingos fly, George Bush has taken
off.”
•Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Senate opponent was thought by some observers
to have “about as much business in this race as a moose in a phone
booth.”
•In the Southwest, “fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and
Republicans have to win in Arizona.”
November 1992
•The election is so exciting it could “make the wax pop out
of your ears if you love politics.”
•Clinton took one state like “a big wheel through a Georgia
cotton field.”
•Texas is “the big enchilada or, if not an enchilada, then
a huge taco.”
November 1994
•On the Democrats' challenge, “It was always a big rock up
a high hill. The rock just got bigger and the hill just got higher.”
•Election results were “scary enough to make the Democrats'
fingernails sweat.”
November 1996
•Election night was “the long kiss goodnight for Bob Dole.”
•In reference to a poll showing Colin Powell would have beaten Clinton:
“Woulda, coulda, shoulda. If a frog didn't have long hind legs,
he wouldn't have squat to jump with.”
November 2000
•“This race is tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long
ride home from the beach.”
•“Sip it, savor it, cup it, photostat it, underline it in
red, press it in a book, put it in an album, hang it on the wall, George
Bush is the next president of the United States.”
•“We've lived by the crystal ball and learned to eat so much
broken glass tonight that we're in critical condition.”
November 2004
•“This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex.”
•“This race is humming along like Ray Charles.”
•“This situation in Ohio would give an aspirin a headache.”
•“We don't know what to do. We don't know whether to wind
a watch or bark at the moon.”
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