John Gardner (former Secretary of HEW): We are all faced with a series of great opportunities–brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
Eugene McCarthy: Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game…and dumb enough to think it’s important.
Joke from Lyndon Johnson (as retold by Bob Dole):
There was a bulldog back home in Johnson City that made all the female dogs in town pregnant every spring. Eventually the local ladies got so fed up that they banded together had the bulldog fixed. You can imagine their surprise the next spring when all the female dogs were again pregnant.
“It’s that damned old bulldog again,” said one of the ladies.
“But didn’t we have him fixed?” asked another.
“We did,” replied the first lady. “But now he’s acting as a consultant.”
From: Great Political Wit: Laughing (Almost) all the way to the White House by Bob Dole.