Top 100 Howard Dean Quotes
#1. The way we're going to win elections in this country is not to become Republican lite. The way we're going to win elections in this country is to stand up for what we believe in.
Howard Dean
#2. What I usually do is tell funny stories from the road, many of which are, of course, unprintable. But I don't actually have a joke. I don't tell jokes much. I tell little stories.
Howard Dean
#3. As Commander in Chief of the United States Military, I will never send our sons and daughters and our brothers and sisters to die in a foreign land without telling the truth about why they're going there.
Howard Dean
#4. I've resisted pronouncing a sentence before guilt is found. I still have this old-fashioned notion that even with people like Osama, who is very likely to be found guilty, we should do our best not to, in positions of executive power, not to prejudge jury trials.
Howard Dean
#5. Tom DeLay himself has never been the issue. DeLay is a symptom of a larger disease?a sick Republican culture of corruption that touches everyone who took his dirty money, voted for his corrupt leadership, or sat silently while their party has sold our government to the highest bidder.
Howard Dean
#6. My view is FOX News is a propaganda outlet for the Republican Party and I don't comment on FOX News.
Howard Dean
#7. This country was the moral leader of the world until George Bush became president.
Howard Dean
#8. We won when we toppled Saddam. That was the only clear goal of this war, to topple the Iraqi government. It took about 10 minutes.
Howard Dean
#9. George Bush calls his biggest fundraisers Rangers and Pioneers. We gather here today and we call ourselves simply Americans.
Howard Dean
#10. There's no question that Saddam Hussein is a threat to the United States and to our allies. If Saddam persists in thumbing his nose at the inspectors, then we're clearly going to have to do something about it.
Howard Dean
#11. People have said I'm the candidate of anger. Well, we have a right to be angry. We lost 3 million jobs. We lost our place as the moral leader of the world.
Howard Dean
#12. The French will always do exactly the opposite on what the United States wants regardless of what happens, so we're never going to have a consistent policy.
Howard Dean
#13. You think people can work all day and then pick up their kids at child care or wherever and get home and still manage to sandwich in an eight-hour vote? Well Republicans, I guess can do that. Because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives.
Howard Dean
#14. The issue is not abortion. The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.
Howard Dean
#15. I may be controversial, but my allegiance is to people outside the Beltway.
Howard Dean
#16. Most Christmas carols have no obvious religious content, or at least that's noticeable to most people. I mean, it is almost by definition, a cultural phenomenon, all these songs, even though they point to this very religious holiday. They're not religious songs in effect anymore.
Howard Dean
#17. Hypocrisy is a value that I think has been embraced by the Republican Party. We get lectured by people all day long about moral values by people who have their own moral shortcomings.
Howard Dean
#18. The way to balance the budget is for Congress to cut Social Security, move the retirement age to 70, cut defense, Medicare and veterans pensions, while the states cut almost everything else. It would be tough but we could do it.
Howard Dean
#19. If money is a form of speech, as the Supreme Court has regrettably found, rich donors will always be the loudest speakers.
Howard Dean
#20. Dealing with race is about educating white folks.
Howard Dean
#21. I think the recovery hasn't been stronger because the hole that was dug for President Obama by the Bush administration was far worse than anybody could imagine, first of all.
Howard Dean
#22. My energy level is very high ... how ambitious it all is depends on lots of different things. But pretty high energy level. I take on a lot of projects at the same time.
Howard Dean
#23. So what we - all we really want, I think, from the so-called Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is really to stand up for what we believe in.
Howard Dean
#24. The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is 'okay' to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is.
Howard Dean
#25. I think in general the ends do not justify the means.
Howard Dean
#26. As governor, I came to believe that the death penalty would be a just punishment for certain, especially heinous crimes, such as the murder of a child or the murder of a police officer. The events of September 11 convinced me that terrorists also deserve the ultimate punishment.
Howard Dean
#27. John Ashcroft is not a patriot, John Ashcroft is a descendant of Joseph McCarthy.
Howard Dean
#28. I hate Republicans and everything they stand for.
Howard Dean
#29. Stop scapegoating immigrants[Stop using] outrageous phrases like 'illegal aliens.'
Howard Dean
#30. Every single American has a voice and ... it ought to be heard in the halls of power every day.
Howard Dean
#31. America's greatness rests on far more than the power of our arms. Our greatness is also measured by our goodness, it's in the capacity of our minds, of our hearts, and it's in the strength of our democracy.
Howard Dean
#32. I was hoping to get a reception like this, I'd just hoped that it would be on Thursday night instead of Tuesday night.
Howard Dean
#33. The truth is the President of the United States used the same device that Slobodan Milosevic used in Serbia. When you appeal to homophobia, when you appeal to sexism, when you appeal to racism, that is extraordinarily damaging to the country.
Howard Dean
#34. I don't care what you label me as long as you call me president.
Howard Dean
#35. You know, to listen to Senator Lieberman, Senator Kerry, Representative Gephardt, I'm anti-Israel, I'm anti-trade, I'm anti-Medicare and I'm anti-Social Security. I wonder how I ended up in the Democratic Party. I'm not a new entrant to the Democratic Party. I've been here a long time.
Howard Dean
#36. I don't hate Republicans as individuals. But I hate what the Republicans are doing to this country. I really do.
Howard Dean
#37. You can't make Howard Dean a straw man. He is what he appears to be. And that's the beauty of Howard Dean.
Howard Dean
#38. Look, I'm not a perfect person. I have my warts. I sometimes say things that get me in trouble. I wear suits that are cheap. But I say what I think and I believe what I say, and I'm willing to say things that are not popular but ordinary people know are right.
Howard Dean
#39. Real Democrats don't make promises they can't keep.
Howard Dean
#40. If you're really worried about the effect of "Silent Night" on the kids, you need a hobby or something, and I'm glad you're pointing that out.
Howard Dean
#41. There are definitely some people who cheat, but how come we're only focusing on people who are on welfare who cheat, and not the bank presidents who cheat?
Howard Dean
#42. I'm not against the Hanukkah songs. I like Hanukkah songs. I grew up with Hanukkah songs. I'm not opposed to Hanukkah or the songs that accompany it, at all.
Howard Dean
#43. The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite. We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion dollars bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah.
Howard Dean
#44. Barry Goldwater once said, 'I'd rather be right than president.' I can't tell you how much I disagree with that Barry Goldwater.
Howard Dean
#45. Tom DeLay ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence.
Howard Dean
#46. I think with a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court, you can't play, you know, hide the salami, or whatever it's called.
Howard Dean
#47. Every day it becomes clearer that this was the wrong war at the wrong time.
Howard Dean
#48. How much courage does it take for Dean to throw red meat to the party faithful?
Howard Dean
#49. I will use whatever position I have in order to root out hypocrisy. Democrats have strong moral values. Frankly, my moral values are offended by some of the things I hear on programs like 'Rush Limbaugh,' and we don't have to put up with that.
Howard Dean
#50. I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks. We can't beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats.
Howard Dean
#51. We know that no one person can succeed unless everybody else succeeds.
Howard Dean
#52. We have to say what we believe ... whether it's popular or not.
Howard Dean
#53. At every turn when there has been an imbalance of power, the truth questioned, or our beliefs and values distorted, the change required to restore our nation has always come from the bottom up from our people.
Howard Dean
#54. I have my warts. I sometimes say things that get me in trouble. In other words, I lead with my heart and not my head. That's the only chance we have against George Bush.
Howard Dean
#55. There are no ideas in the Republican Party right now in the Congress. They're the party of no. They desperately need some intellectual leadership. And whatever you think of Newt Gingrich, he can supply intellectual leadership. So I hope he does run.
Howard Dean
#56. Second of all, I don't think Wall Street is doing what it's supposed to be doing, even after the shameful performance of the last two years. They're are not allocating capital.
Howard Dean
#57. The Democratic Party, all the candidates from Washington, they all know each other, they all move in the same circles, and what I'm doing is breaking into the country club.
Howard Dean
#58. I don't mind being called a liberal. I just don't really think it's true.
Howard Dean
#59. The Republicans are all about suppressing votes.
Howard Dean
#60. There's been more than one time when I've said something, and sort of the middle of what I've said is not said but thought, and therefore assumed to be understood, which is a ridiculous assumption on my part, but sometimes gets me in trouble.
Howard Dean
#61. The idea that the United States is going to win the war in Iraq is just plain wrong.
Howard Dean
#62. So the - the part of the problem is not just the rhetoric. It's the fact that we - we're so polarized in what we've done to each other as parties over the last thirty years in redistricting that it's very, very hard to overcome your own constituencies and move to the middle.
Howard Dean
#63. The capture of Saddam has not made America safer.
Howard Dean
#64. The status quo helps liberals. We're going to change the country.
Howard Dean
#65. I like John Kerry. I think he's intellectually curious and very thoughtful. I think he's deeply committed on issues like the environment. I think he's an internationalist, which I am.
Howard Dean
#66. The idea that we're going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong.
Howard Dean
#67. I'm not attacking liberals with a broad brush.
Howard Dean
#68. We need to go everywhere. There is not one county in this state, I don't care how far west you go, that doesn't have Democrats. We have to be proud of who we are.
Howard Dean
#69. I have never favored a Social Security retirement age of 70 nor do I favor one of 68.
Howard Dean
#70. My view of Christianity is that the hallmark of being a Christian is to reach out to people who have been left behind. So I think there was a religious aspect to my decision to support civil unions.
Howard Dean
#71. The fact that the president was willing to reveal classified information for political gain and put the interests of his political party ahead of America's security shows that he can no longer be trusted to keep America safe.
Howard Dean
#72. I actually spoke in an African-American church yesterday.
Howard Dean
#73. We've gotten rid of (Saddam Hussein), and I suppose that's a good thing.
Howard Dean
#74. Luckily, I'm a governor - so I get to tell you what I've already done not just what I'm going to do.
Howard Dean
#75. I supported the war in Afghanistan because 3000 of our people were murdered and I thought we had a right to defend the people of the United States.
Howard Dean
#76. What I want to do more than anything as president of the United States is to restore the honor and dignity and respect that this country is owed around the world.
Howard Dean
#77. I believe that the flag of the Confederate States of America is a painful symbol and reminder of racial injustice and slavery which (Abraham) Lincoln denounced from here over 150 years ago
Howard Dean
#78. I think we had quite enough capitalism in the last eight years; I think we need some regulation now.
Howard Dean
#79. And people in America are very practical people across the political spectrum. Very conservative women want their kids, their daughters taking birth control.
Howard Dean
#80. That's one of the things about the Tea Party people. They think corporations have too much influence in American life and they do.
Howard Dean
#81. There's not one person in this crowd who's gonna agree with everything I say. Not one.
Howard Dean
#82. America is a conservative country with a small "c" - they want change, but they don't want too much change too fast.
Howard Dean
#83. There is a Party of fiscal responsibility ... economic responsibility ... social responsibility ... civic responsibility ... personal responsibility ... and moral responsibility. That party is the Democratic Party.
Howard Dean
#84. The corporatization of the press really has hurt the press.
Howard Dean
#85. The State of the Union may look rosy from the White House balcony or the suites of George Bush's wealthiest donors. But hardworking Americans will see through this president's efforts to wrap his radical agenda with a compassionate ribbon.
Howard Dean
#86. This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good.
Howard Dean
#87. The real truth is, there's no such thing as a red state or a blue state, they're all purple. Some are more purple than others and our job is to get them all deep purple and then blue. And we can do that.
Howard Dean
#89. I wish that there was a unified Democratic position on the war in Iraq. I was that there was a unified American position and everybody agreed with me that we ought to be out of there yesterday. But they don't, and that's the fact. I mean, he's stating a fact about what's going on.
Howard Dean
#90. We are the great grassroots campaign of the modern era, built from mousepads, shoe leather and hope.
Howard Dean
#91. Not one Republican president has balanced the budget in 34 years. You can not trust Republicans with your money.
Howard Dean
#92. We will ultimately be judged by how we react in times of trouble and how we care for the least among us.
Howard Dean
#93. I'm a committed Christian. I worship in my own way. That's my business. That's not the business of the pharisees who are going to preach to me about what I do and then do something else.
Howard Dean
#94. Someone earlier made a remark about losing 500 soldiers and 2,200 wounded in Iraq. Those soldiers were sent there by the vote of Sen. Lieberman, Sen. Edwards and Sen. Kerry. I think that is a serious matter.
Howard Dean
#95. Early withdrawal from Iraq would result in unarguably, defeat and humiliation for the United States. There's no question. We would be defeated by definition. We would be humiliated in that defeat.
Howard Dean
#96. The fact is that we wouldn't be in Iraq if it weren't for Democrats like Senator Kerry.
Howard Dean
#97. I think most people ... would be glad to pay the same taxes they paid when Bill Clinton was president, if only they could have the same economy they had when Bill Clinton was president.
Howard Dean
#98. When you - when you - and this is still going on today - are making your money by pushing paper around, when you should be making your money by investing venture capital in various job-creating things, that makes it much harder to recover.
Howard Dean
#99. I've always been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
Howard Dean
#100. I'm just deeply disappointed that once again we may have to settle for the lesser of two evils.
Howard Dean
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