Quote of the Day posts

“Many have written him off. ... The president’s proposals 'are so out of touch you have to ask if there’s any point to the speech,' said Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

”But if you look beyond capital gasbags, and consider the big ideas in Obama’s speech, you can see the inevitability of his philosophy. His proposals — raising the minimum wage, paid maternity leave, making college more affordable and the tax system more fair — are popular across the political divide. They’re mainstream anywhere but the fund-raisers that Reince Priebus presides over.“

-- Timothy Egan, writing about my president in the fourth quarter, and my Seattle Seahawks in last Sunday's fourth quarter, in the New York Times Op-Ed, ”It's How You Finish."

Tags: Timothy Egan, Barack Obama, Seattle Seahawks, GOP

“Ava DuVernay (Selma), who would have been the first woman of color nominated for Best Director, should have been among the five Best Director nominees. She handled a large scale historical film and made it reverberate with danger, grief, inspiration, courage, and immediacy which is more than can be said for most historical epics. And it's only her third film! Can't wait to see what number four is like. As a subset of this stage of grief: anger. The Oscar nominations are just another reminder that Oscar does not value female narratives, not behind the scenes or onscreen. Movies about men trying to find themselves, or redemption or triumph over adversity score. Movies about women or people of color doing the same things do not (see: Wild and Selma, this year and examples in many other years; Oscar is a boys club).”

-- Nathaniel Rogers, “The Five Stages of Grief via Oscar Nominations.” 

Tags: Selma, Nathaniel Rogers

“I do a lot of work on campaigns. But the money part of it drives me crazy. I think our democracy is close to being bought and that’s very troubling. I worry about what’s happening with radical Islam. I think we have done a good job [in Minnesota] of integrating all beliefs. But you hope we don’t get directly touched by the awfulness because that could change how things are working here. And I worry about why we have these terrible, deep divisions in politics that prevent us from doing things that need to be done. I know there’s blame on both sides, but—this won’t surprise you—I think it’s mostly because of what the Republicans have become.’’

-- Walter Mondale, in Doug Grow's excellent piece, “Walter Monday on life and loss, and finding ways to matter,” on MinnPost.

Tags: Walter Mondale, Minnesota, GOP

“I just think it’s disrespectful to the conference, and it’s politically immature. We ought to be talking about Keystone, we ought to be talking about our Obamacare reforms and fixes, we ought to be talking about trade and our agenda, and instead we have to go through this and it dominates the media for a few days.”

-- U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) on the Tea Party challenge to reconfirming John Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker of the House.

To which I say: Welcome to the party, pal. 

Tags: GOP, Tea Party, John Boehner

“I don’t know how anyone could leave the Big Unit off their Hall of Fame ballot. Was there ever a more fun pitcher? Why even be a voter if you can’t enjoy checking the box next to Randy Johnson’s name?”

-- Joe Posnanski on Randy Johnson's Hall of Fame chances, which will be announced tomorrow. Pos predicts 97% for the Unit (75% needed). FWIW, “fun” was the word I used in this June 2009 post after Randy won his 300th game.

Big + Unit = 5 Cy Youngs, 303 wins, 4,875 strikeouts.

Tags: Joe Posnanski, Randy Johnson, Baseball Hall of Fame