Deep Thoughts by Dan Quale

Why wouldn't an enhanced deterrent, a more stable peace, a better
prospect to denying the ones who enter conflict in the first place to
have a reduction of offensive systems and an introduction to defensive
capability.  I believe that is the route this country will eventually
go.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and
child.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

Mars is essentially in the same orbit...  somewhat the same distance
from the Sun, which is very important.  We have seen pictures where
there are canals, we believe, and water.  If there is water, that means
there is oxygen.  If oxygen, that means we can breathe.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific.  It is *in*
the Pacific.  It is a part of the United States that is an island that
is right here.  -- V.P.  D.Q., Hawaii, September 1989

What a terrible thing to have lost one's mind.  Or not to have a mind
at all.  How true that is.  -- V.P.  D.Q.  winning friends while
speaking to the United Negro College Fund

You all look like happy campers to me.  Happy campers you are, happy
campers you have been, and, as far as I am concerned, happy campers you
will always be.  -- V.P.  D.Q., to the American Samoans, whose capital
Quayle pronounces "Pogo Pogo."

Quayle stumbled in response to a question about his opinion of the
Holocaust.  He said it was "an obscene period in our nation's history."
Then, trying to clarify his remark, Quayle said he meant "this
century's history" and added a confusing comment.  "We all lived in
this century, I didn't live in this century," he said.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

We expect them [Salvadoran officials] to work toward the elimination of
human rights.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many
voices to be heard here.  Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans...  I
have heard a single voice.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and
democracy -- but that could change.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and
that one word is "to be prepared."  -- V.P.  D.Q.

If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure.  -- V.P.  D.Q.,
to the Phoenix Republican Forum, March 1990

It's rural America.  It's where I came from.  We always refer to
ourselves as real America.  Rural America, real America, real, real,
America.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

Target prices?  How that works?  I know quite a bit about farm policy.
I come from Indiana, which is a farm state.  Deficiency payments -
which are the key -- that is what gets money into the farmer's hands.
We got loan, uh, rates, we got target, uh, prices, uh, I have worked
very closely with my senior colleague, (Indiana Sen.)  Richard Lugar,
making sure that the farmers of Indiana are taken care of.  -- V.P.
D.Q.  on being asked to define the term "target prices."  Quayle's
press secretary then cut short the press conference, after two minutes
and 30 seconds.

I not going to focus on what I have done in the past what I stand for,
what I articulate to the American people.  The American people will
judge me on what I am saying and what I have done in the last 12 years
in the Congress.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

I want to be Robin to Bush's Batman.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

We should develop anti-satellite weapons because we could not have
prevailed without them in "Red Storm Rising".  -- V.P.  D.Q.

The US has a vital interest in that area of the country.  -- V.P.  D.Q.
Referring to Latin America.

Japan is an important ally of ours.  Japan and the United States of the
Western industrialized capacity, 60 percent of the GNP, two countries.
That's a statement in and of itself.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

Who would have predicted...  that Dubcek, who brought the tanks in in
Czechoslovakia in 1968 is now being proclaimed a hero in Czechoslovakia.
Unbelievable.  -- V.P.  D.Q.  (Actually, Dubcek was the leader of the
Prague Spring.)

May our nation continue to be the beakon of hope to the world.  -- The
Quayle's 1989 Christmas card.  [Not a beacon of literacy, though.]

Well, it looks as if the top part fell on the bottom part.  -- V.P.
D.Q.  referring to the collapsed section of the 880 freeway after the
San Francisco earthquake of 1989.  [this may be a joke; the source is
unclear, but it's still funny]

{ellipsis}getting [cruise missiles] more accurate so that we can have
precise precision.  -- V.P.  D.Q.  referring to his legislative work
dealing with cruise missiles

I can identify with steelworkers.  I can identify with workers that
have had a difficult time.  -- V.P.  D.Q.  addressing workers at an
Ohio steel plant,1988

[I will never have] another Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy, Jimmy
Carter, Jimmy Carter grain embargo, Jimmy Carter grain embargo.  --
V.P.  D.Q.  during the Bentson debate

Certainly, I know what to do, and when I am Vice President -- and I
will be -- there will be contingency plans under different sets of
situations and I tell you what, I'm not going to go out and hold a news
conference about it.  I'm going to put it in a safe and keep it there!
Does that answer your question?  -- V.P.  D.Q.  when asked what he
would do if he assumed the Presidency,1988

Lookit, I've done it their way this far and now it's my turn.  I'm my
own handler.  Any questions?  Ask me ...  There's not going to be any
more handler stories because I'm the handler ...  I'm Doctor Spin.  --
V.P.  D.Q.  responding to press reports his aides having to, in effect,
"potty train" him.

I would guess that there's adequate low-income housing in this country.
-- V.P.  D.Q.

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.  -- V.P.  D.Q.

The real question for 1988 is whether we're going to go forward to
tomorrow or past to the -- to the back!  -- V.P.  D.Q.

We will invest in our people, quality education, job opportunity,
family, neighborhood, and yes, a thing we call America.  -- V.P.  D.Q.,
1988

We'll let the sun shine in and shine on us, because today we're happy
and tomorrow we'll be even happier.  -- V.P.  D.Q., 1988

We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world.  --
V.P.  D.Q.

This election is about who's going to be the next President of the
United States!  -- V.P.  D.Q., 1988

Don't forget about the importance of the family.  It begins with the
family.  We're not going to redefine the family.  Everybody knows the
definition of the family.  [Meaningful pause] A child.  [Meaningful
pause] A mother.  [Meaningful pause] A father.  There are other
arrangements of the family, but that is a family and family values.

I've been very blessed with wonderful parents and a wonderful family,
and I am proud of my family.  Anybody turns to their family.  I have a
very good family.  I'm very fortunate to have a very good family.  I
believe very strongly in the family.  It's one of the things we have in
our platform, is to talk about it.

I suppose three important things certainly come to my mind that we want
to say thank you.  The first would be our family.  Your family, my
family -- which is composed of an immediate family of a wife and three
children, a larger family with grandparents and aunts and uncles.  We
all have our family, whichever that may be ...  The very beginnings of
civilization, the very beginnings of this country, goes back to the
family.  And time and time again, I'm often reminded, especially in
this Presidential campaign, of the importance of a family, and what a
family means to this country.  And so when you pay thanks I suppose the
first thing that would come to mind would be to thank the Lord for the
family.  -- V.P.  D.Q.