Quote of the Day/Week-Lyndon B. Johnson

Today, we continue our quotes from American vice presidents or veeps, with Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973), whom like Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, later went on to become president. Though the circumstances behind Johnson's ascendency to the president were quite tragic as it was in the aftermath of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Johnson was re-elected president in 1964 when he walloped Barry Goldwater, winning all but six states, including Goldwater's native Arizona. Among the state that Johnson are several states which have entrenched in red today, including Kansas, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma and North Dakota.

Johnson was also the last president who had previously been a U.S. Senator (though Gerald Ford was a member of the House of Representatives) before the election of President Barack Obama, though many past and present Senators, including Al Gore, John Kerry and John McCain have attempted to become president in the years in between. Former Sen. Chuck Robb (D-Va.) was Johnson's son-in-law. Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the Senate Majority Leader from 1955-61.

The 36th president/37th veep, died in Johnson City, Tex., outside of Austin, where his presidential library is today.

Here is his quote:

"Every man has a right to a Saturday night bath."http://www.lbjlibrary.org

Quote of the Day/Week_ Al Gore

Today, we continue focusing on politicians who won their party nomination only to lose the general election, with a quote from Al Gore, who actually won the popular vote over George W. Bush in the 2000 general election, which has perhaps made it more awkward for election overseers from America to be trusted in places like Guatemala.

Gore, who turns 64, is also the president of Current TV, which is home to "The Young Turks," hosted by my fellow progressive Turkish-American Cenk Uygur. Gore is also the leading advocate for global warming, and given that it will be 84 degrees in Montgomery, Ala., one has to wonder when those who are vocally against Gore's theories, such as Bill O'Reilly, will concede that the former vice president has some valid points.

But, our aims today are not partisan in nature and to prove that we have a non-partisan quip from Gore:

"Airplane travel has a way of making you look like your passport photo."

SIDEBAR: While the college sports world is focused on the Sweet 16 in men's basketball, post-season women's gymnastics gets underway on Saturday. The University of Michigan, the five-time defending Big 10 championships, head to the University of Iowa to compete with seven other schools, including two highly-ranked teams from Nebraska and Penn State.

On Friday's home meet against the Michigan State Spartans, Michigan won over its rival thanks to junior Katie Zorales (Wheaton, Ill.) and sophomore Joanna Sampson (willow Grove, Pa.).

Sophomore Stephanie Colbert of the home team got a 9.625 on balance beam as the Wolverines won the meet; yes, we checked out her mini-bio on the Wolverines' women's gymnastics home page: Comedian/actor/talk show host Stephen Colbert is not her father.

Quote of the Day/Week- George McGovern

Hmmm...for some reason, we are seemingly popular in Iraq and Slovenia these days.

Today, we start our series on quotes of men who couldn't quite become king as we profile and quip men who lost the presidency of the United States.

On our sister blog "The Daily Vampire," we quoted Bob Dole, 88, the Republican nominee who lost the presidency in 1996 to Bill Clinton.

Here, we quote George McGovern, 89, the Democratic nominee who lost the presidency to Richard Nixon in 1972. McGovern is the oldest man to have either run for or become president. He edges out Dole as well presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, who are both 86.

McGovern is also considered to be the most progressive candidate to have run for president in the modern era, though some may argue that Al Gore, known for his environmental politics, is more liberal. Ironically, McGovern represented South Dakota, a conservative state in the U.S. Senate.

This quote reflects McGovern's strong opposition to the Vietnam War:

"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."

CLARIFICATION: Apparently, the Harvard men's basketball team is not on their way to the NCAAs quite yet. Apparently, the Penn Quakers can tie for first place with a win over Princeton tonight and force a one-game playoff. The Ivy League is the one remaining conference in NCAA Division-I basketball without a conference tournament.

Yesterday, Virginia Commonwealth, Loyola (Md.) and Davidson were among the teams to win their respective tourneys.

Special Quote of the Week- Bill Bradley

While the Republicans like Newt Gingrich are having their brewhaha this weekend in New Orleans, we thought we'd quip the NBA legend and former Democratic New Jersey senator Bill Bradley, who was among the first to endorse Barack Obama in his party nomination bid (I actually backed Hillary Clinton!).

While researching this piece, we learned that Bradley has a new book called "The New American Story" and he hosts a Sirius Satellite Radio show called "American Voices." Bradley is also the corporate director of Starbucks; we wonder if he has dropped into the Starbucks in Front Royal, Va., but he is probably a bit too busy for that.

Though he grew up in Missouri, Bradley came to prominence in New Jersey early in life as a member of the Princeton University Tigers. He won a team gold medal for the United States at the 1964 Olympics, and he was named NCAA player of the year in 1965.

Bradley then went on to play for the New York Knicks where he helped win NBA titles in 1970 and 1973, with teammates such as Walt Frazier and Willis Reed. Bradley's number 24 was also retired by the Knicks.

He was a senator for New Jersey from 1979 to 1997, and he unsuccessfully sought the 2000 Democratic nomination which went to Al Gore. Bradley was endorsed by none other than Michael Jordan, who is featured on our other blog "The Daily Vampire" today.

Here is the quote from Bradley who will turn 68 on July 28th:

"Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in."

This and That- I Forgot About Joe Biden

Since I was in high school, I have been a partisan Democrat, so much so that I wanted to vote for Walter Mondale against Ronald Reagan in 1984 even though I was 14 years old at the time.

But, four years later, my opportunity came, and despite pressure from my Turkish relatives in Istanbul not to 'vote for the Greek,' I did indeed vote for Michael Dukakis over George H.W. Bush, even though Reagan's veep carried Virginia and won the election easily.

The field for the 1988 Democratic nomination seemed rather flat at the time, which lead to them being dubbed 'The Seven Dwarfs,' which Eric Alterman of "The Nation" would say proves that there is really no such thing as a liberal media. Of course, Bill O'Reilly would beg to differ, but we don't really care about what he thinks.

Yesterday, I had a chance to take a quiz for the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine which usually has all sorts of interesting quizzes. I had just talked about "snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" with a friend of mine, so the chance to name the 'seven dwarfs' as in the seven Democratic candidates from 1988 seemed rather nifty to me.

But, much to my suprise, I had a lot of trouble with it. After Dukakis, I remembered that Paul Simon (not the singer) and Bruce Babbitt, both of whom have since died, were candidates. I then remembered Al Gore, who as everyone knows became Bill Clinton's veep, but I had somehow forgotten about our current vice-president Joe Biden who was also in that field! This does beg the question, if I run into him someday at a political rally, do I mention this to him or not?!

I did get a chance to see one of the other 1988 Democratic candidates Richard Gephardt speak during a rally in Georgetown, SC, as he was trying to win the 2004 nomination which went to John Kerry. In fact, I rediscovered photographs I took of that event just a few weeks ago.

Speaking of political campaigns, I was just thinking when Mitt Romney, who we can't wait to make fun of again (we called him The Republican Dukakis during the last go around), that during his kick-off speech in New Hampshire that he did sound like Clark Kent and he was trying to convince Republican voters that he would be Superman when it came to reversing the American economic downfall.

Sure enough, some artists at "The Week" magazine had the same idea as they have Romney front and center under the caption "Waiting for Superman," in reference to an accalimed documentary that came out last year. Interestingly enough, Romney said yesterday that he differs with other Republicans in that he thinks global warming is partially man-made. Ironically, Paul Guggenheim, the director of Al Gore's documentary on global warming "An Inconvenient Truth," also directed "Waiting for Superman," which is a film about education.

Lastly, we had a chance to listen to the Turkish psychedelic compilation "Turkish Freak-Out" on vinyl yesterday afternoon just after listening to a streaming of "The Turkish Music Hour" on WUVT-FM (90.7-Blacksburg, Va.), and the recording from Bouzouki Joe Records is very good.

It includes 18 tracks from the likes of Erkin Koray (who turns 70 this month), Ajda Pekkan and the late Baris Manco. I found it at All Day Records in Carrboro, NC, just outside Chapel Hill.

Also, on yesterday's WUVT broadcast, I heard a song called "Sarhos" ("Drunk") by a singer named Dario Moreno (1921-1968). I had never heard of Moreno, and I presumed he was an Italian man who happened to sing a Turkish song, but he was in fact actually from Turkey!