“Reagan [at the 1984 D-Day commemoration] was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is, ‘We are above that now. We’re not just parochial, we’re not just chauvinistic, we’re not just provincial. We stand for something.’ I mean, in a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above — above the world. He’s sort of God. He’s going to bring all different sides together.”

“[Ted Kennedy] just wanted to bring back what Bobby and Jack had given us. He wanted to be his brother’s brother. And then he turned that torch over last year to Barack Obama....Amazing history. Barack is now the last brother. It’s history.”

“Even though independent reports have shown the media was more critical of Barack Obama than John McCain during the presidential contest, there is still a fantasy that the press is gaga over now-President Obama.”

“Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today. One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century.”

Anchor Katie Couric: “Mr. Obama, by the way, has continued a presidential tradition, what Thomas Jefferson called ‘neology,’ making up a new word or giving new meaning to an old one....Talking about the fuss over health care reform, President Obama has introduced us to ‘wee wee’d up.’”

President Obama: “There’s something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee wee’d up.”

“We have an FBI, and we’re not prejudiced against somebody who’s worked at the FBI. It’s an honorable place to work. And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work. It gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile.”

Host Howard Kurtz: “Don’t you feel deep down that this is overdoing it?”

CNN anchor Don Lemon: “No, I don’t feel it’s overdoing it. And I don’t — and when I hear people say that, I have to be very honest with you, Howie, I think it’s elitist....Michael Jackson is an accidental civil rights leader, an accidental pioneer. He broke ground and barriers in so many different realms in artistry, in pictures, in movies, in music, you name it. So, no, I don’t think it’s overkill.”

“I would fill the White House with chocolate and gravy (but not together) and mashed potatoes or maybe fill it with root beer. I’d drive through the White House on a boat. We’d make the floor out of mashed potatoes and the house would be filled with mashed potatoes....I’d have a couch made out of pudding that you could eat with a giant spoon. And I’d have a pizza carpet.”