[Ads-l] quote of the year candidate

[Parish, James]

I remember it from a Tom Toles cartoon, with the third party being Jimmy Carter. (I have it in a collection at home, but that's 2000 miles away just now.)


Jim Parish

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Friday, December 22, 2017 12:35:08 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: quote of the year candidate

> On Dec 22, 2017, at 1:08 PM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM> wrote:
>
> Not a strong candidate, I'm afraid.  If anyone be interested, I will contact the person who sent the graphic to me and "try and" find its origin.
>
> George Washington:  I cannot tell a lie.
> Richard Nixon:  I cannot tell the truth.
> Donald Trump:   I cannot tell the difference.
>
> graphic is at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATSCC/permalink/1392060604253183/
>

The original (as far as I know) is Mort Sahl’s line, from 1987 (same year Trump’s ghostwritten _Art of the Deal_ came out):

“Washington couldn’t tell a lie, Nixon couldn't tell the truth, and Reagan couldn’t tell the difference."
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org