[Ads-l] quote of the year candidate

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Date: March 10, 1948
Newspaper: Northwest Arkansas Times
Newspaper Location: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Quote Page 4
Database: Newspapers.com

[Begin excerpt]
A Sprinkle of Salt Our Presidents

"Hoover couldn't tell a lie.
Roosevelt couldn't tell the truth.
Truman couldn't tell the difference.
Which do you prefer?"
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 2:23 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Year: GB 1961
> Periodical: American Capsule News
> Issue 301; Issue 450
> Database: Google Books snippet; must be verified with hardcopy
> (Search probe with "1961" shows a header indicating that the volume
> contaisn 1961 issues)
>
> [Begin near-raw OCR text]
> The farce of Eisenhower being President prompted a well-known wagster
> to coin this wisecrack, which has all the truth and no poetry in it:
>
> "George Washington couldn't tell a lie; Franklin Roosevelt couldn't
> tell the truth; and Ike Eisenhower couldn't tell the difference."
>
> Mr. Nixon could have been President had he not lacked the intestinal
> fortitude of a common ant. When it was found the "Democrats" had
> stolen 200,000 votes in Chicago alone, the Illinois electoral votes
> (27) tried to fall into ...
> [End near-raw OCR text]
>
> Garson
>
> On Fri, Dec 22, 2017 at 2:12 PM, Parish, James <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
>> 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."
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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