Quotes of the day

Weirdly, McCain seems to have taken a lead in the rapid-delivery YouTube department. I wouldn't have predicted that.--Glenn Reynolds

No offense, but that sounds like a bunch of commie gobbledygook.--Norm MacDonald, to Nastia Liukin, on gymnastics judging and points system

To showcase your work ... you need a stellar Web site and if a newspaper doesn't have that, you can't be stuck in the 20th century with your old newspaper.--Jay Mariotti

Certain writers have a style that can be best likened to body odor: irresistible to some, obnoxious to many and apparently imperceptible to the writer himself.--Robert Macfarlane

Paulson's bazooka is cheap. It's been ineffective in terms of stopping the bleeding in the share price. And as for lethal, it depends on whose death he was talking about.--Caroline Baum

The problem with teacher's unions is inherent in the way that Democrats talk about unions: by banding together, they say, you create a powerful counterweight equal and opposite to the power of the companies in negotiations. So the schools have a gigantic, powerful bargaining bloc. Who doesn't have a bargaining bloc? The kids.--Megan McArdle

If Mr. Obama is really to remind the nation of Martin Luther King, he might follow King's example of taking a moral stand. King did not vacillate on his call for civil rights laws, voting rights laws or fair housing laws. He took a stand even with his own supporters. In his historic speech on Aug. 28, 1963, King declared "there is something that I must say to my people," and then spoke against bitterness, hatred and violence even in the name of "gaining our rightful place" and freedom.--Juan Williams

Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama’s answer: “The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn’t make much sense, George.” Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers’s Weathermen tried to murder me.--John M. Murtagh

When I heard of Peter's sudden death from leukemia last month I was more shocked and saddened than I would have expected. I had lost a challenging former critic and a good new friend. Peter Rodman was a man of great wisdom and great civility. The West has lost one of its most articulate defenders.--William Shawcross

... William was invited to invade by the English Whig aristocracy and that his "Declaration," far from being "spin," was the only basis on which he was allowed to set foot in England. If the domestic Protestant governing classes had not effectively chosen William over James, the Dutch invasion fleet would have met the fate of the Spanish Armada.--Andrew Roberts

Dustin Pedroia hit his first career grand slam to highlight a seven-run outburst in the eighth, Jason Bay drove in four runs, and Paul Byrd pitched six strong innings of five-hit ball Wednesday night as the Red Sox crushed the Yankees, 11-3, before a sullen Yankee Stadium crowd of 55,027.--Michael Vega