Harold Ford, Jr.'s Quotes

If you don't meet the standards, then you don't qualify.

I am a Democrat. But I am an independent Democrat.

I am a Yankees fan. I should say - have been to more Yankees games than Mets games.

I am not going to stop speaking out on behalf of policies that I think are right - regardless of ideology, party or political expediency.

I love New York, I love the smell of New York... I love the subway.

I refuse to do anything that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate majority to the Republicans.

I'm a capitalist. I believe that people take risk, and there are rewards if they do well; they should lose if they don't.

The idea is a straightforward one. We provide an account for every newborn in America, a $500 account.

I am a huge supporter for cash for caulkers - which allows people to make improvement for energy efficient in their homes. We should do the same for Americans purchasing appliances and computers and for that matter, new air-conditioner and heating units.

I am for gay marriage. Or same-sex marriage. I don't want to say it the wrong way. I think people are sensitive to it. I have been painted as being this right-wing zealot on choice. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I expect the Republicans will enjoy a large bounce out of their convention. They're here wrapping themselves in the 9/11 flag, which I think is inappropriate in many ways, but it's their choice.

I firmly believe that as voters come to learn more and more about John Kerry and learn more and more about his message that they're going to want a President who is willing to address the fact that we didn't have a post-war plan in Iraq.

I look forward to the day that a lot of the folks that you all talk about and cover on this network will begin to market products for these families and for these kids coming out of junior high school and high school all across the country.

I look forward to their convention and look forward to hearing the President talk about what he will do for the next four years. He hasn't done it up to this point.

I think the country is very settled in a lot of ways, and we saw that after the Democratic Convention. I think a lot of the bump that we enjoyed came when John Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate.

I think the potential for the program at the risk of sounding self-serving is large, some would say even limitless, so I'm excited about it and I think it can even pass next year.

I was for civil unions and believed strongly that the flow of benefits and protections that would be provided in a civil union for same-sex couples, the decisions that have to be made, when health hardships are faced, when economic hardships are faced, I wanted all of those protections. I never strayed from them.

If you are born into a family below the national median income, we provide you with an additional $500, and for every contribution made to a child's account below the national median income, we match it dollar for dollar - the federal government will.

If your kids attend school and grades are up that will make $1,000 contributions to some 10,000 kids across the country, are challenging kids to learn foreign languages or challenging kids to get summer jobs or seek summer enrichment opportunities?

Republicans believe largely in the market working, Democrats believe stereotypically that you've got to give people something. So why not give people a chance to let the market work for them.

So we have broad bipartisan support for the bill, and it's my hope that we can build on some of the things that have been talked about in Washington involving building a larger ownership society.

The bureaucracy is not great. I don't think Rick Santorum who is not one for being a big proponent of large bureaucracies would be as enthusiastic a supporter of it.

The reality is we talk a lot about it, but we really don't give everyone an opportunity to buy into it, and this combines both the best of Republican and Democratic ideals.