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Quotes of the Week

Which of the following statements did Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore not make?

The correct answer, of course, is (b), which is taken from Rudy Giuliani’s supposedly off-the-cuff and off-the-record remarks to a group of political donors at New York’s 21 Club. Rudy opened with, “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America.”

My first reaction was that Giuliani had become demented in his never-ending search for the spotlight, but I underestimated the ambitions of the man. A YouGov poll conducted after he spoke found that only 47% of Americans think Obama “loves America,” a number that obscures the huge partisan divide: 69% of Republicans don’t think Obama loves America, three-quarters question his patriotism, and 88% view him unfavorably. These numbers, as Rudy well knows, encourage partisan attack rather than political compromise.

The other three quotes belong to Fiore, who owns a home health-care business and was just removed as legislative majority leader and chair of the Taxation Committee for having more than a million dollars in, um, tax liens.