When New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy was running in the presidential primaries in the spring of 1968, reporters traveling with him enjoyed teasing him about some of the pet phrases he used in his campaign speeches. “I think we can do better,” he frequently told audiences; “I think we can turn this city [or town or industry] around…” In Indianapolis, where the hotel the reporters stayed in was on the sleazy side, they mocked RFK: “I think we can do better. I think we can turn the Indiana hotel industry around.” In restaurants where the waiters were sloppy they would announce: “The service is unacceptable. I think we can do better. I think we can turn this restaurant around.”
The reporters also teased Kennedy about his propensity for ending a speech with a favorite quotation: “As George Bernard Shaw once said…” After they had heard the Shaw quote twenty or thirty times it became the signal to head for the bus, train, or plane scheduled to take them to the next place. Once RFK forgot to quote Shaw and the campaign train started off leaving all the reporters stranded on the platform. When they finally caught up with Kennedy, they asked him always to include the Shaw cue after that. So at the next stop Kennedy ended his speech with the words: “As George Bernard Shaw once said, ‘run for the bus’!”
Source:
Boller, Paul F. “On the Campaign Trail.” Congressional Anecdotes. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. 138-39. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Udall, Too Funny to Be President, 24-25.
Further Reading:
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