“I owe America a global apology.”

— Sarah Palin, quoted by the Huffington Post, for being on the losing ticket for the 2008 presidential election.

“I think because I really didn’t have a good strategy for my campaign. I didn’t plan it the right way… As a candidate who was already so well known… I don’t think I ever said, ‘Yes, you may have known me for eight years, but I don’t take anything for granted. I have to earn your support.'”

— Hillary Clinton, quoted by ABC News, on why she lost the presidential election in 2008.

Andrew Sullivan: “It’s a pretty clear admission that she expected to be coronated last time around. Which means she might not be so cocky this time around. Might.”

“If you bastards want a fight, you damn well will get one.”

— Bill Clinton, as recounted by Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) in his new memoir, Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black, after Hillary Clinton lost the 2008 South Carolina Democratic primary to Barack Obama.

Barack Obama considered former Defense Secretary Robert Gates as his running mate in 2008, Stars and Stripes reports.

Gates says in his new memoir, Duty, that he received a call from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in 2008 about the position, and answered several questions about his public stance on abortion and a few other issues.

Writes Gates: “It took a lot of willpower for me to keep from bursting out laughing. I couldn’t figure out if he was serious, if it was just idle flattery, or if he was delusional … I never told anyone, in part because I didn’t think they would believe me.”

“I still think we have way too many caucuses. They’re not democratic.
And unlike primaries, they have no legal enforcement. You can break the
rules, nobody’s going to say anything. I think there are way too many of
them.”

— Bill Clinton, in an interview with ABC News.

“The D.C. businessman at the center of an ongoing city corruption investigation secretly spent more than a half-million dollars on get-out-the-vote efforts for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign,” the Washington Post reports.

“For the first time, the investigation has connected Thompson to a major national political figure. The investigation could have implications for Clinton, who is weighing a second run for president in 2016 and is seen as an overwhelming favorite for the Democratic nomination.”

“I wasn’t allowed to talk about things like that because those elitist, those who are the brainics in the GOP machine running John McCain’s campaign at the time said that the media would eat us alive if we brought up these things.”

— Sarah Palin, on Fox News, saying she was banned by the McCain campaign from talking about Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright during the 2008 presidential election.

Advertising executive Donny Deutsch to HuffPost Live:

“What I believe fascinated everybody about Sarah Palin, and I just know this as a marketer: she was the first woman in power that a lot of people felt was just physically attractive. And people didn’t know what to do with that. They never saw that before.”

“No. I think it would have been a much closer race, but
I’ll tell you President Obama ran a great race and that campaigns
matter.”

— Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), quoted by the Huffington Post, on Vice President Joe Biden’s claim McCain would have won the 2008 presidential election if not for the economic crisis.

“The truth of the matter is, Barack knows it, I know, had the economy not collapsed around your ears, John, in the middle of literally, as things were moving, I think you probably would have won.”

— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by CNN, telling Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that he might have won the presidency if not for the economic collapse in 2008.

Political Moneyline: “Over $1.3 million in left funds from the 2008 presidential campaign were given to Sen. John McCain in February and March and none to former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.”