Start: I should have stuck with Cantwel...

Start: I should have stuck with Cantwell! Because listenin’ to you hem and haw and talk about your conscience is turnin’ me against you fast. My God, what would happen if you had to make a quick decision in the White House when maybe all our lives depended on whether you could act fast…
[... … …]
End: Well, that knife is at your throat and if you don’t go down there and beat Cantwell to the floor with this very dirty stick, then you got no business in this big league, and bastard or not I’ll help Joe Cantwell take the whole damned world if he wants it, because it’s not for you and never will be!

For full extended monologue, please refer to clips or the script edition cited here: Gore Vidal, The Best Man Revised Edition, Dramatists Play Service, 1998, pp. 58-59.

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