* “It’s quite distressing to see two permanent members of the (U.N.) Security Council (Russia and China) using their veto while people are being murdered. … It is just despicable.”–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
* “As China’s leaders know, the country’s current economic growth model is unsustainable.”–World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
* “While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere.”
—Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum at the recent GOP presidential debate in Mesa, Ariz.
* “Neither Romney nor Santorum looks like a formidable candidate for November.”–George Will, Washington Post.
* “‘The one who can beat Obama: Rick Santorum,’ the television commercial proclaims. That boast brings cheers from two quarters: the faithful followers of the conservative Republican presidential candidate, and the Democratic president’s political strategists.”–Albert R. Hunt, Bloomberg News.
* “This is an administration that is deeply opposed to Americans having the right to choose the kind of car or truck they want to drive. And I keep trying to get across to my liberal friends: You cannot put a gun rack in a Volt.”–Newt Gingrich.
* “President Obama wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob.”–Rick Santorum.
* “I have these other aspects of my life that no one knows about. I’m an artist. I’m a musician. Nobody knows that. They just see me as the guy who tried to kill Reagan.”–John Hinckley.
* “Everybody keeps saying it’s impossible, but we know it’s possible.”–Al Cardenas, president of the American Conservative Union, on the prospect of brokered GOP convention in Tampa.
* “The United States does not have a significantly smaller welfare state than the European nations. We’re just better at hiding it. The Europeans provide welfare provisions through direct government payments. We do it through the back door via tax breaks.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “It is on this spot, alongside the monuments to those who gave birth to this nation and those who worked so hard to perfect it, that generations will remember the sometimes difficult, often inspirational, but always central role that African Americans have played in the life of our country.”–President Barack Obama at the groundbreaking ceremony for the National Museum of African American History and Culture on a National Mall site.
* “For all the hype about Facebook as a force for democracy, its profit model is predicated on something very different, and its side effects are still being counted. … Facebook views our privacy as a commodity to be bought, sold and monetized, much as China’s government benefits from keeping close tabs on the masses.”–William Pesek, Bloomberg View.
* “Connie Mack IV is the Charlie Sheen of Florida politics.”–Former U.S. Senator George LeMieux.
* “We have a message for these people who are trying to destroy our kids’ lives with man-made chemicals: Guys, chemistry class is over.”–Attorney General Pam Bondi to those who manufacture and sell synthetic drugs as “incense.”
* “One of the most important ways to reduce the deficit is to create jobs. The president’s (fiscal-year 2013) budget (proposal) recognizes the value of our local economic drivers. Our universities, community colleges, the Port of Tampa and MacDill Air Force Base would see significant boosts.”–U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa.
* “It is time to discard politics and analytically address what is best for this state. The question is simple: With limited dollars available, where is it strategic to invest? The answer is easy: our universities and all they do for our economy and our future.”–Peter R. Betzer, president and CEO of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership Inc.
* “The infrastructure is here. You just have to create the demand.”–Rob Keith, Ignition Branding marketing strategist, on the potential for electric cars in Florida.
* “Giving folks who are unmarried but in a relationship the right to be there at a critical time for their partner is humane and absolutely defensible.”– Mayor Bob Buckhorn on a city council proposal to let unmarried couples register as domestic partners.