* “We have planted many seeds across Venezuela and I know that these seeds are going to produce many trees.”–Defeated candidate Henrique Capriles, who lost to President Hugo Chavez.
* “The one area where Romney could have really challenged Obama on foreign policy was on the president’s bad decision to double-down on Afghanistan. But Romney can’t, because the Republican Party wanted to triple-down.”–Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times.
* “Gov. Romney may dance around his positions, but if you want to be president you owe the American people the truth.”–President Barack Obama.
* “Fox News is an overreaction…sort of like the lupus of news…I think any time you run an organization where more (viewers) believe the president is a Muslim than believe in evolution, there’s a problem.”–“Daily Show” host Jon Stewart.
* “The main obstacle for economic growth is the unusually high wall of uncertainty related to the presidential election and the fiscal cliff. It increases the value of waiting.”–Frank Velling, chief strategist for Copenhagen-based BankInvest.
* “The individual (Affordable Care Act) mandate recognizes that millions of Americans who could buy health insurance choose not to, because it requires trading away today’s wants for tomorrow’s needs. The mandate is about personal responsibility–a hallmark of conservative thought.”–J.D. Kleinke, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former health care executive.
* “The brutish goals of Jim Crow America never died, but simply reshaped themselves to the sensibilities of the 21st century, learned to hide themselves in the bloodless and opaque language of officially race-neutral policy.”–Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald.
* “We had to speak out and educate, otherwise the attacks would go unanswered.”–Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince.
* “The cruise business is changing. If we want to be a big player in the long term, it could be a growth area for the future. But 10 years from now, you might not have a cruise business if you can’t handle those mega cruise ships.”–Richard Wainio, recently resigned director of the Tampa Port Authority.
* “It’s a bargain for these guys…They obviously see this as something which could be leveraged into a profitable business.”–Gil Thelen, former publisher and president of the Tampa Tribune, on the Trib’s sale to a Los Angeles-based private equity firm for $9.5 million.