* “I don’t like, want or need to resort to exceptional measures, but I will if I see that my people, nation and the revolution of Egypt are in danger.”–Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi.
* “If Israel were to reverse settlement growth, this could serve to buttress Palestinian moderates, who are in a position to negotiate with Israel. If the West Bank were to gain real freedom, the Palestinians of Gaza might turn away from Hamas. All of this is unlikely… but this plan represents the only alternative to continued military strikes on Gaza by Israel.”–Jeffrey Goldberg, Bloomberg View.
* “Many in the United States, not just inside the Obama administration, seem to think American policy needs to be “rebalanced.” The strategic importance of the Middle East is declining, they argue, as the United States grows independent of the region’s oil supply.”–Robert Kagan, author of The World America Made.
* “We want Greece to remain in Europe.”–German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
* “Mexico, in spite of a long season of security and violence stories, is attracting investment. Why? Because people putting money in a country read beyond the headlines. They know that other emerging markets face similar challenges.”–Antonio Garza, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
* “What is missing across Europe, the United States and China is a global agreement on a proper carbon price. More than any other measure, a tax on carbon consumption is what’s needed to slow the warming of the planet.”–Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford University.
* “The generals who won World War II were the kind of men who, as it was said at the time, chewed nails for breakfast, spit tacks at lunch and picked their teeth with their pistol barrels. General Petraeus probably flosses.”–Novelist Lucian K. Truscott IV.
* “Globalization creates winners and losers. But the winners can compensate the losers and still be ahead.”–Robert Reich, political economist at the University of California Berkeley and former Clinton Administration labor secretary.
* “It was a very sobering night for those of us who supported Gov. Romney. We need to really rethink things from the ground up.”–Newt Gingrich, who was recently in Tampa for a book signing.
* “There are sore losers in every election. But the quality of the carping is different this time. The sense that a “traditional” America is being supplanted by something foreign–an amalgam of Greece and Kenya, perhaps–seems to have only intensified since the election.”–Joe Klein, Time magazine.
* “Most people on public assistance don’t have a character flaw. They just have a tough life.”–Lindsey Graham, GOP Senator from South Carolina.
* “The numbers tell us we should question the state’s increasing emphasis on charter schools because as a group they underperform traditional public schools.”–Stanley D. Smith, UCF finance professor.
* “I think that the Republicans and the Democrats will be better off with candidates that have appeal across the political spectrum.”–UT political scientist Scott Paine on the 2014 county commission race for the (countywide) District 7 seat of the exiting Mark Sharpe.
* “We are a great market with attendance problems. I don’t think time is on our side.”–Chuck Sykes, co-chair of the Baseball Stadium Financing Caucus.