* “Donald J. Trump campaigned on the slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ a phrase whose ‘great’ was widely heard as ‘white.'”–Nell Irvin Painter, author and professor emeritus of history at Princeton University.
* “Trump’s main problem in governing is not going to be some fascistic ideology; his main problem is going to be his own attention span, ignorance and incompetence. If he’s left to bloviate while others are left to run the country and push through infrastructure plans, maybe things won’t be disastrous.”–David Brooks, New York Times.
* “It is fully my intention to serve out my term.”–Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen.
* “I’m staying in Florida.”–Gov. Rick Scott.
* “The president-elect, a borrower, heads the political party that has long represented the interests of lenders.”–Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times.
* “Bringing back the gold standard would be very hard to do, but, boy, would it be wonderful.”–President-Elect Donald Trump.
* “To root for Mr. Trump to fail is worse than unpatriotic. It’s self-defeating.”–Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal.
* “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”–Brandon Victor Dixon, the actor who plays Aaron Burr in Hamilton, in post-curtain call comments directed at Vice President-Elect Mike Pence.
* “The ONLY bad thing about winning the presidency is that I did not have the time to go through a long but winning trial on Trump U. Too bad!”–President-Elect Donald Trump.
* “Right-wing nutty.”–Colin Powell’s assessment of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s choice for national security adviser.
* “Look, Trump has been elected, he will be our president and he has the right to choose conservatives. But instead of turning to the many principled Republicans available, he seems drawn to hotheads and bigots, embarrassing himself and our nation.”–Nicholas Kristof, New York Times.
* “You can’t have all the good parts of an unregulated insurance market (freedom to buy what you want, when you want, with market pricing) without the bad parts (steadily rising premiums and insurance that is unaffordable for people who are old and sick). … Anyone promising better quality health care at lower cost with fewer regulations and lower taxes–is peddling hokum.”–Steven Pearlstein, professor of public affairs at George Mason University.
* “I think we have a big problem. We really need to do something about this.”–Hamilton E. James, president of the private equity firm Blackstone, referring to the low retirement savings of the average American.
* “Any energy company in the world that makes its strategy without considering climate change policies is making a major mistake.”–Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency.
* “Facebook may want to claim that it is remaining neutral, but that is a false and dangerous stance. The company’s business model, algorithms and policies entrench echo chambers and fuel the spread of misinformation.”–Zeynep Tufekei, associate professor at the University of North Carolina School of Information and Library Science.
* “These are my principles. If you don’t like them, well, I have others.”–Groucho Marx.
* “Close to one in every four U.S. home owners with a mortgage is now equity rich thanks to a combination of rising home prices and lengthening homeownership tenures.”–Daren Blomquist, senior vice president of ATTOM Data Solutions, the parent company of RealtyTrac.
* “Are you sure? I’m just an old baseball announcer.”–Response of recently retired Dodgers’ sportscaster Vin Scully, 88, upon learning that he was one of the cultural, athletic and philanthropic luminaries named recipients of the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom.
* “I’m happy to be alive. I think the greatest gift you could have is to witness your life on earth.”–Iconic, 90-year-old singer Tony Bennett.
* “I now have a president I can talk to. I talk to Trump a lot. I have both a president and a vice president who are friends of mine.”–Gov. Rick Scott.
* “I’ve never known what it’s like to have a Republican president. I can tell you over the last six years, Washington was the hardest part of my job.”–South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
* “Whoever it is, I run my race like there’s no tomorrow.”–Sen. Bill Nelson, on opponent scenarios–including Rick Scott–for his 2018 re-election race.
* “A lot of things get said on the campaign trail, more so in this election than any other I can remember. But there is a big difference between campaigning and governing.”–Retired Army Major Gen. Mike Jones, former chief of staff of MacDill-based U.S. Central Command.
* “We should be frugal, we should be reasonable, but our state does need infrastructure.”–Incoming Florida Senate President Joe Negron, R-Stuart.
* “It’s been insane. Everybody is thinking that Mr. Trump is going to get sworn in and (the federal immigration service) is going to be knocking on their doors and putting them on planes.”–Tampa Bay immigration attorney Arturo Rios.
* “We can do things that other cancer centers can’t do. We feel it is a responsibility at Moffitt to accelerate this pace of discovery.”–Dr. Thomas Sellers, director of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, on recently announced major expansion plans.
* “This is going to be a Super Bowl-level event. We’re expecting big, big numbers.”–Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, on the impact of the Jan. 9 College Football Playoff National Championship game at Raymond James Stadium.
* “You have brought diversity to our county that was sorely needed. … People will remember you and respect you for that.”–Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman to outgoing Commissioner Kevin Beckner, the first openly gay county commissioner.
* “Tampa already has a superior startup ecosystem that, if we solve the issues with access to capital and cooperation among entrepreneurial support organizations, could become the Austin of the Southeast.”–SavvyCard CEO David Etheredge.
* “Everything is moving north on Howard because everything south of Kennedy is already developed.”–Hotel developer Mike Desai, part of a partnership that purchased the former Balbin Bros. Cigar Factory at 1202 N Howard Ave.