The unique perspective and provocative opinions of Joe O’Neill
Quoteworthy
“Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation.”—James Madison.
“As our communities and companies grapple with climate risk, we need to arm them with better climate data—empowering decision-makers across our country and economy with information and insights on how to operate in our ‘new normal.”—Ali Zaidi, deputy national climate adviser.
“Get mad, then get over it.”—Former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
“There’s lots of demand, and people are seizing that opportunity and quitting their jobs.”—Nick Bunker, economist at the jobs site Indeed, on data that has shown that some 4.3 million people quit their jobs in August—about 2.9 percent of the workforce.
“Congress is as ugly and constipated a mess as ever; the decades Biden spent there didn’t endow him with some laxative magic.”—Frank Bruni, New York Times.
“What I see is a pretty normal exercise in legislative give-and-take, except that it’s all happening within the Democratic Party—while Republicans hoot, holler and obstruct from the peanut gallery.”—Eugene Robinson, Washington Post.
“Third parties are like bees: Once they have stung, they die.”—The late historian RichardHofstadter.
“Chief Justice John Roberts, who did not want the court to be seen as too extreme, has lost control because there are five more rabid conservatives running over him.”—Maureen Dowd, New York Times.
“I am an historian who has learned through a lifetime of studying that nothing in the world beats universal education, women’s rights, freedom of religion, democracy, an openness to all ethnic groups, the will to admit that terrible mistakes have been made—slavery, imperialism, segregation—and a determination to correct those mistakes.”—The late Stephen E. Ambrose.
“I have always been—and remain—a skeptic of third parties, because they punish the party they have the most in common with.”—Jonah Goldberg, Tribune Content Agency.
“Rational Republicans are losing the party civil war. And the only near-term way to battle Trump extremists is for all of us to team up on key races and overarching political goals with our longtime political opponents: the Democrats.”—Miles Taylor, who served at the Department of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019 and Christine ToddWhitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey and EPA administrator under President George W. Bush.
“It’s a huge economic driver. We’re thrilled that we’re back.”—Visit Tampa Bay CEO Santiago Corrada, on the return of the first cruise ship—Royal Caribbean’s Serenade ofthe Seas—to sail out of Port Tampa Bay in more than a year and a half.
“We have been on the world stage, and people have seen what we’ve been doing. I think it’s been to our benefit.”—Lynda Remund, president and CEO of the Tampa Downtown Partnership, on the media exposure that accompanied championship boat parades.