Verbatim

'I am glad that the only person whose ratings fell more than mine last year is here tonight. Great to see you, Jay.'

BARACK OBAMA, at the White House correspondents' dinner, ribbing keynote speaker and late-night host Jay Leno

'Some of them could not open their eyes because of the blood.'

HU TAO, a manager of a restaurant near Zhongxin Kindergarten, where a knife-wielding man attacked and injured 28 children; it was the third such attack at Chinese schools in a week

'When the tiger gets out and starts creating damage, it's insane to blame the tiger--it's the idiot tiger keeper.'

CHARLIE MUNGER, Warren Buffett's longtime partner and Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman, blaming lax and dysfunctional government regulations for Wall Street's ills

'I'm happy I'm not pushing up daisies.'

DEAN KAHLER, an Ohio resident who was paralyzed by a bullet fired during the Kent State University shootings 40 years ago; four people were killed when National Guardsmen opened fire during an antiwar demonstration

'I don't watch it. I suggest to my kids that they don't watch it ... I'm ashamed of it.'

SHEILA JOHNSON, co-founder of BET, on the network's late-night music videos, which she says promote promiscuity and unprotected sex; Johnson sold her stake in the company in 2000

'There is an effort being exerted, and we shouldn't lose patience.'

MAHMOUD ABBAS, Palestinian President, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the Arab League's endorsement of indirect, U.S.-brokered peace talks; Netanyahu said he would restart negotiations "at any time and at any place"

'He was right. I'm much happier now, to be perfectly candid.'

CHARLIE CRIST, Florida governor, on dropping out of the Republican primary to run as an independent for the U.S. Senate, following the advice of Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who defected from the Democratic Party in 2006

TALKING HEADS

Charles M. Blow

Denouncing a series of state anti-abortion measures passed or under discussion, in the New York Times:

"While we've been distracted by Tea Party antics, the government's efforts to sack Goldman Sachs and the tawdry drama of John Edwards and his baby's mama, a rash of states has rushed to restrict access to abortion ... It is a striking series of laws, enacted mostly by men, that seek legal control over women's bodies. I happen to agree with Representative Janet Long of Florida, who said that you should 'stand down if you don't have ovaries.'"

--4/30/10

Cynthia Tucker

On America's financially strapped education system on Sponsored Links