She found herself in a desperate situation, ... She's going to rise or fall on the timeline of her decisions.

282

I suspect people not planning to come back will not even care. It seems to me the electorate is going to be more upscale and more white than it was, but what the numbers are going to be, who knows?

253

Emotions are running very high right now. People are tense about their personal lives, they're intense about the political situation so the word chocolate can mean what you want it to mean. People can read their own interpretation into that and they can read something really racially inflammatory or they can read something conciliatory.

200

There was not enough money to plan for this scenario, because this may or may not have happened.

190

Racial polarization is very high over this commission plan and so any statement on the part of the mayor, any ordinance passed by the council is going to be interpreted, 'is this for me or is this against me' and it's going to be interpreted in a racial way by many people.

179

Certainly the message was directed at African-Americans both inside and outside New Orleans. It's a political message that he intends to be the mayor of a majority black city. But the statement that God intended New Orleans to be majority black certainly could be interpreted as inflammatory by non-black voters.

158

There are just so many unknowns.

109

The logistics of campaigning when the people live in Houston and Memphis ... would be an incredibly expensive campaign. This is an empty city, a city without people.

83