We invoke the sacrifices of our fallen heroes in the abstract, but we seldom take time to thank them individually.

In the White House, you can be on the pitcher’s mound or you can be in the catcher’s position. Put points on the board. Show people you can govern. Deliver on what you said you were going to deliver on.

While Mayor Daley surprised me today with his decision to not run for reelection, I have never been surprised by his leadership, dedication and tireless work on behalf of the city and the people of Chicago.

When it comes to federal elections law, Tom DeLay and his special-interest friends live by one set of rules, and everyone else lives by a very different set.

The fact is, Bush’s war policy has failed. It’s failed! Who better to say so than Jack Murtha?

They ended up spending a total, their campaign plus the independent, about 1.3 million. I only ended up spending about – not only, but I spent about 2 million. But I had no intention of doing that until I was attacked with a negative ad by an independent group.

I still believe the Lewinsky investigation was way off from the focus of what Whitewater was, which turned out to be nothing at the end of the process. And I think that there were people who were determined as political opponents to not allow his presidency to succeed.

A strong economy depends on a strong middle class, but George Bush has put the middle class in a hole, and John McCain has a plan to keep digging that hole with George Bush’s shovel.

I would like to run for the mayor of the city of Chicago. That has always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives.

I believe the record I was allowed to help establish by the side of the president was important.

There’s no safe Republican district. You can run, but you cannot hide.

I sometimes joke, Paula, even paranoid people have enemies.

Rather than doing the kind of fact-checking that normally goes with a story, you ran with certain stories for not wanting to get beat. There’s a pressure that exists in your profession. I would be surprised in any honest exchange that you say that doesn’t exist.

Everybody knows they’re on the Obama team: There isn’t vice presidential vs. presidential division, there’s not a generational pull. People have internalized that this is a real moment in history.

We invoke the sacrifices of our fallen heroes in the abstract, but we seldom take time to thank them individually.

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

When people told me ‘It’s great to be here’, they meant at the house, not with me.

I wake up some mornings hating me too.

The American people… want change. They want big ideas, big reform.

As individuals, we will be judged in our lives by the totality of our actions. Not one thing will stand out. And I think that’s how we get judged by our colleagues and that’s how we get judged by the good lord.

I don’t want to go negative on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but he didn’t pass an economic deal in the first 100 days. We have passed the largest Recovery Act in the history of the country.

Things happened there that I don’t think are the finest hours for anybody, whether it was a journalist, the legal system or, in that case of the political system, who would say that was an example of when Washington worked best.

I’ve never been in a place where winning has hurt the ability to do anything.

We have work to do, and Tuesday Americans sent Washington a clear message – get the job done.

What is more comforting to the terrorists around the world: the failure to pass the 9/11 legislation because we lacked ‘a majority of the majority,’ or putting aside partisan politics to enact tough new legislation with America’s security foremost in mind?