[observation, 2013] I worked eight years in the White House for two great Presidents. They talk about things they want to do - I'm doing it. This is the happiest I've ever been in public life. I've always wanted to be a mayor.

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.

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.

[on the 2008 financial crash] You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

There was no blueprint or how-to manual for fixing a global financial meltdown, an auto crisis, two wars and a great recession all at the same time.