You all know I love L.A., but tonight I really love L.A.

But I will say, I think there are some Democrats that don't want to address pension reform. I have taken on the issue of seniority and tenure. I think we have to address entitlements and the president has done that in his budget. I think we have to extend Medicare and the president has done that. But also reinvest in that program.

Again, if I was going to call Romney and the Republicans stupid, I'm certainly not going to call the Democrats and President Obama stupid.

You all know I love L.A., but tonight I really love L.A.

You can't just trot out a brown face or a Spanish surname and expect people are going to vote for your party or your candidate.

We're not a homogeneous party, anymore than the Republicans are. But we are a party that I think has a plan to take us forward.

Actually, as president of the Conference of Mayors, we passed the Simpson-Bowles plan as a template, as a template, as a frame work for moving forward and the president has done the same.