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.

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.

I got to grow up with a mother who taught me to believe in me.

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.

My father was predisposed to drunken rages. I would hide under the bed. My sister and I were talking just the other day about the terror a drunken man in a rage can create in a child.

In no small part I think all of us kind of look in the mirror and feel good or not feel good about the person we seen in the mirror in no small part because of the jobs we have.

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.