This [Judge Samuel Alito] may be one of the most significant or consequential nominations that the Senate will vote on since I've been here in the last three decades.

You're president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.

The reason I talk so much about the middle class is it's the glue that holds America together. It really is. And we don't speak enough to their legitimate concerns.

Almost every great innovation was [created] by government.

We were never motorheads. We knew fast cars. We knew how to siphon gas - me - charge the battery when it was down. But never hot-wired a car.

It's amazing to me that no matter what city, what state, no matter where I am, a woman will come up to me and say "Thank you, thank you" for writing the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which funds services for victims and pushes to put more assailants behind bars.

You want to know whether we're better off? I've got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!