Barack Obama on community organizing:

"Ordinary citizens can have an enormous influence in what happens in Washington. The problem is citizens are just not organized right now, and so those who are organized, the corporations, the special interests and the big lobbies, have a disproportionate influence. Part of what this campaign is about is to tilt the scales more in favor of ordinary people.

So many people feel skeptical about politics. What we are seeing throughout this campaign and all across the nation is people being activated in ways they haven't been for a generation. Part of it is a recognition that we are in a defining moment in our history, that our nation's at war, that the economy is in a shambles, and that people are struggling. But, people are weary of the same old ways of doing business.

We have an opportunity in the election and beyond to reengage the American citizen."