"I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again." – John McCain, in his convention acceptance speech, embracing pragmatic bipartisanship (Fox News Channel, Thursday)

"We tend not to like candidates that talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco." – Sarah Palin, jabbing Barack Obama for his alleged condescension to small-town voters (PBS, Wednesday)

"Knock Palin for having kids, for having a kid who's having a baby, for anything that is part of her normalness – a normalness that looks very familiar to so many millions of Americans – well, you do this at your own peril." – Michael Moore, left-wing filmmaker, warning liberals to be wary in how they criticize the GOP vice presidential nominee (MichaelMoore.com, Tuesday)

"Why would they think that kind of work is ridiculous? Who are they fighting for?" – Barack Obama, on Sarah Palin's mocking his work as a community organizer (CNN, Thursday)

"It's dispiriting. This is just partisan poison, and after a while you get tired of covering it." – Fox News anchor Brit Hume, retiring with relief from political journalism after this year's campaign (Washington Post, Friday)

"I don't remember anybody coming up and saying, 'I'm sorry, you were right, Gramm.' " – Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, claiming that recent second-quarter economic growth statistics vindicate his controversial "nation of whiners" remark (Beliefnet.com, last Sunday)

"With the unemployment rate over 6 percent, it is a clear warning sign that this economy is continuing to soften faster than we thought. It is a real concern." – Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, on a downbeat labor report (Associated Press, Friday)