JOE BIDEN:

On Iraq: “If we started today, it would take one year, one year to get 160,000 troops physically out of Iraq, logistically. That’s number one. Number two, you cannot pull out of Iraq without the follow-on that’s been projected here, unless you have a political solution. … And it literally means separate the parties; give them jurisdiction in their own areas; have a decentralized government, a federal system.”

On taxes: “We need more revenue to be able to pay for the things the governor and everybody else talks about. And there’s only one way to do it. You either raise taxes or take tax cuts away from people who don’t need them. I’d take them away from people who don’t need them.”

JOHN EDWARDS:

On Democrats’ opponents: “I think the people who are powerful in Washington _ big insurance companies, big drug companies, big oil companies _ they are not going to negotiate. They are not going to give away their power. The only way that they are going to give away their power is if we take it away from them. And I have been standing up to these people my entire life. I have been fighting them my entire life in courtrooms _ and beating them.”

Asked about the influence of his faith and whether he supports gay marriage: “The honest answer to that is I don’t. But I think it is absolutely wrong, as president of the United States, for me to have used that faith basis as a basis for denying anybody their rights, and I will not do that when I’m president of the United States.”

DENNIS KUCINICH:

On Iraq: “When we took over in January, the American people didn’t expect us to give them a Democratic version of the war. They expected us to act quickly to end the war. And here’s how we can do it. It doesn’t take legislation. That’s a phony excuse to say that you don’t have the votes. … We should tell President Bush, no more funds for the war, use that money to bring the troops home, use it to bring the troops home.”

On the environment: “We have to understand the connection between global warring and global warming. Because when we start talking about wars for oil, we’re essentially keeping the same approach to energy.”

BARACK OBAMA:

On gay marriage: “Now, with respect to marriage, it’s my belief that it’s up to the individual denominations to make a decision as to whether they want to recognize marriage or not. But in terms of, you know, the rights of people to transfer property, to have hospital visitation, all those critical civil rights that are conferred by our government, those should be equal.”

On Iraq: “At this point, I think we can be as careful getting out as we were careless getting in. But we have to send a clear message to the Iraqi government as well as to the surrounding neighbors that there is no military solution to the problems that we face in Iraq.”

HILLARY CLINTON:

On Iraq: “But until we get this president and the Pentagon to begin to at least tell us they are planning to withdraw, we are not going to be able to turn this around. And so, with all due respect to some of my friends here _ yes, we want to begin moving the troops out, but we want to do so safely, and orderly and carefully.”

On health care: “We have to have a sense of national commitment that universal health care is an American value. We have to quit being told by the special interests, like the insurance companies and the drug companies, that, somehow, we can’t do what most other developed countries do, which is cover everybody and provide decency and respect to every single person in this country with health care.”

CHRIS DODD:

On Hurricane Katrina: “I believe that had this occurred in a place with majorly a white population, we would have seen a much more rapid response and a consistent response to that issue.”

On the environment: “You’ve got to tax polluters. You’ve got to separate the price differential so that we can move away from fossil fuels that do so much damage to our environment, to our economy, to our future, to jobs in this country. Until you deal with the issue of price, until you impose a corporate carbon tax, we will never get away from fossil fuels.”

MIKE GRAVEL:

On other Democrats: “You’re not going to see any change when these people get elected. We were asked about _ that we’re united. We’re not united. I’m not united on many of their views.”

On energy conservation: “Have a fair tax where people are taxed on what they spend rather than what they earn. And our tax system is totally corrupt right now. And so if we now have a retail sales tax, you’ll take this nation of ours from a consuming nation to a savings nation. And that’s the most significant thing we can do to alter climate change.”

BILL RICHARDSON:

On Iraq: “I believe we should bring all the troops home by the end of this year, in six months, with no residual forces _ no residual forces. This is critically important. A hundred American troops are dying every month. And this war is a quagmire. It’s endless.”

On the “No Child Left Behind” education law: “I would scrap it. It doesn’t work. It is the law. It is not just an unfunded mandate, but the one-size-fits-all doesn’t work. It doesn’t emphasize teacher training. It doesn’t emphasize the disabled kids. … English-learning kids don’t get help. The worst thing it does is it takes districts and schools that are not doing well, takes their funds away, penalizes them. If a school is not doing well, we help that school.”