Key quotes: Forum on national service

Barack Obama and John McCain took part in a forum dedicated to the issue of national service in New York on 11 September - the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Here are some of the most notable quotes.

JOHN MCCAIN

On Mr Obama's refusal to hold joint Town-Hall-style meetings on the campaign trail:

"I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different."

On Republican barbs about community organisers:

"This is a tough business... Has it been rough? Of course."

On Mr Obama:

He has inspired "millions of Americans who otherwise wouldn't have been involved in the political process".

On how he would have acted differently from President Bush after the 9/11 attacks:

"I would have called [the American people] to serve."

On extra funding for non-military service organisations like the Peace Corps:

"I'd be glad to spend money but I don't think that should be the first priority."

On community organisers:

"I praise anyone who serves this nation in that capacity."

BARACK OBAMA

On the politicisation of government departments:

"You've got entire agencies that have been hollowed out, and political appointees who aren't concerned with the mission of that organisation."

On attracting young people into public service:

"Part of my job is to make government cool again."

On encouraging military service:

"If you go to small towns, throughout the Midwest or the Southwest or the South, every town has tons of young people who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's not always the case in other parts of the country, in more urban centres, and I think it's important for the president to say, this is an important obligation. If we are going into war, then all of us go, not just some."

On working as a community organiser:

"It was the best education I ever had because it taught me that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they're given a chance and when they're brought together. That's a message I think everyone should want to encourage and I hope the Republicans want to encourage that as well."

On offering John McCain a cabinet post (said with a smile):

"If this is the deal he wants to make right now, I am committed to appointing him to my cabinet as secretary of national service."