Following Friday's unveiling of the Middle Class Working Families Task Force, Obama delivered his most emphatic public remarks on his support for labor unions, saying, "I don't see organized labor as part of the problem...To me, it's part of the solution" and later, "You cannot have a strong middle class without a strong labor union."

TPM Cafe's Nathan Newman drives the point home: "We have not had a President that so forthrightly identified the health of the nation with the health of the labor movement in many decades." Harold Meyerson also comments on the significance of President Obama's remarks over at American Prospect, saying,"But it's not just the historical accuracy of Obama's remarks that is notable, however much they represent a departure from the practice of his predecessor. What's really notable here is that Obama is publicly, as president, laying the basis for his case for the Employee Free Choice Act."

Here are a few more notable quotes from past Presidents who spoke of the true merit of labor for our nation's prosperity:

"Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed."

"If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar!"
- Abe Lincoln

"The American labor movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America."
- John F. Kennedy

"If I were a worker in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of the right to join the union of their choice."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Every advance in this half-century: Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education... one after another- came with the support and leadership of American Labor."
- Jimmy Carter