I feel fantastically excited that we have a leader who fought for the leadership without compromising his quite challenging view that the party has to change.

We said in our 21st Century Party paper there are 61 mosaic groups, which the market research people use as different socio-economic categories and half of our members come from just five of those groups and that is very narrow - too narrow.

Our party believes in diversity, not uniformity.

For the most part our grassroots members are serious, nice, tolerant people.

I grew up in a reform Jewish family in St. Louis. Our idea of Judaism was no bar mitzvahs and a Christmas tree that had a skirt at the bottom embroidered with the names of my grandparents.

I'd never put all my chips anywhere, because I don't want to close any doors, but I was raised in a very blue-collar family. I was raised by parents who said, 'If you don't go to work every day, you're not contributing', so that's my mentality. I have to work every day; I have to bring home a paycheck.

My father is black - was black. My mother is white.

With millions of family wage manufacturing jobs lost since 2001, we need an energy bill that takes bold action to tap into American ingenuity in order to lead the world in new clean energy technology, rather than playing catch-up to the Japanese, Danish, and Germans.