The American people need no course in philosophy or political science of church history to know that God should not be made into a celestial party chairman.

Barack Obama is probably one of the brightest in terms of sheer intelligence... also probably the best orator we've ever had as a president.

We must get the American public to look past the glitter, beyond the showmanship, to the reality, the hard substance of things. And we'll do it not so much with speeches that will bring people to their feet as with speeches that bring people to their senses.

America was born in outrageous ambition, so bold as to be improbable. The deprived, the oppressed, the powerless from all over the globe came here with little more than the desire to realize themselves.

My father was the first to read in his family, and he said to me that words were the first beautiful thing he ever knew.

It was through the private world of family that the public world of politics came alive for me: living in intimate proximity with people for whom larger questions of ideology and belief, as well as issues relating to politics and governance, were vivid daily realities.

I got into circuses and put on circuses in the backyard. My dad had horses and he'd bring them and we'd do horse tricks. I was 6 or 7 years old putting on circuses for the family or whoever in the backyard.

I love soldiers. They are my kids, they are my children.