A political candidacy built around hope and change and compromise would eventually become a presidency of crisis and confrontation.

When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That's not what this program is about. ... What the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers, and durations of calls; they are not looking at people's names and they're not looking at content. ... If the intelligence committee actually wants to listen to a phone call they have to go back to a federal judge, just like they would in a criminal investigation.

One of the great strengths of the United States is... we have a very large Christian population - we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.

The fact is that I'm also friendly with Tom Coburn, one of the most conservative Republicans in the United States Senate, who, during his campaign, once said that it might be appropriate to apply the death penalty to those who carried out abortions.

You don't take it personally. You understand that if people are angry that somehow the government is failing, then they are going to look to the guy who represents government.

On behalf of the American people, just let me say that we are proud to count Greece as one of our closest allies and one of our greatest friends.

Someone once said that every man is trying to live up to his father's expectations or make up for their father's mistakes.