This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.

There are few things in life that are harder to find and more important to keep than love. Well, love and a birth certificate.

That is another theme in the book [Dreams from My Father]. How do we exercise more empathy in our public discourse? How do we get the black to see through the eyes of the white? Or the citizen to see through the eyes of the immigrant? Or the straight to see through the eyes of the gay? That has always been a struggle in our politics.

A relentless focus on the outward markers of success can lead to complacency. It can make you lazy.

At the constitutional level, what we of course have assured is that women have the ability to make these reproductive decisions up to the point of viability.

We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are - whether it's here in the United States or, as Hillary (Clinton) mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.

I don't mind cleaning up the mess that some other folks made, that's what I signed up to do