We are going to trace more effectively, how these guns are ending up on the streets, to unscrupulous gun dealers, who often times are selling to straw purchasers. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill.

I think that at a certain stage those early ambitions burn away, partly because you achieve something, you get something done, you get some notoriety. And then the particularities of who you are and what your deepest commitments are begin expressing themselves. You're not just chasing the idea of "me" being important, but you, rather, are chasing a particular passion.

We are very grateful for the vital contributions Germany has made to this fight, training local forces in Iraq, sharing intelligence providing reconnaissance aircraft including the recent deployment of additional NATO AWACS.

[Michelle Obama] was the hardest sell. And she never fully embraced being in the public spotlight, which is ironic, given how good she is.

I think it's really important to enlarge the issue behind abortion. I have been serving for over two decades and I have seen year in and year out largely the Republicans voting against women's contraception, family planning.

The Tea Party I have huge disagreements with, obviously. But I give them credit for having activated themselves. And they made a difference in terms of moving the Republican Party, in terms of moving the country in a particular direction. It's a direction I disagreed with. But it showed that, in fact, you get involved, if your voice is heard it has an impact.

Part of the power of the Internet is that information flows out there and it's generally not censored and it's generally not controlled by any single authority.