In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

That is the true genius of America-a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles.

How does the saying go? When two locusts fight, it is always the crow that feasts.' Is that a Luo expression?' I asked. Sayid's face broke into a bashful smile. We have a similar expression in Luo,' he said, 'but actually I must admit that I read this particular expression in a book by Chinua Achebe. The Nigerian writer. I like his books very much. He speaks the truth about Africa's predicament. the Nigerian, the Kenya - it is the same. We share more than divides us.

There are things I cannot say.

Insurance companies, drug companies are going to have to be ponying up, partly because right now they're receiving huge subsidies.

I think that it's important for judges to understand that if a woman is out there trying to raise a family, trying to support her family, and is being treated unfairly, then the court has to stand up, if nobody else will. And that's the kind of judge that I want.

My abiding faith in the American people is undiminished. That's still what drives me every single day.