The things that led me to run for office - trying to figure out how we create an economy where everybody's got a fair shot and if you work hard, you can achieve your dreams.

I think that the Democrats can be successful nationally in the future if we are able to capture some of the complexity of people's lives right now.

I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities, and that our leaders must say so in the face of the gun manfuacturer's lobby. But I also believe that when a gangbanger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels someone disrespected him, we have a problem of morality. Not only do we need to punish that man for his crime, but we need to acknowledge that there's a hole in his heart, one that government programs alone may not be able to repair.

What I want to try to do is unify the two wings of the Democratic Party. What's considered the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party - the more centrist wing of the party. I think we can craft an approach that is more American, pro-worker, pro-business, pro-growth.

When it comes to our military, what we have to think about is not, you know just budgets, we've got to think about capabilities.

Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it.

We've evolved a lot since 9/11 also, in terms of our law enforcement capabilities, our intelligence capabilities, military, counterterrorism.