Even limited military actions end up carrying with them great costs and unintended consequences.

This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn't really jibe with the experience of most people.

My particular passion for Lincoln dates back from my earliest memories of politics.

I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people.

Insist that the first question each of us asks isn't "What's good for me?" but "What's good for the country my children will inherit?

I think we've done a pretty good job staying in touch with the American people. But at a certain point you can't help but lose some feel for what's on the ground because you're not on the ground.

Physically, I feel probably as good as I've ever felt. And I've got as much energy as I ever did. But what you feel after eight years - and I think you'd feel this no matter what, but anytime you have a big transition, it gets magnified - is time passes.