As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol.

The framers, in their wisdom, designed the [political] system so that power's pretty disbursed.

History doesn't always move in a straight line. Sometimes it zigs and zags.

We've got to stop the name-calling and we've got to stop looking at the next election. We've got to be focused on figuring out what we're doing for the next generation.

You know, I have more than enough to do without having to worry about the financial system.

We are not a nation that says 'don't ask, don't tell.' We are a nation that says 'out of many, we are one.'

We learn from our mistakes, we do some reflection, we lick our wounds, we brush ourselves off - then we go forward, with the presumption of good faith in our fellow citizens.