People just want to hear some common sense... and I bring to bear the experience in local government and state government and national government - I was the first woman in history on the Senate Finance Committee - not to mention the diplomatic international experience.

New Zealand, by the way, where I was ambassador, has had two women prime ministers - one from either party.

It's hard to be the first. It's almost as if I'm subject to a different level of inspection.

All I really want to be is boring. When people talk about me, I'd like them to say, Carol's basically a short Bill Bradley. Or, Carol's kind of like Al Gore in a skirt.

To me, that means getting back to the point where our Constitution means that you don't tap people's phones and poke into their e-mail and you don't arrest people and keep them hidden for a year and a half without charging them.

Illinois has less than a 12 percent black population and I won with 55 percent of the vote.

Well, if you pick a fight with somebody that's smaller than you and you beat them, where's the honor in that?