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.

And frankly, being a woman I think gives me a slightly different take on a lot of the issues and on a lot of the solutions to the problems we face.

I believe that our message of rebuilding America is one that will resonate with the American people.

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

I really think that's the key, part of the spiritual renewal that America needs to have, the notion that we really can have confidence in a better tomorrow.

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

I think it does suggest that the American people really do want to listen to somebody who actually has some solutions, some answers, and gives them some hope.