Politics is not bean bags. It's serious, tough stuff.

The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, 'Gee, isn't that wonderful?'

Politics is different, because the mission is always to get the necessary votes. A good politician goes through everything in terms of mission and vision, and resourcing, but at the end of the day politicians have to make compromises in order to achieve consensus.

It is not possible to rule out anything because we don't know what will happen.

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.

Time is passing, ... We have to look at the reality of the situation and ... redouble our efforts and get on with it.

Strategy equals execution. All the great ideas and visions in the world are worthless if they can't be implemented rapidly and efficiently. Good leaders delegate and empower others liberally, but they pay attention to details, every day.