You don't know what you can get away with until you try.

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.

I'm an American, first and foremost, and I'm very proud - I said, I've said to my beloved friend and colleague John McCain, a friend of 25 years, "John, I love you, but I'm not just going to vote for you on the basis of our affection or friendship." And I've said to Barack Obama, "I admire you. I'll give you all the advice I can. But I'm not going to vote for you just because you're black." We have to move beyond this.

War is never a happy solution, but it may be the only solution. We must exhaustively explore other possible solutions before we make the choice for war. Every political and diplomatic effort should be made to avoid war while achieving your objective.

I would not presume from this distance, nor would America presume to say who should be the leader of the Iraqi nation.

The most effective means of ensuring the government's accountability to the people is an aggressive, free, challenging, untrusting press.

90 percent of my time is spent on 10 percent of the world.