Policies that emanate from ivory towers often have an adverse impact on the people out in the field who are fighting the wars or bringing in the revenues.

Being in charge sometimes means making people mad. Some days you have to overrule even the best advice, because you think it is not right.

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

I don't think we handled the aftermath of the fall of Baghdad as well as we might have. But that's now history.

But you have to understand, American democracy is not like the system you have. We're not an ocean liner that sails across the ocean from point A to point B at 30 knots. That's not American democracy. American democracy is kind of like a life raft that bobs around the ocean all the time. Your feet are always wet. Winds are always blowing. You're cold. You're wet. You're uncomfortable -- but you never sink.

When I was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I would still have junior officers brief me. Usually these people knew more about the subject we were discussing than I did. I had to make sure that they felt confident enough to tell me everything they believed.

Wouldn't it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?