From where you sit, the White House may look as untidy as the inside of a stomach. As is said of the legislative process, sausage-making and policy-making shouldn't be seen close-up. Don't let that panic you. Things may be going better than they look from the inside.

In politics, every day is filled with numerous opportunities for serious error. Enjoy it.

A few. . . critics are the only people I ever heard use the phrase 'imminent threat.' I didn't, the president didn't.

I tend over the years to have developed a certain hesitancy about believing that headlines tell the whole story.

We're not running out of [fixed] targets. Afghanistan is.

Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles De Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.

The United States isn't going to do anything that it's not capable of doing. And if we do something, we'll be capable of doing it.