Elections matter, but how much they matter depends entirely on how free, open and fair they are.

Elections matter, but how much they matter depends entirely on how free, open and fair they are.

There are no Muslim ghettos in the U.S.

During most of the Bush administration, human rights and democracy in Egypt were on the front burner.

When you work in the White House you talk to the White House staff all day, so you're talking to the guy who handles the congressional liaison and the guy who's handling domestic politics and the guy who's handling the American economy and so forth.

The way for the Palestinians to get a state is to go ahead and build it.

It’s unlikely to change – there’s nothing in King Salman’s past as governor of Riyadh for about forty years that suggests that he was particularly a reformer, not on the role of women, not on democratic development. There’s been a rumor in the last couple of days that he said to someone in an e-mail that he’s in favor of a constitutional monarchy, but I would be surprised if the level of repression started to go down … I think the kind of thing that we would view as significant reforms is unlikely.