America is exceptional: but because it yields the likes of Obama, not the likes of Bush.

To love country means to rise above I am because I am. It is to recognize that I am because we are.

The strongest streak in the American character is a fierce pragmatism that mistrust blind ideology of every stripe and insists on finding what really works.

If whiteness were of no particular advantage, then having a fuller color wheel of skin tones would be purely a matter of celebration. But whiteness - just a drop of it - does still carry privilege. You learn that very young in America.

As it stands now, those of us who are lucky enough to be citizens by birth don't have to do much. Very little is asked of us.

We tend to think of politics as bad, full of dirty tricks, negative ads, big campaigns, but I am here to explore the original meaning of politics, which is positive and has to do with balancing competing interests and looking for solutions.

America is exceptional: but because it yields the likes of Obama, not the likes of Bush.