In the media universe we're in, where there are people screaming on one end, there is no problem at all with having a little bit of extra politeness.

Barack Obama didn't get elected president, would never have been elected president, had he decided to run as a black candidate. In order to reach the broadest number of people you have to speak to their interests as broadly as you can.

I'm not quite certain how you can force a candidate to stick by the rules.

Because I would never work for a niche publication or a niche program on television and because I am a journalist and not an opinion person, my job is to try to see how many different points of view I can represent or how. It's not even a question of who you don't offend because you are always going to offend somebody. The question is how can you get people to listen to the information you have to present.

I think I'm careful. My goal is to try to stay away as much from opinion journalism as possible.

One of the things that Africa needs, everybody seems to agree, is some measure of debt relief.

[It's] Rare for a first lady to be running for president.