Basically [I become a Republican], pretty early. I had an English teacher that got me to subscribe to the National Review.

Winston County was a pocket of Republicans. Even in the depression days, when Democrats dominated Alabama, Winston County remained a Republican county and all the elected officials were Republican.

In my class was an Annapolis graduate, several engineers, and most recent president of the University of Alabama.These were all small-town people who had good values. The families were tight. The schools reaffirmed the families and reaffirmed the church values that you were taught. I guess it was just one of those swell times to be a part of.

When you suveil a person abroad, you don't have to have a warrant to do so. That has never been so they don't have the fourth amendment protection. On occasion, that person might call somebody in the United States, and if they're a terrorist, you really want to know who they are talking to. Maybe they're plotting an attack on the United States.

When I came up as a United States Attorney, I had no real support group. I didn't prepare myself well in 1986, and there was an organized effort to caricature me as someone I wasn't. True. It was very painful. I didn't know how to respond and didn't respond very well.

People of my generation knew we needed to move beyond that, the racial division and segregation and unsustainable social relations, that were unfair to millions of people. But it didn't mean that we were going to become a big government liberal.

You cannot be president of the United States if people below $50,000 don't think you care about them and you have no real communication that motivates them to vote for you.