This is the place where anybody - like an African American kid raised by a single mom - can be president.

Don't mistake niceness for weakness.

Men and women have served and died to protect American democracy, but their sacrifice will be for naught if that democracy dies from the poison the Supreme Court has injected into our political organs.

Concentrating wealth in the hands of the few and deregulating financial institutions and practices lead to speculative bubbles that eventually burst — and that brings the whole country down.

So we just hope that all of these governors who are grappling will be able to provide the basic services to our citizens and not have to cut things that really are painful.

We're on the cusp, on the brink, of enormous change in this country.

Today in America we are no more "post-racial" than we are "post-partisan." We have a long way to go.