My constituency is the desperate, the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected and the despised.

So much talent comes from the base of poverty and those in the margins. You limit the base, you miss too much talent.

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

Unfortunate. Unfortunate. Sometimes people struggling for freedom lose their way.

Suffering breeds character. Character breeds faith. And in the end, faith will not disappoint. Faith, hope, and dreams will prevail... Our time has come. Our time has come. Our time has come.

In Afghanistan, there is a plan to build democracy; hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home.

Humanitarian appeals always help. They penetrate deeper than political tradeoffs.