Iraqis have held elections and have recently put together their government, all encouraging developments.

There are words bandied about that are being misused - words like 'socialism,' words like 'communism,' words like 'fascism.

I have a long-term interest in the humanities.

Politics has high and low moments. Sometimes it brings out the better angels of our nature; sometimes baser instincts.

If you read literature, you put yourself in somebody else's shoes. You learn from great figures in literature.

Public decision-making does not lend itself to certitude.

America somehow thinks that leadership relates to governance, and it certainly does. But society is much bigger than governance, and some of the truly great leadership of our society is outside the governance arena.