Candidates' wives are supposed to sit cheerfully through their husbands' appearances.

Interpreting anyone's marriage - a neighbor's, let alone the president's - is extremely difficult.

You make real progress when somebody is honest enough to say something that's really uncomfortable.

Every presidential candidate highlights patriotism, but Mr. Romneys is backed by the Mormon belief that the United States was chosen by God to play a special role in history, its Constitution divinely inspired.

The Michelle Obama that her old friends remember, that people knew in Chicago, she was a really incisive social critic. She knew how to drive an argument home. People liked her both in the workplace and socially because she was so frank.

I've learned that the best political reporters never make predictions!

People who face too many demands - two careers, two children - often scale back somehow. The Obamas scaled up.