Values are not just words, values are what we live by. They're about the causes that we champion and the people we fight for.

If you can resolve this transition of [Bashar] Assad, that is absolutely possible, but you have to have a clarity for everybody about the way forward.

It is the duty of any president, in the final analysis, to defend this nation and dispel the security threat. Saddam Hussein has brought military action upon himself by refusing for 12 years to comply with the mandates of the United Nations. The brave and capable men and women of our armed forces and those who are with us will quickly, I know, remove him once and for all as a threat to his neighbors, to the world, and to his own people, and I support their doing so.

If you think I would have gone to war the way George Bush did, don't vote for me.

Those who try to stifle the vibrancy of our democracy and shield policies from scrutiny behind a false cloak of patriotism miss the real value of what our troops defend and how we best defend our troops. We will ask questions and we will defend our democracy.

For those of us who are fortunate to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans.

I look forward to standing up and holding George Bush accountable for pushing seniors off of Medicare into HMOs.