I came into public life during the 1960s when a whole bunch of us believed in our ability to change the world. And we did a lot of things.

Not to wax nostalgic about the 1970s, but back then people got upset when they saw injustice. They got tired of seeing our air, land and water polluted. They were shocked when the Cuyahoga River in Ohio was polluted so badly it caught fire. And on one great day 20 million Americans marched all across this land. Politicians had no choice but to take notice.

What we Americans need to do is respect that incredible blessing that we have as a nation and make sure that we are leading in the best ways possible.

We need a leader who has a sense of balance, an understanding of the ebb and flow of history and a sense of our country's unique place in it. This is a foreign policy debate, and you cannot conduct foreign policy without a sense of what we are fighting for. And any President who can reduce the conduct of this country's affairs to a morning's attack by a bunch of demented fascists does not, in my view, understand what this great nation is all about.

If you don't believe ... Saddam Hussein is a threat with nuclear weapons, then you shouldn't vote for me.

America has not led but fled on the issue of global warming.

Iraq may not be the war on terror itself, but it is critical to the outcome of the war on terror, and therefore any advance in Iraq is an advance forward in that.