But I can tell you what I believe: When tens of thousands of innocent souls have perished in Darfur-when 11 million children are without health insurance-when our colossal debt subjects our economic future to the whims of Asian bankers-no one can tell me that faith demands this Senate spend its time arguing over a handful of judges. No one with those priorities can use my faith to intimidate me.

We cannot continue to see the Middle East in the context of 9/11. We must see it in the context of 2011.

I commanded a naval gunboat patrolling the Mekong Delta. Then when I came home after two tours of duty, I decided that the same sense of service demanded something more of me.

If [Bashar] Assad himself could save this whole process by saying, "I will engage in a managed transition where we all work together to stabilize the government, save the institutions of government, and turn on ISIL and preserve Syria." That could happen. It all depends on one man, and Russia and Iran should not be so stubborn here that they tie this whole thing up simply because of one person.

America is the most powerful economy in the world. We're an $18-trillion-dollar economy.

We cannot fight communism all over the world, and I think we should have learned that lesson by now.

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.