I think what Obama does more than his amazing speaking ability is he's able to connect with voters. And it's that hope that he brings out in American citizens that we are all hungry for, that people get excited about Sen. Obama.

The only way that residual racist feelings could affect legislation, in my opinion, is through a lack of priorities, from not doing things.

A person you excuse from any genuine challenge is a person you do not truly respect.

People think of black English as ungrammatical, but it bears the same relationship to standard English as contemporary Hebrew does to ancient Hebrew.

We must neither behave as children by resisting honesty, nor allow ourselves to be treated as children by having honesty withheld.

Barack Obama's said some very nice things and he says them well. But if you ask me, the reason that we're looking at somebody who is such an inexperienced senator, who has said some very pleasant but not especially sterling or innovative things, the reason that he's considered such a big deal is simply because he's black.

Texting is fingered speech. Now we can write the way we talk.