I'm not a predictable black liberal.

You go back and look at things like Civil War, World War II, Vietnam, a lot of people dying in state-sponsored arm conflict

I think you know what? You've got to believe in yourself. You can do it.

Alaska and Montana are not in the south but they definitely form part of the crimson tide of red states where Republicans are dominant.

I think that you have a situation where one political party, in specific, if you watched the Republican debate, it's all about terrorism.

I think the president's [Barack Obama] position has been very clear on Syria. He wants more aggressive, he's put the Special Ops on the ground, in fact one of the Republican criticisms is he's got thousands of Americans there. We just don't call them troops on the ground, we don't admit to it. But they are there.

Beyond budget fights, the Obama second-term agenda was supposed to be about passing comprehensive immigration reform.