North Carolina is a fascinating state, because you've got these urban areas. You've got the Piedmont Triangle - Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point.

It was quite a process to narrow more than 400 columns down to 80. I write weekly, though, and I don't always write about President [Barack] Obama, so that was the easy elimination.

[My childhood was ] spiritual than religious.

[Barack Obama] intended, I think, to say that he took Trayvon's [ Martin] death somewhat personally.

When public policy is directed toward urban spaces, it is directed toward people who sit at the margins.

Obviously these conditions [violence, poverty] predate the [Barack] Obama presidency and the president has limited ways to dent this violence. But funding war weapons in cities, as opposed to more community policing, is not the solution.

The president [Barack Obama] did introduce a jobs bill that could not clear Congress. The Republicans simply would not work with him.