What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about if we can't use it?

I do not believe that things happen accidentally; I believe you earn them.

But I think there are some who believe they are actually protecting women, you know, and that it is better for women to be taken care of. I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important. And frankly, I don’t understand — I mean, I’m obviously a card-carrying Democrat — but I can’t understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney, except maybe Mrs. Romney.

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it's not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It's more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together.

The bottom line is, the more we have a cadre of women moving up the scale, and it doesn't seem threatening, and people realize that women actually work much harder than men, and realize that they need more women in these jobs, I think that goes away.

I was in Europe and it was at this stage that I fell in love with Americans in uniform. And I continue to have that love affair.

I'm not a person who thinks the world would be entirely different if it was run by women. If you think that, you've forgotten what high school was like.