There are not many female role models to guide voters, and the tradition that a Southern woman's place is in the home still lingers in some quarters.

Money often determines not only who gets elected, but what gets done. Which voices do lawmakers listen to, the banks or home owners, coal companies, or asthma sufferers, the CEOs or the unemployed?

Babies are smart. They can tell the difference between a responsive face and a blank face, wiped clean of emotion.

The United States is no longer first in the world in upward mobility. We can reverse that trend by giving our young children an equal start in life as they begin their journey to fulfill the American Dream.

Politics creates an almost endless time horizon into the future. ... As governor I had the incredible luxury of being able to dream on a grand scale. And this sense of infinite possibility gives politics its romance.

Children refuse to compromise. Adults learn how.

Inaction, contrary to its reputation for being a refuge, is neither safe nor comfortable.