It's much more powerful and compelling to create a positive vision than it is to tear somebody down.

America glories in its tradition of the self-made individual. Political candidates compete to be a friend to entrepreneurs, and policymakers, imagining the next Microsoft or Google, design laws to back the innovator in the garage.

To pull off successful attacks in debates, you have to execute with nuance and subtlety. It has to be artful.

My brother is one of my true heroes. Steady and sober where I am impulsive and emotional.

Outside events can change a presidential campaign, a president, and the history of the nation: the Iranian hostage crisis, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, the downing of the helicopter in Mogadishu, Somalia, the suicide attack on the USS Cole, and, of course, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

I'm saying it loud: I'm a Republican who supports gay rights.

I've spent the better part of my career in politics and public policy working on and fighting for education reforms.