If you're talking about competing with countries in the industrialized, developed world, they don't have healthcare costs. Their societies have that as a priority. Here in America, we won't have the same kind of healthcare availability because it's still a private sector initiative. But that's O.K. because it's facilitated to be made more affordable in a public way.

I do think that campaigns are about electing somebody, but they're also about a discussion of the future of our country.

With President Obama, we will move America forward.

I think about my parents all the time, especially on Sunday when I'm at Mass. My mother always said, 'We do not pray to win elections. We pray for people's health, we pray that God's will be done, we pray that we do our best. But we do not pray to win elections.'

In terms of winning the election, it's all about turnout and how we connect with the voter as to what it means in their lives to turn out to vote, to win the House, the Senate, statehouses, state governorships and the rest.

I'm Nancy Pelosi, but my grandchildren call me Mimi. For me, politics is an extension of my role as a mother and a grandmother. For the Democratic women of the House, our work is not about the next election, but rather the next generation.

The issue of childcare is the missing link in the full contribution of women to our society and to our economy.