No news conferences? Interviews now only with friendly journalists? You can't be president or vice president and govern in that style, as a sequestered figure. This has been Mr. Bush's style the past few years, and see where it got us. You must address America in its entirety, not as a sliver or a series of slivers but as a full and whole entity, a great nation trying to hold together. When you don't, when you play only to your little piece, you contribute to its fracturing.

This is the Democratic paradox: You want so much to run America and yet you seem not so fond of Americans.

[democrats] have become the party of snobs. You have become the party of Americans who think they're better than other Americans.

The thing political figures fear most is a terror event that will ruin their careers. The biggest thing they fear is that a bomb goes off and it can be traced to something they did or didn’t do, an action they did or didn’t support. They all fear being accused of not doing enough to keep the citizenry safe.

A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.

It's better for the country when each party looks like it stands for something serious, for some big things, but they're not narrow and they're not bought.

The core of the concept of a bribe is an inducement improperly influencing the performance of a public function meant to be gratuitously exercised.