I do not believe that a counterterrorism strategy all by itself, without a sufficient level of counterinsurgency, will work.

I mean,you will have an Afghan government. There are two roads here. One is obviously a run-off election or a negotiated settlement. But what's most important about that process is that there's a credibility and a legitimacy to the government at the end of that process. So which road they choose, that's up to them. It must have - be legitimate and credible in the eyes of the Afghan people.

I wake up some mornings hating me too.

We're bending the law as far as we can to ban an entirely new class of guns.

Obviously what I think Senator [John] Kerry was pointing to, which is absolutely correct, which is the essential part of the strategy or a key component or a leg on the stool, is an Afghan partner that is ready to take control of both the security situation in Afghanistan, and the civilian side of that.

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that: it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

Everybody knows they're on the Obama team: There isn't vice presidential vs. presidential division, there's not a generational pull. People have internalized that this is a real moment in history.