Counting the numbers of troops is not going to define our success here.There is no military success, ultimately, to Afghanistan. The Afghans themselves are going to define what happens here. And we have to convince ourselves that we have a strategy in place that empowers them to do that and that is realistic in what our expectations are from them and on what schedule.

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

The moment somebody's a president and you call him "Mr. President," (the person represents) our culture, our history, our sense as our nation.

We have come a long way and we have a little further to go.

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.

Things happened there that I don't think are the finest hours for anybody, whether it was a journalist, the legal system or, in that case of the political system, who would say that was an example of when Washington worked best.

Every election is different, every context is different. I believe the record I was allowed to help establish by the side of the president Bill Clinton was important.