Blending hard-bitten realism with long-view optimism, Obama said that every 20 or 30 years brings a new cycle of pessimism in America.

Anything can go wrong in a debate, and Obama is not a perfect debater.

Since declaring that she would not serve in a second Obama administration, Clinton has dismissed suggestions that she will run in 2016.

Palin seems to have forgotten that her poll ratings have plummeted since the summer of 2011.

Historians will likely give Obama credit for steering the country away from the brink of economic collapse in 2009.

Once a popular Alaska governor with a modest record of accomplishment, Palin could conceivably revive her reputation in this era of short memories. But it's hard to imagine her name atop the GOP ballot in 2016, when a cast of heavyweights who sat out 2012 will be vying for the nomination.

It's a deft trick to turn American exceptionalism into an exceptional political tactic.