I think these debates coming up are going to be a test of who the American people like better, who they want in their living room more, who they think is better capable of being president of the United States.

My major focus is national security because that's really what the president runs.

In choosing Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has chosen for the future.

I always felt, and I still feel, that the media doesn't belong in a public official's private life. It's a very difficult balance, because if you are elected to public office, people have a right to know a great deal about you, and the press has an absolute obligation to report all of that. But the reality is that there are times in which the reporting is really happening for almost voyeuristic reasons, in the gossip columns. Maybe half of it is wrong, and half of it is correct, and a lot of it is exaggerated. You've just got to get used to that if you're in public life.

All leaders are influenced by those they admire. Reading about them and studying their traits inevitably allows an inspiring leader to develop his own leadership traits.

I do have to ask the following: I feel very bad about that [spate of incidents, racially-charged incidents, across the country ].

I'm looking for a president that'll be like a Ronald Reagan to a Jimmy Carter.