Nothing surprises me anymore. We'll keep doing what we're doing. I'm going to keep going forward with solutions that I want to see applied to this great country, the challenges that we're facing. And things like that [e-mails as governor published] are going to be perhaps a distraction for others. They won't distract me.

Politics isn't just a game of clashing parties and competing interests.

I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'

I used to wonder if the occasionally rough edges of politics were unique here under the Great North Star. But I ventured out a bit this past year, and I tell you that, as partisan quarrels go, ours really aren't so bad.

I opposed annexing in areas around our city borders, because I knew that if neighborhoods wanted to be a part of the city, well, they would mandate themselves in and invite themselves into a city. That's just one example of even on a local level how dangerous it is for a politician to start thinking they know more than that individual family, that individual business.

Our opponent [ Representative John Lewis] is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.

Well, I'd rather choose to be beautiful, um, because, to be beautiful it's natural. But being smart you can learn... you can learn, um, a lot of things... a lot of things from the experience... you can learn from a lot of things being smart.