From the small clubs of the Harlem Renaissance where he began playing saxophone to world tours for the biggest of the big bands, Benny Carter redefined American jazz. From the start, his fellow musicians said the way he played the sax was amazing. They say that about me, too. (Laughter.) But I don't think they mean it in quite the same way.

I think actually that the speech work I do is fine. It's important, because I try to help people think about what's going on and organize their lives accordingly.

We must fortify African democracy and peace by launching Radio Democracy for Africa, supporting the transition to democracy now beginning to take place in Nigeria.

If you voluntarily quit in the face of adversity, you'll wonder about it for the rest of your life.

I refuse to be part of a generation that celebrates the death of communism abroad with the loss of the American dream at home.

When we put aside partisanship, embrace the best ideas regardless of where they come from and work for principled compromise, we can move America not left or right, but forward.

When people are feeling insecure, they'd rather have someone who is strong and wrong rather than somebody who is weak and right.