The days when the words 'Hollywood actor' framed Ronald Reagan like bunny fingers as an ID tag and an implied insult seem far-off and quaint: nearly everybody in politics - candidate consultant pundit and Tea Party crowd extra alike - is an actor now a shameless ham in a hoked-up reality series that never stops.

This aesthetic quality then is what politics is all about. It's authenticity that separates winners from losers good politics from bad and he-man leader-types from consultant-directed puppet-boys.

One of the things that I think you see sometimes in politics is a certain degree of caution. It's usually advised by consultants who don't want to see you march to the end of a limb.

Consul - in American politics a person who having failed to secure an office from the people is given one by the Administration on condition that he leave the country.

A conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.

Medical decisions have been politicized. What doctor wants a state legislator in his consulting room?

I support legal immigration. I don't support amnesty because it is not fair to people standing in line at consulates around the world.

Consular cards were not designed to be identification and no treaty recognizes them as such. Legal travelers visitors and long-term residents carried passports visas or green cards for that purpose.

As a woman my style defines my leadership. It's a gentler more compassionate approach. I consult I listen and I compromise where it's in the best interest of the citizens.

Harvard is first and foremost a university and not a consulting operation and our job here is to teach and to research and to create knowledge on Asia in conjunction and in cooperation with scholars as well as with political intellectual and cultural leaders in Asia.