A lot of times people look at the negative side of what they feel they can't do. I always look on the positive side of what I can do.

In politics sometimes you have to lie or you make a promise that you cannot keep.

Sometimes when I listen to fellow progressives I wonder if the only lesson we took away from the '04 elections is that politics is a word game.

I cry sometimes because I'm not 20 years younger and I'm not healthy. But if I were I would even sacrifice my writing to enter politics.

Sometimes in politics you think you've seen it all. Turns out I was wrong.

Whether one believes or not religion is as real a force in the life of the world as economics or politics and it demands fair-minded attention. Even if you think the entire religious enterprise is at best misguided and at worst counterproductive it remains vital inspiring great good and sometimes great evil.

It would be great if politics were fact-based but it is not and it is surely not nuance-based. What works in a classroom or a think tank does not work on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Obama sometimes seems to be running the Brookings Institution not the country.

When times are tough constant conflict may be good politics but in the real world cooperation works better. After all nobody's right all the time and a broken clock is right twice a day.

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.

There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.