The 2016 presidential election is ripe for the emergence of a game-changing political leader who either dramatically reforms one of the existing parties or mounts an independent bid.

At the start of his second term, one wonders less about Obama's fitness than his willingness: Why doesn't he do more to build and maintain the relationships required to govern in era of polarization?

It's a deft trick to turn American exceptionalism into an exceptional political tactic.

According to a Public Policy Polling survey, most Americans find lice and colonoscopies more appealing than Capitol Hill.

With gridlock the norm, Congress's approval rating is below 10 percent and the public has lost faith in its national leadership.

Blending hard-bitten realism with long-view optimism, Obama said that every 20 or 30 years brings a new cycle of pessimism in America.

Although we were never pals and occasionally butted heads, my relationship with Clinton and his wife, Hillary, made me a better journalist.

President George W. Bush won reelection in 2004 largely because he was seen as comfortable in his own skin, while rival John Kerry was viewed as a flip-flopping opportunist.

Obama might do well to remember that his fast rise from the Illinois state Senate was due in large part to an uncanny ability to make friends and find mentors.

I'm hearing echoes of Bill Clinton, circa 1996, in President Obama's reelection rhetoric.

For a man who has compared himself to Theodore Roosevelt and the nation's challenges to those of the Gilded Age, Obama put forward a tepid agenda.

The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.

The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.

She wanted to live, and live fully, and to give life, she who loved life! What was the good of existing, if you couldn't give yourself?

Human nature is so constructed that it gives affection most readily to those who seem least to demand it.

The Wham! thing was, as I said, very confusing, and much of our image was totally fake.

To feel, to love, to suffer, to devote herself, will always be the text of the life of woman.

Perhaps our greatest power in life is the power to choose. Without question, choices are the most determining factor in how our lives turn out.

Silence fertilizes the deep place where personality grows. A life with a peaceful center can weather all storms.

The gods see the deeds of the righteous. [Lat., Di pia facta vident.]

One percent improvement in 1,000 things is better than 1,000% improvement in one thing.