I am always looking for material - whether for my notebooks or for Twitter or Instagram - which means I'm looking for meaning.

One of the things that voters have said about Donald Trump, since he has no government experience, is that he will be able to surround himself with good advisers.

Barack Obama's convention speech in 2004 had made him a political star, and he arrived in Iowa to crowds unseen in caucus history.

Expectations shouldn't be lowered, even if Donald Trump was just telling stories to impress the crowd around him and never grabbed as many women as he suggested. Lower the bar for what you can talk about, and you lower the bar for what is acceptable behavior.

There are a lot of plans out there for fixing health care.

Every president makes the Oval Office theirs.

President-elect Donald Trump says he's looking for a simple plan for defeating ISIS within his first 30 days of taking office. But even as ISIS has suffered setbacks in Iraq and Syria, its violent ideology continues to spread.

There's kind of a Tom Harkin aspect to Bernie Sanders, even though Harkin is supporting Secretary Clinton.

One of the worries about a presidency is that everybody tells you yes. Nobody helps you figure out where your blind spots are.

Things were so unpredictable in Comey's first meeting with President-elect Trump, the former FBI director immediately took notes in his car after the interaction.

In 1840, William Henry Harrison is the first one to really campaign as a candidate, and the campaigns were totally frivolous. I mean, people were drinking hard cider all day. They were big parades; no one was debating the issues.

A campaign gives you focus. You wake up to a different hotel alarm clock every day, but you know your mission.

The most important connection I can see between my faith and my work is that in the progress of my day, I try to be restrained and mindful of every person's humanity and of the overwhelming challenge of pride.

It's hard to say what the Founding Fathers would think of the modern presidency.

Officials in every White House crowbar the facts to make their cases.

I believe in Jesus Christ.

The swashbuckling independence of my childhood was not all good, and as a father, I'm puzzling out how to be part of my children's lives rather than shoehorning them into mine. But there's a risk that I'll overcompensate, of course.

The challenge with Donald Trump is that he'll deny things he said the day before or even in the same interview. And then sometimes when you try and talk about a fact that he misstated or something that he said out loud that he now disagrees with himself on, it's very frustrating.

What is the appetite for truth in the Trump White House? That's not a question about the untrue things the president says. It's about the level of truth the system expects.

There is no human-resources training for how to respond when you work for an unpredictable president. It's perhaps fitting that when you visit the website of the White House Office of Administration it says, 'Check back soon for more information.'

Politics is not the nicest business, but there are still times when people do the right thing.

I couldn't wait to get out, and at 14, I moved into a three-room Georgetown town house with Dad. I never went back. When they eventually sold the house, in 1984, Mom had a goodbye party for 'Merrywood.' I refused to go.

Campaigns maybe encourage us to pay attention to attributes that maybe aren't that important in the presidency.

There's the human side of people who are in public life that connects people. Whether it's favorable or unfavorable, it gives them some connection with the person who's onstage, and I think those connections are edifying.

In order for a president to be transformational, the old order has to fall as the orthodoxies that kept it in power exhaust themselves.

The math of durability in McCain's life is extraordinary.

If people feel like the boss doesn't respect them, they don't stretch for the boss.

Michael Flynn was forced to resign, we are told, because he told a big lie. But what about the little ones?

Presidents have to learn how to adapt. Every president comes into the job; it's different than they expect. They must adapt.

You're basically like glass: People see the candidates through you.

Using the term 'locker room talk' blurs the line between what is criminal and what is simply oafish. That's not a line anyone should want blurred.

When Barack Obama was asked about his lack of executive experience in 2008, he pointed to his successful campaign as proof he could manage the presidency.

You lose yourself in the to-do list and never tackle those big things you promised you would when the campaign came to an end.

The 2008 battle in Iowa for the Democratic caucus was perhaps the most titanic single nominating contest in the history of modern politics.

When I was first asked to be on 'Washington Week', I never prepared more for an appearance.

One of the roles of the press is to make sure that the president, in the voice of the people, is telling the truth.

A president cannot grow a long-term lack of trust in someone with whom they had full confidence the day before.

There is a basic idea to this fighting spirit: that there are standards worth devoting yourself to that are more important than your self-interest.

Talking to the press is not always good.

One of the great things about children is that they have no other concern than to be simply interested in things. It is considered by some the height of mindfulness to approach the world afresh like a child.

One of the ways usually that you build a bipartisan agreement is one side gives up a little, and the other side gives up a little.

We've seen, in Washington, both sides say they don't want to give up much of anything.

Some of us do talk about women like objects, which dehumanizes them.

Today, campaigning isn't an 'interruption' but a permanent condition. Indeed, if you are a successful campaigner, it's expected you'll be a successful president.

It is foolish for Republicans to continue opening the door to job-killing tax hikes while Democrats refuse to explain how they propose to reform mandatory spending - mostly entitlements - that makes up almost two-thirds of the federal budget.

The Obama administration would say that if you are a Catholic institution, you can only limit your conscience waivers or exclusions to people of the Catholic Church. That would mean that Catholic institutions couldn't treat people of other religions, and that makes no sense.

We think our leadership has been too timid to go after corruption, and often times, they bow to the liberal progressive demands of the White House instead of standing up for our values.

At any time, somebody can blow themselves up and take Americans with them. They can blow up an airplane; they can crash an airplane. That's something we have to worry about every day - we spend 40 billion dollars yearly on homeland security. That has nothing to do with Crusades or any of that other nonsense.

I have never believed in the fallacy that the federal government can buy its way out of economic troubles through needless spending. For that reason, I am proud to oppose 'stimulus' packages and endless corporate bailouts, which will do little but weaken the long-term integrity of the American economy.

We need to cut the capital gains tax; we need to take regulations off the backs of business and allow banks to once again lend.