When a campaign doesn't go my way, I always take a step back, look at the facts, and try to figure out what we could learn from that experience.

Democrats believe that when more people vote, it's not just good for our party; it's good for democracy.

In order for President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden to be moderates, they just have to present themselves between the extremes of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's isolationism and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's hawkishness - the difference between living in a cave or conducting ourselves so that we're in need of one.

By definition, conservatives struggle with change.

We have become bound by a political straitjacket that frames every debate: Too much federal government. Yet our forefathers forged this system for us. The federal government can accomplish what the states, acting alone or even in concert, cannot.

Poverty is a national issue and needs a federal response. After all, U.S. federal government policies helped produce massive income inequality by lopsided breaks for the super wealthy.

The untold secret driving the obstruction to Obama's economic equality agenda is this: The opposition isn't really battling Big Government. The opposition is protecting an economic system that's putting more and more of the earned income out of reach for those aspiring to better themselves.

Helping the poor doesn't mean redistributing the wealth. It means removing the breaks that give the wealthy an advantage so huge that big chunks of the nation's income are automatically removed from individual economic competition.

Under Pope Francis, we have seen a change at the Vatican that is reflective of the church I know and love. He approaches controversial doctrine or past wrongdoing with humility, understanding, and faith in the goodness of mankind. He has served as a voice for the voiceless and has been working to re-establish the church as a home for the homeless.

In Pope Francis, I see a leader who lives every day in the image of Jesus. Under his guidance, the church is focused once again on providing comfort, compassion and salvation for sinners, the poor, and those who seek peace in an increasingly complex world. That's my Catholicism.

It's not anti-Catholic to question, nor is it anti-Catholic to be honest about the previous shortcomings of the church, because that is the only way we can ensure its strength and dignity moving forward. It is, however, very Catholic to forgive each other and to never stop loving each other.

Hunger in America is an American problem. The hunger of one should be the concern of all. Especially the hunger of children - our children.

I've organized everything for my family since I was little. I know how to delegate and budget. I solve people's problems.

After Katrina, no one was the same. People, relatives, they were dying one after another.

I was told, time and time again, that God's potential didn't exist in people like me. I've spent my life fighting to change that. And, from the first day when I met Hillary Clinton, I've known that she's someone who cares just as much and fights just as hard.

At the same time that Donald Trump was facing a federal discrimination lawsuit for refusing to rent to minority families, Hillary Clinton risked her own safety to seek out the truth, to comfort the afflicted, and to make a home for justice where there was none. It was at the Children's Defense Fund that I met Hillary.

On behalf of everyone at the DNC, we want to offer a deep and sincere apology to Senator Sanders, his supporters, and the entire Democratic party for the inexcusable remarks made over email. These comments do not reflect the values of the DNC or our steadfast commitment to neutrality during the nominating process.

The middle ground in Congress has all but disappeared. The founders intended competing principles and interests to check excesses and create a balance in our politics that would benefit 'we the people.' Gerrymandered districts and a hyped-up fight-night media offer a partial explanation of why we seem to have neither checks nor balances.

Why do we need to support the food stamp program? Because low-income families experience unemployment at a far higher rate than other income groups. Because cutting nutritional assistance programs is immoral and shortsighted, and protecting families from hunger improves their health and educational outcomes.

Food stamps are an investment in our future.

Being on food stamps can be demeaning. Cashiers know the difference between the new plastic SNAP cards and a credit card. Some food stamp recipients say some cashiers have made them feel uncomfortable and embarrassed.

Why not add benefits for making healthy food choices, provide a transition bonus for getting off food stamps, or increase job training opportunities and income - raising minimum wage?

Ask any worker at Starbucks, Cosi, McDonald's or Walmart, 'How many jobs do you have?' and likely he or she will tell you: 'Two.' I know colleagues who've had breakfast at one store, and gone to lunch in another, only to find the same person waiting on them.

I think it's important to remember that civil rights and economic rights are mutually dependent.

The law is only our best approximation of justice, and the law needs constant revision.

While the law cannot force a person to be moral or tolerant, through the law we can demand respect and expect equality.

If you don't know about the 'black male code,' you should. It's something black boys learn early, even before adolescence. It goes, in part, like this: Even though you're not a criminal, some people assume you are, especially if you're wearing certain clothes. Never argue with the police, but protect your dignity and take pride in humility.

Remember, Obama was elected by a bigger margin than George W. Bush. He deserves to have his appointees, and he deserves to have votes on the issues, to have the government function, and to fight for the policies on which he was elected.

For some Republicans, 2016 is 1992: Hating Hillary Clinton is chic again. Only more so, since the former secretary of state is also the partner of and potential successor to the last two Democratic presidents - Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

Some of us believe, with good reasons, that the Republicans are 'mad-dogging' Hillary Clinton with the Benghazi hearing to damage not only her presidential prospects, but also to damage President Obama's credibility.

Until there are no more hate crimes, no more vicious bullying and ugly slurs, whenever a person comes out - whether that person is a celebrity or a 'nobody' - it should be celebrated like the triumph of courage it is.

My mother wasn't a very patient woman. If I complained about being lonely or bored, she'd tell me to go help someone, anyone. To this day, when I start feeling sorry for myself, I look for a good deed to do.

Men don't wear high heels, and they don't make allowances for women who do. Tottering down the corridors of power in beautiful but crippling stilettos telegraphs your preference for style over substance.

A writer without a pen would be like a duck without water!

In 1968, I bought a 114-foot yacht, built in 1946, and lived on the Greek islands for a while. We had an extraordinary time in it. Then I gave it to The Beatles.

Celebrities can suffer a horrible loneliness even though they have millions of fans. I started doing meditations because I realized that a spiritual path was necessary.

After having polio, my right leg was weaker, so I wasn't great at football. But I swam lots and even did long-distance running.

I absorbed the vinyl of Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Jack Elliott, to Michael McClure and then into the Beat poets, Allen Ginsberg. At campus, we were absorbing that stuff. We looked to America.

'Sunshine Superman' was a pioneering work that for the first time presented a fusion of Celtic, jazz, folk, rock, and Indian music as well as poetry.

I already had top 10 records before 'Sunshine Superman,' with 'Catch the Wind' and 'Colors,' but this was a real breakthrough for me. It was a consciousness change for songwriting, as people are now saying I initiated the psychedelic revolution with this album, 'Sunshine Superman.'

It's really much more than the plastic of album covers and record sales and dollars and cents. Music is just everybody's mother. Music is the power of you.

The poet is the voice of the people. And when the poet presents certain ideas, two phrases in one poem can alter a generation's view. So poets have always been feared - and controlled and jailed.

Having had polio never held me back as I got older. Although having one leg smaller than the other isn't much fun, I could always get about without any trouble. Luckily, in the music industry, everyone was only interested in my singing and playing and not the size of my legs.

I'm a teacher, but I'm really a healer.

Coming from art school, I had a great sense of style - as did The Beatles and the Stones - and I enjoyed projecting that. Image, attitude, great music and great lyrics - that was the '60s.

When the mid-'70s came around, it looked like, 'Oh-oh, here come the punks.' But if you look closely at The Who and The Kinks, the anger and the frustration is there... There is, within me, just the same social discontent as I go through my career. But to be typecast as a singer of peace and love is fine.

It's not like me and Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr hang out every week, but we keep together in promoting Transcendental Meditation.

A man always has to leave his homeland, go to another time zone, another culture, to get a different recognition - to be accepted as someone who's following a different path, who's moving into a different mode.

When I met Bob Dylan, I was definitely impressed. This guy had come from the American folk world, but he was very schooled in poetry, too. He'd studied the Beat poets, of course. I grew up in the British bohemian scene. Dylan grew up in the American bohemian scene. So I was very pleased to meet such a guy.

In England, we'd leave school at 15 and go on to a college, and I went to further education in a town called Welling Garden City. I fully immersed myself in bohemia there, which included poetry and modern art, jazz, philosophy, social radicalism.