The Pain I Felt Was My Father's

At The Moment That We Persuade A Child, Any Child, To Cross That Threshold, That Magic Threshold Into A Library, We Change Their Lives Forever, For The Better

I Confess To Wincing Every So Often At A Poorly Chosen Word, A Mangled Sentence, An Expression Of Emotion That Seems Indulgent Or Overly Practiced. I Have The Urge To Cut The Book By Fifty Pages Or So, Possessed As I Am With A Keener Appreciation For Brevity.

Mothers Are The Rocks Of Our Families And A Foundation In Our Communities. In Gratitude For Their Generous Love, Patient Counsel, And Lifelong Support, Let Us Pay Respect To The Women Who Carry Out The Hard Work Of Motherhood With Skill And Grace, And Let Us Remember Those Mothers Who, Though No Longer With Us, Inspire Us Still.

For Democrats Who Are Feeling Completely Discouraged, I've Been Trying To Remind Them, Everybody Remembers My Boston Speech In 2004. They May Not Remember Me Showing Up Here In 2005 When John Kerry Had Lost A Close Election, Tom Daschle, The Leader Of The Senate, Had Been Beaten In An Upset. Ken Salazar And I Were The Only Two Democrats That Won Nationally. Republicans Controlled The Senate And The House, And Two Years Later, Democrats Were Winning Back Congress, And Four Years Later I Was President Of The United States.

I Think That What Is Always True When You Run Against An Incumbent President Is, Is That You End Up Talking More About That President's Record Than Your Vision For The Future, And I Think That The Democrats Do Have To Present A Proactive Agenda And Vision For The Country And Not Simply Run Against Something If They're Going To Be Successful.