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I was interested in political failure here in the U.S. The way we're failing to work together to solve even our smallest problems, let alone the complex ones.

Failure is the most terrible thing in our business. When we fail, the whole world knows about it.

I think that we need to look hard at our beliefs and be responsible about how we speak out.

I think the world's always a better place if people are filled with understanding.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we've struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We've made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

We also need the world, even though many times we don't agree with it.

Everyone needs to understand that we were meant to live together in this country. We have to get to know one another; even if we don't agree, we have to enable each side to express itself.

What the nation's built on is discussion, contradiction and growth, and at the moment you can't discuss anything. If you do start to discuss it, you get criticized. If people hate us, you have to find out why and try to solve that problem.

In fairness, I don't think that everyone understands what I say, but I think they understand part of it and part of what the issues are... Just the same way that people like a good painting, I think people really like understanding, knowing about the world.

I think most people realize that our problems are our government, not me and you individually, except that we can - must have some sort of responsibility, because they're in there and they were elected, so we have to defend ourselves on those lines.