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I think that there's a liberal element out there that finds me not acceptable. They don't like my stance on a lot of issues because I am conservative.

I come by my conservatism authentically, not by convenience. And I offer the American people a new direction.

I'm a political conservative.

In its worse forms, conservatism is a matter of 'I hate strangers and anything that's different.'

You don't fight radical conservatism with not-quite-so radical conservatism.

By temperament and disposition and emotions, I'm a liberal; but in my beliefs about what's best for the country, I'm a centrist.

I am not a neoconservative.

I've been a conservative my whole life. There is nothing hard-right or far-right about anything. I just believe in ideas and that ideas matter in history, and that's my background, and that's the way I'd like to be portrayed.

I started out being a really, really liberal Democrat.