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It was frightening because it was the first time I had gotten a sense of how serious the problem was. It became clear from his notes that he felt the president himself was involved.

I was distressed that after 9/11, when the United States was attacked by terrorists, the United States' response was to attack Afghanistan, where some of the terrorists had been.

It was horrifying. You wouldn't believe how people are treated there. You could see that these people had withdrawn so far that they just lived in their own minds. They did terrible things to themselves.

Too many of my Senate colleagues overdid it. They stayed on too long - napping through committee hearings when they should have packed up and gone home.

You never know how you're going to be received, after all this time. The initial response we had was just overwhelming, particularly that tour of the States.

It's been interesting for me because when I served in government before, I served in the White House. This time, I ended up serving in an agency, and it just made me respect and admire how much happens and that happens every day with people who don't even know all the work that's going on.

In a single moment, we witnessed the worst of human behavior. And in the next, the very best of human behavior. And even more, we witnessed the tremendous spirit of Americans.

There are stories I'd like to tell, I'd like to see, and they're not getting made. These stories are beyond the experience of the people in power. They don't understand it, so they're frightened of it.

It's very, very humbling, and I couldn't be more honored to have the opportunity to run with, and serve with, the next president of the United States.

It's humiliating for Barack Obama and, therefore, the United States to have American sailors held hostage during his final State of the Union.