Chuck knows that war is not an abstraction. He understands that sending young Americans to fight and bleed in the dirt and mud, that's something we only do when it's absolutely necessary. My frame of reference, he has said, is geared towards the guy at the bottom who's doing the fighting and the dying.
Obama defends Chuck Hagel's understanding of the realities of war as he nominates him for Secretary of Defense.
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The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.
I think when we act on that basis, it doesn't always work out, but over time things do get better.
If I had a blame pie for why politics is so polarised and why we're seeing a rise of populism in many places, it's because of that information that is going into our brains every day.
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