Claire McCaskill: “I am just--curious. I want to make sure I understand.”

This is never a referendum. Presidential elections, by the time they run around, is always, 'well, who do you like slightly better than the two you don't like?' So it is a binary choice.

I think that, fundamentally, voters do understand that we have very, very low unemployment. They see it in their families, that everybody has jobs, everybody can get jobs, their jobs are paying slightly better.

The culture wars? I've got to tell you, this time around, bring it, because I think that Democrats want to talk about abortion, and they want to talk about guns.

There is an over-classification problem, and I was surprised Secretary Gates didn't mention it.