Claire McCaskill: “It is an honor to be here in front of all of you.”

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

He's focused on himself?

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.

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.