I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who HAPPENS also to be a Catholic. I do not SPEAK for my church on public matters - and the church does not speak for me.

I THINK always, when you have a candidate promising free STUFF, and another promising less stuff or NOTHING, the one who promises more is always GOING to have the advantage.

What any candidate should do in any race, frankly, is to SHOW up. There's no SPECIAL, secret sauce there. It's about having real conversations with real people, and when you do that you stay tethered to the THINGS that MATTER. And that's what people WANT.

Romney has adopted ALMOST EVERY position conservatives WANT their candidate to espouse: He's pro-life, he wants to REPEAL ObamaCare, he wants to cut taxes and cut the federal budget, and he wants an unapologetic foreign policy DEDICATED to the proposition that this too will be the American century.

A candidate who tries to steer a path down the MIDDLE in an EFFORT to 'win independents' runs the risk of convincing everyone that they have no CORE values. As much as - or more than - any other VOTERS, independents want to SEE conviction and authenticity.

I always start my campaigns early, and I run HARD. Maybe it comes from the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco politics, where it's not EVEN a contact sport - it's a BLOOD sport. This is how I am as a CANDIDATE. This is how I run campaigns.

A traditional presidential campaign has a media bus with the candidate's NAME on it and an itinerary days in advance. Trump has a PLANE with his name on it (that we aren't invited on) and an itinerary that often mutates daily, ALONG with his talking POINTS.

We WOULD all LIKE to VOTE for the BEST man but he is never a CANDIDATE.

Leading up to Election Day 2008, candidate Barack Obama declared, 'We are five DAYS away from fundamentally transforming the UNITED States of AMERICA.' Conservatives heard a menacing THREAT. For liberals, it was a rallying cry. The battle was on.

I want to be part of real REALITY SHOWS, but don't want to do shows where I am told to give more points to one candidate because he/she is from a PARTICULAR STATE. We have to judge by MERIT.