Under the leadership of this President the state of the union is not strong. We are being pulled apart rather than pulling together. Our democracy is suffering from the choices being made and yet we are offered the same tired excuses and unrealistic analyses.

So I think that our foreign policy the president's strong and principled leadership when it comes to the war against terror and foreign policy is going to be an asset.

If Ralph Nader runs President Bush is going to be re-elected and if Ralph Nader doesn't run President Bush is going to be re-elected. We're going to run on the president's strong and principled leadership and his positive agenda for a second term.

All of this suggests that while citizens became more comfortable with President Bush after September 11 and thought him to have the requisite leadership skills they continue to harbor doubts about his priorities loyalties interests and policies.

As for leadership I am the kind who leads reluctantly and more by example than anything else. Someone had to be on the incorporation papers as president.

President Bush has shown great leadership. He has said that the 21st century will not be ruled or dictated by terrorists dictators and murderers. He is absolutely right. God bless him for his resolve.

Democrats are going to proudly run on the fact that we turned the economy around. It was our policies under President Obama's leadership through the Recovery Act through investing in the automobile industry.

The person who takes the oath of office in the next four months will shape not just the next four years but the next forty years of our nation. In these next four years we need proven leadership proven judgment and proven values. America needs four more years of President Barack Obama.

I think President Obama could have handled politics and policies differently. But he has been decisive strong and consistent - important qualities in a president. Mitt Romney is indeed an Etch A Sketch the antithesis of leadership.

Nixon was an awful president in many ways including in some of his foreign-policy choices. But he left no doubt that foreign policy and America's leadership in the world outside its borders was of paramount importance to him.

The one thing that the President can do is to establish a real energy independence plan. We have all the recources we need right here in this country to establish energy independence if we had the leadership.

Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way including George Bush senior Gerald Ford and others including myself and Bill Clinton.

Presidential leadership needn't always cost money. Look for low- and no-cost options. They can be surprisingly effective.

In our system leadership is by consent not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.

For example I spent a lot of time with Reagan both before he ran for governor and when he was running for president. As a print reporter without the cameras I was able to really test the quality of their minds and their knowledge base.

In the past I used to counter any such notions by asking myself: 'Would you really want President Hattersley?' I now find that possibility rather cheers me up. With his chubby Dickensian features and his knowledge of T.H. Green and other harmless leftish political classics Hattersley might not be such a bad thing after all.

I wish I had known more firsthand about the concerns and problems of American businesspeople while I was a U.S. senator and later a presidential nominee. That knowledge would have made me a better legislator and a more worthy aspirant to the White House.

The standard rumor at the time was that Rumsfeld as chief of staff had persuaded President Ford to appoint George H.W. Bush as director of Central Intelligence assuming that that got rid of a potential competitor for the presidency.

Affairs of state tend to drive most presidents toward the center on both foreign and domestic policy no matter where on the political spectrum they begin and especially so in the areas of intelligence and law enforcement.

Dr. Rice's record on Iraq gives me great concern. In her public statements she clearly overstated and exaggerated the intelligence concerning Iraq before the war in order to support the President's decision to initiate military action against Iraq.

This president has been reluctant to hold anybody accountable. No one was held accountable after September the 11th. Nobody's been held accountable after the clear flaws in intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq.

Would it not be much better to have a president who deliberately lied to the people because he thought a war was essential than to have one who was so dumb as to be taken in by intelligence agencies especially those who told him what he wanted to hear?

President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today.

One of the things that I did before I ran for president is I was a professional speaker. Not a motivational speaker - an inspirational speaker. Motivation comes from within. You have to be inspired. That's what I do. I inspire people I inspire the public I inspire my staff. I inspired the organizations I took over to want to succeed.