"While it is not perfect, the bill pending in the Senate today is not just good enough — it is very good. […] Is America better off today because a chance at a compromise health bill was missed in 1993? For my friends on the left, the rising toll of the uninsured provides an emphatic no. For my friends on the right, the soaring share of federal spending on health care likewise provides a no. Let’s not make the same mistake again. […] If the bill passes the Senate this week, there will be more chances to make changes to it before it becomes law. But if the bill dies this week, there is no second chance to vote yes. What those who care about health insurance reform need to realize is that unless we get 60 votes now, there will be no health care reform at all. Not this year, not in this Congress — and maybe not for another generation".

"The costs of the Iraq war have been great and perhaps indefensible. But Iraq could still turn out to be an extraordinary model for the Arab world. Its people are negotiating their differences for the most part peacefully; its politics is becoming more pluralistic and democratic; its press is free; its provinces have autonomy; its focus has shifted to business and wealth creation, not religion and jihad. The Obama administration has a window of opportunity to cement these gains in 2010".

"Some of our liberal friends have suggested we should kill the health care reform bill because it doesn't have a public option. This week, for example, Howard Dean wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that real health care reform needed a public option that would '…give all Americans a meaningful choice of coverage.' I was surprised to read that because back in 1993, then-Governor Howard Dean called Medicare '…one of the worst federal programs ever and a living advertisement for why the federal government should never administer a national health care program.' Well, I am a strong supporter of the public option and I've fought to see it included. But if it cannot be included, I'm not willing to walk away".