Bill . . . called a guy who was a towering figure and he totally defanged him.

My advice was to stay a million miles away from it.

Do we want a nominee who's propped up [by] the process, or a nominee who can beat George Bush? We realize we're flying into a headwind created by the process. But what makes this such a great story is he's still aloft going into that headwind.

The goal here is to signify to people that they are getting real and reliable information. I think he better make sure the contraption can fly before he markets it.

Royko said it was the worst thing anybody could ever do to him, ... Here he had been gratuitously nasty, and the guy calls up and makes a joke about it. He said it was totally disarming. It was also totally brilliant.

This was a visceral reaction to a horrible event. He feels a sense of responsibility, not just as a senator, but as an African-American senator.