In the fall of 1996, I sat inside weekly strategy meetings of conservative activists as part of research for my book, 'Gang of Five,' chronicling the rise of the baby-boomer Right.

One of my most vivid memories from 1974 was the gas station at the foot of the hill below my Southern California high school - car lines snaking out into the street, heralding the failure of the government's price controls and lame ideas such as odd-even rationing.

To avoid becoming chronically unemployed, people need more than platitudes offering sympathy. Career reinvention requires encouragement and guidance.

I've been awed by the incredible opportunities that automatically float to the Harvard undergrads I once taught - from building homes for the poor in Nicaragua to landing prime White House internships.

Leadership is absolutely vital if there are comparable countries which can affect the security of the world you live in. Between Lincoln and Roosevelt's time, America was protected by huge oceans and, in practice, by the British navy. Today, it's different, and the obsession of the Obama administration has been for retrenchment.

With all the problems we are having, I won't be afraid to tell leadership, 'You need to explain to me why I should follow you anywhere.'

In Colombia, education is sometimes considered a luxury, not a human right. And it's not a priority in the agendas of many leaders.

AMD's history is we've always had great technology. We've had periods of time where we've done really, really well, and we've had periods of time where we've done not so well. But most of the time we've done well, it's because we've had a leadership product or some technology where we were out in front before anybody else.