I have served in the Senate since December 2012 with seats on the Appropriations and Commerce committees and previously served as the lieutenant governor and in the state House. These positions provided me insights on Hawaii's priorities and how to effectively work with stakeholders to achieve meaningful results.

I think it accrues to Hawaii's benefit that I have friends in Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin. We're already geographically isolated, so it's really critical that we don't become politically isolated.

The tendency among Democrats, especially after a devastating loss, is to come up with either a new individual to lead us, a new strategy, a new slogan.

I think there's a short-term legislative strategy. I think there's a longer-term legislative strategy in terms of enshrining net neutrality principles into law rather than a rule, and I think there's an election strategy.

No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy - well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I'm President, I never will.

I don't even know if people even care what a 27-year-old Jewish kid thinks about politics.

In a time of global uncertainty, rising terrorism, and enormous threats to peace, it's right that we as a country should now seek to extend our diplomatic footprint overseas.

Transactional politics requires us to be pragmatic about current realities and the state of public opinion. It's all about getting the best result possible given the circumstances here and now.