When I wrote 'The West Wing,' the juice behind it was that in popular culture, our leaders in government are generally portrayed as Machiavellian, or as idiots. I thought, well, how about writing about a group of hyper-competent people?
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
Unfortunately, generations of people have been told by their political leaders that they are more exceptional human beings than the rest of the world - this sense of privilege is incredibly toxic.
There are all sorts of cries that the leaders of the Green Movement should submit themselves to the supreme leader, but that won't take place. Both sides have to be prepared for a serious negotiation.
It's a tremendous responsibility to be direct descendants of the prophet Muhammad. This family has had the burden of leadership on its shoulders for 1,400 years. I'm not going to drop the ball on my shift.
Public conversations about who we are and who we want to be are key to the vitality of our democracy, and leaders can seed those conversations when they speak out their own views.
There's no one on this earth taken less seriously in a leadership context than a young woman - everything is against you.
We have a world minus a whole lot of talent that has stepped out of contention for leadership, only because they don't want to seem too aggressive, too smart, unattractive, or too male.
Arab leaders worry more about making money from the profits they get from oil and gas that they turn the other way when Lebanon is being destroyed right next to them. Their neighbours are being murdered, but they only make calculations for their own benefit.