“It’s not because I don’t like them [that I oppose same-sex marriage]. It’s because I like even more the idea that the heart and soul, the essence of our civilization is in the family. It’s not in the government. It’s not even in some institution, not even the church. Before there was the church, and before there was government, there was family. When you mess with the design, you end up messing with results. We can’t afford to do that. That’s why you will never hear me waver.”

“Poor Mitt Romney just can’t flip without flopping. In a cynical ploy to win over social conservatives, Romney has beat a well-documented retreat from a whole host of moderate positions, including a number of gay rights issues. ... How ironic that a man who wears his faith – albeit in generic Christian form – on his sleeve turns out to be the biggest moral relativist in the race – from either political party.”

“Let’s be clear: we have lost this war. We have lost because the initial, central goals of the invasion have all failed: we have not secured WMDs from terrorists because those WMDs did not exist. We have not stymied Islamist terror – at best we have finally stymied some of the terror we helped create. We have not constructed a democratic model for the Middle East – we have instead destroyed a totalitarian government and a phony country, only to create a permanently unstable, fractious, chaotic failed state, where the mere avoidance of genocide is a cause for celebration. We have, moreover, helped solder a new truth in the Arab mind: that democracy means chaos, anarchy, mass-murder, national disintegration and sectarian warfare. And we have also empowered the Iranian regime and made a wider Sunni-Shiite regional war more likely than it was in 2003. Apart from that, Mr. Bush, how did you enjoy your presidency?”