Both of you are optimists.

Did you ever have doubts about that

or is it just both your natures, just to press on?

I don't know, you spend too many days home

in Washington D.C. you can have brief moments

where you wonder is this system that's worked so well

for hundreds of years somehow hit a rot.

But in general, no, I'm very optimistic.

I mean we've got innovation, whether it's new vaccines,

new seeds, new ways of delivering things, productivity.

Even in education,

we've got people in Rwanda

trying out MOOCS to see if they work and their situation.

And it'll take a decade of refinement.

But the pace of innovation is faster today than ever.

And, so, you can be impatient about getting it out there.

But nothing's really taken away my optimism.

The whole history of humanity is just one long battle

between conflict and cooperation and between us and them.

And, basically, we're here today because we kept expanding

the definition of us, whoever the us was

and shrinking the definition of them.

So, yeah, this is tough now

but we've had a lot of periods of bitter conflict.

And there's a lot of complex, psychological

identity questions in American politics today

aggravated by this long, stagnant economy, for most people.

But we'll get through it.

And the trajectory is still good.

(quirky music)