We start this new year in the midst of an economic crisis unlike we have seen in our lifetime.

We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell.

Ultimately, I remain optimistic about not just America's future, but the direction that the world is growing.

Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement.

Mexico is going to need the United States to cooperate in order to rid itself of the violence and corruption that results from the drug trade.

If poverty is a disease that infects the entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we can't just treat those symptoms in isolation . We have to heal that entire community.

Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science.