I like my quiet time. There is a writer's sensibility in me sometimes, where I step back.

Today I am pledging to cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office.

[Young people] are showing enormous and entrepreneurship and working with each other across borders.

I think I have a pretty good take on popular culture that maybe makes up for the fact that I'm not a sound-bite politician for the nightly news.

Unfortunately, you've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems. Some of these same voices also do their best to gum up the works. They'll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices.

That's why the American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan won't just throw money at our problems, we'll invest in what works

Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market.