Since I'm the president and Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate, it's understandable that people are saying, you know, 'What have you done?'

I think that whenever you have got an incoming president of the other side it takes a while for people to reconcile themselves with that new reality.

We agreed that our economic and financial teams will remain in close contact as we stay focused on ensuring economic growth and financial stability.

I think it's very important to remember that so much of the work that gets done between countries is not done at the level of presidents, but is done within various agencies, whether it's law enforcement or economic ministries. And when they establish relationships and systems of communications and shared projects and shared visions, those structures continue even after any particular president is gone. It builds trust and understanding between countries that are critically important.

Democracy demands that the religiously motivated translate their concerns in to universal, rather than religion-specific, values... it requires that their proposals be subject to argument and amenable to reason. Now I may be opposed to abortion for religious reasons, to take one example, but if I seek to pass a law banning the practice, I cannot simply point to the teachings of my church or evoke God's will. I have to explain why abortion violates some principle that is accessible to people of all faiths, including those with no faith at all.

I try to explain to them about the aloha spirit. And it's that spirit that I am absolutely convinced is what America is looking for right now.

A political candidacy built around hope and change and compromise would eventually become a presidency of crisis and confrontation.