The campaign was a more significant training ground than I think people give it credit for. By the time I got here, I think I had a pretty good sense of what was required. But the circumstances in which I came in were different than most executives, right? The enterprise was in the midst of a major crisis.

Sometimes if your only approach is cutting spending at a time when the economy's contracting, then the economy will contract further.

America remains the one indispensable nation. And the world needs a strong America.

There are times where I've made mistakes or our administration hasn't always aligned ourselves with the values we need to align ourselves with. It's a work of constant improvement.

One of the interesting things about being in public life is there are constantly these pressures being placed on you from different sides. To be effective, you have to be able to listen to a variety of points of view, synthesize viewpoints.

I think that dealing with guns is one way to handle the violent-crime issues that we have in this country.

We are running out of time