One ideological claim is that private property is theft, that the natural product of the existence of property is evil, and that private ownership therefore should not exist... What those who feel this way don't realize is that property is a notion that has to do with control - that property is a system for the disposal of power. The absence of property almost always means the concentration of power in the state.

The world's largest debtor is a distinction of sorts, but not the one we like having.

The issue of race could benefit from a period of benign neglect.

You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.

I have no doubt that there will continue to be bumps, some serious crises indeed in our relationship with China.... Neither membership in the WTO nor normalized trade relations with the United States will magically impose the rule of law on China or institute deep-seeded respect for human rights. But it certainly has potential to advance those purposes.

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty.