As I think about the future, I'm back where most people live their lives. Which is, death is not imminent, and that's different.

From kindergarten to graduation, I went to public schools, and I know that they are a key to being sure that every child has a chance to succeed and to rise in the world.

...And while everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war. And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

[Saddam Hussein is aggressively seeking nuclear and biological weapons and ] the United States may well become the target.

Whoever controls the flow of Persian Gulf oil has a stranglehold not only on our economy but also on the other countries of the world as well.

My own belief is that the way we grow the economy, create jobs, create wealth is in the private sector. The government doesn't do that.

That intelligence capability is enormously important to the United States, to our conduct of foreign policy, to defense matters, to economic matters. And I am a strong supporter of it.