I have to admit, in January and February I was in an absolute fuzz. I had no one on board. It wasn't that I didn't know what I was doing, but we didn't have all the pieces put together.

We need to drive down requirements for the schools. In the 19th century, we increased the quality of the schools by higher education saying, 'You can't come in unless you have these skills, unless you've taken these courses.' We did that in Wisconsin when I was there, it helped to transform the secondary school system.

I try to deal with my serious reading before work.

We can't afford as a nation - not because of money but because of our social fabric - to have large numbers of people who are not working.

I'll be one of the spokespeople, one of the people who sells the Administration's plans.

What you really remember at the beginning was that you have to throw a budget together. We made some terrible mistakes at the beginning in my own budget that took us at least a year to catch up on.

By putting people around me who will calm me down and slow me down and make sure I work through an issue.