Not all Americans are living the American dream by a long shot. Many can't even imagine it. There are impoverished Americans, the poor and the homeless, the hungry and the hopeless, many unable to read and write. There are Americans gone astray, the kids dragged down by drugs, the shattered families, the teenage mothers struggling to cope. Then there are Americans uneasy, troubled and bewildered by the dizzying pace of change.

At the front end, to stop people from illegally entering our country, not at the back end, by reimbursing states after it has failed to enforce the border. [I] would allocate additional resources to enforcing the border, so states such as Texas and California would not have the huge expenses they currently do.

We're enjoying sluggish times, and not enjoying them very much.

We know what works: freedom works. We know what's right: freedom is right. We know how to secure a more and just and prosperous life for man on earth: through free markets, free speech, free elections and the exercise of free will unhampered by the state.

Extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different - and perhaps barren - outcome.

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it's hard.

We asked for God's help; and now, in this shining outcome, in this magnificent triumph of good over evil, we should thank God.