It's always been government's role to protect the security of the nation. And cyber-attacks is a security issue, from our perspective. And it's a security issue of particular concern with respect to the nation's core critical infrastructure, the infrastructure everyone relies on, the energy sector, the telecommunications sector, the banking sector.

I believe we have to move, eventually in our country, toward a system of public financing that really works for candidates running for federal office. I will support that as president.

It is fair to say there are individuals in the United States who ascribe to al-Qaeda-type beliefs.

If American schooling is inadequate now, just imagine how much more obsolete it will be when today's kindergarten students graduate from high school in just 12 years.

The United States is the nation of innovation. And we have the best innovators, really, in the world. Our international property is one of our huge national economic assets. Yes, so to the extent that some are seeking to infiltrate our network, steal that information, not to have invest in the research and development that goes into innovation, that's a really big deal.

Now, a lot of what we are doing right now, quite frankly, is because of what happened on Christmas. Many of the things were kind of in the works. We were already planning, for example, the purchase and deployment of advanced imaging technology. You call them body scanners. We call them AITs (Advanced Imaging Technologies).

One of the most striking elements of today's threat picture is that plots to attack America increasingly involve American residents and citizens.