It's a tribal state, and it always will be. Whether we like it or not, whenever we withdraw from Afghanistan, whether it's now or years from now, we'll have an incendiary situation. Should we stay and play traffic cop? I don't think that serves our strategic interests.

I'm not competing in Iowa for a reason.

At the end of the day, capital is a coward. It's going to flee from wherever it perceives risk to be present in the marketplace.

The reality, sitting ten thousand miles away, is that we remain the country that inspires. We remain that shining city on a hill.

But economic recovery must be earned. And it will be earned by entrepreneurs and it will be earned by small businesses.

Politics is a lot of serendipity. You're in the right place and the right time and you've got the right message, and it either connects for you or, or it doesn't.

The rest of the world cares about how we conduct our affairs because they then take that lead. Were the only leader in the world today. Some are wishing us well, others think that were down and are not going to get back up again, but they are all watching with great interest to see how we conduct our business over the next couple of years.