Mr. Obama denounced the $2.3 trillion added to the national debt on Mr. Bush's watch as 'deficits as far as the eye can see.' But Mr. Obama's budget adds $9.3 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years. What happened to Obama the deficit hawk?

In Europe and the United States, you've got different systems to select candidates, and no system is perfect.

I believe in the principles of the Republican Party.

Would I like to see the Republican Party be the dominant party for whatever time history gives it the chance to be? You bet.

Now is the time to be bold. It is easy when the wind is at your back. But the real test is now when the wind is in our face. That's when we find out if we are tough enough. Inspired enough, committed enough.

I hate to sound sort of diffident about it but it strikes me that a lot of people on the right have got active lives and are doing other things.

But, look, Washington is a town that creates myths for its own existence and its own amusement, and I was a subject of myth, sort of like Grendel in Beowulf - you know, not seen very often but often talked about.