The American political system is so porous, it's so open, it's so frustrating for those who are trying to make policy.

The government can give citizens opportunity and it's their responsibility to take advantage of it.

Economic growth is necessary to keep the promise - enormously important to individual Americans - that each generation will have the opportunity to become more prosperous than the preceding one, the popular term for which is 'the American dream.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, were spectacular, riveting, grim, costly and searing. The shock that they caused reverberated throughout the world. What happened in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania ended the lives of thousands of people and changed the lives of many more. But they did not change the world.

All policy is a matter of gains and losses, upsides and downsides.

The United States contributes to peace in both by serving as a buffer between and among regional powers that, while not preparing for armed conflict, do not fully trust one another.

Let me remind you all that the first task of American foreign policy is to reduce threats to the United States.