I pledge to you I'm not a talker. I'm a doer.

I’m not only a lawyer, I have a post-doctorate degree in federal tax law from William and Mary. I’ve worked in serious scholarship ... my husband and I have raised five kids, we’ve raised 23 foster children. We’ve applied ourselves to education reform. We started a charter school for at-risk kids.

I was in the Minnesota state Senate from 2000 until 2006. In 2006, I was urged to run for Congress, I did. And I've been here ever since.

I was the perfect candidate. America had their chance with the perfect candidate.

Everything I needed to know I learned in Iowa... I know what it means to be from Iowa - what we value and what's important... I grew up here in Iowa.

I made a decision when I ran for president that I wouldn't whine about my coverage in the media, and I never did.

After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the massive budget bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money that we don't have. But instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt. It was unlike anything we've ever seen before in the history of the country.