We all lived through September 11. I was here at the Capitol that day. I saw the evil of our enemies written in the smoke rising above the Pentagon.

We'll be passing tax relief for small business owners and working families across the country.

We should stand by our allies, but we should also stand by our ideals and work with our allies and encourage them to live up to the democratic institutions and traditions that they enjoy.

As a conservative who believes in limited government, I believe the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press. A free press ensures the flow of information to the public, and let me say, during a time when the role of government in our lives and in our enterprises seems to grow every day--both at home and abroad - ensuring the vitality of a free and independent press is more important than ever.

For a guy that grew up on 31st Street and Everroad Park West and played on Haw Creek and dreamed some day of serving in Washington D.C., from my boyhood, to have the opportunity to have represented my hometown in our nation's capital, and now to have the opportunity to serve the entire nation as vice president is ... it's just deeply humbling.

There are criminal aliens in this country who have come into this country who are perpetrating violence and taking American lives.

Power is an instrument of fatal consequence. It is confined no more readily than quicksilver, and escapes good intentions as easily as air flows through mesh.