The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.

You balance the budget by restraining the growth of government and encouraging the growth of the private sector.

The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle to grave assurance that government will always be the solution. If this election is a bidding war for who can promise the most goodies and the most benefits, I'm not your president. You have that president today.

Today's misery is real unemployment, home foreclosures and bankruptcies. This is the Obama Misery Index - and it's at a record high. It's going to take more than new rhetoric to put Americans back to work - it's going to take a new president.

Instead of leading the world by how much we borrow, it's time that we make sure we lead the world in how much we build and create and invest.

I believe the world benefits from American leadership. I believe this next century should be an American century.

We will achieve North America energy independence by 2020, by taking full advantage of our oil, our gas, our coal, our renewables and our nuclear power. Abundant, inexpensive, domestic energy will not only create energy jobs, it will bring back manufacturing jobs.