It is up to us, to this present generation of Americans, to take a stand for freedom, to send a message to Washington that we're taking our future back from the grips of central planners who would control our healthcare, who would spend our treasure, who downgrade our future and micro-manage our lives.

Here is what we know after more than a decade of Republican rule: Texas works. Even 'The New York Times' let it slip into its pages that, 'Texas is the future.'

I don't think we've ever had a president who has more disdain for Washington than Barack Obama does, and he does things with executive orders or rules that you don't even see.

The radical Islamic terrorists and their intent to destroy any other religious structure than their radical, wrong-headed view of Islam is one of the great, if not the greatest, challenge we've had in 70 years in America.

We're at the end of an era of failed leadership. We have been led by a divider [Barack Obama] who has sliced and diced the electorate, pitting American against American for political purposes.

I come by my conservatism authentically, not by convenience. And I offer the American people a new direction.

I'm all about job creation. That's what I've done for ten years as the governor of Texas, and that's what I'm focused on.