For all our current troubles, Americans are still the hardest working, most innovative people on the face of the earth. By trusting the American people, instead of government, we'll continue to surprise and inspire the world.

That isn't how I've always felt. As a congressman, and more recently as a senator, I opposed marriage for same-sex couples. Then something happened that led me to think through my position in a much deeper way.

I told my staff that I'm so boring that I didn't even know I was boring.

If you start very far to the left, it's harder to get to the middle.

The reality is that until we can agree on a formula that reduces tariffs globally we cannot meet this Doha promise for development. In order to keep momentum post-Hong Kong, the European Union must be willing to move.

The problem is that this round from its inception has had agriculture at its centerpiece. The EU and the U. S. and other WTO members cannot wish that away, that is a reality.

The tax code is now nine times longer than the Bible, and not nearly as interesting.