I'm from Minnesota. I'm optimistic. I mean, that's just who I am.

The country that owns green, that dominates that industry, is going to have the most energy security, national security, economic security, competitive companies, healthy population and, most of all, global respect.

We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists.

There's a difference between being able to make long distance phone calls cheaper on the Internet and walking around Riyadh with a PDA where you can have all of Google in your pocket. It's a difference in degree that's so enormous it becomes a difference in kind.

I could see America playing a slightly smaller role in the Middle East but I would not see us abandoning the region and just say "Oh," like I said, "China, Russia, it's yours now. Global focus is just on our hemisphere." I don't see that happening.

If you don't have an ethic of conservation, you basically have a license to drive a Hummer through the Amazon.

America is interested in change and reform in the Middle East but in a stable way.