A great deal has been said about my commitment not to raise taxes. It's a core value - it's common sense - it's important to keeping and growing jobs - and it's mainstream!

The marketplace measurement in politics is something called an election. It's a pretty good barometer - it's transparent, it's numerical, it's objective. It gives you a pretty good measure of what your customers think of you. And in 2006 and 2008, the marketplace was telling the Republicans, We prefer the products and services of your competitors. And so when you're losing market share, you step back and say, What can we do differently?

The rising cost of prescription drugs has sparked a prairie fire that is spreading across our nation.

I think the country's in trouble. And I think I have a pretty clear sense of the values and principles that have made this country great. I've had a chance to govern and lead with those in mind, with some significant success in Minnesota. And I think the country needs that kind of leadership and insight and perspective.

I've come to realize that Barack Obama is the tattoo president. Like a big tattoo, it seemed cool when you were young. But later on, that decision doesn't look so good, and you wonder: what was I thinking? But the worst part is you're still going to have to explain it to your kids.

Having the democrats watch your money is like having Michael Vick watch your dog for the weekend

Barack Obama has made things exponentially worse, but let's face it, when Republicans had total control over it, they didn't do what they said they were gonna do. I think also people got fatigued with the war. And the party got into a whole bunch of corruption and personal scandals that weren't compatible with the principles it claimed to stand for.