Our mission in this new century is clear. For good or ill, we live in an interdependent world. We can't escape each other. Therefore, we have to spend our lives building a global community of shared responsibilities, shared values, shared benefits.

We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.

If you want to be forgiven, you have to extend forgiveness, even to people who aren't smart enough to ask for it.

For too long we've been told about 'us' and 'them.' Each and every election we see a new slate of arguments and ads telling us that 'they' are the problem, not 'us.' But there can be no 'them' in America. There's only us.

President Obama has offered a plan with 4 trillion dollars in debt reduction over a decade, with two and a half dollars of spending reductions for every one dollar of revenue increases, and tight controls on future spending. It's the kind of balanced approach proposed by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission.

I made a big mistake. It is indefensible and I am sorry.

We need a spirit of community, a sense that we are all in this together. If we have no sense of community, the American dream will wither.