Alexi Giannoulias

I remember when my father passed away, we drove the funeral procession past the bank so he could say one last goodbye. That's how much the bank meant to my father.

I can tell you that when I travel the state, when I talk to people, they are really struggling, in a very real way. They're losing their jobs, they're losing their homes, they're dealing with financial challenges.

But if, if you take a look at what would have happened, I mean, do we need to see soup lines down the street to figure out what would have happened? We avoided - and all economists will tell you that millions of jobs were saved because of the Recovery Act, and we avoided a second Great Depression. That, that is a reality.

One of the biggest problems out there that I hear from my friends in the business community is that there's no lending, that it's tough to get a loan today.

We need to focus on green jobs: solar, wind, geothermal, biomass. There's so many opportunities. But other countries like China are getting ahead of the curve.

I never took that stuff personally when people said I was too young, too inexperienced. I get politics. I get attack ads. But they said 'mobbed up family.' That we were criminals. That kills me.

It destroys you when people say complete mistruths about your family.

Look, the, the - this country has not lived within its means for a very long time, and, and the truth is we're going to have to take our medicine.

While I can't promise you that I'm going to be a perfect candidate and I can't promise you that I'm not going to make mistakes, I can unequivocally promise you that no one, no one, will work harder on your behalf, no one will fight harder with you and no one will make you more proud.

When I talk to people, their concern is, how are you going to create jobs? How are you going to help turn this economy around? How are we going to make sure that when my kids get out of high school or college there will be some job there? Those are the concerns that are on their minds.