Education is critical not only to each one of us individually, but also to build the economic vitality of our state.

We have the resources and technology to produce more energy than we consume and break our long-standing dependence on foreign sources of oil. All we need is the will. In fact, there's a path to follow, one that North Dakota blazed over the last decade by building a comprehensive energy plan we called Empower North Dakota.

President Roosevelt's leadership put the world on notice that the United States of America - with the freest, most dynamic economy the world had ever seen - was open for business.

Businesses must invest in products and people in order to create new wealth.

Economic disasters or foolish wars are hardly guaranteed to bring about large-scale individual self-examination or renew the appeal of truly participatory democracy.

The idea that, in the age of Google, Facebook and the internet, government can control the 'commanding heights' of the economy is one of the great delusions of our age. Modern techonology, social media, the explosion of online retail, among many other things, have meant that governments have less and less control.

If you live in a place that you perceive to be a crowded place, you appreciate government; you see it as this thing that protects you against crime, that keeps order, that makes sure that nobody puts a massage parlor next to your house, that keeps other people's dogs from pooping on the sidewalk.

Speaking as a Democrat, all my life battling for what I conceived to be Democracy, and what I conceived to be right, I am yet an American above Democracy.