We want to do the hard work now so our children and our grandchildren can grow up in a peaceful world. So we rallied good allies to our side, including every member of NATO. We've developed civilian experts in the form of Civilian Reconstruction Teams. And together with the determined people of Afghanistan, we are making hopeful gains.

I appreciate all the local and state officials who are here today. I particularly want to point out one person — Staff Sergeant John Forbess. I had the honor of meeting John at the base of Air Force One. He was severely wounded in a helicopter crash in Iraq in 2003. Yet, despite his wounds, he volunteers in the Fisher House.

I want to thank Dirk Kempthorne — Mr. Secretary, thank you for being here. Jonathan Scharfen, Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, as well as Congressman Doris Matsui from California.

And finally — and finally, it is a pleasure to welcome future Stanley Cuppers — the Auburn Extreme Hockey Club. I guess extreme means extremely good.

These two women are not only great athletes, they're really great people. And I'm just so sorry that Misty May got injured on Dancing for the Stars. God, if only she had me as a partner, you know? Except I can't dance. But I wish — you know, it's interesting, I read a comment from Misty May today. She said, yes, I got hurt Dancing on the Stars, but I'll be back at the 2012 Olympics.

The USO enlisted the biggest celebrities of the age to show their support for the troops overseas. Legendary stars made dangerous treks. Entertainers like Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire, Diana Shore, John Wayne, and many others offered the troops their talents, brought memories of joy — brought moments of joy and laughter, and memories of home.

Welcome to the South Ground of the White House. It is a joy to be here with members of the armies of compassion.

It now appears that an effort may be underway to depose Russia's duly elected government. Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.

I hope that I can use my good relations with the Chinese leadership to convince them that the way forward is for there to be more civic participation, more citizen participation in the future of the country, and that the perfect way to do that is to explain to them how backward the government was when it came to the response for the natural disaster. Hopefully that will open up eyes. But no question there's a lot of diplomacy that needs to be done to convince others that people like Aung Suu San Kyi deserve to be free, and political prisoners ought to be free. ...Whether or not the Chinese will agree that somebody like Aung Suu San Kyi ought to be free and ought to be the center of foreign policy like it is for us, I don't know. We just have to work it hard.

To help address challenges in the housing and financial markets, we announced temporary steps to help stabilize them and increase confidence in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These two enterprises play a central role in our housing finance system, so Treasury Paulson has worked with the Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, so that the companies and the government regulators, uhh — put the companies and the government regulators on a plan to strengthen these enterprises.

Yo, Harper! The President of Nigeria.

Jarrett wasn't alone that night. As you well know, many of your family members rushed to Greenburg from nearby counties and other states to offer love and support.

And by the way, opening up ANWR is not long term, it's intermediate term. But it sends a clear signal, is what it does. It sends a clear signal to the markets that the United States is not going to restrict exploration. The United States is going to encourage exploration. And in the meantime we have done, increasing CAFTA, for example. But the market is going to do as much for encouraging conservation as anything else is now. And so I firmly believe that — you know, if there was a magic wand to wave, I'd be waving it, of course. ...I think that if there was a magic wand, and say, okay, drop price, I'd do that. ...But there is no magic wand to wave right now.

An agreement with Colombia would level the playing field. And a failure to pass an agreement would send a terrible signal to our neighborhood. The Speaker of the United States Congress has killed this bill unless she gives us a date certain for a vote. It's a bad decision on her part.

These two nations inspired the world with their Rose and Orange Revolutions — and now they're working to consolidate their democratic gains and cement their independence. Welcoming them into the MATO — into the Membership Action Plan, would send a signal to their citizens that if they continue on the path to democracy and reform they will be welcomed into the institutions of Europe.

I want my fellow citizens, if you're worried about your home, to call this number: 1-88-995-HOPE. Let me repeat that again. 1-88-995-HOPE.

Uhh, Mr. Ambassador, thanks for comin'. Ambassador, uh, Meh, Ma, Mallias is will us today. Mister Amb — there you are, right there, Ambassador. Thank you. It's good to see your wife. Appreciate you all bein' here. Ambassador, uhh, Kukouris of, umm — uhh, to Cyprus is with us — from Cyprus to U.S. is with us. Senator, thank you for comin'. It's good to see you again.

I guess his grandmother died again.

Our Peace Corps is full of compassionate, hard-working, decent people who are serving America on the front lines of compassion.

Most Americans feel overtaxed, and I promise you the Democrat Party is going to field a candidate who says I'm going to raise your tax.

What's going to matter is not the past, but the future when it comes to campaigns and if the Democrat Party feels like they can win an election by focusing on me, I think they'll be making a huge tactical mistake.

I think we're going to get a good bipartisan bill and so I applaud those Democrats. I'm not going after those Democrats. But there is a big part of the Democrat Party that is against giving our intelligence officers the tools necessary to protect America.

Thank you all for coming. I just met, umm, with my Cabinet, where we discussed — a lotta issues, and one issue we discussed was the budget, I — submitted the budget today to Congress. It's on a — a laptop notebook, an e-budget. It saves paper, saves trees, saves money. I think it's the first budget submitted electronically. And it's a good budget.

The enemy we face can only convince people to join their cause is when they find hopelessness. And so our strategy is threefold. One, protect the homeland. Two, stay on the offense against these folks. And three, provide an alternative — a hopeful alternative to despair and doubt and hopelessness. ...I hope you take heart in knowing there are a lot of really fine people working long, long hours to get the best information possible to protect the homeland. There's a — unbelievably dedicated folks. And as I said in the State of the Union the other night, we owe these folks a debt of gratitude. And we owe them more — we owe them the tools necessary to protect the American people. ...The second part of our strategy is to stay on the offense against these folks — I mean every day stay on the offense. An unrelenting effort to find them and bring them to justice. It's hard to plot, plan and attack America if you're running and hiding. It's hard to recruit if you're cutting off money. It is hard to spread your poison if other reasonable people join the cause. And so we spend a lot of time doing everything we can to keep the pressure on these folks. ...I repeat to you, I know there's some good folks who think this is just simply a law enforcement matter. It is not. ...The third part of our strategy is to spread liberty. I love to tell folks that one of the most unique relationships I had as your President was with the Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister Koizumi. ...In Afghanistan — the interesting lesson on Afghanistan for the world to see is that how the vision of the enemy would be implemented — in other words, these poor folks had the Taliban as their oppressors. ...These thugs didn't believe in freedoms, they didn't believe in women having equal status, they didn't believe young girls should be educated. And if you dared express your opinion that didn't mesh with theirs, you'd be whipped in the public square or killed. These are brutal people. That's the vision that these folks have for the world. ...I had to make a tough decision. And the decision I made was based on the considered judgment of military people, considered judgment of a lot of folks who were following Iraq. It was not based upon any Gallup poll or focus group. ...And we went in with a counterinsurgency strategy, all aimed at, of course, helping the Iraqis stand up and do the hard work necessary, but in the meantime making sure that when the enemy was cleaned out of neighborhoods, there was somebody there to provide security for the folks. Our surge, by the way, was more than just military. We surged diplomats and public service officials, provincial reconstruction teams to make sure that in neighborhoods where an enemy had been routed — and we have folks there, along with the Iraqis, to provide security. ...People want to live in peace, whether you're Methodist or Muslim, whether you're American or Iraqi. And what you're watching play out now is that — folks are becoming more confident in their capacity to self-govern. ...We surged, we accomplished missions, the Iraqis are more capable. The commanders on the ground say that now we can do the same job with less troops. So folks came home for Christmas. ...You know, a lot of folks say, well, what's next, Mr. President? And my answer is, we have come too far in this important theater in this war on terror not to make sure that we succeed. ...The other question is politics. One of the lessons of democracy is, a lot of times what happens at the local level informs people at the central government level. And competition is pretty healthy in a democracy. As I told you, the local folks are reconciling.