The Democrats say we ought to give Barack Obama credit for trying. That sounds like the nonsense of giving every kid a trophy for showing up. Friends, we're talking about leading the country, not playing on a third-grade soccer team! I realize this is the man who got a Nobel Peace Prize for what he would potentially do, but in the real world, you get the prize for producing something, not just promising it.
A country needs to be able to feed itself, fuel itself, and fight for itself.
My goal is not to win a straw poll that doesn't mean something. It's to win the election that means everything for the future of the country.
My one complaint with my father as a parent is that, not only was he not a golfer, but also he was sort of opposed to golf. I was a country club kid growing up. I should have played golf, but my father thought golf was a sport for old men.
Early college high schools in North Carolina and across the country show us that challenge - not remediation - is an approach to education that works.
I don't know where my father is from. I just don't. He's lived in so many countries.
I have the opportunity to make my films and I think that's a luxury. I don't have any problems by filming things that can have a connection with left-wing policy, even if we have a right-wing government. There are some countries which cannot say the same, so I'm lucky.
I would not like to have a homogeneous type of film. I wanted to go to many different kinds of ways of making cinema and telling stories and watching the country.
I'm a storyteller, and as a story-teller, you see that each country, and therefore the language that it speaks has its very own way and very unique way of telling a story. And there's a lot to be learned from each country, and each language, and how they tell a story.
I'm a country boy. I hate New York. But that's where things happen, so I use it as a base for stories, I know enough about it. But I have to keep going back there.
I never made any money off of my records. It gave me the name across the country so that I could do some of the things in my personal appearances.
I certainly want to get back to the US to play. It's such a big country. I've always liked playing there, and enjoyed living there. I lived in New York, LA, and Florida.
Why am I interested in deficits? The only way you balance the budget in this country long-term is through sustained economic growth. And that's what everything we are doing in this administration is aimed at that end goal.
Country music... doesn't bend notes in the same way, so I suppose it's very English, really. Even though it's been very Americanized, it feels very close to me, to my roots, so to speak.
There’s a belief now that the problem with our schools is parents, that if we just had better parents we would have better performing kids and, therefore, we wouldn’t have a problem at all. But what’s missing in that equation is that you do have a lot of parents in this country who are very involved in their children’s education and who do want something better. They want to see better for their kids. They know that they’re in schools that aren’t performing particularly well and if you look at how we treat those parents, it is quite poorly.
I mean, hope doesn't get actualized in three and a half years. If that were the case, we'd be out of luck as a country.
Truly 1 percent of this country serves and protects the freedoms of the other 99 percent of us, so many of us don't have that connection. Fortunately, Jill Biden does. She's a blue-star mom. Their son was in the National Guard - or is in the - in - is a Reservist.
Every Thanksgiving, Barack sits down to call some of our troops and thank them for their service. When he tells me about these conversations, it always reminds me of how blessed we are to live in a country where men and women will stand up to protect our freedoms and preserve our way of life. And whenever I've had the chance to meet with these heroes and their families, I've always walked away inspired by their courage and in awe of their strength.
My children are very blessed.... That's why I think that mentoring is such a critical part of the role I can play in this position. I see how little bits of exposure and big bits of exposure really change my girls significantly, and I want that for more girls around the country and the world.
I think in the end, I want to make sure that my kids come out of this thing on the other end in one piece. But I also know that that's how the rest of the country feels as well, so for that I am grateful.
To be able to do it in the warmth and - of the White House and to do it around people who do care about my kids in a country that has been respectful of my children and their privacy, it has been less stressful than I would have imagined for me.
I talk about the food issue, I'm really coming at it from pre-White House times, when I was a working mother with a busy husband, a very demanding job and two little kids to feed.... I had to learn what it means to feed and care for your kids in a country where fast food is abundant, where time is a rarity, where eating out is a trend, because families are so busy.... Yes, I'm First Lady, but I know the struggles.
It's all about, you know, continuing to get to know ourselves in a very diverse and complicated country that is America. It is a wonderful place to live. But because it is so diverse, our challenges are complex.
One thing I want to clarify - that every service member, veteran, wants us to remember - is that the vast majority of people returning from service come back completely healthy. But when we do come across someone who is struggling. We have to develop a culture of open arms and acceptance so that they feel comfortable saying, "I'm a veteran. And by the way, I need little help." This is something we need to do in this country around mental health as a whole - destigmatizing mental health.
The biggest obstacle facing girls is education, education, education. There are too many kids who think high school is a pit stop to fame and fortune. I want girls in this country to think education is the coolest, most important thing they could ever do in their lives.
