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What campaigns are for is weeding out the people who, for one way or another, weren't making it for the long haul.

People are moping around and I think campaigns can be about lifting the spirits of the American people.

I know that campaigns can seem small, and even silly. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you're sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me - so am I.

America does not need another political campaign based on denial and avoidance of some of our real problems. It needs a crusade to reform and renew our country, its institutions and political system.

It is clear from the reaction to our campaign so far that our message is resonating. I look forward to continuing to take this message to all Americans, and showing them that I can be as successful running the country as I was running the state of New Mexico.

This is the marketplace of political ideas. This is how America operates. It's a free market. It's free-wheeling. From the outside, it looks unpredictable. There's a circus-like free market.

My family has been around campaigns for a long time. It's something you really have to be sure that you alone want to do. Because if not, if you don't want to do it, that will just blow through the surface at some point, and people can tell. And when people can tell, it's all over.

I have run campaigns. That doesn't make you the establishment.

The reality is that asking the public to fund political campaigns accomplishes nothing. Candidates continue to seek interest-group support through other channels, both financial and in-kind, and corruption problems abound.

Solutions-oriented campaigning with a little passion and a little humor; I think that will go a long way. I think people are desperate for it.