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The purpose of a politician is to be a leader. A politician has to lead. Otherwise he's just a follower.

In Washington, I am a leader on the issues that matter to my community, and I think that's what my constituents want, and also I think that's what voters want. Someone who understands them, who wants to represent them, and who works tirelessly every day on behalf of their interests and their values.

People rightly want our political leaders - on all sides - to concentrate on minimising the damage to jobs, living standards and our savings from the banking crisis.

I would argue that one of the issues which the public should be much more emphatic about with all politicians... is patronage, appointing people to high positions because they supported your campaign or helped you raise money.

The job of a leader, the job of a governor, the job of a president, is to get the people in the room and bang enough heads together and rub enough arms and cajole enough to have them put the country and the state's greater interest ahead of their own personal partisan interest. That's what we did in New Jersey and that's the model for America.

My feeling is if you're going to be a leader, you have to carefully assess where people are and where people want to go.

I am a person that when I go in the street, everybody knows me and goes: 'Oh, you are entering politics.' I want to do something positive for the future. It doesn't mean to become a leader of a party.

To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. And so what I think is really important is sustainability.

I'm a liberal - I believe in subsidies for public goods and in regulations to curb harmful externalities, but neither of those things exist when it comes to parking.