Every day, in every way, whether it's at the White House or it's in travel, the president looks at how to get his plan across to the voters so the voters can get their message to the senators and the congressmen,

[Later Friday, he was taping a] message of sympathy and solidarity ... be joining our friends in Australia in a day of mourning for the terrible tragedy that took place. We lost lives, they lost a lot of lives.

a thankless job. . . . Always a flak-catching job.

My advice to the tea party freshmen: Slow the galloping horses to a trot. Big government was built over decades; it can't be dismantled in a year, especially when Democrats control the White House.

If you allow those who are the most vocal and most antagonistic to get a meeting with the president for fear that publicity will hurt you if you don't, you're creating incentives for your critics to become even more antagonistic and more vocal. Then, you're forever stuck in: Will you or won't you meet? You'll no longer lead. You'll just wrestle with meetings.

What you hear from Al Gore is not what you're going to get. He had overspent the surplus by $900 billion ... and his spending would leave Social Security high and dry.