As governor when I visited our troops in Kuwait and Iraq I served them Thanksgiving dinner. It was a small gesture compared to their sacrifice.

No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy - well you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I'm President I never will.

The people of Wisconsin have been good to me. I've tried to live up to their trust. And now I ask those hardworking men and women and millions like them across America to join our cause and get this country working again. When Governor Romney asked me to join the ticket I said 'Let's get this done' - and that is exactly what we're going to do.

But being in the closet uniquely assisted me in politics. From my first run for the state legislature until my election as governor all too often I was not leading but following my best guess at public opinion.

I don't want to spend the rest of my life in politics. When I'm finished with my term as governor I'm going back to the life that's waiting for me in the private sector.

It's really very simple Governor. When people are hungry they die. So spare me your politics and tell me what you need and how you're going to get it to these people.

If you don't like the President it costs you 90 bucks to fly to Washington to picket. If you don't like the Governor it costs you 60 bucks to fly to Albany to picket. If you don't like me 90 cents.

I was scheduled to give my first official press conference that morning anyway 'cause I was chairman of the Governors Energy Council and I was making a press conference with regard to energy policy.

The attorney general would call at 5 o'clock in the evening and say: 'Tomorrow morning we are going to try to integrate the University of Mississippi. Get us a memo on what we're likely to do and what we can do if the governor sends the National Guard there.'

'Not again!' I thought to myself this morning as news trickled out that John McCain was set to pick Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Not again because too often women are promoted for the wrong reasons and then blamed when things don't go right.

For example I spent a lot of time with Reagan both before he ran for governor and when he was running for president. As a print reporter without the cameras I was able to really test the quality of their minds and their knowledge base.

As governor I saw the link between economic prosperity and the ability to acquire knowledge.

So we just hope that all of these governors who are grappling will be able to provide the basic services to our citizens and not have to cut things that really are painful.

I stand before you as the governor of Texas but also stand before you the son of two tenant farmers. Ray Perry who came home after 35 bombing missions over Europe to work his little corner of land out there and Amelia who made sure that my sister Milla and I had everything that we needed included hand sewing my clothes until I went off to college.

If I were running to be somebody there are a lot of easier sombodies to be. After all running against the incumbent governor of your own party in your home state is not the next logical step in a political life.

The reason Gov. Romney passed Romneycare as governor of Massachusetts in 2006 was because many Republicans viewed health care reform mandates and all as a way to inoculate against Democratic charges that Republicans didn't care about people who lacked health insurance.

Giving governors more leeway in administering health care could represent a small positive development in the ongoing saga of Obamacare. Unfortunately instead of choosing flexibility President Obama and his left-leaning advisers always default to rigid 'Washington knows best' answers.