We live in a society obsessed with public opinion. But leadership has never been about popularity.

I am not now, nor will I ever be, a candidate for offensive coordinator of Iowa.

My dad was a bartender. My mom was a cashier, a maid and a stock clerk at K-Mart. They never made it big. They were never rich. And yet they were successful. Because just a few decades removed from hopelessness, they made possible for us all the things that had been impossible for them.

We are special because we've been united not by a common race or ethnicity. We're bound together by common values. That family is the most important institution in society. That almighty God is the source of all we have.

The Hispanic community understands the American Dream and have not forgotten what they were promised - that in the U.S., a free market system, allows us all to succeed economically, achieve stability and security for your family and leave your children better off than yourselves.

The Obama Administration's obsession with forcing mandates on the American people has now reached a new low by violating the conscience rights and religious liberties of our people.

I am troubled that sometimes in our political discourse we spend all of our time focused on the challenges of the next century rather than on the opportunities of the new century.

My parents were working class folks. My dad was a bartender for most of his life, my mom was a maid and a cashier and a stock clerk at WalMart. We were not people of financial means in terms of significant financial means. I always told them, 'I didn't always have what I wanted. I always had what I needed.' My parents always provided that.

The idea that more taxes and more government spending is the best way to help hardworking middle class taxpayers - that's an old idea that's failed every time it's been tried.

But here's what I would tell people of my generation. I turn 40 this year. There isn't going to be a Social Security. There isn't going to be a Medicare when you retire. Forget about what your benefit is going to look like. There isn't going to be one if we don't make some reforms to save that program now.

What I have advocated is that we pass law in this country that says all human life at every stage of its development is worthy of protection. In fact, I think that law already exists. It is called the Constitution of the United States.

It's easier to sell cotton candy than it is to sell broccoli to somebody, but the broccoli is better for you, and the same thing with a limited government.

You cannot grant amnesty. If the American people see us granting amnesty they will never again believe in legal immigration. They will never again support it, and that's wrong for our country, bad for our future.

One of the reasons people feel so alienated from the American political process is in the fights we get in here in Washington, no one's ever talking about them and the challenges they're going through.

The key to a vibrant middle class is an abundance of jobs that pay enough so that workers can provide for themselves and their families, enjoy leisure time, save for retirement and pay for their children's education so they can grow up and earn even more than their parents.

I think there are some in the Democratic Party - not all - but I think there are some people in the Democratic Party that think that the immigration issue is more valuable to them unsolved. That it gives them something to talk about, that they can go back to Hispanic communities and make unrealistic promises every two years and win votes.

That thought process that somehow other people have to be worse off in order for you to be better off does not work. People get on boats people jump fences to get away from that kind of thought process.

And if we capture any of these ISIS killers alive, they are going to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and we're going to find out everything they know, because when I'm president, unlike Barack Obama, we will keep this country safe.

The second truism that we must understand is that poverty does not create our social problems, our social problems create our poverty.

Big government doesn't help the middle class, it buries it.

Anyone who doesn't agree with the Left's approach to immigration oftentimes gets stigmatized as anti-immigrant or anti-Hispanic.

The president we have today is a typical Washington politician that's prone to hyperbole and decisiveness and false outrage. And I think it's very sad - very sad to watch.

Bernie Sanders is a socialist. I think Bernie Sanders is good candidate for president of Sweden. We don't want to be Sweden. We want to be the United States of America.

Do not be afraid to offer ideas that draw opposition. Remember, if no one is against your idea, then your idea probably doesn't do anything.

Here in America, those who once had no hope will give their kids the chance at a life they always wanted for themselves. Here in America, generations of unfulfilled dreams will finally come to pass.

Unlike any other leader in modern American history, we are led today by a president that has decided to pit Americans against each other.

The loans I took out for my undergraduate degree were manageable. But my legal education was more expensive, and I paid for it almost entirely through public and private loans.

Amnesty is the forgiveness of something. Amnesty is anything that says, 'Do it illegally, it will be cheaper and easier.'

When I am president of the United States of America, there will never be any cap-and-trade in the United States.

We cannot allow our fears and our disappointments to lead us into silence and into inaction. Because this country that God has blessed us with, it is worth fighting for.

Obamacare's a disaster. But the answer is not to simply return to the way things were before. The answer is to repeal and replace Obamacare with modern, market-centered reforms.