i like to quote fritz mondale when i talk about my campaign. you may recall, fritz mondale was the poor fellow who had to run against ronald reagan. after it was over, senator mondale said this -- "all my life, i wanted to run for president in the worst way, and that is just what i did." [applause] [laughter] >> the best part of it -- and you know this -- the best part of running for president was getting to know people across the country. i come away more optimistic about america, because i met the people that don't make the news. if you make the news, you have by and large done something bad. these are the people who do something good, day in, day out. i saw parents that were inspiring. i was in one state, a mom there said that after raising her kids she had gone back to work, and instead of retiring as she expected because she wanted to make sure her daughter's education loans were as low as possible, and she was providing funding for her daughter, who was in college. i got a chance to go to afghanistan and iraq and meet with troops there, a