House Republican leadership have refused to allow a clean minimum wage vote. Close to 15 million Americans will be affected if we did this. Do Republicans really expect a family to live on less than $11 000 a year?

In Britain you do your job. When you do an American TV show there is a sense of being one with the crew and there is a leadership element which was a learning curve for me because it is very different culturally. In Britain you just do it leave and say 'Thanks.'

For centuries America has led the world on a long march toward freedom and democracy. Let's reclaim our clean energy leadership and lead the world toward clean energy independence.

What happened with Hurricane Katrina was the American electorate was forced to look at what lay behind the veneer of chest-beating. We all saw the consequences of having terrible government leadership.

To be elected president you have to do more than tear down your opponents. You have to give the American people a reason to vote for you - a reason to hope - a reason to believe that under your leadership America will be better.

Instead of begging OPEC to drop its oil prices let's use American leadership and ingenuity to solve our own energy problems.

America somehow thinks that leadership relates to governance and it certainly does. But society is much bigger than governance and some of the truly great leadership of our society is outside the governance arena.

The truth is the Republican leadership has created a credit card Congress that is recklessly selling out the future of America our children and our grandchildren and President Bush is the most fiscally irresponsible President in the history of America.

The longer we go without strong leadership from the Administration and until we see significant progress in the day-to-day lives of the Iraqi people the more difficult it will become to sustain the support of the American people and Congress for the current course.

President Bush offers the American people an optimistic vision and a clear choice in November. The President has provided steady leadership in remarkably changing times. He knows exactly where he wants to lead this country and he has complete confidence in the American people.