The president felt that it was important to send an ordinary citizen to experience the excitement of space travel as a representative for all Americans.

Have you ever watched someone become American? Last week at a national citizenship conference I organize thirty immigrants from 17 countries swore an oath and became citizens of the United States. It was a stirring experience for the hundreds of people in the room.

The American experience influenced my understanding of individuality basic human rights freedom of expression and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.

I want people to think of me as a nice person. I really am so blessed. All of this has been a great experience and I thank the American public so much for putting me in this position. I appreciate every second of it.

I think on-stage nudity is disgusting shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body it would be artistic tasteful patriotic and a progressive religious experience.

The most important American addition to the World Experience was the simple surprising fact of America. We have helped prepare mankind for all its later surprises.

So when you do your family tree and Margaret Cho does hers and... Wanda Sykes and John Legend... we're adding to the database that scholars can then draw from to generalize about the complexity of the American experience. And that's the contribution that family trees make to broader scholarship.

We can not continue to allow this over reliance on government to replace the cornerstone institution that has made the American experience possible.

High school is such a shared experience in North American culture.

No place epitomizes the American experience and the American spirit more than New York City.