Obama has already rejected the bright sunlight of public knowledge which is democracy's great disinfectant and cure.

Widespread public access to knowledge like public education is one of the pillars of our democracy a guarantee that we can maintain a well-informed citizenry.

If information and knowledge are central to democracy they are conditions for development.

We are in this business whether it be intelligence or the government to protect freedom democracy and liberty not to violate that.

Our democracy our constitutional framework is really a kind of software for harnessing the creativity and political imagination for all of our people. The American democratic system was an early political version of Napster.

Our democracy is the centerpiece of who we are as a nation. And it is the fondest hope of all Americans that we can help bring democracy to every corner of the world.

It's true that General Musharraf opposes my return seeing me as a symbol of democracy in the country. He is comfortable with dictatorship. I hope better sense prevails.

In Afghanistan there is a plan to build democracy hundreds of thousands of troops are protecting it. There is a plan to rebuild and reconstruct there. But many thousands of Americans die from violence and poverty every year and we don't have a plan for reconstruction at home.

Because of my parents' love of democracy we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia - first by Hitler and then by Stalin.

But if there's an erosion at home you know Thomas Jefferson warned about a tyranny of an oligarchy and if we surrender our democracy to the tyranny of an oligarchy we've made a terrible mistake.