Rob Portman

Our country needs people who are maybe a little less focused on themselves and on the flash and a little more focused on how do we actually create a better environment for success for our young people, how do we get people back to work, how do we regain our standing internationally.

I hope that the entire Senate votes to say that if you're on the terrorist watch list - not just the no-fly list, which is a much more targeted list, but the terrorist watch list - you should not be able to buy a weapon.

Ohioans, I think, in large numbers, have felt that the government has not been on their side in all of these issues: on pensions, on the cost of prescription drugs, on the health-care system generally, on jobs, on trade agreements.

I had an instinctive feeling that the people who have little or no school training should have something coming into their homes weekly which dealt with their problems in a simple, helpful way... so I wrote in a plain, common-sense way on the things that concerned our people.