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You know, I came from a university. A university is where I consider myself in my long-term
career. And, at some point, if you are away to long it is harder to go back. I will also
note that there are a lot of fights that you are fighting in Washington everyday. Some
of them are budget fights. Some of them are political fights. Some of them are just silly
things. And, at some point, you know, you look around and you say, "Look, you know,
this has been fun, it's been interesting and I'm really honored by what I've been
able to do here. But, it's time for me to go back to my long-term career which is in
universities".
I know I said this to the search committee but, being in commerce I've spent a great
deal of time thinking about American competitiveness and what is it that matters for American competitiveness.
In the long run, I'm quite convinced there are only two things that really matter: one
is a skilled workforce, and the other is an economy that's on the edge of innovation
and invention. Okay, and once you say that, there is one institution in society that really
does that, right? That's the research university which has two central missions.
One of which is to educate a skilled citizenry and the other of which is to do front end,
first-rate world-class research. In some ways my time at commerce has only
reaffirmed how much I value these big research institutions and how important they are to
society to the economy and to America's long-term competitiveness. So, you know, I'm
ready to come back........