Barack Obama: “It's getting so bad that Senator McCain's running mate denounced his tactics last night.”

The full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.

It is a basic principle of American democracy that the government can’t selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or what they say.

If I had a blame pie for why politics is so polarised and why we're seeing a rise of populism in many places, it's because of that information that is going into our brains every day.

When we choose, when we make that decision, I do believe – and there is evidence for this – that the world gets incrementally better, and that is a worthy goal and it’s worth fighting for.