As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.

In my wildest imagination, I never thought that the fifth of six children born to Helen and Buddy Watts – in a poor black neighborhood, in the poor rural community of Eufaula, Oklahoma – would someday be called Congressman.

Governor is not the position to have in Oklahoma. It is the head coach of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State or Tulsa.

I like to call the ethos I grew up with ‘Oklahoma values.’ But you’d be just as accurate if you said ‘American values.’ Except for our lack of a seacoast, Oklahoma has a little bit of just about everything that’s American.