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Affirmative Action Is Not Going To Be The Long-term Solution To The Problems Of Race In America, Because, Frankly, If You've Got 50 Percent Of African-american Or Latino Kids Dropping Out Of High School, It Doesn't Really Matter What You Do In Terms Of Affirmative Action. Those Kids Aren't Going To College.

-Barack Obama

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Affirmative Action Is Not

Barack Obama

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Affirmative Action Is Not Going To Be The Long-term Solution To The Problems Of Race In America, Because, Frankly, If You've Got 50 Percent Of African-american Or Latino Kids Dropping Out Of High School, It Doesn't Really Matter What You Do In Terms Of Affirmative Action. Those Kids Aren't Going To College.

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There Are Very Few Moments In Our Lives Where We Have The Privilege To Witness History Taking Place. This Is One Of Those Moments. This Is One Of Those Times.

There Are Problems That Just End Up Being Really Hard And By Definition The Only Problems That Come To My Desk Are The Ones That Nobody Else Can Solve.

Pastor Saeed Abedini Is Coming Home. Held For Three And A Half Years, His Unyielding Faith Has Inspired People Around The World In The Global Fight To Uphold Freedom Of Religion. Now Pastor Abedini Will Return To His Church And Community In Idaho.

No One In The United States Of America Should Ever Be Targeted Because Of Who They Are, What They Look Like, Or How They Worship.

The Recovery Act, Which Helped Saved The Economy And Prevented Us Going Into The Great Depression, Was The Largest Investment In Green Technology, The Largest Investment In Education. We Rebuilt Roads And Bridges.

If You've Got A Business, You Didn't Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen.

The Dollar Is The Reserve Currency Of The World.

Because Our Right To Worship Freely And Safely, That Right Was Denied To Christians In Charleston, South Carolina, And That Was Denied Jews In Kansas City, And That Was Denied Muslims In Chapel Hill, And Sikhs In Oak Creek. They Had Rights Too. Our Right To Peaceful Assembly, That Right Was Robbed From Movie Goers In Aurora And Lafayette.

The Underlying Struggle - Between Worlds Of Plenty And Worlds Of Want; Between The Modern And The Ancient; Between Those Who Embrace Our Teeming, Colliding, Irksome Diversity, While Still Insisting On A Set Of Values That Binds Us Together, And Those Who Would Seek, Under Whatever Flag Or Slogan Or Sacred Text, A Certainty And Simplification That Justifies Cruelty Toward Those Not Like Us.

This Is The Defining Issue Of Our Time. This Is A Make-or-break Moment For The Middle Class And For All Those Who Are Fighting To Get Into The Middle Class.

The Last Thing That I Want To Do Is To Have The United States Be A Foil.

We Are Still The America That Does The Hard Things, That Does The Great Things. We're The Nation That Always Dared To Dream. We're The Nation That Dared To Take Risks.

Just Like I Described In Health Care, Yeah, Somebody Comes In, They Got New Ideas, Maybe Ideas That Are Completely Opposite Of My Ideas. Maybe Some Of It Goes, Maybe Some Of That Progress Goes Back. Maybe They Think Of Some Things We Didn't Think Of, And So In Some Other Areas - We Can Learn Something.

We Are On Alert 24/7. And Everything That You Report Will Be Investigated. We Do It In Private. We Do It Covertly. This Could Be A Problem, It Could Simply Be Your Neighbor Having A Bad Day. But Better Be Safe Than Sorry.

This Was The Moment When The Rise Of The Oceans Began To Slow And Our Planet Began To Heal.

What The American People Understand Is That I Look At What We Need To Get Done To Keep The American People Safe And To Move Our Interests Forward, And I Make Those Decisions.

Unless We Are Holding Ourselves Accountable Day In, Day Out, Not Just When There's A Crisis For Folks Who Have Power And Influence And Can Hire Lobbyists, But For The Nurse, The Teacher, The Police Officer, Who, Frankly, At The End Of Each Month, They've Got A Little Financial Crisis Going On. They're Having To Take Out Extra Debt Just To Make Their Mortgage Payments. We Haven't Been Paying Attention To Them. And If You Look At Our Tax Policies In America, It's A Classic Example.

I'll Turn The Page On A Growing Empire Of Classified Information. We'll Protect Sources And Methods, But We Won't Use Sources And Methods To Hide The Truth.

Those Who Adhere To The Ideology Of Rejecting Israel’s Right To Exist, They Might As Well Reject The Earth Beneath Them Or The Sky Above, Because Israel Is Not Going Anywhere.

The United States Has To Go Through Structural Reforms In Terms Of Improving Our Education System Or Revamping Our Infrastructure Or, You Know, Looking At Some Regulations That Weren't Properly Controlling Excesses On Wall Street.

I Absolutely Think That When We Talk About Family, Faith, Community, I Think It's Important For Democrats To Be Able To Connect With Folks Where They Live.

I Have No Interest In Increasing The Size Of Government. I Just Want To Make Sure We Have Got A Smart Government That Is Regulating, For Example, The Financial Institutions Smartly, So I Don't Have To Engage In Any Kind Of Bank Bailouts.

Elections Matter And Voting Counts.

America Is A Nation Of Immigrants. And So The Question Is, How Do We Make Legal Immigration Faster, Less Bureaucratic, Cut The Red Tape?

Climate Change Constitutes A Serious Threat To Global Security, An Immediate Risk To Our National Security, And, Make No Mistake, It Will Impact How Our Military Defends Our Country.

I Was Able To Do That [showing Up Of Democratic Benefits] When I Was The Candidate. But I've Not Seen Or Presided Over That Kind Of Systematic Outreach That I Think Needs To Happen.

I Need You To Go Out And Talk To Your Friends And Talk To Your Neighbors. I Want You To Talk To Them Whether They Are Independent Or Whether They Are Republican. I Want You To Argue With Them And Get In Their Face.

I Will Begin To Remove Our Troops From Iraq Immediately.

In Dealing With Those Nations That Break Rules And Laws, I Believe That We Must Develop Alternatives To Violence That Are Tough Enough To Actually Change Behavior -- For If We Want A Lasting Peace, Then The Words Of The International Community Must Mean Something. Those Regimes That Break The Rules Must Be Held Accountable. Sanctions Must Exact A Real Price. Intransigence Must Be Met With Increased Pressure -- And Such Pressure Exists Only When The World Stands Together As One.

I Think That There Have Been A Number Of Public Figures Where You Start Hearing Commentary That Is Dangerous Because What It Starts Doing Is It Starts Dividing Us Up As Americans.

America And Islam Are Not Exclusive And Need Not Be In Competition. Instead, They Overlap, And Share Common Principles Of Justice And Progress, Tolerance And The Dignity Of All Human Beings.

I Want To Make Sure That We, As A Nation, Stay Unified Because That's How We're Going To Achieve Our Missions.

The Study Of Geography Is About More Than Just Memorizing Places On A Map. It's About Understanding The Complexity Of Our World, Appreciating The Diversity Of Cultures That Exists Across Continents. And In The End, It's About Using All That Knowledge To Help Bridge Divides And Bring People Together.

I Don't Want To Make Promises, Not Knowing What The Situation's Going To Be Three Or Four Years Out.

It Was Unknowable Then, But So Much Of The Progress That Would Define The 20th Century, On Both Sides Of The Atlantic, Came Down To The Battle For A Slice Of Beach Only Six Miles Long And Two Miles Wide.

I Think, As You Get Older, That's When Your Ambitions Become "peculiar".

We Know Hackers Steal People's Identities And Infiltrate Private E-mails. We Know Foreign Countries And Companies Swipe Our Corporate Secrets.

Whether Our Forebears Were Strangers Who Crossed The Atlantic Or The Pacific Or The Rio Grande, We Are Here Only Because This Country Welcomed Them In And Taught Them That To Be An American Is About Something More Than What We Look Like, Or What Our Last Names Are, Or How We Worship.

I Believe That This Country Succeeds When Everyone Gets A Fair Shot, When Everyone Does Their Fair Share, When Everyone Plays By The Same Rules.

If Iran Does Not Take Steps In The Near Future To Live Up To Its Obligations, Then The United States Will Not Continue To Negotiate Indefinitely... Our Patience Is Not Unlimited.

I Believe Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman. I Am Not In Favor Of Gay Marriage. But When You Start Playing Around With Constitutions, Just To Prohibit Somebody Who Cares About Another Person, It Just Seems To Me That's Not What America's About. Usually, Our Constitutions Expand Liberties, They Don't Contract Them.

America Is A Land Of Big Dreamers And Big Hopes. It Is This Hope That Has Sustained Us Through Revolution And Civil War, Depression And World War, A Struggle For Civil And Social Rights And The Brink Of Nuclear Crisis. And It Is Because Our Dreamers Dreamed That We Have Emerged From Each Challenge More United, More Prosperous, And More Admired Than Before.

[ William Ayers] Is An Example Of What I'm Talking About. This Is A Guy Who Lives In My Neighborhood, Who's A Professor Of English In Chicago Who I Know And Who I Have Not Received Some Official Endorsement From. He's Not Somebody Who I Exchange Ideas From On A Regular Basis.

So I Came To My Christian Faith Later In Life, And It Was Because The Precepts Of Jesus Christ Spoke To Me In Terms Of The Kind Of Life That I Would Want To Lead. Jesus Christ Dying For My Sins Spoke To The Humility We All Have To Have As Human Beings, That We're Sinful And We're Flawed And We Make Mistakes, And That We Achieve Salvation Through The Grace Of God.

My Expectation Would Be That If We Can Begin Discussions Soon, Shortly After The Iranian Elections, We Should Have A Fairly Good Sense By The End Of The Year As To Whether They Are Moving In The Right Direction.

I Hope People Appreciate Chancellor Merkel Because, Although She Traditionally Is Considered Center-right And I'm Considered Center-left, The Truth Is That We Share Those Core Values, And Those Are Worth Protecting. As The Senior Leader In Europe, As The Leader Who's Been Longest Lasting, I Think She Has Great Credibility, And She Is Willing To Fight For Those Values. I'm Glad That She's There, And I Think The German People Should Appreciate Her. Certainly, I Have Appreciated Her As A Partner.

We Can Rattle Our Sabers All We Want But, Realistically, We Don't Have Troops For An Invasion [iran] And Surgical Strikes Aren't Going To Work.

Both Our Nations [malasian And American] Are Committed To Building A Regional Order Where All Nations Play By The Same Rules And Disputes Are Resolved Peacefully And This Visit Will Be An Opportunity To Continue Deepening Our Cooperation On Behalf Of Regional Stability And Prosperity.

It's Time To Fundamentally Change The Way That We Do Business In Washington. To Help Build A New Foundation For The 21st Century, We Need To Reform Our Government So That It Is More Efficient, More Transparent, And More Creative. That Will Demand New Thinking And A New Sense Of Responsibility For Every Dollar That Is Spent.

The Two Inaugurations Were Different. The First Inauguration I Was Thinking To Myself, "let's Make Sure I Don't Screw This Up." I Think There Is - People Always Talk About How Cool I Am. I Don't Care How Cool You Are.

I Commended Angela [merkel] For Her Leadership Along With President Hollande In Working To Resolve The Conflict In Ukraine. We Continued To Stand With The People Of Ukraine And For The Basic Principle That Nations Have A Right To Determine Their Own Destiny And We Discussed The Importance Of Maintaining Sanctions Until Russia Fully Complies With The Minsk Agreement.

Michelle [obama] Never Fully Took To The Scrutiny. I Mean, She's Thrived As A First Lady, But It's Not Her Preference.

Let's Be Grateful For What We Have. Let's Be Mindful Of Those Who Have Less. Let's Appreciate Those Who Hold A Special Place In Our Lives, And Make Sure They Know It. And Let's Think About Those Who Can't Spend The Holiday With Their Loved Ones - Especially The Members Of Our Military Serving Overseas.

The United States Is Imposing Sanctions On Individuals And Companies Working To Advance Iran's Ballistic Missile Program, And We Are Going To Remain Vigilant About It. We're Not Going To Waver In The Defense Of Our Security Or That Of Our Allies And Partners.

Empowering Women Isn’t Just The Right Thing To Do - It’s The Smart Thing To Do.

Thanksgiving Reminds Us That No Matter Our Differences, We're Still One People, Part Of Something Bigger Than Ourselves.

Starting Today, We Must Pick Ourselves Up, Dust Ourselves Off, And Begin Again The Work Of Remaking America.

If You Look At The Current Mosul Campaign Against Isil, For Example The Few Thousand Troops That We Have There To Support That Effort Allows The Iraqi Military To Move Forward In An Effective Way.

The Amount Of Information, The Amount Of Incoming That Any Administration Has To Deal With Today And Respond To Much More Rapidly Than Ever Before, That Makes It Different.

On Behalf Of The American People, Just Let Me Say That We Are Proud To Count Greece As One Of Our Closest Allies And One Of Our Greatest Friends.

Us Intelligence Agencies Will Only Use Such Data To Meet Specific Security Requirements: Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterproliferation, Cybersecurity, Force Protection For Our Troops And Allies, And Combating Transnational Crime, Including Sanctions Evasion.

In America, We Started The Public School System Very Early In The Century, And As A Consequence We Had More Skilled Workers Than Any Nation On Earth, Which Meant That We Were More Productive Than Any Nation On Earth.

We The People Declare Today That The Most Evident Of Truth That All Of Us Are Created Equal ... That Our Individual Freedom Is Inextricably Bound To The Freedom Of Every Soul On Earth.

I Use A Different Style If I'm Speaking To A Big Crowd; I Can Gin Up Folks Pretty Well. But When I'm In These Town Hall Settings, My Job Is Not To Throw Them A Lot Of Red Meat. I Want To Give Them A Sense Of My Thought Process.

Al Qaeda, The Taliban, A Whole Host Of Networks That Are Bent On Attacking America, Who Have A Distorted Ideology, Who Have Perverted The Faith Of Islam, And So We Have To Go After Them.

The Borders Of Israel And Palestine Should Be Based On The 1967 Lines With Mutually Agreed Swaps, So That Secure And Recognized Borders Are Established For Both States.

The Good News Is I Think There Are A Lot Of Young People Certainly Who Were Involved In My Campaigns, And I Think Continue To Be Involved In Work Not Just Politically, But Through Nonprofits And Other Organizations, That Can Carry This Hard Work Of Democracy Forward.

And, As A Consequence Of The Pressure That We've Applied Over The Last Couple Of Weeks, We Have Syria -- For The First Time -- Acknowledging That It Has Chemical Weapons, Agreeing To Join The Convention That Prohibits The Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The Russians -- Their Primary Sponsors -- Saying That They Will Push Syria To Get All Of Their Chemical Weapons Out. The Distance That We've Traveled Over These Couple Of Weeks Is Remarkable.

The Russians Don't Make Determinations About What Our Defense Posture Is.

I Think Where I Get Frustrated At Times Was The Belief That The President Can Do Anything If He Just Decides He Wants To Do It.

I'm Going To Tell The American People What I Believe Will Make This Country Great.

Our Enemies Are Also Seeking The Abilities To Sabotage Our Power Grid, Our Financial Institutions, Our Air Traffic Control Systems.

We've Got To Change Our Regulatory System.

It's Up To [angela Merkel] Whether She Wants To Stand Again And Then Ultimately, It'll Be Up To The German People To Decide What The Future Holds. If I Were Here And I Were German And I Had A Vote, I Might Support Her.

We Do Need To Make Sure That We Have An Orderly, Lawful Immigration Process.

I Think Donald Trump Is Going To Try As Best He Can To Make Sure That He Delivers Not Only To The People Who Voted For Him But For The People At Large And The Good Thing Is That There Are Going To Be Elections Coming Up So There's A Built-in Incentive For Him To Try To Do That.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer Just A Christian Nation; We Are Also A Jewish Nation, A Muslim Nation, A Buddhist Nation, A Hindu Nation, And A Nation Of Nonbelievers.

I Don't Have Time To Complain. I'm Going To Press On.

I Want To Reform The Tax Code So That It's Simple, Fair, And Asks The Wealthiest Households To Pay Higher Taxes On Incomes Over $250,000 - The Same Rate We Had When Bill Clinton Was President; The Same Rate We Had When Our Economy Created Nearly 23 Million New Jobs, The Biggest Surplus In History, And A Lot Of Millionaires To Boot.

After My Election There Was Talk Of A Postracial America. And Such A Vision, However Well Intended, Was Never Realistic.

We're Going To Have To Invest In The American People Again, In Tax Cuts For The Middle Class, In Health Care For All Americans, And College For Every Young Person Who Wants To Go. In Businesses That Can Create The New Energy Economy Of The Future. In Policies That Will Lift Wages And Will Grow Our Middle Class. These Are The Policies I Have Fought For My Entire Career.

If Somebody Was Sending Rockets Into My House, Where My Two Daughters Sleep At Night, I’m Going To Do Everything In My Power To Stop That, And I Would Expect Israelis To Do The Same Thing.

Fdr, Jfk, Lbj [all Democratic Presidents ] We Have A Pretty Long List Of Presidents Who Maybe Were Not Entirely Forthcoming With Intelligence Information Before They Went To War, So I'd Be Cautious Against Making Legal Cases Against The Administration.

I Think It Is Important First Of All That The President Of The United States Underscores Our Commitment To Partnering With Countries Around The World, Even Though We're Not Intimidated By Terrorist Organisations.

I'm Kind Of A Night Owl.

If Condoms And Potentially Microbicides Can Prevent Millions Of Deaths [from Aids], They Should Be Made More Widely Available. I Know That There Are Those Who, Out Of Sincere Religious Conviction, Oppose Such Measures. And With These Folks, I Must Respectfully But Unequivocally Disagree.

I Hope You Don’t Listen To This. I Hope You Choose To Broaden, And Not Contract, Your Ambit Of Concern.

Everybody Potentially Can Make The Claim That We Should All Be Treated Fairly.

I Think There Are A Lot Of People Who Are Involved In The Tea Party Who Have Very Real And Sincere Concerns About Spending That's Out Of Control Or Generally Philosophically Believe That The Government Should Be Less Involved In Certain Aspects Of American Life Rather Than More Involved. And They Have Every Right And Obligation As Citizens To Be Involved And Engaged In This Process.

Even As Ramadan Holds Profound Meaning For The World’s 1.5 Billion Muslims, It Is Also A Reminder To People Of All Faiths Of Our Common Humanity And The Commitment To Justice, Equality, And Compassion Shared By All Great Faiths. In That Spirit, I Wish Muslims Across America And Around The World A Blessed Month, And I Look Forward To Again Hosting An Iftar Dinner Here At The White House. Ramadan Kareem.

It Is The Kindness To Take In A Stranger When The Levees Break; The Selflessness Of Workers Who Would Rather Cut Their Hours Than See A Friend Lose Their Job Which Sees Us Through Our Darkest Hours. It Is The Firefighter's Courage To Storm A Stairway Filled With Smoke, But Also A Parent's Willingness To Nurture A Child, That Finally Decides Our Fate.

Today I Am Pledging To Cut The Deficit We Inherited In Half By The End Of My First Term In Office.

Broken Promises

We Don't Have Time For A Meeting Of The Flat Earth Society.

Too Many Americans Who Struggle With Mental Health Illnesses Are Suffering In Silence Rather Than Seeking Help, And We Need To See To It That Men And Women Who Would Never Hesitate To Go See A Doctor If They Had A Broken Arm Or Came Down With The Flu, That They Have That Same Attitude When It Comes To Their Mental Health.

I Don't Believe People Should To Be Able To Own Guns.

My Family, Frankly, They Weren't Folks Who Went To Church Every Week. My Mother Was One Of The Most Spiritual People I Knew But She Didn't Raise Me In The Church, So I Came To My Christian Faith Later In Life And It Was Because The Precepts Of Jesus Christ Spoke To Me In Terms Of The Kind Of Life That I Would Want To Lead.

You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of Other Kids Or Neighbors Who Were Wealthier Than You And Teased You. You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of High Expectations. But I Do Think That There Is A Youthful Ambition That Very Much Has To Do With Making Your Mark In The World. And I Think That Cuts Across The Experiences Of A Lot Of People Who End Up Achieving Something Significant In Their Field.

Every Country Has Violent, Hateful, Or Mentally Unstable People. What's Different Is Not Every Country Is Awash With Easily Accessible Guns.

And Lest We Get On Our High Horse And Think This Is Unique To Some Other Place, Remember That During The Crusades And The Inquisition, People Committed Terrible Deeds In The Name Of Christ. In Our Home Country, Slavery And Jim Crow All Too Often Was Justified In The Name Of Christ.

As I've Said, There Were Patriots Who Supported This War, And Patriots Who Opposed It. And All Of Us Are United In Appreciation For Our Servicemen And Women, And Our Hopes For Iraqis' Future.

Jobs Was Brave Enough To Think Differently, Bold Enough To Believe He Could Change The World, And Talented Enough To Do It.

In A Moment When The Outcome Of Our Revolution Was Most In Doubt The Father Of Our Nation Ordered These Words Be Read To The People. Let It Be Told To The Future World That In The Depth Of Winter, When Nothing But Hope And Virtue Could Survive, That The City And The Country Alarmed At One Common Danger Came Forth To Meet It.

The Federal Government And Our Democracy Is Not A Speedboat. It's An Oceanliner, As I Discovered When I Came Into Office. It Took A Lot Of Really Hard Work For Us To Make Significant Policy Changes, Even In Our First Two Years, When We Had Larger Majorities Than Mr. Trump Will Enjoy When He Comes Into Office.

Health Care Has Become A Proxy For A Broader Set Of Issues About How Much Government Should Be Involved In Our Economy, Particularly Coming Off A Huge Economic Crisis.

But Race Is An Issue That I Believe This Nation Cannot Afford To Ignore Right Now. We Would Be Making The Same Mistake That Reverend Wright Made In His Offending Sermons About America - To Simplify And Stereotype And Amplify The Negative To The Point That It Distorts Reality.

At The Moment That We Persuade A Child, Any Child, To Cross That Threshold, That Magic Threshold Into A Library, We Change Their Lives Forever, For The Better

That Is Our Generation’s Task - To Make These Words, These Rights, These Values Of Life And Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness Real For Every American.

Pursuit Of Happiness

I Will Continue To Urge Creditors To Take The Steps Needed To Put Greece On A Path Towards A Durable Economic Recovery Because It's In All Of Our Interests That Greece Succeeds.

When It Comes To Our Military, What We Have To Think About Is Not, You Know Just Budgets, We've Got To Think About Capabilities.

In The Muslim World, This Notion That Somehow Everything Is The Fault Of The Israelis Lacks Balance - Because There's Two Sides To Every Question. That Doesn't Mean That Sometimes One Side Has Done Something Wrong And Should Not Be Condemned. But It Does Mean There's Always Two Sides To An Issue. I Say The Same Thing To My Jewish Friends, Which Is You Have To See The Perspective Of The Palestinians. Learning To Stand In Somebody Else's Shoes To See Through Their Eyes, That's How Peace Begins. And It's Up To You To Make That Happen.

And I Do Not Want, And I Will Not Accept, A Deal In Which I Am Asked To Do Nothing, In Fact, I'm Able To Keep Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars In Additional Income That I Don't Need, While A Parent Out There Who Is Struggling To Figure Out How To Send Their Kid To College Suddenly Finds That They've Got A Couple Thousand Dollars Less In Grants Or Student Loans.

The President Does Not Have Power Under The Constitution To Unilaterally Authorize A Military Attack In A Situation That Does Not Involve Stopping An Actual Or Imminent Threat To The Nation. As Commander In Chief, The President Does Have A Duty To Protect And Defend The United States. In Instances Of Self-defense, The President Would Be Within His Constitutional Authority To Act Before Advising Congress Or Seeking Its Consent.

I Think That Sometimes The Democrats Have To Run Upstream Or Swim Upstream Because We've Got The Republicans Making It Out As If We Don't Care About These Things, And We Should Be Able To Engage And Be Willing To Engage In The Discussion About Morality And Values.

If We Neglect Or Abandon Those Who Are Suffering In Poverty ... Not Only Are We Depriving Ourselves Of Potential Opportunities For Markets And Economic Growth, But Ultimately That Despair May Turn To Violence That Turns On Us.

People Are Very Hungry For Something New. I Think They Are Interested In Being Called To Be A Part Of Something Larger Than The Sort Of Small, Petty, Slash-and-burn Politics That We Have Been Seeing Over The Last Several Years.

We Are A Nation Of Laws.

Absolutely. I Think, I Think The American People, At Their Core, Are A Decent People. I Think That We Still Have Prejudice In Our Midst, But I Think That The Vast Majority Of Americans Are Willing, Are Willing To Judge People On The Basis Of Their Ideas And Their Character. And In The Case Of The Presidency, I Think What's Most Important Is Whether The American People Think That You Understand Their Hopes And Dreams And Struggles And Whether They Think You Can Actually Help Them Achieve Those Hopes And Dreams.

Nothing Is More Powerful Than The Black Church Experience. A Good Choir And A Good Sermon In The Black Church, It's Pretty Hard Not To Be Move And Be Transported.

It’s Not That I Want To Punish Your Success. I Want To Make Sure That Everybody Who Is Behind You, That They’ve Got A Chance For Success, Too. My Attitude Is That If The Economy’s Good For Folks From The Bottom Up, It’s Gonna Be Good For Everybody. I Think When You Spread The Wealth Around, It’s Good For Everybody.

The Wort Terrorist Attack In American History Also Brought Out The Best In Our Country...we Are United As Americans.

American History

[the Americans] Believe In The Idea That A Child Shouldn't Be Consigned To Poverty Just Because Of Circumstances Of Their Birth.

Iran's Supreme Court Has Issued A Fatwa Against The Development Of Nuclear Weapons. President [hassan] Rouhani Has Indicated Iran Will Never Develop Nuclear Weapons. I've Made Clear That We Respect The Right Of The Iranian People To Access Peaceful Nuclear Energy In The Context Of Iran Meeting Its Obligations.

Do Not Tell Me That We're Not Drilling. We're Drilling All Over This Country. I Mean, I Guess There's Some - There Are A Few Spots Where We're Not Drilling. We're Not Drilling In The National Mall. We're Not Drilling At Your House. I Guess We Could Try To Have Like, You Know, 200 Oil Rigs In The Middle Of Chesapeake Bay.

We Ask For Nothing More Than The Chance To Blaze Our Own Trail, And Yet Each Of Us Is Only Here Because Somebody, Somewhere, Helped Us Find Our Path. That`s Part Of What Makes America Exceptional. We Are Family And We`ll Do Anything To Help Each Other Along The Way.

I Believe Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman. I Am Not In Favor Of Gay Marriage.

Tonight, We Gather To Affirm The Greatness Of Our Nation - Not Because Of The Height Of Our Skyscrapers, Or The Power Of Our Military, Or The Size Of Our Economy. Our Pride Is Based On A Very Simple Premise, Summed Up In A Declaration Made Over Two Hundred Years Ago.

You Bomb Isil. You're Not Trying To Bomb Innocent People. And That Requires Intelligence And Confidence In Our Military To Be Able To Develop The Kinds Of Targets That We Need. We're Already Doing Special Forces, Who Are Going To Help Us Gather That Intelligence And Help Advise And Assist And Train Local Forces So That They Can Go After Isil In Areas Like Raqqah And Mosul.

We Need Earmark Reform, And When I'm President, I Will Go Line By Line To Make Sure That We Are Not Spending Money Unwisely.

I'm Named Barack Hussein Obama. I'm African-american.

African American

For Too Many Of Us, It's Become Safer To Retreat Into Our Own Bubbles, Whether In Our Neighborhoods Or On College Campuses, Or Places Of Worship Or Especially Our Social Media Feeds, Surrounded By People Who Look Like Us And Share The Same Political Outlook And Never Challenge Our Assumptions. And Increasingly, We Become So Secure In Our Bubbles That We Start Accepting Only Information, Whether It's True Or Not, That Fits Our Opinions, Instead Of Basing Our Opinions On The Evidence That Is Out There.

When You're A Candidate And You Say Something That Is Inaccurate Or Controversial, It Has Less Impact Than It Does When You're President Of The United States. Everybody Around The World's Paying Attention. Markets Move. National Security Issues Require A Level Of Precision In Order To Make Sure That You Don't Make Mistakes.

In Your Generation, Everybody Is Constantly Bombarded With All Kinds Of Different Input From Different Cultures, And That's A Strength, That's A Positive Thing. That's Why I Remain Confident About America's Ability To Compete In The World, Precisely Because We've Got A Little Bit Of Everybody In This Country.

After A Century Of Striving, After A Year Of Debate, After A Historic Vote, Health Care Reform Is No Longer An Unmet Promise. It Is The Law Of The Land.

We're Going To Make Sure, Regardless Of Disagreements We Have On Policy, That Our Military And Intelligence Cooperation To Keep The Israeli People Safe Continues And That Cooperation Also Helps The American People Stay Safe.

What I Believe Unites The People Of This Nation, Regardless Of Race Or Region Or Party, Young Or Old, Rich Or Poor, Is The Simple, Profound Belief In Opportunity For All - The Notion That If You Work Hard And Take Responsibility, You Can Get Ahead.

We Proved That We Are Still A People Capable Of Doing Big Things And Tackling Our Biggest Challenges.

Consistent With Section 202(d) Of The National Emergencies Act, 50 U.s.c. 1622(d), I Am Continuing For 1 Year The National Emergency Previously Declared On September 14, 2001, In Proclamation 7463, With Respect To The Terrorist Attacks Of September 11, 2001, And The Continuing And Immediate Threat Of Further Attacks On The United States. Because The Terrorist Threat Continues, The National Emergency Declared On September 14, 2001, And The Powers And Authorities Adopted To Deal With That Emergency Must Continue In Effect Beyond September 14, 2010.

No Two Countries Are Identical, And Obviously, There's A Difference Between A Referendum On A Very Complex Relationship Between Great Britain And The Rest Of Europe, And A Presidential Election In The United States.

Winter Came And The City [chicago] Turned Monochrome -- Black Trees Against Gray Sky Above White Earth. Night Now Fell In Midafternoon, Especially When The Snowstorms Rolled In, Boundless Prairie Storms That Set The Sky Close To The Ground, The City Lights Reflected Against The Clouds

It Is That Fundamental Belief, It Is That Fundamental Belief, I Am My Brother’s Keeper, I Am My Sister’s Keeper That Makes This Country Work. It’s What Allows Us To Pursue Our Individual Dreams And Yet Still Come Together As One American Family. E Pluribus Unum. Out Of Many, One.

One Of The Things That You Learn, Having Been In This [president's] Office For Four Years, Is The Old Adage Of Abraham Lincoln's. That With Public Opinion There's Nothing You Can't Do And Without Public Opinion There's Very Little You Can Get Done.

I Think That I'm A Better Speechwriter Than My Speechwriters. I Know More About Policies On Any Particular Issue Than My Policy Directors. And I'll Tell You Right Now That I'm Gonna Think I'm A Better Political Director Than My Political Director.

People'd Be Like, "oh, Spending Taxpayer Money." It's Like, "no, No, I Actually I'm Paying For All Of This. The Only Thing I Don't Pay For Is Secret Service And An Airplane."

What Is Required Of Us Now Is A New Era Of Responsibility - A Recognition, On The Part Of Every American, That We Have Duties To Ourselves, Our Nation, And The World, Duties That We Do Not Grudgingly Accept But Rather Seize Gladly, Firm In The Knowledge That There Is Nothing So Satisfying To The Spirit, So Defining Of Our Character, Than Giving Our All To A Difficult Task. This Is The Price And The Promise Of Citizenship.

Occasionally I Would Like The German People To Give Us The Benefit Of The Doubt, Given Our History, As Opposed To Assuming The Worst -- Assuming That We Have Been Consistently Your Strong Partners And That We Share A Common Set Of Values.

I've Been Keeping My Own Naughty And Nice List For Washington.

I Think What Will Happen With Donald Trump Is There Are Going To Be Certain Elements Of His Temperament That Will Not Serve Him Well Unless He Recognizes Them And Corrects Them.

The Other Reason Might Be That You Want To Talk To Voters When You've Got Seven Primaries In Seven Days. Understand What's Happened In This Race - Where We Campaign Actively In A State, And Voters Have The Chance To See Me Directly, They Check Under The Hood, And They Kick The Tires, When We Don't Have As Much Time.

The Genius Of Our Founders Is That They Designed A System Of Government That Can Be Changed. And We Should Take Heart, Because We’ve Changed This Country Before.

I Just Want To Say That The Only Thing Less Popular Than Putting Money Into Banks Is Putting Money Into The Auto Industry.

If We Are Going To Solve The Challenges We Face, You Need A President Who Will Pursue Genuine Solutions Day In And Day Out. And That Is My Commitment To You. We Need Immigration Reform That Will Secure Our Borders, And Punish Employers Who Exploit Immigrant Labor; Reform That Finally Brings The 12 Million People Who Are Here Illegally Out Of The Shadows By Requiring Them To Take Steps To Become Legal Citizens. We Must Assert Our Values And Reconcile Our Principles As A Nation Of Immigrants And A Nation Of Laws. That Is A Priority I Will Pursue From My Very First Day.

I Believe It`s Important To Be Open And Honest, Especially With Your Friends.

How We Think About Terrorism Has To Be Defined And Specific Enough That It Doesn't Lead Us To Think That Any Horrible Actions That Take Place Around The World That Are Motivated In Part By An Extremist Islamic Ideology Is A Direct Threat To Us Or Something That We Have To Wade Into.

Whatever We Think Of The Past, We Must Not Be Prisoners To It.

Hunter Pence Eats Pizza With A Fork.

Even Those Who Claim The Bible's Inerrancy Make Distinctions Between Scriptural Edicts, Sensing That Some Passages - The Ten Commandments, Say, Or A Belief In Christ's Divinity - Are Central To Christian Faith, While Others Are More Culturally Specific And May Be Modified To Accommodate Modern Life.

The World Is Less Violent Than It Has Ever Been.

Whenever I Look At The History Of Presidents I Deeply Admire - The One Thing That I'm Always Struck By Is Persistence. It's A Quality That's Underrated. Being Able To Plough Through, Being Able To Stay Buoyant In The Face Of Challenges.

If You're A Progressive, You've Got To Be Worried About How The Federal Government Is Spending Its Revenue, Because We Don't Have Enough Money To Spend On Things Like Early Childhood Education That Are So Important.

The Day After The Attack, Governor, I Stood In The Rose Garden And I Told The American People And The World That We Are Going To Find Out Exactly What Happened. That This Was An Act Of Terror And I Also Said That We're Going To Hunt Down Those Who Committed This Crime.

The Law Is A Powerful Thing But The Law Doesn't Always Change What's In People's Hearts. And So All Of Us Have An Obligation To Think About How We're Treating Other People.

I Always Tell My Staff, "better Is Good." I'll Take Better Every Time, Because Better Is Hard.

We As A Country Have To Do Some Soul-searching.

We Can Choose A Future Where We Export More Products And Outsource Fewer Jobs. After A Decade That Was Defined By What We Bought And Borrowed, We're Getting Back To Basics, And Doing What America Has Always Done Best: We're Making Things Again.

It Would Be Naive Of Me To Suggest That With Russia Committed Militarily, As It Is, To Supporting What In Many Cases Are Barbarous Tactics By The Assad Regime To Crush The Opposition.

Beside The Two Wars He Inherited In Iraq And Afghanistan, And Promised To End, A Financial Crisis At Home Had Pushed The United States To The Brink Of Another Great Depression. When We Spoke With The New President In March Of 2009, The Economy Was Losing 800,000 Jobs A Month, The Government Was Throwing Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars At Failing Banks, And The Auto Industry Was On The Verge Of Collapse. Politically Pummeled From All Sides, Obama Did His Best To Keep A Sense Of Humor.

Abraham Lincoln And Millard Fillmore Had The Same Title. They Were Both Presidents Of The United States, But Their Tenure In Office And Their Legacy Could Not Be More Different.

If You Hear What People Had To Say About Abraham Lincoln Or What They Had To Say About Fdr, Or What They Had To Say About Ronald Reagan When He First Came In And Was Trying To Change Our Approach To Government, That Elicited Huge Responses.

We Need To Internalize This Idea Of Excellence. Not Many Folks Spend A Lot Of Time Trying To Be Excellent.

This Is Something That I'm Sure I'd Have Serious Debates With My Fellow Christians About. I Think That The Difficult Thing About Any Religion, Including Christianity, Is That At Some Level There Is A Call To Evangelize And Prostelytize. There's The Belief, Certainly In Some Quarters, That People Haven't Embraced Jesus Christ As Their Personal Savior That They're Going To Hell.

The Key Is Whether Or Not We Have Got Priorities That Are Working For You, As Opposed To Those Who Have Been Dictating The Policy In Washington Lately. And That's Mostly Lobbyists And Special Interests. We Have Got To Put An End To That.

Over The Last Few Years A Lot Of People Have Become Aware Of The Inequities In The Criminal Justice System, Right Now, With Our Overall Crime Rate And Incarceration Rate Both Falling, We're At A Moment When Some Good People In Both Parties, Republicans And Democrats And Folks All Across The Country, Are Coming Up With Ideas To Make The System Work Smarter And Better.

I'm Not Sure That The American People Are Looking For A Lot Of Speeches. I Think What They're Looking For Is Action. But One Of The Things That I Do Think Is Important Is To Be Able To Explain To The American People What You're Doing, And Why You're Doing It. That Is Something That I Think Every Great President Has Been Able To Do. From Fdr To Lincoln To John Kennedy To Eisenhower.

America Does Not Presume To Know What Is Best For Everyone

Throughout American History, There Have Been Moments That Call On Us To Meet The Challenges Of An Uncertain World, And Pay Whatever Price Is Required To Secure Our Freedom.

We've Seen How Militarized Gear Can Sometimes Give People A Feeling Like There's An Occupying Force, As Opposed To A Force That's Part Of The Community That's Protecting Them And Serving Them.

We Can't In Any Way Criticize Or At Least Indict Or Impeach Administration [of Democratic Presidents] For Doing What They Did.

To Those Who Cling To Power Through Corruption And Deceit And The Silencing Of Dissent, Know That You Are On The Wrong Side Of History; But That We Will Extend A Hand If You Are Willing To Unclench Your Fist.

A Number Of Countries, Including Some Who Have Loudly Criticized The Nsa, Privately Acknowledge That America Has Special Responsibilities As The World's Only Superpower, That Our Intelligence Capabilities Are Critical To Meeting These Responsibilities, And That They Themselves Have Relied On The Information We Obtain To Protect Their Own People.

The United States, We Know What Happens When We Start Dividing Ourselves Along Lines Of Race Or Religion Or Ethnicity.

A Lot Of Shelter Dogs Are Mutts Like Me.

It's The Answer Told By Lines That Stretched Around Schools And Churches In Numbers This Nation Has Never Seen; By People Who Waited Three Hours And Four Hours, Many For The Very First Time In Their Lives, Because They Believed That This Time Must Be Different, That Their Voice Could Be That Difference.

I Am Sorry That They Are Finding Themselves In This Situation Based On Assurances They Got From Me.

My Hope Is That The President-elect [donald Trump] Coming In Takes A Similarly Constructive Approach, Finding Areas Where We Can Cooperate With Russia, Where Our Values And Interests Align. But That The President-elect Also Is Willing To Stand Up To Russia Where They Are Deviating From Our Values And International Norms.

The Iranian Regime Supports Violent Extremists And Challenges Us Across The Region. It Pursues A Nuclear Capability That Could Spark A Dangerous Arms Race And Raise The Prospect Of A Transfer Of Nuclear Know-how To Terrorists. Its President Denies The Holocaust And Threatens To Wipe Israel Off The Map. The Danger From Iran Is Grave, It Is Real.

We Are Not At War With Islam. We Are At War With People Who Have Perverted Islam.

[afghanistan And Iraq] Are Still Countries That Are Fragile Enough That We're Gonna Have To Partner With Them In Some Way.

We Built This Country By Making Things, By Producing Goods We Could Sell.

With The Magnitude Of The Challenges We Face Right Now, What We Need In Washington Are Not More Political Tactics, We Need More Good Ideas. We Don't Need More Point Scoring, We Need More Problem Solving.

Muslim Leaders Around The Globe Have To Continue Working With Us To Decisively And Unequivocally Reject The Hateful Ideology That Groups Like Isil And Al Qaeda Promote. To Speak Out Against Not Just Acts Of Violence, But Also Those Interpretations Of Islam That Are Incompatible With The Values Of Religious Tolerance, Mutual Respect, And Human Dignity.

Instead Of Having A Set Of Policies That Are Equipping People For The Globalization Of The Economy, We Have Policies That Are Accelerating The Most Destructive Trends Of The Global Economy.

The People Of The United Kingdom Have Spoken, And We Respect Their Decision. The Special Relationship Between The United States And The United Kingdom Is Enduring, And The United Kingdom's Membership In Nato Remains A Vital Cornerstone Of Us Foreign, Security And Economic Policy.

Keep In Mind That, When I Came In, We Had Had A Crisis That Was The Worst We've Seen Since The 1930s, And Working With People Like Chancellor Merkel, Working With The G-20 And Other Institutions Internationally, We Were Able To Stabilize The Financial System, Stabilize The Us Economy And Return To Growth.

Sometimes When These Kinds Of Things Happen, It Can Seem A Little Bit Too Much To Bear. But What I Want The People Of Louisiana Know Is That You're Not Alone On This. Even After The Tv Cameras Leave, The Whole Country Is Going To Continue To Support You And Help You Until We Get Folks Back In Their Homes And Lives Are Rebuilt.

What I've Seen In My Own Life Is That When I Get Something Important Done It's Because Of A Lot Of Other People - Some Who Get Credit, Some Who Don't.

The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Slander The Prophet Of Islam

Libraries Have A Special Role To Play In Our Knowledge Economy. Your Institutions Have Been And Should Be A Place Where Parents And Children Come To Read Together And Learn Together. We Should Take Our Kids There More.

I Do Not Talk To The Fbi Directors About Pending Investigations [on Hillary Clinton].

I Wouldn't Advise [people] To Be Silent.

I Think It Is Important That We Are Targeting Hiv/aids Resources Into The Communities Where We're Seeing The Highest Growth Rates. That Means Education And Prevention, Particularly With Young People.

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