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America, We Weaken Our Ties When We Allow Our Political Dialogue To Become So Corrosive That People Of Good Character Aren't Even Willing To Enter Into Public Service; So Coarse With Rancor That Americans With Whom We Disagree Are Seen Not Just As Misguided But As Malevolent. We Weaken Those Ties When We Define Some Of Us As More American Than Others, When We Write Off The Whole System As Inevitably Corrupt, And When We Sit Back And Blame The Leaders We Elect Without Examining Our Own Role In Electing Them.

-Barack Obama

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America, We Weaken Our

Barack Obama

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America, We Weaken Our Ties When We Allow Our Political Dialogue To Become So Corrosive That People Of Good Character Aren't Even Willing To Enter Into Public Service; So Coarse With Rancor That Americans With Whom We Disagree Are Seen Not Just As Misguided But As Malevolent. We Weaken Those Ties When We Define Some Of Us As More American Than Others, When We Write Off The Whole System As Inevitably Corrupt, And When We Sit Back And Blame The Leaders We Elect Without Examining Our Own Role In Electing Them.

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Democracies Have

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Violence Against Women

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

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Perhaps I Possess A Certain Midwestern Sensibility That I Inherited From My Mother And Her Parents, A Sensibility That Warren Buffet Seems To Share: That At A Certain Point One Has Enough, That You Can Derive As Much Pleasure From A Picasso Hanging In A Museum As From One That's Hanging In Your Den, That You Can Get An Awfully Good Meal In A Restaurant For Less Than Twenty Dollars, And That Once Your Drapes Cost More Than The Average American's Yearly Salary, Then You Can Afford To Pay A Bit More In Taxes.

It Ought To Concern Every Person, Because It Is A Debasement Of Our Common Humanity. It Ought To Concern Every Community, Because It Tears At Our Social Fabric. It Ought To Concern Every Business, Because It Distorts Markets. It Ought To Concern Every Nation, Because It Endangers Public Health And Fuels Violence And Organized Crime. I’m Talking About The Injustice, The Outrage, Of Human Trafficking, Which Must Be Called By Its True Name - Modern Slavery.

Common Humanity

You Know, The Bowling Alley Doesn‘t Seem To Be Improving My Game. That‘s The One Thing I Have Noticed.

Iran Is The Latest Expression Of A Deep, Ancient, Powerful Culture That's Different Than Ours. And We Don't Know How It's Going To Play Itself Out.

The United States Does Not Have A Monopoly On Crazy People. It's Not The Only Country That Has Psychosis. And Yet We Kill Each Other In These Mass Shootings At Rates That Are Exponentially Higher Than Anyone Else. Well, What's The Difference? The Difference Is That These Guys Can Stack Up A Bunch Of Ammunition In Their Houses, And That's Sort Of Par For The Course.

I've Been Very Good For Gun Manufacturers.

[a] Family With Two Kids That Earns The Minimum Wage Still Lives Below The Poverty Line. That's Wrong. That's Why, Since The Last Time This Congress Raised The Minimum Wage, 19 States Have Chosen To Bump Theirs Even Higher. Tonight, Let's Declare That In The Wealthiest Nation On Earth, No One Who Works Full-time Should Have To Live In Poverty, And Raise The Federal Minimum Wage To $9 An Hour.

We Have To Acknowledge The Progress We Made, But Understand That We Still Have A Long Way To Go. That Things Are Better, But Still Not Good Enough.

Not Good Enough

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Around The World

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Lieutenant Al-kaseasbeh's Dedication, Courage And Service To His Country And Family Represent Universal Human Values That Stand In Opposition To The Cowardice And Depravity Of Isil, Which Has Been So Broadly Rejected Around The Globe.

You Have To Be Involved During Midterm Elections, You Have To Care About What Happens At A School Board Level.

We Ask Our Men And Women In Uniform To Leave Their Families, Our Guardsmen And Reservists To Leave Their Jobs. We Ask You To Fight, To Sacrifice, To Risk Your Lives For Your Country. The Last Thing You Should Have To Do Is Fight For A Job When You Come Home.

To Those Americans Whose Support I Have Yet To Earn, I May Not Have Won Your Vote Tonight, But I Hear Your Voices. I Need Your Help. And I Will Be Your President, Too.

Now Suddenly You Got Members Of Your [white House] Team Who Were 23, 24. They've Met Their Wives Here, Or Their Husbands Here.

There Are Always Things That I Think I Wish I Could Have Done Better.

Islamic Culture Has Given Us Majestic Arches And Soaring Spires; Timeless Poetry And Cherished Music; Elegant Calligraphy And Places Of Peaceful Contemplation.

If A Jayvee Team Puts On Lakers Uniforms, That Doesn't Make Them Kobe Bryant.

Anybody Gone Into Whole Foods Lately And See What They Charge For Arugula? I Mean, They're Charging A Lot Of Money For This Stuff.

Of All The Rocks Upon Which We Build Our Lives, We Are Reminded Today That Family Is The Most Important. And We Are Called To Recognize And Honor How Critical Every Father Is To That Foundation. They Are Teachers And Coaches. They Are Mentors And Role Models. They Are Examples Of Success And The Men Who Constantly Push Us Toward It.

I Have Much More Confidence In My Ability, Or Any President Or Any Leader's Ability, To Mobilize The American People Around A Multiyear, Multibillion-dollar Investment To Help Every Child In Poverty In This Country Than I Am In Being Able To Mobilize The Country Around Providing A Benefit Specific To African Americans As A Consequence Of Slavery And Jim Crow.

The Changes In Thinking About Same-sex Marriage Have Come Slowly At First And Then In Rapid Course. If Such Change Is Possible In This Area, Is It Also Possible In The Vexed And Sordid Realm Of Race Relations?

That Is The Difference We Make In The World. And Our Own Safety, Our Own Security, Depends Upon Our Willingness To Do What It Takes To Defend This Nation And Uphold The Values That We Stand For - Timeless Ideals That Will Endure Long After Those Who Offer Only Hate And Destruction Have Been Vanquished From The Earth.

Some Heinous Crimes Justify The Ultimate Punishment.

[donald Trump] Ran An Extraordinarily Unconventional Campaign And It Resulted In The Biggest Political Upset In Perhaps Modern Political History. American History.

It's One Of The Biggest Benefits Of Being President That You Really Don't Think About Until You Get Here.

It Is Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, And Dig Deeper, And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had - To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us.

We Need Somebody Who's Got The Heart, The Empathy, To Recognize What It's Like To Be A Young Teenage Mom, The Empathy To Understand What It's Like To Be Poor Or African-american Or Gay Or Disabled Or Old - And That's The Criterion By Which I'll Be Selecting My Judges.

Those Of Us Who Have The Privilege To Serve This Country Have An Obligation To Do Our Job As Best We Can. We Come From Different Parties, But We Are Americans First. And That's Why Disagreement Cannot Mean Dysfunction. It Can't Degenerate Into Hatred. The American People's Hopes And Dreams Are What Matters, Not Ours. Our Obligations Are To Them. Our Regard For Them Compels Us All, Democrats And Republicans, To Cooperate, And Compromise, And Act In The Best Interests Of Our Nation - One Nation, Under God, Indivisible With Liberty And Justice For All.

And I’ve Said This All Across The Country When I Talk To Parents About Education, Government Has To Fulfill Its Obligations To Fund Education, But Parents Have To Do Their Job Too. We’ve Got To Turn Off The Tv Set, We’ve Got To Put Away The Video Game, And We Have To Tell Our Children That Education Is Not A Passive Activity, You Have To Be Actively Engaged In It. If We Encourage That Attitude And Our Community Is Enforcing It, I Have No Doubt We Can Compete With Anybody In The World.

As Commander In Chief, I Will Maintain The Strongest Military In The World, Keep Faith With Our Troops And Go After Those Who Would Do Us Harm. But After A Decade Of War, I Think We All Recognize We've Got To Do Some Nation Building Here At Home, Rebuilding Our Roads, Our Bridges And Especially Caring For Our Veterans Who Sacrificed So Much For Our Freedom.

There Is No Individual Salvation Without Collective Salvation

Transparency And The Rule Of Law Will Be The Touchstones Of This Presidency.

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.

No Other Advanced Nation Endures This Kind Of Violence. None. Here In America, The Murder Rate Is Three Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. The Murder Rate With Guns Is Ten Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. And There's Nothing Inevitable About It. It Comes About Because Of Decisions We Make Or Fail To Make. And It Falls Upon Us To Make It Different.

I Think It's Very Important To Remember That So Much Of The Work That Gets Done Between Countries Is Not Done At The Level Of Presidents, But Is Done Within Various Agencies, Whether It's Law Enforcement Or Economic Ministries. And When They Establish Relationships And Systems Of Communications And Shared Projects And Shared Visions, Those Structures Continue Even After Any Particular President Is Gone. It Builds Trust And Understanding Between Countries That Are Critically Important.

My Administration Is Committed To Creating An Unprecedented Level Of Openness In Government. We Will Work Together To Ensure The Public Trust And Establish A System Of Transparency, Public Participation, And Collaboration. Openness Will Strengthen Our Democracy And Promote Efficiency And Effectiveness In Government.

The Interesting Thing About The African-american Experience In This Country Is That We Are Sort Of A Mongrel Of People. I Mean We're All Kind Of Mixed Up.

Elections Are Always A Little Bit Funny. People Start Saying Things And Emphasizing Differences. After The Election, My Hope Is, Is That People Start Emphasizing What We Have In Common.

My Core Goal Is To Dismantle, Defeat, Destroy Al Qaeda And Its Allies That Killed Americans And Are Still Plotting To Go Kill Americans.

American Politics Is Always Somewhat Fluid. In This Age Of Social Media, It Means That Voters Can Swing Back And Forth.

I Went Through Six Years Of Battles On Health Care Because I Didn't Have $100 Million Worth Of Advertising Saying How It Would Never Work.

I Mean, If You Think About - If You Think About It, Ups And Fedex Are Doing Just Fine, Right? No, They Are. It's The Post Office That's Always Having Problems.

Excuses Are Tools Of The Incompetent Used To Build Bridges To Nowhere And Monuments Of Nothingness

Higher Minimum Wages, Full-employment Programs, Early-childhood Education: Those Kinds Of Programs Are, By Design, Universal, But By Definition, Because They Are Helping Folks Who Are In The Worst Economic Situations, Are Most Likely To Disproportionately Impact And Benefit African Americans. They Also Have The Benefit Of Being Sellable To A Majority Of The Body Politic.

A Low-carbon, Clean Energy Economy Can Be An Engine Of Growth For Decades To Come.

I've Got A Pen, And I've Got A Phone, And I Can Use That Pen To Sign Executive Orders And Take Executive Action. I've Got A Pen To Talk Executive Actions Where Congress Won't. Where Congress Isn't Acting, I'll Act On My Own. I Have Got A Pen And I Got A Phone. And That Is All I Need.

We've Got To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong At Home So That We Can Project Military Power Overseas.

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 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.

They [ Respublicans] Wanna Argue The Sensational Which Is About Abort Not Certain Cases Of Abortion, But The Fact Is It's A Fundamental Disrespect For Women - Women's Judgment About The Sizing And Time Of Their Families.

Let Us Join Together Across Denominations, Religions And Cultures To Make A Habit Of Empathy And Reach Out To Those Most In Need. To Share The Blessings We Enjoy And To Advance The Cause Of Peace In All Corners Of Our World.

I Have Been In Washington For A While Now, And Most Things Don't Surprise Me. The Fact That Twenty 6-year-olds Were Gunned Down In The Most Violent Fashion Possible And This Town Couldn't Do Anything About It Was Stunning To Me.

We Have Reaffirmed Again And Again That The United States Is Not And Never Will Be At War With Islam. Islam Teaches Peace, And When It Comes To America And Islam, There Is No Us And Them, There's Only Us, Because Millions Of Muslim Americans Are Part Of The Fabric Of Our Country. So, We Reject Any Suggestion Of A Clash Of Civilizations.

If Democrats Are Not Showing Up In Those [rural] Places Even If You're Not Gonna Win Right Away But If You're Not In There At Least Making An Argument That, "hey, You Know What? It's The Democrats Who Are Trying To Raise Your Minimum Wage."

I Think The Most Important Thing For The Public And The Press Is To Just Listen To What Donald Trump Says And Follow Up And Ask Questions About What Appear To Be Either Contradictory Or Uninformed Or Outright Wacky Ideas.

What I'm Interested In Doing After I Get Out Of The Presidency Is To Make Sure That I'm Working With That Next Generation So That They Understand You Can't Just Rely On Inspiration.

If We Are Truly Created Equal Then Surely The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well

More Than A Building That Houses Books And Data, The Library Represents A Window To A Larger World, The Place Where We've Always Come To Discover Big Ideas And Profound Concepts That Help Move The American Story Forward And The Human Story Forward.

Every Three Weeks, We Bring Online As Much Solar Power As We Did In All Of 2008...that’s Why, Over The Past Six Years, We’ve Done More Than Ever Before To Combat Climate Change, From The Way We Produce Energy, To The Way We Use It.

There's Not A Liberal America And A Conservative America - There's The United States Of America.

In Iraq And Syria, American Leadership - Including Our Military Power - Is Stopping Isil's Advance, Instead Of Getting Dragged Into Another Ground War In The Middle East, We Are Leading A Broad Coalition, Including Arab Nations, To Degrade And Ultimately Destroy This Terrorist Group.

What Is True, And I Think That We Can't Deny It, Is That Some Of The Same Concerns About Globalization, About Technology, Rapid Social Change That Were Reflected In Brexit, That's Been Reflected In Some Of The Debates In Germany And France And Other Places, That Those Exist In The United States As Well. My View Is That Over The Long Term, Over The Next 10, 15, 20 Years, If We Are Able To Address The Legitimate Economic Concerns Of Those Who Feel Left Behind By Globalization, Then Many Of These Tensions Will Be Reduced. And We Will See A World That Is Less Divided.

Everybody Deserves Fair Treatment, Equal Treatment In The Eyes Of The Law And The State. And That Includes Gays, Lesbians, Transgender Persons. I Am Not A Fan Of Discrimination And Bullying Of Anybody On The Basis Of Race, On The Basis Of Religion, On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation Or Gender. This Is Actually Part And Parcel Of The Agenda That's Also Going To Be Front And Centre, And That Is How Are We Treating Women And Girls.

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.

I Think That When It Comes To Social Security, All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Senior Citizens Can Retire With Dignity And Respect. And Everybody Has To Be Open-minded In Thinking How Do We Firm Up A System That, In Fact, Is Going To Be In Difficulty In The Coming Years.

I Would Say That I Have Been Consistent In My Broad View Of How American Power Should Be Deployed, And The View That We Underestimate Our Power When We Restrict It To Just Our Military Power. We Shortchange Our Influence And Our Ability To Shape Events When That's The Only Tool We Think We Have In The Toolbox.

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