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But At A Time When Our Discourse Has Become So Sharply Polarized - At A Time When We Are Far Too Eager To Lay The Blame For All That Ails The World At The Feet Of Those Who Think Differently Than We Do - It's Important For Us To Pause For A Moment And Make Sure That We Are Talking With Each Other In A Way That Heals, Not A Way That Wounds.

-Barack Obama

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But At A Time

Barack Obama

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But At A Time When Our Discourse Has Become So Sharply Polarized - At A Time When We Are Far Too Eager To Lay The Blame For All That Ails The World At The Feet Of Those Who Think Differently Than We Do - It's Important For Us To Pause For A Moment And Make Sure That We Are Talking With Each Other In A Way That Heals, Not A Way That Wounds.

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They, And We, Are The Legacies Of An Unbroken Chain Of Proud Men And Women Who Served Their Country With Honor, Who Waged War So That We Might Know Peace, Who Braved Hardship So That We Might Know Opportunity, Who Paid The Ultimate Price So That We Might Know Freedom.

From The First Moment A Woman Dared To Speak That Hope - Dared To Believe That The American Dream Was Meant For Her Too - Ordinary Women Have Taken On Extraordinary Odds To Give Their Daughters The Chance For Something Else; For A Life More Equal, More Free, And Filled With More Opportunity Than They Ever Had. In So Many Ways We Have Succeeded, But In So Many Areas We Have Much Work Left To Do.

Insurance Companies, Drug Companies Are Going To Have To Be Ponying Up, Partly Because Right Now They're Receiving Huge Subsidies.

Let's Remember That Our Leadership Is Defined Not Just By Our Defence Against Threats, But By The Enormous Opportunities To Do Good And Promote Understanding.

There's A Whole Generation Coming Up Behind Us That Was Engaged, Inspired, Worked For Change During The Course Of My Presidency, Saw What Was Possible.

My Job To The Muslim World Is To Communicate That The Americans Are Not Your Enemy. We Sometimes Make Mistakes. We Have Not Been Perfect.

I've Been Fighting With Acorn, Alongside Acorn, On Issues You Care About, My Entire Career.

I Don't Expect To Get 100 Percent Of What I Want, But What We Can't Do Is Go Back To The Kind Of Top-down Economics That Doesn't Work.

One Of The Challenges Of A Democratic Government Is Making Sure That Even In The Midst Of Emergencies And Passions, We Make Sure That Rule Of Law And The Basic Precepts Of Justice And Liberty Prevail.

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.

I [give] Maybe The Long-winded Speeches That Not Everybody Reads, But I Can Also Do A Slow Jam On Jimmy Fallon Better Than Most.

The Greatest Threat To U.s. And Global Security Is No Longer A Nuclear Exchange Between Nations, But Nuclear Terrorism By Violent Extremists And Nuclear Proliferation To An Increasing Number Of States.

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

In The Fight Against Isil, We Cannot Rely On An Assad Regime That Terrorizes Its People; A Regime That Will Never Regain The Legitimacy It Has Lost. Instead, We Must Strengthen The Opposition As The Best Counterweight To Extremists Like Isil, While Pursuing The Political Solution Necessary To Solve Syria's Crisis Once And For All.

To Restore America's Competitiveness, We Must Recruit A New Generation Of Science And Technology Leaders By Investing In Diversity.

We're All In This Together. That's How We Campaigned, And That's Who We Are. This Happened Because Of You. Thank You.

If Some Of These [republican] Folks Were Around When Columbus Set Sail, They Must Have Been Founding Members Of The 'flat Earth Society.' They Would Not Believe That The World Was Round.

I Mentioned Charter Schools, And Experimenting With Our School System, To Make It Work. I Think That's Something We Really Have To Pay Attention To.

It's Time To Recognize That Under The Equal Protection Clause Of The United States [constitution], Same-sex Couples Should Have The Same Rights As Anybody Else.

We Know What Happens When Europeans Start Dividing Themselves Up And Emphasizing Their Differences And Seeing A Competition Between Various Countries In A Zero Sum Way.

It Is Legitimate For The Turks To Try To Defend Themselves.

Washington Is A Place Where Good Ideas Go To Die.

I'm Inspired By My Own Children, How Full They Make My Heart. They Make Me Want To Work To Make The World A Little Bit Better. And They Make Me Want To Be A Better Man.

There's Some Bittersweet Feelings About Leaving The People Here [in The White House]. 'cause Even Though All The Team You Assemble, You Know, You're Going To Stay In Touch With 'em, It's Not The Same, You Know? The Band Kind Of Breaks Up.

America, Our Endless Blessings Bestow An Enduring Burden. But As Americans, We Welcome Our Responsibility To Lead.

I've Said This Before, And I Know This Raises Questions In The Minds Of Some Evangelicals. I Do Not Believe That My Mother, Who Never Formally Embraced Christianity As Far As I Know ... I Do Not Believe She Went To Hell.

Raises Questions

If Mr. [donald] Trump Is Up 10 Or 15 Points On Election Day And Ends Up Losing, Then, You Know, Maybe He Can Raise Some Questions. That Doesn't Seem To Be The Case At That Moment.

There Are Some Exceptions: Chicago, My Hometown, In Particular. But Overall In The Country This Is A Much Safer Place Than It Used To Be.

I Don't Have A Philosophical Objection, Necessarily, To A Travel Ban If That Is The Thing That Is Going To Keep The American People Safe.

I Believe In Term Limits For Presidents Because I Think That There Is No Doubt I'm A Better President Now Than I Was When I Start. I Would Argue That I Am The Best President I've Ever Been Over The Last Year Or Two. My Team Is More Effective Than It's Ever Been.but What Is Also True Is That Number One, This Is Grueling.

I Think It's Important Not To Start Drawing Parallels, For Example, Between Theresa May, A Fairly Traditional Conservative Politician, Who's Now Prime Minister And Le Pen In France. Those Aren't The Same And The Situation In Each Country Is Different.

In The White Community, The Path To A More Perfect Union Means Acknowledging That What Ails The African-american Community Does Not Just Exist In The Minds Of Black People; That The Legacy Of Discrimination - And Current Incidents Of Discrimination, While Less Overt Than In The Past - Are Real And Must Be Addressed.

Germany, South Korea - These Are All Countries That Are Investing Massively In Education. We've Got To Do The Same Thing In America.

The Capacity Of Iraq's Security Forces Has Improved, And Iraq's Leaders Have Made Strides Toward Political Accommodation

I Wouldn't Consider Them Acts Of War, But I Would Consider Them Acts Of Property Damage, Commercial Theft That Are Serious.

America's Nurses Are The Beating Heart Of Our Medical System.

The Program Grew Out Of A Desire To Address A Gap Identified After 9/11 ... The Program Does Not Involve The Nsa Examining The Phone Records Of Ordinary Americans. Rather, It Consolidates These Records Into A Database That The Government Can Query If It Has A Specific Lead - Phone Records That The Companies Already Retain For Business Purposes.

I Think There Are Hard-liners Inside Of Iran That Think It Is The Right Thing To Do To Oppose Us, To Seek To Destroy Israel, To Cause Havoc In Places Like Syria Or Yemen Or Lebanon, If They Don't Change At All, We're Still Better Off Having The Deal.

We Continue To Believe That A Two-state Solution Is The Only Way For The Long-term Security Of Israel, If It Wants To Stay Both A Jewish State And Democratic.

I Wonder, Sometimes, Whether Men And Women In Fact Are Capable Of Learning From History--whether We Progress From One Stage To The Next In An Upward Course Or Whether We Just Ride The Cycles Of Boom And Bust, War And Peace, Ascent And Decline.

One Of The Gratifying Things, I Think, About The End Of My Presidency Even Though Admittedly My Successor Ran Against A Lot Of What We Stood For, Is When You Look At The Individual Issues And The Progress That We've Made On A Lot Of Those Issues, We Got The Support Of A Pretty Decent Majority.

But Something Stirred Across The Country Because Of What Happened In Selma, Alabama, Because Some Folks Were Willing To March Across A Bridge. And So They [my Parents] Got Together, Barack Obama Jr. Was Born. So Don't Tell Me I Don't Have A Claim On Selma, Alabama. Don't Tell Me I'm Not Coming Home When I Come To Selma, Alabama.

There Are Dangers That Globalization Increases Inequality. There Are Dangers That Because Capital Is Mobile And Workers Are Not, If We Are Not Providing Them Sufficient Protection, That They Can Be Left Behind In This Process. And That's What We Have To Focus On.

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."

The United States Was Founded On The Idea That All People Are Endowed With Inalienable Rights, And That Principle Has Allowed Us To Work To Perfect Our Union At Home While Standing As A Beacon Of Hope To The World. Today, That Principle Is Embodied In Agreements Americans Helped Forge - The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, The Geneva Conventions, And Treaties Against Torture And Genocide - And It Unites Us With People From Every Country And Culture.

We Shouldn't Assume That Government Is Always Trying To Do The Wrong Thing.

Israel Is A True Friend. It Is Our Greatest Ally In The Region. And If Israel Is Attacked, America Will Stand With Israel. I've Made That Clear Throughout My Presidency.

I Don't Regret At All Saying That If I Saw Bashar Al-assad Using Chemical Weapons On His People That That Would Change My Assessments In Terms Of What We Were Or Were Not Willing To Do In Syria.

I Refuse To Accept Any Approach That Isn't Balanced. I'm Not Going To Ask Students And Seniors And Middle-class Families To Pay Down The Entire Deficit While People Like Me, Making Over $250,000, Aren't Asked To Pay A Dime More In Taxes.

Those Who Oppose Reform Will Also Tell You That Under Our Plan, You Won't Get To Choose Your Doctor - That Some Bureaucrat Will Choose For You. That's Also Not True.

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

What Has Made America The Wealthiest, Most Successful Country On Earth Historically Has Been Our Commitment To Education.

[young People] Are Showing Enormous And Entrepreneurship And Working With Each Other Across Borders.

Entrepreneurship

I've Said Consistently That I Always Reserve The Right, In Conjunction With A Broader International Effort, To Prevent Genocide Or Any Wholesale Slaughter Than Might Happen Inside Of Iraq Or Anyplace Else.

We Live In A Culture That Discourages Empathy. A Culture That Too Often Tells Us Our Principle Goal In Life Is To Be Rich, Thin, Young, Famous, Safe, And Entertained.

It Continues To Be My Strong Belief That The Way We Are Going To Make Sure That Everybody Feels A Part Of This Global Economy Is Not By Shutting Ourselves Off From Each Other, Even If We Could, But Rather By Working Together More Effectively Than We Have In The Past.

Working Together

I Remember Reading [ Studs Terkel's] "working" When It First Came Out And Just Finding That Very Powerful. I Was Going Into Community Organizing. What Stuck Was To Reveal The Sacredness Of Ordinary People's Lives. That Everybody Has A Story. And I Think Studs Is Terrific At Drawing Out That Shimmering Quality Of People's Everyday Struggles.

We Continue To Stand United With Germany And Our Nato Allies In Our Ongoing Efforts To Build Peace And Stability In Afghanistan.

There Is A Little Bit Of That Schoolyard Attitude Of, It's One Thing For A Guy Your Own Size To Mouth Off To You, But If There's A Little Guy, You Should Just Smack Him Around. And It's Probably Bad Advice In The Schoolyard. It's Certainly Not A Good Way To Run A Foreign Policy Because Even When You Are Dealing With A Non-peer, Militarily, War Is Complicated.

Every Single Thing I`ve Done, From The Affordable Care Act To Pushing To Raise The Minimum Wage, To Making Sure That Young People Are Able To Go To College And Get Good Job Training, To What We`re Pushing Now In Terms Of Sick Paid Leave,everything I Do Has Been Focused On How Do We Make Sure The Middle Class Is Getting A Fair Deal.

In America, We've Set Up A System Whereby When You Take On College Debt, You Will Never Have To Pay More Than 10 Percent Of Your Income In Repayments. And What That Will Do Is Make Sure That You Will Never Be Prevented From Going To School Just Because Of Money. We Want To Make Sure That You And Others Like You Can Succeed.

It's No Wonder That America's Engagement In The Region Has Strong, Sustained, Bipartisan Support. So I'll Be Handing My Successor A Strong Foundation - Including Closer Ties With Singapore - On Which To Continue Building, And I'm Optimistic That Will Happen.

I Think That To The Extent That We Focus On Problems Where We Can Build A Moral And A Political Consensus, Then I Think That We Move The Country Forward And When We Are Divided And Our Politics Is Focused On Dividing, Then I Think We're Less Successful, Not Just From The Perspective Of The Democratic Party Or The Republican Party But From The Perspective Of The Nation As A Whole.

The More We Can Encourage Participation, I Think The Better Off We Are.

It's The Idea Held By Generations Of Citizens Who Believed That America Is A Constant Work In Progress; Who Believed That Loving This Country Requires More Than Singing Its Praises Or Avoiding Uncomfortable Truths. It Requires The Occasional Disruption, The Willingness To Speak Out For What's Right, And Shake Up The Status Quo.

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.

We're Going To Reverse A Trend That Is Killing Most Families In This Country, And That Is They're Having To Go In Their Pocket For More And More Money For Health Care Every Year.

One Of The Things That I've Urged The President-elect To Do Is To Develop A Strong Working Relationship With The Intelligence Community And I Think It's Important That Congress, On A Bipartisan Basis.

It Is Time To Put In Place Tough, New Common-sense Rules Of The Road So That Our Financial Market Rewards Drive And Innovation, And Punishes Short-cuts And Abuse.

For Decades, We've Been Told That It Doesn't Make Economic Sense To Switch To Renewable Energy. Today, That's No Longer True.

Israel Must Be Able To Defend Itself - By Itself - Against Any Threat.

We'll Build New Ties Of Trade And Of Commerce, Culture And Education That Unleash The Potential Of The Iraqi People.

Around The World, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- What They Did Was Hard. It Takes Time. It Takes More Than A Single Term. It Takes More Than A Single President. It Takes More Than A Single Individual.

I Know That Campaigns Can Seem Small, And Even Silly. Trivial Things Become Big Distractions. Serious Issues Become Sound Bites. And The Truth Gets Buried Under An Avalanche Of Money And Advertising. If You're Sick Of Hearing Me Approve This Message, Believe Me - So Am I.

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 Have Somehow, Continued To Miss Oktoberfest So That's Probably Something That Is Better For Me To Do As A Former President Rather Than As President, I'll Have More Fun.

In Africa, You Often See That The Difference Between A Village Where Everybody Eats And A Village Where People Starve Is Government. One Has A Functioning Government, And The Other Does Not. Which Is Why It Bothers Me When I Hear People Say That Government Is The Enemy. They Don't Understand Its Fundamental Role.

I Will Cut Taxes - Cut Taxes - For 95 Percent Of All Working Families, Because, In An Economy Like This, The Last Thing We Should Do Is Raise Taxes On The Middle Class.

I Do Not Accept That We Cannot Find A Common Sense Way To Preserve Our Traditions, Including Our Basic Second Amendment Freedoms And The Rights Of Law Abiding Gun Owners, While At The Same Time Reducing The Gun Violence That Unleashes So Much Mayhem On A Regular Basis.

Libya Is Still A Mess Right Now.

Reading Is Important. If You Know How To Read Then The Whole World Opens Up To You

I Don't Think That Any Economist Disputes That We're In The Worst Economic Crisis Since The Great Depression. The Good News Is That We're Getting A Consensus Around What Needs To Be Done.

Before I Even Came Into Office, I Said That Preventing Iran From Getting A Nuclear Weapon Was A Priority.

There Are People In Iran Who Have The Same Aspirations As People All Around The World For A Better Life.

The Trade Agreement Itself Does Have Labor And Environmental Protections, But We Have To Stand For Human Rights And We Have To Make Sure That Violence Isn't Being Perpetrated Against Workers Who Are Just Trying To Organize For Their Rights.

Robin Williams Was An Airman, A Doctor, A Genie, A Nanny, A President, A Professor, A Bangarang Peter Pan, And Everything In Between. But He Was One Of A Kind....he Arrived In Our Lives As An Alien But He Ended Up Touching Every Element Of The Human Spirit

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

Democracy Cannot Be Imposed On Any Nation From The Outside. Each Society Must Search For Its Own Path, And No Path Is Perfect.

It's True That I Have Not Been Able To Completely Close Guantanamo, But We've Drastically Reduced The Population From 700 Or So To Around 60 Now.

If You Look At How I've Tried To And How I'll Continue To Try To Govern, I'm Not Driven By Some Ideological Agenda. I'm A Pretty Practical Guy And I Just Want To Make Sure That Things Work.

Ask Osama Bin Laden And The 22-out-of-30 Top Al-qaida Leaders Who've Been Taken Off The Field Whether I Engage In Appeasement. Or Whoever Is Left Out There, Ask Them About That.

I Have To Make The Very Best Judgments I Can Make In Terms Of What's Gonna Keep The American People Safe. And Is What, What's Gonna Uphold Our Constitution And Our Traditions Of Due Process.

I Don't Oppose All Wars. What I Am Opposed To Is A Dumb War. What I Am Opposed To Is A Rash War.

In Fact, The American People Did Decide, Back In 2012, When They Elected Me President Of The United States.

The Irony Is That We've Seen This Model Work Really Well In Massachusetts Because Gov. Romney Did A Good Thing, Working With Democrats In The State To Set Up What Is Essentially The Identical Model And, As A Consequence, People Are Covered There. It Hasn't Destroyed Jobs. And As A Consequence, We Now Have A System In Which We Have The Opportunity To Start Bringing Down Costs As Opposed To Just Leaving Millions Of People Out In The Cold." "gov. Romney Said This Has To Be Done On A Bipartisan Basis

America At Its Best Is Inclusive And Not Exclusive.

If We Choose To Keep Those Tax Breaks For Millionaires And Billionaires, If We Choose To Keep A Tax Break For Corporate Jet Owners, If We Choose To Keep Tax Breaks For Oil And Gas Companies That Are Making Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars, Then That Means We've Got To Cut Some Kids Off From Getting A College Scholarship.

The Market Alone Can't Solve Our Health-care Woes.

What Matters Is How Well We Have Loved, And What Small Part We Have Played In Making The Lives Around Us Better.

Tonight, With A New Iraqi Government In Place, And Following Consultations With Allies Abroad And Congress At Home, I Can Announce That America Will Lead A Broad Coalition To Roll Back This Terrorist Threat.

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.

I Might Have Arguments With The Size Of Reagan's Military Buildup, But Given The Soviet Invasion Of Afghanistan, Staying Ahead Of The Soviets Militarily Seemed A Sensible Thing To Do. Pride In Our Country, Respect For Our Armed Services, A Healthy Appreciation For The Dangers Beyond Our Borders, An Insistence That There Was No Easy Equivalence Between East And West--in All This I Had No Quarrel With Reagan. And When The Berlin Wall Came Tumbling Down, I Had To Give The Old Man His Due, Even If I Never Gave Him My Vote.

To All Those Watching Tonight From Beyond Our Shores, From Parliaments And Palaces, To Those Who Are Huddled Around Radios In The Forgotten Corners Of The World, Our Stories Are Singular, But Our Destiny Is Shared, And A New Dawn Of American Leadership Is At Hand.

It Is Very Rare I Come To An Event Where I’m Like The Fifth Or Sixth Most Interesting Person.

People Have To Recognize That It’s Going To Take Some Time For Trust To Be Built Not Only Between Democrats And Republicans, Between Congress And The White House, Between The House And The Senate. You Know, We’ve Had A Dysfunctional Political System For A While Now.

After I Received The News, Malia Walked In And Said, "daddy, You Won The Nobel Peace Prize, And It Is Bo's Birthday!" And Then Sasha Added, "plus, We Have A Three-day Weekend Coming Up." So It's Good To Have Kids To Keep Things In Perspective.

I Think There Are A Lot Of Factors Going Into An Election. I Think The Bottom Line Is - Is That Donald Trump Is Gonna Be Sworn In As The 45th President Of The United States Of America. And It's Not Necessarily Profitable To Sort Of Try To Untangle All The Different Factors That Went Into It.

If We Have The Kinds Of Confirmation That We Need, We Will Once Again Work With The International Community And The Organization Charged With Monitoring Compliance By The Syrian Government, And We Will Reach Out To Patrons Of Assad Like Russia To Put A Stop To It.

You Like Pie? I Like Pie.

[white House] Feels Even More Like Home Now Because You Have All These Memories That Were Formed Watching Your Kids Grow Up.

My Mother Was The One Constant In My Life. When I Think About My Mom Raising Me Alone When She Was 20, And Working And Paying The Bills, And, You Know, Trying To Pursue Your Own Dreams, I Think Is A Feat That Is Unmatched.

The Criminal-justice System Is, Obviously, The Sole Source Of Racial Tension In This Country [usa] Or The Key Institution To Resolving The Opportunity Gap. It Is A Part Of The Broader Set Of Challenges That We Face In Creating A More Perfect Union.

Tonight, More Americans Are Out Of Work And More Are Working Harder For Less. More Of You Have Lost Your Homes And Even More Are Watching Your Home Values Plummet. More Of You Have Cars You Can't Afford To Drive, Credit Card Bills You Can't Afford To Pay, And Tuition That's Beyond Your Reach.

I Will Set Big Goals For This Country As President - Some So Large That The Technology To Reach Them Does Not Yet Exist.""i Will Recruit New Teachers And Make New Investments In Rural Schools, We'll Connect All Of America To 21st Century Technology And Telecommunications.

State Visits Are Often An Opportunity For The United States To Reaffirm Our Ties And Friendship With Our Closest Partners Around The World.

I Was Able To Excite And Engage People Who Previously Hadn't Been Involved In Politics, And Part Of The Reason That I Was Able To Be Re-elected And Stay Relatively Popular In The United States Was Because Even When The Economy Was Bad Or We Had Problems, People Sensed That I Listened To Them And I Was On Their Side.

We Can Give Our Intelligence And Law Enforcement Community The Powers They Need To Track Down And Take Out Terrorists Without Undermining Our Commitment To The Rule Of Law, Or Our Basic Rights And Liberties.

Building On Our Young South-east Asian Leaders Initiative, I'm Hopeful That We Can Continue Expand The Ties And Cooperation Between Our Young People And Students.

My Guiding Principle As President Has Been To Try To Do The Right Thing Even When It's Not Politically Convenient.

Guiding Principles

I Think A Basic Principle Of Our Constitution Is Nobody Above The Law

Change Will Not Come If We Wait For Some Other Person Or Some Other Time. We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For. We Are The Change That We Seek.

Over The Last 15 Months, We've Traveled To Every Corner Of The United States. I've Now Been In 57 States? I Think One Left To Go.

To This Day, The United States Is Profoundly Grateful For Our Friendship And Alliance With Greece.

Since 1981, After Our Nations Severed Diplomatic Relations, We've Worked Through A International Tribunal To Resolve Various Claims Between Our Countries. The United States And Iran Are Now Settling A Long-standing Iranian Government Claim Against The United States Government. Iran Will Be Returned Its Own Funds, Including Appropriate Interest But Much Less Than The Amount Iran Sought. With The Nuclear Deal Done, Prisoners Released, The Time Was Right To Resolve This Dispute As Well.

I Can't Even Get A Credit Card Without Three Credit Bureaus Saying I'm Good Enough.

This Is My Last Election. After My Election, I Have More Flexibility.

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up. We Draw Strength From Our Victories, And We Learn From Our Mistakes, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, Knowing That Providence Is With Us, And That We Are Surely Blessed To Be Citizens Of The Greatest Nation On Earth.

The Issue Of Climate Change Is One That We Ignore At Our Own Peril

If We're Going To Prevent Large Parts Of This Earth From Becoming Not Only Inhospitable But Uninhabitable In Our Lifetimes, We're Going To Have To Keep Some Fossil Fuels In The Ground Rather Than Burn Them And Release More Dangerous Pollution Into The Sky.

America Isn't Congress. America Isn't Washington. America Is The Striving Immigrant Who Starts A Business, Or The Mom Who Works Two Low-wage Jobs To Give Her Kid A Better Life. America Is The Union Leader And The Ceo Who Put Aside Their Differences To Make The Economy Stronger.

Reflecting On His Years In Prison, Nelson Mandela Wrote That There Were Dark Moments That Tested His Faith In Humanity, But He Refused To Give Up.

America's Strong Bonds With Israel Are Well Known - This Bond Is Unbreakable.

Now, The Iranian People Are A Great People, And Persian Civilization Is A Great Civilization. Iran Has Acted In Ways That's Not Conducive To Peace And Prosperity In The Region: Their Threats Against Israel; Their Pursuit Of A Nuclear Weapon Which Could Potentially Set Off An Arms Race In The Region That Would Make Everybody Less Safe; Their Support Of Terrorist Organizations In The Past - None Of These Things Have Been Helpful.

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.

Where We Get Into Problems, Typically, Is When Our Personal Religious Faith, Or The Community Of Faith That We Participate In, Tips Into A Sort Of Fundamentalist Extremism, In Which It's Not Enough For Us To Believe What We Believe, But We Start Feeling Obligated To, You Know, Hit You Over The Head Because You Don't Believe The Same Thing. Or To Treat You As Somebody Who's Less Than I Am.

If You Give Up On The Idea That Your Voice Can Make A Difference, Then Other Voices Will Fill The Void: Lobbyists And Special Interests; The People With The $10 Million Checks Who Are Trying To Buy This Election And Those Who Are Making It Harder For You To Vote; Washington Politicians Who Want To Decide Who You Can Marry, Or Control Health Care Choices That Women Should Make For Themselves.

Any Strategy To Reduce Intergenerational Poverty Has To Be Centered On Work, Not Welfare--not Only Because Work Provides Independence And Income But Also Because Work Provides Order, Structure, Dignity, And Opportunities For Growth In People's Lives.

As Long As Countries Like China Keep Going All In On Clean Energy, So Must We.

Later, I Would Realize That The Position Of Most Black Students In Predominantly White Colleges Was Already Too Tenuous, Our Identities Too Scrambled, To Admit To Ourselves That Our Black Pride Remained Incomplete. And To Admit Our Doubt And Confusion To Whites, To Open Up Our Psyches To General Examination By Those Who Had Caused So Much Of The Damage In The First Place, Seemed Ludicrous, Itself An Expression Of Self-hatred - For There Seemed No Reason To Expect That Whites Would Look At Our Private Struggles As A Mirror Into Their Own Souls, Rather Than Yet More Evidence Of Black Pathology.

You Can Question Somebody's Views And Their Judgment Without Questioning Their Motives Or Patriotism.

I Think That At A Certain Stage Those Early Ambitions Burn Away, Partly Because You Achieve Something, You Get Something Done, You Get Some Notoriety. And Then The Particularities Of Who You Are And What Your Deepest Commitments Are Begin Expressing Themselves. You're Not Just Chasing The Idea Of "me" Being Important, But You, Rather, Are Chasing A Particular Passion.

Estiven Rodriguez Couldn't Speak A Word Of English When He Moved To New York City At Age Nine. But Last Month, Thanks To The Support Of Great Teachers And An Innovative Tutoring Program, He Led A March Of His Classmates - Through A Crowd Of Cheering Parents And Neighbors - From Their High School To The Post Office, Where They Mailed Off Their College Applications. And This Son Of A Factory Worker Just Found Out He's Going To College This Fall.

I Can Guarantee That Not Because I Give Attorney General [loretta] Lynch A Directive. That Is Institutionally How We Have Always Operated. I Do Not Talk To The Attorney General About Pending Investigations [on Hillary Clinton].

Guarantees That

I Will Continue To Believe That Israel's Security Is Paramount.

After All, There Were Thousands Of So-called Campus Radicals, Most Of Them White And Tenured And Happily Tolerated. No, It Remained Necessary To Prove Which Side You Were On, To Show Your Loyalty To The Black Masses, To Strike Out And Name Names.

Leather Jackets

In America, We Want A Peaceful Planet. We Want People To Be Able To Enjoy Their Lives And Know They're Going To Have A Bright And Prosperous Future, Not Be At War. That's Our Purpose.

Prosperous Future

Our Founding Fathers, Faced With Perils We Can Scarcely Imagine, Drafted A Charter To Assure The Rule Of Law And The Rights Of Man, A Charter Expanded By The Blood Of Generations. Those Ideals Still Light The World, And We Will Not Give Them Up For Expedience's Sake.

It Was A Creed Written Into The Founding Documents That Declared The Destiny Of A Nation. Yes We Can. It Was Whispered By Slaves And Abolitionists As They Blazed A Trail Towards Freedom Through The Darkest Of Nights. Yes We Can. It Was Sung By Immigrants As They Struck Out From Distant Shores And Pioneers Who Pushed Westward Against An Unforgiving Wilderness. Yes We Can.

Here In Europe, I Think That There Are A Lot Of Young People Who Forget The Issues That Were At Stake During The Cold War.

Steve Was Among The Greatest Of American Innovators - Brave Enough To Think Differently, Bold Enough To Believe He Could Change The World, And Talented Enough To Do It...the World Has Lost A Visionary. And There May Be No Greater Tribute To Steve's Success Than The Fact That Much Of The World Learned Of His Passing On A Device He Invented.

The Gulf States Are Extraordinarily Suspicious Of Iran For Good Reason. They View Iran As Meddling In Their Affairs. They Have Seen Iran Level Asymmetric Attacks Against Their Facilities Or Their Interests.

I Believe We Can Seize This Future Together, Because We Are Not As Divided As Our Politics Suggests. [...] We Are Greater Than The Sum Of Our Individual Ambitions. [...] We Are And Forever Will Be The United States Of America. [...] We Will Continue Our Journey Forward And Remind The World Just Why It Is That We Live In The Greatest Nation On Earth.

I Think That The Issues We Have With Science These Days Are Not Restricted To What's Happening With Respect To Religion. There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around.

The 20th Century Was A Bloodbath, And For All The Frustrations And Failures Of The Project To Unify Europe, The Last Five Decades Have Been Periods Of Unprecedented Peace, Growth, And Prosperity In Europe.

Climate Change Poses A Direct Threat To The Infrastructure Of America That We Need To Stay Competitive In This 21st-century Economy.

I Wouldn't Be The Man I Am Today Without The Woman Who Agreed To Marry Me 20 Years Ago

The Incredible Story Of Progress That Is America Has Always Been Built By Those Who Ask Why, What If, And Why Not. Our Schools Must Begin Instilling That Wonder In Our Children Again So That Their Generation Will Unite Around The Next Great Project Of Our Time, Whether It Be Declaring America Energy Independent Or Launching The Next Great Technological Revolution.

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change.

With Patient And Firm Determination, I Am Going To Press On For Jobs. I'm Going To Press On For Equality. I'm Going To Press On For The Sake Of Our Children. I'm Going To Press On For The Sake Of All Those Families Who Are Struggling Right Now. I Don't Have Time To Feel Sorry For Myself. I Don't Have Time To Complain. I Am Going To Press On.

We Had To Get Out Of Chicago So Quick. Election Night Happens, Suddenly I'm Talking To Ben Bernanke And Hank Paulson And Trying To Figure Out Whether The World's Going To Fly Apart, And Michelle Is Trying To Figure Out Where The Girls Are Going To Go To School. And We Pack Up And Leave And Basically Our House In Chicago Just Became Like A Time Capsule. My Desk In My Home Office Still Had Stacks Of Articles And Bills And Stuff From 2008.

There Are Folks Who Will Equivocate. They'll Say, 'you Know, I'm Not A Scientist.' Well, I'm Not Either. But The Best Scientists In The World Know That Climate Change Is Happening.

Even When Our Heart Aches, We Summon The Strength That Maybe We Didn't Even Know We Had, And We Carry On; We Finish The Race.

My Hope Is That More And More Investors Around The World See An Opportunity To Do Business In Greece.

Iran's Nuclear Program . . . There Was Going To Be A Time Limit . . .

I Think [ Unpopular Presidential Candidates ] Indicates, At Least On The Democratic Side, That We've Got More Work To Do To Strengthen Our Grassroots Networks.

I Have Complete Confidence In The American People And Our Legal Traditions And The Prosecutors, The Tough Prosecutors From New York Who Specialize In Terrorism.

Generally Speaking, People Who Know Me Will Tell You That My Public Persona Is Not That Different From My Private Persona.

I Think That There's A Power In That [information Through Tweets And Sound Bites ]. There's Also A Danger, What Generates A Headline Or Stirs Up A Controversy And Gets Attention Isn't The Same As The Process Required To Actually Solve The Problem.

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.

He Described To Me How Crocodiles Kill More People Than Sharks. There Are Just A Lot Of Things In Australia That Can Kill You.

I Have Seen, The Desperation And Disorder Of The Powerless: How It Twists The Lives Of Children On The Streets Of Jakarta Or Nairobi In Much The Same Way As It Does The Lives Of Children On Chicago 's South Side.

Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others To Live By Your Own Beliefs

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World. Instead Of Celebrating Your Dynamic Union And Seeking To Partner With You To Meet Common Challenges, There Have Been Times Where America Has Shown Arrogance And Been Dismissive, Even Derisive.

Number One, It Is Absolutely Critical That We Tone Down The Rhetoric When It Comes To The Immigration Debate, Because There Has Been An Undertone That Has Been Ugly. Oftentimes, It Has Been Directed At The Hispanic Community. We Have Seen Hate Crimes Skyrocket In The Wake Of The Immigration Debate As It Has Been Conducted In Washington, And That Is Unacceptable.

It Was As If He Had Come To Mistrust Words Somehow. Words, And The Sentiments Words Carried.

Number One, It Is Important That We Fix The Legal Immigration System, Because Right Now We've Got A Backlog That Means Years For People To Apply Legally. And What's Worse Is, We Keep On Increasing The Fees, So That If You've Got A Hard Working Immigrant Family, They've Got To Hire A Lawyer; They've Got To Pay Thousands Of Dollars In Fees. They Just Can't Afford It. And It's Discriminatory Against People Who Have Good Character, We Should Want In This Country, But Don't Have The Money. So We've Got To Fix That.

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.

We Live In A Moment When The Dream Of Equal Opportunity Is Within Reach.

Cuba Is Actually One Where I Am More Optimistic Because Of The Unique Nature Of Cuba - 90 Miles Off Our Shore With A Massive Ex-patriot Population, Now Cuban-american Population That Still Have Deep Links To The Island. There I Am More Confident That Over Time That The Winds Of Commerce And Telecommunication And Travel Start Shifting The Nature Of That Regime. But That's A Small Country Which Has Almost A Unique Relationship To Us.

I Believe That The Best Measure Of Whether A Nation Is Going To Be Successful Is Whether They Are Tapping The Talents Of Their Women.

Donald Trump Is Uniquely Unqualified To Be President.

Cool, Logical, Big-eared And Level-headed, The Center Of Star Trek's Optimistic, Inclusive Vision Of Humanity's Future. I Loved Spock.

I Think That Canada Is One Of The Most Impressive Countries In The World, The Way It Has Managed A Diverse Population, A Migrant Economy. The Natural Beauty Of Canada Is Extraordinary. Obviously There Is Enormous Kinship Between The United States And Canada, And The Ties That Bind Our Two Countries Together Are Things That Are Very Important To Us.

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.

If We're Trying To Protect The American Public, We Should Not Put In Place A Travel Ban.

Scientists And Engineers Ought To Stand Side By Side With Athletes And Entertainers As Role Models.

Here In The United States, Hopefully, What We're Building Are Not Just Pyramids, Are Not Icons To One Pharaoh. What We're Building Is A Culture And A Way Of Living Together That We Can Look Back On And Say, [this] Was Good, Was Inclusive, Was Kind, Was Innovative, Was Able To Fulfill The Dreams Of As Many People As Possible.

Religious Concerns Ok, If Translated Into Universal Values.

I Know There Are Problems That I Say To Myself, If Maybe I Was A Little More Gifted I Might Have Been Able To Solve. But That's Not Because I Believe What I Did Was A Mistake. It's That Maybe It Required The Talents Of A Lincoln.

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.

If We Don't Reform How Healthcare Is Delivered In This Country, Then We Are Not Going To Be Able To Get A Handle On That Escalating Healthcare Costs.

There Is A Wonderful Book Called "gandhi's Truth," By Erik Erikson, The Psychologist. It Is A Great Book. And I Remember Reading That And Thinking About This Connection Between What We Think In Our Personal Lives And How That Manifests Itself In Our Politics. Those Are Two Books, Just Off The Top, That I Think Are Sort Of Representative Of Reading That I Did At That Time. I Never Get A Chance To Read Anymore.

The United States, Therefore, Works To Ensure That Any Actions We Take Are Consistent With International Laws And Norms - Including Those Reflected In The Law Of The Sea Convention. It's Worth Remembering That Our Presence In The Region Is Nothing New.

Think About It: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - These Countries Are Tiny Compared To The Soviet Union. They Don't Pose A Serious Threat To Us The Way The Soviet Union Posed A Threat To Us.

On Memorial Day We Come Together As Americans To Let These Families And Veterans Know That They Are Not Alone. We Give Thanks For Those Who Sacrificed Everything So That We Could Be Free. And We Commit Ourselves To Upholding The Ideals For Which So Many Patriots Have Fought And Died.

I Think That We've Had An Economy That's Been Out Of Balance For Too Long. So The General Principle Of Raising Taxes On Higher Income Americans, Like Myself, And Providing Relief To Those Who Haven't Benefited As Much From This New Global Economy, I Think Is A Sound One.

I Would Have To Investigate More Of Bill's Dancing Abilities, You Know, And Some Of This Other Stuff Before I Accurately Judge Whether He Was In Fact A Brother.

Where You Are Right Now Doesn't Have To Determine Where You'll End Up.

So While An Incredible Amount Of Progress Has Been Made, On This Fifth Anniversary, I Wanted To Come Here And Tell The People Of This City Directly: My Administration Is Going To Stand With You - And Fight Alongside You - Until The Job Is Done. Until New Orleans Is All The Way Back, All The Way.

We Can't Afford To Stand Pat While The World Races By. The United States Of America Did Not Become The Most Prosperous Nation On Earth By Sheer Luck Or Happenstance. We Got Here Because Each Time A Generation Of Americans Has Faced A Changing World, We Have Changed With It. We Have Not Feared Our Future; We Have Shaped It.

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.

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