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From Obama's Book, "the Audacity Of Hope:" "i Am Not Willing To Have The State Deny American Citizens A Civil Union That Confers Equivalent Rights On Such Basic Matters As Hospital Visitation Or Health Insurance Coverage Simply Because The People They Love Are Of The Same Sex - Nor Am I Willing To Accept A Reading Of The Bible That Considers An Obscure Line In Romans To Be More Defining Of Christianity Than The Sermon On The Mount."

-Barack Obama

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From Obama's Book, "the

Barack Obama

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From Obama's Book, "the Audacity Of Hope:" "i Am Not Willing To Have The State Deny American Citizens A Civil Union That Confers Equivalent Rights On Such Basic Matters As Hospital Visitation Or Health Insurance Coverage Simply Because The People They Love Are Of The Same Sex - Nor Am I Willing To Accept A Reading Of The Bible That Considers An Obscure Line In Romans To Be More Defining Of Christianity Than The Sermon On The Mount."

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Each And Every Time, A New Generation Has Risen Up And Done What’s Needed To Be Done. Today We Are Called Once More — And It Is Time For Our Generation To Answer That Call. For That Is Our Unyielding Faith — That In The Face Of Impossible Odds, People Who Love Their Country Can Change It.

Being A Father Is Sometimes My Hardest But Always My Most Rewarding Job. Happy Father's Day To All The Dads Out There.

I'm Skeptical That [the Republicans] Can Do [something Better With Healthcare] Mainly Because For Seven Years Now, Including When We First Tried To Pass Health Care, I Said To 'em, "okay, If [obamacare] Doesn't Work Tell Me What Does."

I Opposed The Defense Of Marriage Act In 1996. It Should Be Repealed And I Will Vote For Its Repeal On The Senate Floor. I Will Also Oppose Any Proposal To Amend The U.s. Constitution To Ban Gays And Lesbians From Marrying.

There Is Probably A Perverse Pride In My Administration... That We Were Going To Do The Right Thing, Even If Short-term It Was Unpopular. And I Think Anybody Who's Occupied This Office Has To Remember That Success Is Determined By An Intersection In Policy And Politics And That You Can't Be Neglecting Of Marketing And P.r. And Public Opinion.

Hunger, Disease And Poverty Can Lead To Global Instability And Leave A Vacuum For Extremism To Fill. So Instead Of Just Managing Poverty, We Must Offer Nations And People A Pathway Out Of Poverty. And As President I've Made Development A Pillar Of Our Foreign Policy, Alongside Diplomacy And Defense.

This Doesn't Mean Abandoning Our Values And Ideals; Wherever We Can, It's In Our Interest To Help Foster Democracy Through The Diplomatic And Economic Resources At Our Disposal.

When It Comes To Immigration, I Think Americans Expect That Our Immigration Process Is Orderly And It Is Legal.

Those Are Values That Help Guide Not Just My Family's Christian Faith, But That Of Jewish Americans, And Muslim Americans; Nonbelievers And Americans Of All Backgrounds. And No One Better Embodies That Spirit Of Service Than The Men And Women Who Wear Our Country's Uniform And Their Families.

The Warren Court Wasn't That Radical. It Didn't Break Free From The Essential Constraints That Were Placed By The Founding Fathers In The Constitution... I Intend To Succeed Where They Failed.

We Want To See The Iranians Engage, And As You Know, We Have Attempted To Bring About That Engagement Over The Course Of The Last Three-plus Years. It Has Not Proven Effective.

Those Are The Ladies Sitting In Church. And In The Same Way That They Might Feel A Joy And Release On Sunday, They Are Still Going To Work On Monday. And That's Who I Was Listening To During This Process. And If At The End Of My Presidency They Feel Like I Did A Pretty Good Job, Then I'll Feel Pretty Good.

I Have Been Blessed By Having, And I Admittedly Am Biased, Some Of The Smartest, Hardest-working, And Good People In My Administration That I Think Any President Has Ever Had.

That Sort Of Lack Of Awareness On The Part Of An Activist About The Constraints Of Our Political System And The Constraints On This Office, I Think, Sometimes Would Leave Me To Mutter Under My Breath. Very Rarely Did I Lose It Publicly. Yeah, Usually I'd Just Smile.

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.

If We Get To A Point Where People In This Country Feel More Affinity With A Leader Who Is An Adversary And View The United States And Our Way Of Life As A Threat To Him, Then We're Gonna Have Bigger Problems Than Just Cyber Hacking.

Hunter Pence Eats Pizza With A Fork.

Iran Was Nearing Completion Of A New Reactor Capable Of Producing Plutonium For A Bomb.

For We Know That Our Patchwork Heritage Is A Strength, Not A Weakness.

The Ideals And The Values Of The United States Inspired The Entire World. I Don't Think Any Of Us Can Say That Our Standing In The World Now, The Way Children Around The World Look At The United States, Is The Same. And Part Of What We Need To Do Is To Send A Message To The World That We Are Going To Invest In Issues Like Education, We Are Going To Invest In Issues That Relate To How Ordinary People Are Able To Live Out Their Dreams. And That Is Something That I'm Going To Be Committed To As President Of The United States.

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

One Of The Things That You Come Pretty Early On To Understand In This Job, And You Start Figuring Out Even During The Course Of The Campaign, Is That There's Barack Obama The Person And There's Barack Obama The Symbol, Or The Office Holder, Or What People Are Seeing On Television, Or Just A Representative Of Power. And So When People Criticize Or Respond Negatively To Me, Usually They're Responding To This Character That They're Seeing On Tv Called Barack Obama, Or To The Office Of The Presidency And The White House And What That Represents.

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.

If We Are Enforcing What Should Be The Rules Around Medicare And Making Sure The People Are Getting The Bang For The Buck, It's Not Going To Be Possible For Insurance Companies To Simply Pass On Those Costs To Medicare Recipients, Because Ultimately It's Uncle Sam That's Paying For Those Services Anyway.

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.

Anybody Who Gets Into Bed And Turns Out The Lights The First Night In The White House Probably Feels A Little Bit Of A Start, Where You Say, "goodness ... "

Cathleen Falsani: What Is Sin? Barack Obama: Being Out Of Alignment With My Values.

To Young People: You Have To Stay Encouraged.

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.

People Who Have Health Insurance Are Benefiting In All Sorts Of Ways That They May Not Be Aware Of, Everything From No Longer Having Lifetime Limits On The Claims That They Can Make To Seniors Getting Prescription Drug Discounts Under Medicare To Free Mammograms.

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.

This Is The Moment When We Must Build On The Wealth That Open Markets Have Created, And Share Its Benefits More Equitably. Trade Has Been A Cornerstone Of Our Growth And Global Development. But We Will Not Be Able To Sustain This Growth If It Favors The Few, And Not The Many.

I Know That Gaps Can Be Closed. And They Can Be Closed Substantially, More Than I Think We Believe.

The American Story Has Never Been About Things Coming Easy. It Has Been About Rising To The Moment When The Moment Is Hard. About Rejecting Panicked Division For Purposeful Unity. About Seeing A Mountaintop From The Deepest Valley. That Is Why We Remember That Some Of The Most Famous Words Ever Spoken By An American Came From A President Who Took Office In A Time Of Turmoil: "the Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself.

What I'm Thinking About Are The Millions Of People, Many Of Whom Write Me Very Personal Letters :"dear Mr. President: I Did Not Vote For You. I Was Against Obamacare. And Then My Son Who Didn't Have Health Insurance Signed Up And We Just Found Out That He Had An Illness. And Thankfully He's Now Covered, Otherwise He Might Not Have Gotten Treatment And I Might Have Lost My House."

Rather Take That Moral Sense And Apply It To The Particulars Of A Job That Is Going To Test Those Ethical And Moral Precepts Differently Than If You're A Professor, Or A Business Person, Or A Dad. And If I Were Not Comfortable With The Judicious Use Of Our Military To Protect The American People, Than I Shouldn't Have Run For President. And Having Said That, I Do Think That The Wisdom Of A [martin Luther] King Or A [mahatma] Gandhi Can Inform My Decisions.

You Have To Be Involved In Terms Of What's Happening In Your Local Neighborhood And What Issues Are There.

It Is Very Important For I Think Those Of Us Who Desperately Want Peace, Who See War As, At Some Level, A Break-down, A Manifestation Of Human Weakness, To Understand That Sometimes It’s Also Necessary – And You Know, To – To Be Able To Balance Two Ideas At The Same Time; That We Are Constantly Striving For Peace, We Are Doubling Up On Our Diplomacy, We Are Going To Actively Engage, We Are Going To Try To See The World Through Other People’s Eyes And Not Just Our Own.

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.

Isis Is Not An Organization That Can Destroy The United States. This Is Not A Huge Industrial Power That Can Pose Great Risks To Us, Institutionally Or In A Systematic Way. But They Can Hurt Us. And They Can Hurt Our People And Our Families.

We Want Our Children To Live In An America That Isn't Burdened By Debt, That Isn't Weakened By Inequality, That Isn't Threatened By The Destructive Power Of A Warming Planet.

I Have Always Believed That What Brings Us Together Is Stronger Than What Pulls Us Apart.

Issues Are Never Simple. One Thing I'm Proud Of Is That Very Rarely Will You Hear Me Simplify The Issues.

We Are Running Out Of Time

Running Out Of Time

Even As We Do All That's Necessary To Ensure Israel's Security, Even As We Are Clear-eyed About The Difficult Challenges Before Us, And Even As We Pledge To Stand By Israel Through Whatever Tough Days Lie Ahead, I Hope We Do Not Give Up On That Vision Of Peace. For If History Teaches Us Anything, If The Story Of Israel Teaches Us Anything, It Is That With Courage And Resolve, Progress Is Possible. Peace Is Possible.

I'm Not Talking About Blind Optimism, The Kind Of Hope That Just Ignores The Enormity Of The Tasks Ahead Or The Road Blocks That Stand In Our Path. I'm Not Talking About The Wishful Idealism That Allows Us To Just Sit On The Sidelines Or Shirk From A Fight. I Have Always Believed That Hope Is That Stubborn Thing Inside Us That Insists, Despite All The Evidence To The Contrary, That Something Better Awaits Us So Long As We Have The Courage To Keep Reaching, To Keep Working, To Keep Fighting.

Look, Americans Will Go For Leadership That Makes Sense. Our Job, You Know, As Public Officials, Is Not To Put Our Finger In The Air. Our Job Is To Listen, And Then Lead.

Both President Kennedy And President Reagan Were Roundly Criticized By Parts Of The Foreign Policy Establishment That Felt They Were Being Weak By Engaging Our Adversaries. So Some Of It Is Built Into A Political Lexicon That Makes You Sound Tougher If You Don't Talk To Somebody, And Rather, Very Loudly, Wield A Big Stick.

While We Have Come A Long Way Since The Stonewall Riots In 1969, We Still Have A Lot Of Work To Do. Too Often, The Issue Of Lgbt Rights Is Exploited By Those Seeking To Divide Us. But At Its Core, This Issue Is About Who We Are As Americans. It's About Whether This Nation Is Going To Live Up To Its Founding Promise Of Equality By Treating All Its Citizens With Dignity And Respect.

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

I Will Stand With Israel If They Are Attacked.

Back In The '50s And '60s, Most Politicians Were Concerned About Not Talking About Faith, Partly Because There Were Consequences You Had To Deal With - (for Instance) Catholicism Had Been Made An Issue.

No Job In America Should Go Unfilled Because Somebody Doesn't Have The Right Skills To Get That Job, Nobody. So, If There's A Job Open, We Should Train Those Folks Right Away So That They Can Do The Job.

I Will Never Forget Who This Victory Truly Belongs To. It Belongs To You. It Belongs To You. I Was Never The Likeliest Candidate For This Office. We Didn't Start With Much Money Or Many Endorsements. Our Campaign Was Not Hatched In The Halls Of Washington. It Began In The Backyards Of Des Moines And The Living Rooms Of Concord And The Front Porches Of Charleston. It Was Built By Working Men And Women Who Dug Into What Little Savings They Had To Give $5 And $10 And $20 To The Cause.

I Think That There's No Doubt That As I See Friends, Families, Children Of Gay Couples Who Are Thriving, You Know, That Has An Impact On How I Think About These Issues.

Tonight, Let Us Think Back To The Sense Of Unity That Prevailed On 9/11.

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.

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.

That Is The True Genius Of America, A Faith In The Simple Dreams Of Its People, The Insistence On Small Miracles. That We Can Say What We Think, Write What We Think, Without Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Have An Idea And Start Our Own Business Without Paying A Bribe Or Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Participate In The Political Process Without Fear Of Retribution, And That Our Votes Will Be Counted.

And We Remember The End Of Our Combat Mission And The Emergence Of A New Dawn - The Precision Of Our Efforts Against Al Qaeda In Iraq, The Professionalism Of The Training Of Iraqi Security Forces, And The Steady Drawdown Of Our Forces. In Handing Over Responsibility To The Iraqis, You Preserved The Gains Of The Last Four Years And Made This Day Possible.

As A Product Of History And Faith, Jewish Americans Have Helped To Open Our Eyes To Injustice, To People In Need, And To The Simple Idea That We Ought To Recognize Ourselves In The Struggle Of Our Fellow Men And Women.

I'd Like To Help Struggling Homeowners Who Can't Pay Their Mortgages, I'd Like To Invest In Our Crumbling Infrastructure, I'd Like To Reform The Tax System So Multimillionaires Can't Pretend Their Earnings Are Capital Gains And Pay At The Rate Of 15 Percent. I'd Like To Make Public Higher Education Free, And Pay For It With A Small Transfer Tax On All Financial Transactions. I'd Like To Do Much More - A New New Deal For Americans. But Republicans Are Blocking Me At Every Point.

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.

If We Truly Believe In Our Public Schools, Then We Have A Moral Responsibility To Do Better - To Break The Either-or Mentality Around School Reform, And Embrace A Both-and Mentality. Good Schools Will Require Both The Structural Reform And The Resources Necessary To Prepare Our Kids For The Future.

I Won Iowa Not Because The Demographics Dictated That I Would Win Iowa. It Was Because I Spent 87 Days Going To Every Small Town And Fair And Fish Fry And Bfw Hall, And There Were Some Counties Where I Might Have Lost, But Maybe I Lost By 20 Points Instead Of 50 Points. There's Some Counties Maybe I Won, That People Didn't Expect, Because People Had A Chance To See You And Listen To You And Get A Sense Of Who You Stood For And Who You Were Fighting For.

Democracy Is Hard Work.

If John Mccain Wants To Have A Debate About Who Has The Temperament, And Judgment, To Serve As The Next Commander-in-chief, That's A Debate I'm Ready To Have.

For People Who Have Health Insurance, We Can Provide Health Insurance Reforms That Make The Insurance They Have More Secure. And We Can Do That Mostly By Using Money That Every Expert Agrees Is Being Wasted And Is Currently In The Existing Health Care System.

A Person’s Zip Code Shouldn’t Decide Their Destiny.

I Believe That Marriage Is The Union Between A Man And A Woman. Now, For Me As A Christian - For Me - For Me As A Christian, It Is Also A Sacred Union. God's In The Mix.

You Don't Need To See My Birth Certificate, Or My College Records, Or My Legal Writings, Or... Anything.

Michelle, I Love You. The Other Night, I Think The Entire Country Saw Just How Lucky I Am. Malia And Sasha, You Make Me So Proud…but Don't Get Any Ideas, You're Still Going To Class Tomorrow. And Joe Biden, Thank You For Being The Best Vice President I Could Ever Hope For.

And What Would Help Minority Workers Are The Same Things That Would Help White Workers: The Opportunity To Earn A Living Wage, The Education And Training That Lead To Such Jobs, Labor Laws And Tax Laws That Restore Some Balance To The Distribution Of The Nation's Wealth.

Those Opposed To Abortion Cannot Simply Invoke God's Will-they Have To Explain Why Abortion Violates Some Principle That Is Accessible To People Of All Faiths.

If All It Took Was Someone Proclaiming I Believe Jesus Christ And That He Died For My Sins, And That Was All There Was To It, People Wouldn't Have To Keep Coming To Church, Would They.

There Have Been Periods Where The Folks Who Were Already Here Suddenly Say, 'well, I Don't Want Those Folks,' Even Though The Only People Who Have The Right To Say That Are Some Native Americans.

Native American

My Hope Is That We Can Get A Republican-democratic Agreement On How We Strengthen Social Security As Well As Looking At Some Of These Other Major Expenditures That We Have That We've Got To Deal With To Make Sure That We're Not Just Leaving You Guys With A Mountain Of Debt.

Many Of Us Were Kind Of Irritated With Obama For Larding It With Tax Cut, Which We Didn't Think Was Going To Be Stimulative.

I Just Miss - I Miss Being Anonymous.

This Is The Moment When We Must Come Together To Save This Planet.

And As Husbands And Fathers And Brothers, We Have To Step Up - Because Every Girl’s Life Matters. Every Daughter Deserves The Same Chance As Our Sons. Every Woman Should Be Able To Go About Her Day - To Walk The Streets Or Ride The Bus - And Be Safe, And Be Treated With Respect And Dignity. She Deserves That.

There's Nobody To Guide Through The Process Of Becoming A Man... To Explain To Them The Meaning Of Manhood. And That's A Recipe For Disaster.

Because Of The Civil Rights Movement, New Doors Of Opportunity And Education Swung Open For Everybody ... Not Just For Blacks And Whites, But Also Women And Latinos; And Asians And Native Americans; And Gay Americans And Americans With A Disability. They Swung Open For You, And They Swung Open For Me. And That's Why I'm Standing Here Today-because Of Those Efforts, Because Of That Legacy.

Native American

You Might Slow Down A Little Bit, You Might Not Jump As High As You Used To, But I Know What I'm Doing And I'm Fearless.

We Are Committed To A World In Which We Keep America Safe, But We Recognize That Our Power Doesn't Just Flow From Our Extraordinary Military But Also Flows From The Strength In Our Ideals And Our Principles And Our Values.

[we Should Beware] That Our Democracy Stays Healthy. And Making Sure That We Maintain That Sense Of Solidarity.

Obviously, If Congress Wants To Talk About Anything, We're Happy To Provide Information. We're Committed To Moving Forward Under The Current Act.

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.

Iran Is A State Sponsor Of Terrorism. And For Them To Be Able To Provide Nuclear Technology To Non-state Actors, That's Unacceptable.

Africa Is On The Move; A New Africa Is Emerging!

We Have The Power To Make The World We Seek, But Only If We Have The Courage To Make A New Beginning.

Non-islamic, Non-foreign-motivated Terrorist Actions Have Killed At Least As Many Americans On American Soil As Those Who Were Promoted By Jihadists. But What We Have Also Seen Is Isil Evolve, Because Of The Sophistication Of Their Social Media, To A Point Where They May Be Inspiring More Attacks - Even If They're Self-initiated, Even If They Don't Involve Complex Planning - Than We Would Have Seen Some Time Ago.

Health Care Costs Generally Have Gone Up At A Significantly Slower Rate Since Obamacare Was Passed Than They Did Before, Which Has Saved The Federal Treasury Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars.

My Goal Is Not To Resolve Conflicts And Tensions In The Region Through More War. My Goal Is To Make Sure That, You Know, We Are Able To Negotiate A Deal That We Can Verify.

My Job Is Not To Represent Washington To You, But To Represent You To Washington.

But Do I Think That Our Actions In Anyway Violate The War Powers Resolution, The Answer Is No.

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.

Andrew Cuomo Own Story Taught Andrew Cuomo That As Americans, We Are Bound Together As One People, And Our Country's Success Rests On The Success Of All Of Us, Not Just A Fortunate Few.

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

There Are Certain Things We Can Only Do Together. There Are Certain Things Only A Union Can Do. Only A Union Could Harness The Courage Of Our Pioneers To Settle The American West, Which Is Why President Abraham Lincoln Passed A Homestead Act Giving A Tract Of Land To Anyone Seeking A Stake In Our Growing Economy.

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.

When It Comes To Immigration, I Have Actually Put More Money, Under My Administration, Into Border Security Than Any Other Administration Previously. We've Got More Security Resources At The Border - More National Guard, More Border Guards, You Name It - Than The Previous Administration. So We've Ramped Up Significantly The Issue Of Border Security.

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up.

When Bp Was Not Moving Fast Enough On Claims, We Told Bp To Set Aside $20 Billion In A Fund - Managed By An Independent Third Party - To Help All Those Whose Lives Have Been Turned Upside Down By The Spill.

I Will Work Every Single Day To Make Sure That America Continues To Be The Greatest Nation On Earth.

Acts Of Sacrifice And Decency Without Regard To What's In It For You Create A Ripple Effect. Ones That Lift Up Families And Communities, That Spread Opportunity.

No Matter How Long It Takes, The United States Will Find And Bring To Justice The Terrorists Who Are Responsible For Kayla's Captivity And Death, Isil Is A Hateful And Abhorrent Terrorist Group Whose Actions Stand In Stark Contrast To The Spirit Of People Like Kayla.

We Have A Choice. We Can Shape Our Future, Or Let Events Shape It For Us. And If We Want To Succeed, We Can't Fall Back On The Stale Debates And Old Divides That Won't Move Us Forward.

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

Ultimately, Peace Is Just Not About Politics. It's About Attitudes; About A Sense Of Empathy; About Breaking Down The Divisions That We Create For Ourselves In Our Own Minds And Our Own Hearts That Don't Exist In Any Objective Reality, But That We Carry With Us Generation After Generation. And I Know, Because America, We, Too, Have Had To Work Hard Over The Decades, Slowly, Gradually, Sometimes Painfully, In Fits And Starts, To Keep Perfecting Our Union.

Hostility And Hatred Are No Match For Justice; They Offer No Pathway To Peace.

It Was Basic Research In The Photoelectric Field-in The Photoelectric Effect That Would One Day Lead To Solar Panels. It Was Basic Research In Physics That Would Eventually Produce The Cat Scan. The Calculations Of Today's Gps Satellites Are Based On The Equations That Einstein Put To Paper More Than A Century Ago.

We Can Have Reasonable, Thoughtful Gun Control Measure That I Think Respect The Second Amendment And People's Traditions.

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 Do Have Confidence That We're Gonna Be Able To Get It Right. But It's Not Gonna Be Overnight. And There's No Silver Bullets To This. The Fact Of The Matter Is, Is That We Are Suffering From A Massive Hangover From A Binge Of Risk Taking.

No Single Nation Should Pick And Choose Which Nations Holds Nuclear Weapons. And That's Why I Strongly Reaffirmed America's Commitment To Seek A World In Which No Nations Hold Nuclear Weapons.

Nuclear Weapons

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

People Will Still Be Looking To The United States. Our Example Will Still Carry Great Weight.

It's Particularly Important That We Reach Out To Everybody In Our Countries, Those Who Feel Disaffected, Those Who Feel Left Behind By Globalization And Address Their Concerns In Constructive Ways As Opposed To More Destructive Ways.

If We Are Not Serious About Facts And What's True And What's Not. And Particularly In An Age Of Social Media Where So Many People Are Getting Their Information In Sound Bites And Snippets Off Their Phones, If We Can't Discriminate Between Serious Arguments And Propaganda, Then We Have Problems.

We Cannot Drill Our Way Out Of Our Addiction To Oil.

It Is Important To Combine Structural Reforms And Good Fiscal Stewardship With A Growth Strategy, Because When Your Economy's Growing And More Revenue's Coming In, That Helps Relieve Debt.

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

We Have A Stake In One Another...what Binds Us Together Is Greater Than What Drives Us Apart.

I Don't Want Ever To Be A President Who Is Comfortable And At Ease With Killing People.

This Is An Extraordinary Achievement, Nearly Nine Years In The Making.

E.u. Need To Be Nurtured And Cultivated And Protected And Fought For Because The Achievements That We've Seen On This Continent, In Contrast To A Divided Europe Of The Previous Century, Are Ones That Remind Us Of How Important It Is That We Work Together.

Working Together

In Missouri, It's A 50/50 State, So I'm Kind Of Used To Half The State Being Mad At Me.

I Can Say To The German People That The United States Has Been Good For Germany. Has Looked Out For Germany. Has Provided Security For Germany. Has Helped Rebuilt Germany. And Unify Germany.

The Countries Who Out-educate Us Today Will Out-compete Us Tomorrow.

But Another Thing I Know Is This — We Can’t Steer Ourselves Out Of This Crisis By Heading In The Same, Disastrous Direction. We Can’t Change Direction With A New Driver Who Wants To Follow The Same Old Map. And That’s What This Election Is All About.

It's Important To Listen To What Scientists Have To Say, Even When It's Inconvenient, Especially When It's Inconvenient

What I Think Is Fair To Say Is That, Coming Out Of The Republican Camp, There Have Been Efforts To Suggest That Perhaps I'm Not Who I Say I Am When It Comes To My Faith - Something Which I Find Deeply Offensive, And That Has Been Going On For A Pretty Long Time.

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.

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.

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.

What You Saw Was The People Of New York Having A Debate, Talking Through These Issues. It Was Contentious. It Was Emotional. But Ultimately, They Made A Decision To Recognize Civil Marriage. And I Think That's Exactly How Things Should Work.

Time Is Running Out For Iran To Address The International Community's Growing Concerns About Its Nuclear Program.

And To All Those Who Have Wondered If Americas Beacon Still Burns As Bright - Tonight We Proved Once More That The True Strength Of Our Nation Comes Not From Our The Might Of Our Arms Or The Scale Of Our Wealth, But From The Enduring Power Of Our Ideals: Democracy, Liberty, Opportunity, And Unyielding Hope. For That Is The True Genius Of America - That America Can Change. Our Union Can Be Perfected. And What We Have Already Achieved Gives Us Hope For What We Can And Must Achieve Tomorrow.

That Window Is Closing. . . . Now, The Clock Is Ticking. . . . We're Not Going To Have These Talks Just Drag Out In A Stalling Process. . . . We Haven't Given Away Anything - Other Than The Opportunity For Us To Negotiate

Clock Is Ticking

I Am Asking My Attorney General To Create A Special Unit Of Federal Prosecutors And Leading State Attorneys General To Expand Our Investigations Into The Abusive Lending And Packaging Of Risky Mortgages That Led To The Housing Crisis. This New Unit Will Hold Accountable Those Who Broke The Law, Speed Assistance To Homeowners, And Help Turn The Page On An Era Of Recklessness That Hurt So Many Americans.

These Kinds Of Tragedies [like Shooting In Fort Lauderdale] Have Happened Too Often During The Eight Years That I've Been President. The Pain, The Grief, The Shock That They Must Be Going Through Is Enormous. I've Asked Me Staff To Reach Out To The Mayor Down There And Make Sure That Coordination Between The State And Local Officials Is What It Should Be. But I Think We'll Find Out Over The Next 24 Hours Exactly How This Happened And What Motivated This Individual.

We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change

I'm Blown Away. I'm Flabbergasted The President [barack Obama] Made The Phone Call To Rouhani After 30-plus, `79, 33 Years Or So. And There's A Reason We Haven't Negotiated With Iran, Because They're State-sponsored Terrorists. They're The Central Bank For Terrorism Around The World.

No Challenge Poses A Greater Threat To Future Generations Than Climate Change.

No Party Has A Monopoly On Wisdom. No Democracy Works Without Compromise. But When Governor Romney And His Allies In Congress Tell Us We Can Somehow Lower Our Deficit By Spending Trillions More On New Tax Breaks For The Wealthy - Well, You Do The Math. I Refuse To Go Along With That. And As Long As I'm President, I Never Will.

At Various Periods In American History, People Get Pretty Rambunctious When It Comes To Our Democratic Debate.

American History

There Is A Theory That Basically Says That We Can Shred Regulations And Consumer Protections And Give More And More To The Most, And Somehow Prosperity Will Trickle Down. It Hasn't Worked. And I Think That The Fundamentals Of The Economy Have To Be Measured By Whether Or Not The Middle Class Is Getting A Fair Shake.

I Think A Lot Of Teachers Want To Talk About How To Continually Improve Performance.

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

The Greatest Danger Of All Is To Allow New Walls To Divide Us From One Another

We Reject The Use Of National Security Letters To Spy On Citizens Who Are Not Suspected Of A Crime.

We Remember The Specter Of Sectarian Violence -- Al Qaeda's Attacks On Mosques And Pilgrims, Militias That Carried Out Campaigns Of Intimidation And Campaigns Of Assassination. And In The Face Of Ancient Divisions, You Stood Firm To Help Those Iraqis Who Put Their Faith In The Future.

I Have Got To Figure Out A System Because I Have Bad Filing, Sorting, And Organizing Habits.

I Think I Was Able To Talk To People About Values In Ways That People - In Ways That Resonated With Folks.

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

There May Be No Greater Tribute To Steve Jobs' Success Than The Fact That Much Of The World Learned Of His Passing On A Device He Invented.

You Want To Be Commander-in-chief? You Can Start By Standing Up For The Men And Women Who Wear The Uniform Of The United States, Even When It's Not Politically Convenient.

As I Got Older, Then My Particular Ambitions Started Cohering Around Creating A World In Which People Of Different Races Or Backgrounds Or Faiths Can Recognize Each Other's Humanity, Or Creating A World In Which Every Kid, Regardless Of Their Background, Can Strive And Achieve And Fulfill Their Potential.

I Warn Young People That I Interact With About This - You Get Into Unrealistic Expectations Where You Think That, "oh, We're Gonna Eliminate Racism Like That. After Obama's Elected How Could There Be Any Racism?".

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.

If There's A Senior Citizen In Downstate Illinois That's Struggling To Pay For Their Medicine And Having To Chose Between Medicine And The Rent, That Makes My Life Poorer Even If It's Not My Grandparent.

If We Can Make Sure That That Young Boys Starting At The Age Of Three Or Four Already Knows Their Colors And Their Letters And Are Getting Good Preschool, And By The Time They Get Into School They've Got A Good Teacher And Are Getting The Support That They Need And Are Able To Keep Up With Their Classwork, That Is Going To Do More To Reduce The Incarceration Rate At The Same Time, Obviously, As It Increases The College Enrollment Rate.

We Shouldn’t Have A Bunch Of Politicians, A Majority Of Whom Are Men, Making Health Care Decisions On Behalf Of Women.

[my Grandmother] Is A Typical White Person.

Just From A Political Perspective, Do You Think The President Of The United States Going Into Re-election Wants Gas Prices To Go Up Higher? Look, Here's The Bottom Line With Respect To Gas Prices: I Want Gas Prices Lower Because They Hurt Families.

Only A Handful Of Men And Women Leave An Imprint On The Conscience Of A Nation And On The History That They Helped Shape.

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.

I Don't Have To Negotiate An Arms Agreement With Great Britain Or With France.

Let's Say I'm On The Policy Wonk End Of The Spectrum. As Much As I Can Dive Into A Briefing Book And Really Work To Master Various Subjects That Come Before My Desk, I'm Still Not An Expert On A Huge Amount Of The Stuff That We Work On.

... The Fact Is It Didn't Happen In The First Month, The First Six Weeks, In A Way That Was At All Acceptable. And Since I'm In Charge, Obviously, We Screwed It Up.

To Everyone In This Congress Who Still Refuses To Raise The Minimum Wage, I Say This: If You Truly Believe You Could Work Full-time And Support A Family On Less Than $15,000 A Year, Go Try It. If Not, Vote To Give Millions Of The Hardest-working People In America A Raise.

We Don't Make Determinations About Who We Love. And That's Why I Think That Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation Is Wrong.

Senator Joe Biden Is Pretty Clean And Articulate For A White Guy.

The People There, The Community, The Lessons That I Learned -- They're All Based Right In This Few Square Miles Where We'll Now Be Able To Give Something Back And Bring The World Back Home After This Incredible Journey.

Foreign Assistance Is Not An End In Itself. The Purpose Of Aid Must Be To Create The Conditions Where It's No Longer Need.

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

The Arc Of The Moral Universe May Bend Towards Justice, But It Doesn't Bend On Its Own.

Politics Has Become So Bitter And Partisan, So Gummed Up By Money And Influence, That We Can't Tackle The Big Problems That Demand Solutions. And That's What We Have To Change First. We Have To Change Our Politics, And Come Together Around Our Common Interests And Concerns As Americans.

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

Everybody Acknowledges That The Current Path We're On Is Unsustainable, Not Just For The People Who Don't Have Health Insurance But For Those Who Do.

This Is Our First Task-caring For Our Children. It's Our First Job. If We Don't Get That Right, We Don't Get Anything Right. That's How, As A Society, We Will Be Judged.

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.

When We Think Of The Major Threats To Our National Security, The First To Come To Mind Are Nuclear Proliferation, Rogue States And Global Terrorism. But Another Kind Of Threat Lurks Beyond Our Shores, One From Nature, Not Humans - An Avian Flu Pandemic.

I Am A Little Jet Lagged From My Trip To Malaysia...the Lengths We Have To Go To To Get Cnn Coverage These Days.

The Truth Is, Some Of These Comments, When You Actually Ask 'well, This Is Based On What? This Notion That Obama's A Socialist, For Example?' Nobody Can Really Give You A Good Answer.

On This Day, We Gather Because We Have Chosen Hope Over Fear, Unity Of Purpose Over Conflict And Discord.

We Need Not Throw Away 200 Years Of American Jurisprudence While We Fight Terrorism. We Need Not Choose Between Our Most Deeply Held Values, And Keeping This Nation Safe.

America Will Rise Again. And Hope Will Rise Again.

When It Comes To Our Foreign Policy, You Seem To Want To Import The Foreign Policies Of The 1980s, Just Like The Social Policies Of The 1950s And The Economic Policies Of The 1920s.

Nobody Cares How Tough Your Upbringing Was. Nobody Cares If You Suffered Some Discrimination.

As President, I'm Committed To Making Washington Work Better And Rebuilding The Trust Of The People Who Sent Us Here.

I Can't Really Characterize Any Country, Except To Say That We Work Well With A Number Of Our Foreign Counterparts.

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.

We Long For Unity, But Are Unwilling To Pay The Price. But Of Course, True Unity Cannot Be So Easily Won. It Starts With A Change In Attitudes - A Broadening Of Our Minds, And A Broadening Of Our Hearts.

Two-thirds Of Americans Believe That, After A Baby's Heart Is Beating And They Can Feel Pain, That They Need Some Protection.

I Was Watching A Documentary That During The Bay Of Pigs Crisis Jfk Had About Two Weeks Before Anybody Reported On It. Imagine That. I Think It's Fair To Say That If Something Like That Happens Under A Current President, They've Got To Figure Out In About An Hour What Their Response Is.

African American Boys Oftentimes Fall Behind In School Early, Start Feeling Discouraged, Check Out, Drop Out, End Up On The Streets And Then Get Into Trouble.

I Think The American People Have A Generous Instinct. They Understand That We're A Nation Of Immigrants. But If Those Folks Are Going To Live In This Country, They Have To Be Put On A Pathway To Citizenship That Involves Them Paying A Fine, Making Sure That They Are At The Back Of The Line And Not Cutting In Front Of People Who Applied Legally To Come Into The Country.

There Was Never A Promise That Race Relations In America Would Be Entirely Resolved During My Presidency Or Anybody's Presidency. I Mean, This Has Been A Running Thread - And - And Fault Line In American Life And American Politics Since Its Founding.

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