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Going Back To The Discussion We Were Having About Immigration Reform, Some Of The Most Challenging Discussions I've Had Are With Activists Who Essentially Would Argue That Any Immigrant From Central America, Let's Say, Who Gets Here To This Country Should Be Allowed To Stay Because Their Country Is Dangerous, Their Country Is Poor, And The Opportunities For That Mom And That Kid Are Much Greater Here, And Why Would You Send Them Back?

-Barack Obama

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Going Back To The

Barack Obama

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Going Back To The Discussion We Were Having About Immigration Reform, Some Of The Most Challenging Discussions I've Had Are With Activists Who Essentially Would Argue That Any Immigrant From Central America, Let's Say, Who Gets Here To This Country Should Be Allowed To Stay Because Their Country Is Dangerous, Their Country Is Poor, And The Opportunities For That Mom And That Kid Are Much Greater Here, And Why Would You Send Them Back?

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The Biggest Threat That We Face Right Now Is Not A Nuclear Missile Coming Over The Skies. It's In A Suitcase. This Is Why The Issue Of Nuclear Proliferation Is So Important. It Is The - The Biggest Threat To The United States Is A Terrorist Getting Their Hands On Nuclear Weapons.

If 90 Percent Or 95 Percent Of Those - Chemical Stockpiles [in Syria] Were Eliminated, That's A Lot Of Chemical Weapons That Are Not Right Now In The Hands Of Isil Or Nusra Or, For That Matter, The Regime.

You Might Be Locked In A World Not Of Your Own Making, Her Eyes Said, But You Still Have A Claim On How It Is Shaped. You Still Have Responsibilities.

We Honor Those Who Walked So We Could Run. We Must Run So Our Children Soar. And We Will Not Grow Weary.

We Should Not Anticipate That Every Time Countries Come Together That We Are Doing Some Revolutionary Thing. Instead Of Hitting Home Runs, Sometimes We're Going To Hit Singles.

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.

We Are Defined Not By Our Borders But By Our Bonds.

I Think That Whenever You Have Got An Incoming President Of The Other Side It Takes A While For People To Reconcile Themselves With That New Reality.

[michelle Obama] Was The Hardest Sell. And She Never Fully Embraced Being In The Public Spotlight, Which Is Ironic, Given How Good She Is.

[white House Is] The Finest Prison In The World.

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 Don't Buy The Hype When Everybody Is Saying How Wonderful Things Are And How Great I Am, And I Don't Get Too Down When People Say, "this Is A Disaster And He's Done For."

We Are A Nation Of Laws.

America At Its Best Is Inclusive And Not Exclusive.

The Internet And Twitter And All These Things Are Very Powerful, But It Also Means Sometimes That Instead Of Having A Dialogue We Just Start Calling Folks - Calling Each Other Names. And That's True On The Left Or The Right.

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.

I've Been Struck By How Hungry We All Are For A Different Kind Of Politics. So I've Spent Some Time Thinking About How I Could Best Advance The Cause Of Change And Progress That We So Desperately Need.

We Have To Focus On How Do We Ensure The Economy Works For Everybody, And Not Just A Few.

You Know, My Faith Is One That Admits Some Doubt.

I Remember Having Meetings With Republican Senators Who Initially Had Been Trying To Engage [obamacare] But Saw That The Politics Of 'no' Were Growing Inside The Republican Party.

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.

We Cannot Meet 21st Century Challenges With A 20th Century Bureaucracy.

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.

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.

The President [barack Obama] Understands That The Country's Very Concerned About [terrorism] Issue. And I Think What You're Going To Hear From Him Is A Discussion About What Government's Doing To Ensure All Of Our Highest Priority, The Protection Of The American People.

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.

And To Those Nations Like Ours That Enjoy Relative Plenty, We Say We Can No Longer Afford Indifference To The Suffering Outside Our Borders; Nor Can We Consume The World's Resources Without Regard To Effect. For The World Has Changed, And We Must Change With It.

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

As Has Been Well Documented, I Smoked Pot As A Kid, And I View It As A Bad Habit And A Vice, Not Very Different From The Cigarettes That I Smoked As A Young Person Up Through A Big Chunk Of My Adult Life. I Don't Think It Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol.

One Of The Things I Think We Have To Do Is Make Sure That College Is Affordable For Every Young Person In America. And I Also Think That We're Going To Have To Rebuild Our Infrastructure, Which Is Falling Behind, Our Roads, Our Bridges, But Also Broadband Lines That Reach Into Rural Communities. So There Are Some Things That We've Got To Do Structurally To Make Sure That We Can Compete In This Global Economy. We Can't Shortchange Those Things. We've Got To Eliminate Programs That Don't Work, And We've Got To Make Sure That The Programs That We Do Have Are More Efficient And Cost Less.

The First Thing I Would Do Would Be To Move Forward With An Agenda To Make Sure That We Give D.c. The Opportunity To Elect Its Own Representatives And Have Some Political Power On Capitol Hill.

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

For Me, Personally, The Most Difficult Moments Had To Do With Not Just Terrorist Attacks, But Also Shootings.

I Think That The Risk To All The Progress We've Made Was At Stake In The Election Because Not Just The President-elect But A Lot Of Members Of Congress, Including Now The Speaker Of The House And The Senate Majority Leader, Have Said That Their Principal Agenda Was To Undo A Lot Of This Progress. But As I've Been Talking About Over The Last Several Days When It Comes To Health Care, The Gains That We've Made Are There. Twenty Million People Have Health Insurance That Didn't Have It Before. The Uninsured Rate Is The Lowest It's Ever Been.

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Become A Teacher. Your Country Needs You.

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Our Nation Honors Its Unbroken Line Of Fallen Heroes - And I See Many Of Them In The Audience Here Today.

We May Disagree About Gay Marriage, But Surely We Can Agree That It Is Unconscionable To Target Gays And Lesbians For Who They Are - Whether It's Here In The United States Or, As Hillary (clinton) Mentioned, More Extremely In Odious Laws That Are Being Proposed Most Recently In Uganda.

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I Reiterated Our Hope That Negotiations Over The United Kingdom's Exit From The E.u. Will Be Conducted In A Smooth And Orderly And Transparent Fashion And Preserve As Closely As Possible The Economic And Political And Security Relationships Between The U.k. And E.u.

Faith Doesn't Mean That You Don't Have Doubts.

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This Kind Of Gaping Inequality Gives Lie To The Promise That’s At The Very Heart Of America: That This Is A Place Where You Can Make It If You Try. We Tell People - We Tell Our Kids - That In This Country, Even If You’re Born With Nothing, Work Hard And You Can Get Into The Middle Class. We Tell Them That Your Children Will Have A Chance To Do Even Better Than You Do. That’s Why Immigrants From Around The World Historically Have Flocked To Our Shores.

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Arne Duncan Is Done More To Bring Our Educational System, Sometimes Kicking And Screaming, Into The 21st Century Than Anyone Else.

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And I Agree That The Democratic Legislators In Massachusetts Might Have Given Some Advice To Republicans In Congress About How To Cooperate, But The Fact Of The Matter Is We Used The Same Advisers And They Say It's The Same Plan.

Someone Once Said That Every Man Is Trying To Live Up To His Father's Expectations Or Make Up For Their Father's Mistakes.

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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.

Donald Trump Is Like Hillary Clinton Said, A Man You Can Bait With A Tweet Is Not A Man You Can Trust With Nuclear Weapons. You Can`t Do It.

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

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.

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I Think We Would Have Made A Lot More Mistakes And Would Have Accomplished A Lot Less Had We Not Been Grounded In Some Basic Truths.

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As Iraqi Forces Continue The Liberation Of Mosul, I'm Pleased That Nato Will Be Meeting The Commitment We Made In Warsaw To Begin Training Additional Forces In Iraq.

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And There’s Been Drift In Afghanistan Over The Last Couple Of Years. That’s Something That We Intend To Fix This.

Solyndra Is A Great Investment In Our Future

My Top Priority In Any Trade Negotiation Is Expanding Opportunity For Hardworking Americans. It's No Secret That Past Trade Deals Haven't Always Lived Up To Their Promise, And That's Why I Will Only Sign My Name To An Agreement That Helps Ordinary Americans Get Ahead, The Bill Put Forward Today Would Help Us Write Those Rules In A Way That Avoids The Mistakes From Our Past, Seizes Opportunities For Our Future And Stays True To Our Values.

America Must Always Lead On The World Stage. If We Don't, No One Else Will. The Military That You Have Joined Is, And Always Will Be, The Backbone Of That Leadership. But U.s. Military Action Cannot Be The Only - Or Even Primary - Component Of Our Leadership In Every Instance. Just Because We Have The Best Hammer Does Not Mean That Every Problem Is A Nail.

We Are Unique Among Advanced Countries That We Don't Have Universal Health Care. My Hope Was That I Was Able To Get A Hundred Percent Of People Health Care While I Was President. We Didn't Quite Achieve That, But We Were Able To Get 20 Million People Health Care Who Didn't Have It Before. And Obviously Some Of The Progress We Made Is Now Imperiled Because There's Still A Significant Debate Taking Place In The United States. For Those 20 Million People, Their Lives Have Been Better.

Here's The Truth: Even If Countries Like The United States Curb Our Emissions, If Growing Countries Like India - With Soaring Energy Needs - Don't Also Embrace Cleaner Fuels, Then We Don't Stand A Chance Against Climate Change.

It's Not Because John Mccain Doesn't Care. It's Because John Mccain Doesn't Get It.

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

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

If You Don't Have Good People, And You Don't Have A Good Process And You Don't Have, At Some Level, The Basic Reverence For [presidential] Office, And An Understanding Of The Incredible Responsibilities And Obligations, Then, I Think You Can Get Into Trouble.

No Religion Is Responsible For Terrorism. People Are Responsible For Violence And Terrorism.

I Am Reminded Every Day Of My Life, If Not By Events, Then By My Wife, That I Am Not A Perfect Man.

"undecided," While Running For Re-election To State Senate In 1998, In Response To An Outlines Questionnaire Asking, "do You Favor Legalizing Same-sex Marriage?"

I Think There Are A Whole Host Of Things That Are Civil Rights, And Then There Are Other Things - Such As Traditional Marriage - That, I Think, Express A Community's Concern And Regard For A Particular Institution.

I Don't Think That Hedge Funds Are Bad Per Se. I Think They're Just One More Financial Tool. And In That Sense, They're Useful.

It Could Be Another Election Where The Alignments Between Republicans And Democrats Are Different Than They Were This Time And Who A Foreign Country Prefers.

Theoretically, You Can Make, Obviously, A Powerful Argument That Centuries Of Slavery, Jim Crow, Discrimination Are The Primary Cause For All Those Gaps. That Those Were Wrongs Done To The Black Community As A Whole, And Black Families Specifically, And That In Order To Close That Gap, A Society Has A Moral Obligation To Make A Large, Aggressive Investment, Even If It's Not In The Form Of Individual Reparations Checks, But In The Form Of A Marshall Plan, In Order To Close Those Gaps. It Is Easy To Make That Theoretical Argument.

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change. Now, It's True That No Single Event Makes A Trend. But The Fact Is The 12 Hottest Years On Record Have All Come In The Last 15. Heat Waves, Droughts, Wildfires, Floods-all Are Now More Frequent And More Intense. We Can Choose To Believe That Superstorm Sandy, And The Most Severe Drought In Decades, And The Worst Wildfires Some States Have Ever Seen Were All Just A Freak Coincidence. Or We Can Choose To Believe In The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science-and Act Before It's Too Late.

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.

One Of The Proudest Things Of My Three Years In Office Is Helping To Restore A Sense Of Respect For America Around The World.

The Banks, Because Of Mismanagement, Because Of Huge Risk Taking, Are Now In Very Vulnerable Positions. We Can Expect That We're Gonna Have To Do More To Shore Up The Financial System. We Also Are Gonna Have To Make Sure That We Set Up Financial Regulations So That Not Only Does This Never Happen Again, But You Start Having Some Sort Of - Trust In How The Credit Markets Work Again.

The Notion That We Would Condition Iran Not Getting Nuclear Weapons In A Verifiable Deal On Iran Recognizing Israel Is Really Akin To Saying That We Won't Sign A Deal Unless The Nature Of The Iranian Regime Completely Transforms. And That Is, I Think, A Fundamental Misjudgment.

I Have Said Repeatedly That I Intend To Close Guantanamo, And I Will Follow Through On That. I Have Said Repeatedly That America Doesn't Torture. And I'm Gonna Make Sure That We Don't Torture. Those Are Part And Parcel Of An Effort To Regain America's Moral Stature In The World.

We Have Seen Violence And Terror Perpetrated By Those Who Profess To Stand Up For Faith, Their Faith. Professed To Stand Up For Islam, But In Fact Are Betraying It. Humanity Has Been Grappling With These Questions Throughout Human History. And Lest We Get On Our High Horse And Think This Is Unique To Some Other Place, Remember That During The Crusades And The Inquisition People Committed Terrible Deeds In The Name Of Christ.

Libya Is Still A Mess Right Now.

We Are Running Out Of Time

Running Out Of Time

Keeping The People's Government Open Is Not A Concession To Me. Keeping Vital Service Running And Hundreds Of Thousands Of Americans On The Job Is Not Something You 'give' To The Other Side.

That Bright Blue Ball Rising Over The Moon's Surface, Containing Everything We Hold Dear - The Laughter Of Children, A Quiet Sunset, All The Hopes And Dreams Of Posterity - That's What's At Stake. That's What We're Fighting For. And If We Remember That, I'm Absolutely Sure We'll Succeed.

I Think That There Is A Particular Mindset That Was On Display In The Run-up To The Iraq War That Continues To This Day. Some Of The Folks Who Were Involved In That Decision Either Don't Remember What They Said Or Are Entirely Unapologetic About The Results, But That Views The Middle East As A Place Where Force And Intimidation Will Deliver On The Security Interests That We Have, And That It Is Not Possible For Us To At Least Test The Possibility Of Diplomacy.

The Shift To A Cleaner Energy Economy Wont Happen Overnight, And It Will Require Tough Choices Along The Way. But The Debate Is Settled. Climate Change Is A Fact.

Where The Stakes Are The Highest, In The War On Terror, We Cannot Possibly Succeed Without Extraordinary International Cooperation. Effective International Police Actions Require The Highest Degree Of Intelligence Sharing, Planning And Collaborative Enforcement.

I Can No More Disown (jeremiah Wright) Than I Can Disown The Black Community. I Can No More Disown Him Than I Can My White Grandmother - A Woman Who Helped Raise Me, A Woman Who Sacrificed Again And Again For Me, A Woman Who Loves Me As Much As She Loves Anything In This World, But A Woman Who Once Confessed Her Fear Of Black Men Who Passed By Her On The Street, And Who On More Than One Occasion Has Uttered Racial Or Ethnic Stereotypes That Made Me Cringe.

You Know, It's Fashionable Right Now For People To Be Cynical. We Go In Cycles Like This And Right Now A Lot Of People Are Saying, 'oh, America Is Doing Terribly' And 'what Are We Going To Do?'

I Think I'm The Best President I've Ever Been Right Now. And I Think The Team That Is Operating Right Now Functions As Well As Any Team That I've Had. And So, You Know, There Is A Part Of You That Thinks, "man, We're Pretty Good At This Stuff Right Now." And You Hate To See That Talent Disperse.

I Will Begin To Remove Our Troops From Iraq Immediately.

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.

I Feel Good When I'm Engaged In What I Think Are The Core Issues Of The Society, And Those Core Issues To Me Are What's Happening To Poor Folks In This Society.

Mr Speaker, Mr Vice President, Members Of Congress, Distinguished Guests, And Fellow Americans, Last Month I Went To Andrews Air Force Base And Welcomed Home Some Of Our Last Troops To Serve In Iraq. Together, We Offered A Final, Proud Salute To The Colors Under Which More Than A Million Of Our Fellow Citizens Fought, And Several Thousand Gave Their Lives. We Gather Tonight Knowing That This Generation Of Heroes Has Made The United States Safer And More Respected Around The World.

We've Got To Identify New Strategies To Use Cleaner Energy, Because That Is A Recipe For Reducing The Overall Amount Of Pollution That's Out There.

America Is A Country Of Strong Families And Strong Values. My Life's Been Blessed By Both.

I Think That The Democrats Can Be Successful Nationally In The Future If We Are Able To Capture Some Of The Complexity Of People's Lives Right Now.

For Me, Lincoln Is Like Just A Handful Of People - A Gandhi, Or A Picasso, Or A Martin Luther King Jr. - Who Is An Original And Captures Something Essential.

In Many Ways [those Middle-aged Black Ladies] My Touchstone, Because They Are What I Meant When I Talked About The Audacity Of Hope.

I've Said Repeatedly That Where We See Terrorist Organizations Like Al-qaeda Or Isil, They Have Perverted And Distorted And Tried To Claim The Mantle Of Islam For An Excuse, For Basically Barbarism And Death. These Are People Who Kill Children, Kill Muslims, Take Sex Slaves - There's No Religious Rationale That Would Justify In Any Way Any Of The Things That They Do.

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

You Can't Change Washington From The Inside. You Can Only Change It From The Outside.

The Alternative, No Limits On Iran's Nuclear Program, No Inspections, An Iran That's Closer To A Nuclear Weapon, The Risk Of Regional Nuclear Arms Race, And The Greater Risk Of War - All That Would Endanger Our [american] Security.

Like It Or Not, We Have To Have A Financial System That Is Healthy And Functioning.

Financial System

The One Thing I've Said To [donald Trump] Directly, And I Would Advise My Republican Friends In Congress And Supporters Around The Country, Is Just Make Sure That, As We Go Forward Certain Norms, Certain Institutional Traditions Don't Get Eroded, Because There's A Reason They're In Place.

I Think That When It Comes To Issues Of Trade, I Think It Is Important For Us To Be In Favor Of Trade, But I Also Think It Is Important To Make Sure That We Are Putting In Place The Labor Standards, The Environmental Standards, That Are Going To Provide Some Of A Fighting Chance For American Workers.

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

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.

The Most Frustrated And Most Stymied It Is The Fact That The United States Of America Is The One Advanced Nation On Earth In Which We Do Not Have Sufficient Common-sense, Gun-safety Laws. Even In The Face Of Repeated Mass Killings.

With Respect To The Pledge I Made That If You Like Your Plan You Can Keep It. The Way I Put That Forward Unequivocally Ended Up Not Being Accurate.

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

I Think That People Are Born With A Certain Makeup, And That We're All Children Of God.

If, In [federal Housing Administration] Application, Black Folks Were Excluded From It, Then You Have To Override That By Going After Those Discriminatory Practices.

The Cyber World Is Sort Of The Wild, Wild West, And To Some Degree, We're Asked To Be The Sheriff.

Now Let Me Be Clear - I Suffer No Illusions About Saddam Hussein. He Is A Brutal Man. A Ruthless Man. A Man Who Butchers His Own People To Secure His Own Power. He Has Repeatedly Defied Un Resolutions, Thwarted Un Inspection Teams, Developed Chemical And Biological Weapons, And Coveted Nuclear Capacity. He's A Bad Guy. The World, And The Iraqi People, Would Be Better Off Without Him.

Of Course We [with Angela Merkel] Discussed Our Commitment To Meeting Shared Security Challenges From Countering Cyber Threats To Ensuring That Iran Continues To Live Up To The Terms Of The Iran Nuclear Deal.

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.

In The End, That's What This Election Is About. Do We Participate In A Politics Of Cynicism Or A Politics Of Hope?

The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Bully Women. It Must Be Shaped By Girls Who Go To School And Those Who Stand For A World Where Our Daughters Can Live Their Dreams Just Like Our Sons.

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

It's Harder To End A War Than Begin One. Indeed, Everything That American Troops Have Done In Iraq -- All The Fighting And All The Dying, The Bleeding And The Building, And The Training And The Partnering -- All Of It Has Led To This Moment Of Success. Now, Iraq Is Not A Perfect Place. It Has Many Challenges Ahead. But We're Leaving Behind A Sovereign, Stable And Self-reliant Iraq, With A Representative Government That Was Elected By Its People. We're Building A New Partnership Between Our Nations.

Basically, I Am A Night Owl. My Wife Is An Early Bird, So She Goes To Bed Around 9:30, And My Kids Are In Bed About 8. So, If I Am Home, I Will Usually Start Writing About 9:30 And Go Till About 12:30 Or 1:30, Depending On What My Energy Level Is.

So Americans Understand The Costs Of War. Yet As A Country, We Will Never Tolerate Our Security Being Threatened, Nor Stand Idly By When Our People Have Been Killed. We Will Be Relentless In Defense Of Our Citizens And Our Friends And Allies. We Will Be True To The Values That Make Us Who We Are.

I Just Want People To Know The Facts And Science And The Information... Measles Is Preventable.

Based On Current Surveys Of Public Opinion In The United States, It Turns Out That The Majority Of Americans Think I've Done A Pretty Good Job.

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.

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

I Think That Our Politics Everywhere Are Gonna Be Going Through This Bumpy Phase. But As Long As We Stay True To Our Democratic Principles, As Long As Elections Have Integrity, As Long As We Respect Freedom Of Speech, Freedom Of Religion, As Long As There Are Checks And Balances In Our Governments So That The People Have The Ability To Not Just Make Judgments About How Well Government Is Serving Them But Also Change Governments If They're Not Serving Them Well, Then I Have Confidence That Over The Long Term, Progress Will Continue.

Donald Trump Is Somebody Who I Think Likes To Mix It Up And To Have A Vigorous Debate.

When You Look At What [new Generation] Believe In, How They Value Diversity, How They Believe In Science, How They Care About The Environment, How They Believe In, You Know, Everybody Getting A Fair Shot, How They Believe In Not Discriminating Against People For Sexual Orientation And You Know, Their Belief That We Have To Work With Other Countries To Create A More Peaceful World And To Alleviate Poverty, That's The Majority An Entire Generation That's Coming Up Behind Us.

Today, We Are Closer To Fulfilling America's Promise Of Economic And Social Justice Because We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants Like Dr. King, Yet Our Future Progress Will Depend On How We Prepare Our Next Generation Of Leaders. We Must Fortify Their Ladders Of Opportunity By Correcting Social Injustice, Breaking The Cycle Of Poverty In Struggling Communities, And Reinvesting In Our Schools. Education Can Unlock A Child's Potential And Remains Our Strongest Weapon Against Injustice And Inequality.

I Believe That The Free Enterprise System Is The Greatest Engine Of Prosperity The World's Ever Known. I Believe In Self-reliance And Individual Initiative And Risk-takers Being Rewarded. But I Also Believe That Everybody Should Have A Fair Shot And Everybody Should Do Their Fair Share And Everybody Should Play By The Same Rules, Because That's How Our Economy's Grown. That's How We Built The World's Greatest Middle Class.

A Lot Of The Issues That I See, It Is Not An Either-or Situation.

That's What Building A Body Of Work Is All About. It's About The Daily Labor, The Many Individual Acts, The Choices Large And Small That Add Up Over Time, Over A Lifetime To A Lasting Legacy. It's About Not Being Satisfied With The Latest Achievement, The Latest Gold Star, Because The One Thing I Know About A Body Of Work Is That It's Never Finished. It's Cumulative. It Deepens And Expands With Each Day You Give Your Best. You May Have Setbacks And You May Have Failures, But You're Not Done.

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'm About To Embark On What May Be As Important As An Initiative As Anything I Do As President, Trying To Nudge The World In The Direction Of Doing Something Serious About Climate Change.

I Want People Around The World To Hear Me. To All Those Who Would Do Us Harm, No Act Of Terror Will Go Unpunished. It Will Not Dim The Light Of The Values That We Proudly Present To The Rest Of The World. No Act Of Violence Shakes The Resolve Of The United States Of America.

I Reserve The Right, As President Of The United States To Meet With Anybody At A Time And Place Of My Choosing If I Think It's Going To Keep America Safe.

I Think It's About Time! Who Cares Whether He Is Looking For Votes Or Not! At Least Your Country Is Moving Forward With The Times!

The World Doesn't Just Revolve Around You. There's A Lot Of Talk In This Country About The Federal Deficit. But I Think We Should Talk More About Our Empathy Deficit.

I Am Absolutely Certain That Generations From Now, We Will Be Able To Look Back And Tell Our Children That This Was The Moment When We Began To Provide Care For The Sick And Good Jobs To The Jobless; This Was The Moment When The Rise Of The Oceans Began To Slow And Our Planet Began To Heal; This Was The Moment When We Ended A War And Secured Our Nation And Restored Our Image As The Last, Best Hope On Earth. This Was The Moment - This Was The Time - When We Came Together To Remake This Great Nation So That It May Always Reflect Our Very Best Selves And Our Highest Ideals.

At Some Fundamental Level, Religion Does Not Allow For Compromise. It Insists On The Impossible. If God Has Spoken, Then Followers Are Expected To Live Up To God's Edicts, Regardless Of The Consequences. To Base One's Life On Such Uncompromising Commitment May Be Sublime; To Base Our Policy Making On Such Commitments Would Be A Dangerous Thing.

By Hook Or By Crook, We're Going To Make Sure That When I Leave This Office, That The Country Is More Prosperous, More People Have Opportunity, Kids Have A Better Education, We're More Competitive, Climate Change Is Being Taken More Seriously Than It Was.those Are Going To Be The Measures By Which I Look Back And Say Whether I've Been Successful As President.

I Thought Brittany Packnett, Who Was One Of The Ferguson Activists, Really Interesting, Smart Young Lady, Really Impressive - You Might Want To Talk With Her. So She Was One Of The Organizers Of The Ferguson Movement, Ended Up Joining Our Task Force. She Came In Here And She Just Knew Her Stuff.

I Will Eliminate Capital-gains Taxes For The Small Businesses And The Startups That Will Create The High-wage, High-tech Jobs Of Tomorrow

I Don't Think Marriage Is A Civil Right, But I Think That Being Able To Transfer Property Is A Civil Right.

The American People Are Going To Have A Good Choice.

American Values And Legal Traditions Do Not Permit The Indefinite Detention Of People Beyond Our Borders.

Globalization Makes Our Economy, Our Health, And Our Security All Captive To Events On The Other Side Of The World. And No Other Nation On Earth Has A Greater Capacity To Shape That Global System, Or To Build Consensus Around A New Set Of International Rules That Expand The Zones Of Freedom, Personal Safety, And Economic Well-being. Like It Or Not, If We Want To Make America More Secure, We Are Going To Have To Help Make The World More Secure.

I Think It's Important To Realize That I Was Actually Black Before The Election.

You're Not Going To Be Able To Make Good Decisions Without Building Some Relationship Of Trust Between Yourself And Community.

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.

John Mccain Likes To Say That He'll Follow Bin Laden To The Gates Of Hell - But He Won't Even Go To The Cave Where He Lives.

Rather Than Me Sort Of Characterize The Appropriateness Or Inappropriateness Of What Donald Trump Is Doing At The Moment, I Think What We Have To See Is How Will The President-elect Operate, And How Will His Team Operate, When They've Been Fully Briefed On All These Issues, They Have Their Hands On All The Levers Of Government, And They've Got To Start Making Decisions.

You Have The Ability And Gifts To Do Whatever You Want". It Is Your Turn Now To Change The World. Yes We Can!

I Am Here For My Mother And All The Americans Who Are Forced To Spend Time Arguing With Health Insurance Companies Instead Of Focusing On Getting Well. I Am Here For The Millions Of Lives That Will Be Touched And In Some Cases, Saved, By Health Insurance Reform. I Am Here For The Small Businesses Who Are Forced To Choose Between Health Care And Hiring. I Am Here For The Seniors Who Are Unable To Afford The Prescriptions They Need.

We Reward People A Lot For Being Rich, For Being Famous, For Being Cute, For Being Thin... One Of The Values I Think We Need To Instill In Our Country, In Our Children, Is A Sense Of 'usefulness', In Other Words, Are We Useful, Are We Making Other Peoples' Lives A Little Bit Better?

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

Since 2010, America Has Put More People Back To Work Than Europe, Japan, And All Advanced Economies Combined.

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

I Think If You Look At Almost Every Year Under Every President Over The Last, I Don't Know, 20, 30 Years, You're Going To Be Hard-pressed To Find A Year In Which The Majority Of Americans Thought We Were On The Right Track.

You Don't Defeat A Terrorist Network That Operates In Eighty Countries By Occupying Iraq.

Many Of Our Ideas Of Democracy, So Much Of Our Literature And Philosophy And Science Can Be Traced Back To Roots Right Here In Athens.

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.

Citizenship Means Standing Up For Everyone's Right To Vote.***

We Are Now At A Point Where Because We In Fact Have Been Successful At Stopping A Number Of Plots, A Threat Has Evolved. We Do See These Lone-wolf Actors. We Do See These Encouragements For Troubled Individuals To Pick Up A Gun And Act Out Of This Ideology.

We've Protected Thousands Of People In Libya; We Have Not Seen A Single U.s. Casualty; There's No Risks Of Additional Escalation. This Operation Is Limited In Time And In Scope.

We Are Not A Nation That Says, 'don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.' We Are A Nation That Says, 'out Of Many, We Are One.' We Are A Nation That Welcomes The Service Of Every Patriot. We Are A Nation That Believes That All Men And Women Are Created Equal. Those Are The Ideals That Generations Have Fought For. Those Are The Ideals That We Upheld Today.

If [black] Nationalism Could Create A Strong And Effective Insularity, Deliver On Its Promise Of Self-respect, Then The Hurt It Might Cause Well-meaning Whites, Or The Inner Turmoil It Caused People Like Me, Would Be Of Little Consequence.

It Will Take Time To Eradicate A Cancer Like Isil. And Any Time We Take Military Action, There Are Risks Involved - Especially To The Servicemen And Women Who Carry Out These Missions. But I Want The American People To Understand How This Effort Will Be Different From The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan. It Will Not Involve American Combat Troops Fighting On Foreign Soil.

This Is Not Some Distant Problem Of The Future. This Is A Problem That Is Affecting Americans Right Now. Whether It Means Increased Flooding, Greater Vulnerability To Drought, More Severe Wildfires - All These Things Are Having An Impact On Americans As We Speak.

And When It Comes To Developing The High Standards We Need, It's Time To Stop Working Against Our Teachers And Start Working With Them. Teachers Don't Go In To Education To Get Rich. They Don't Go In To Education Because They Don't Believe In Their Children. They Want Their Children To Succeed, But We've Got To Give Them The Tools. Invest In Early Childhood Education. Invest In Our Teachers And Our Children Will Succeed.

The Science [of Global Warming] Is Beyond Dispute... Delay Is No Longer An Option. Denial Is No Longer An Acceptable Response

My Powers Of Empathy, My Ability To Reach Into Another's Heart, Cannot Penetrate The Blank Stares Of Those Who Would Murder Innocents With Abstract, Serene Satisfaction.

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.

We're Breaking Protocol Here. That's The Good Thing About Being President - I Can Do Whatever I Want.

If You Want To Right-size Executive Power Relative To The Other Branches Of Government, The Best Way To Do That Is To Have A Healthy Congress In Which The Two Parties Are Debating, Disagreeing, But Also Occasionally Working Together To Pass Legislation.

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

You Can't Just Heely Away From Your Problems Forever

I Don't Think There's A Lot Of Dispute For This. You Can Argue That We Didn't Get Everything Done That We Wanted To Get Done, But I Can Make A Really Strong Argument, And I Think Prove, That By Almost Every Measure The Country's Better Off Now Than When I Started.

If You're Really Concerned About Deficits, You Cannot Take Seriously A Budget That Would Give $30 Billion A Year Worth Of Tax Cuts To Not Just The Top 1 Percent But The Top 0.1 Percent.

The More We Are Using Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Sources, The Less Environmentally Problematic Facilities End Up Being A Problem For Everybody, But Particularly For Folks Who Have To Suffer The Consequences Of Some Of These Facilities.

So I'm Not Proposing Anything Radical. I Just Believe That Anybody Making Over $250,000 A Year Should Go Back To The Income Tax Rates We Were Paying Under Bill Clinton. Back When Our Economy Created Nearly 23 Million New Jobs, The Biggest Budget Surplus In History, And Plenty Of Millionaires To Boot. ... At The Same Time, Most People Agree That We Should Not Raise Taxes On Middle-class Families Or Small Businesses -- Not When So Many Folks Are Just Trying To Get By.

To The Extent That We've Got A Fiscal Crisis Right Now, Part Of It Is Prompted By A Bullheaded Insistence On The Part Of The President, For Example, That We Should Extend All Of His Tax Cuts, Make All Of Them Permanent.

Angela [merkel] And I Also Agreed The Need For A Comprehensive And Humane Response To The Devastating Humanitarian Crisis In Syria And For The Influx Of Migrants And Refugees From Around The World. We Need To Build On The Progress Achieved At The U.n. Refugee Summit, Which Yielded New Commitments From Some 50 Nations And Organizations.

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