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Hillary Clinton Was An Outstanding Secretary Of State. She Would Never Intentionally Put America In Any Kind Of Jeopardy. And What I Also Know, Because I Handle A Lot Of Classified Information, Is That There's Classified And Then There's Classified. There's Stuff That Is Really Top Secret Top Secret, And There's Stuff That Is Being Presented To The President Or The Secretary Of State That You Might Not Want On The Transom Or, You Know, Going Out Over The Wire, But Is Basically Stuff That You Could Get In Open Source.

-Barack Obama

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Hillary Clinton Was An

Barack Obama

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Hillary Clinton Was An Outstanding Secretary Of State. She Would Never Intentionally Put America In Any Kind Of Jeopardy. And What I Also Know, Because I Handle A Lot Of Classified Information, Is That There's Classified And Then There's Classified. There's Stuff That Is Really Top Secret Top Secret, And There's Stuff That Is Being Presented To The President Or The Secretary Of State That You Might Not Want On The Transom Or, You Know, Going Out Over The Wire, But Is Basically Stuff That You Could Get In Open Source.

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

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.

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

We Have Known For Decades That Our Survival Depends On Finding New Sources Of Energy. Yet We Import More Oil Today Than Ever Before.

One Thing I Think We Have To Do Is To Make Sure That The Undocumented Workers Who Are Living In America Today, That They Have To Take Responsibility. They've Got To Register, Pay A Fine, Pay Their Back Taxes, Learn English And Then Get On A Pathway In Which They Could Have The Prospect Of Being Here Legally.

We Can Still See God In Other People And Do Our Best To Help Them Find Their Own Grace. So That’s What I Strive To Do And Pray To Do Every Day.

We Wouldn't Even Be Where We Are Had It Not Been That 70% Of Hispanics Voted For President Obama, Voted Democratic In The Last Election. That Caused An Epiphany In The Senate, That's For Sure. So All Of A Sudden We Have Already Passed Comprehensive Immigration Reform In The Senate. That's A Big Victory.

I Still Don't Feel Responsible For What Donald Trump Says Or Does. But I Do Feel A Responsibility As President Of The United States To Make Sure That I Facilitate A Good Transition And I Present To Him As Well, As The American People My Best Thinking, My Best Ideas About How You Move The Country Forward. To Speak Out With Respect To Areas Where I Think The Republican Party's Wrong, But To Pledge To Work With Them On Those Things That I Think Will Advance The Causes Of Security And Prosperity And Justice And Inclusiveness In America.

Even If The Criticism Is Not Always Perfectly Informed And In Some Cases I Would Deem Unfair, Just The Noise, Attention, Fuss Probably Keeps Powerful Officials Or Agencies On Their Toes. And They Should Be On Their Toes When It Comes To The Use Of Deadly Force.

Today We Continue A Never Ending Journey To Bridge The Meaning Of Those Words With The Realities Of Our Time.

Obviously I'm Grayer, A Few More Wrinkles. One Of The Things I'm Proud About Is That I Think My Basic Character And Outlook Actually Have Not Changed Much. And People Who Are Closest To Me Will Tell You That The Guy Who Came Here Is The Same Guy Who's Leaving.

I Don't Expect That The President-elect [donald Trump] Will Follow Exactly Our Blueprint Or Our Approach, But My Hope Is That He Does Not Simply Take A Real-politic Approach And Suggest That, You Know, If We Just Cut Some Deals With Russia, Even If It Hurts People Or Even If It Violates International Norms, Or Even If It Leaves Smaller Countries Vulnerable Or Creates Long-term Problems In Regions Like Syria, That We Just Do Whatever Is Convenient At The Time.

Globalization Is A Fact, Because Of Technology, Because Of An Integrated Global Supply Chain, Because Of Changes In Transportation. And We're Not Going To Be Able To Build A Wall Around That.

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

African American

I Promised To Bring Change To Washington. The Underlying Reason For The Economic Mess We're In Has Been Building For Years. It's A Fundamental Imbalance In Which The Top 1 Percent Now Gets Almost A Quarter Of All National Income. We Haven't Seen Income And Wealth This Concentrated Since The Late Nineteen Twenties, And We All Know What Happened Then - The Great Depression. We'll Never Really Get Out Of The Gravitational Pull Of The Great Recession Until We Fix This Basic Problem.

Great Depression

One Of The Thing About Being President - That Can't Be Taught, You Have To Experience, Is - There Is The Sheer Weight Of Decision Making. And When I Make A Decision To Send 17,000 Young Americans To Afghanistan - You Can Understand That Intellectually. But Understanding What That Means For Those Families, For Those Young People - When You End Up Sitting At Your Desk, Signing - A Condolence Letter To One Of The Family Members Of A Fallen Hero - You're Reminded Each And Every Day, At Every Moment, That - The Decisions You Make Count.

What Is True, Though, Is Now We've Got A Bunch Of Videos That Whatever Side Of The Issue You're On, Raises The Temperature On These Issues And Makes People Really Focused .

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

What I Could Not Support Was A Dumb War, A Rash War, A War Based Not On Reason But On Passion, Not On Principle But On Politics.

As An Elected Official Who Comes From The African-american Community, There Are Some Similarities. You Are Always Trying To Reconcile Your Own Personal Biography And Affiliations With The Demands Of The Broader Democracy. And You Need To Make Sure You Are Representing Everybody.

African American

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

I'm Not Denouncing The Church, And I'm Not Interested In People Who Want Me To Denounce The Church. It's Not A Church Worthy Of Denouncing.

A Political Candidacy Built Around Hope And Change And Compromise Would Eventually Become A Presidency Of Crisis And Confrontation.

We [americans] Are A Nation Of Immigrants. We All Understand What This Country Has Become Because Talent From All Around The World Wants To Come Here, People Who Are Willing To Take Risks, People Who Want To Build On Their Dreams And Make Sure Their Kids Have An - Even Bigger Dreams Than They Have.

We've Got To Make Sure That Teachers Are Respected, That They Are Rewarded, That Young People Like Yourself Who Have Talent And Want To Work With People, That You're Able To Support Yourself And Live Out A Great Life Being A Teacher.

What We Want Is For People To Know That You Can Get Affordable Health Care And Most Young Americans, They're Not Covered And The Truth Is They Can Get Coverage All For What It Costs To Pay Your Cell Phone Bill.

That Is Another Theme In The Book [dreams From My Father]. How Do We Exercise More Empathy In Our Public Discourse? How Do We Get The Black To See Through The Eyes Of The White? Or The Citizen To See Through The Eyes Of The Immigrant? Or The Straight To See Through The Eyes Of The Gay? That Has Always Been A Struggle In Our Politics.

If You Only Think About Yourself - How Much Money Can I Make, What Can I Buy, How Nice Is My House, What Kind Of Fancy Car Do I Have? - Over The Long Term, I Think, You Get Bored. I Think Your Life Becomes Diminished. The Way To Live A Full Life Is To Think: What Can I Do For Others?

Those Opportunity Gaps Begin Early, Often At Birth. And They Compound Over Time, Becoming Harder And Harder To Bridge, Making Too Many Young Men And Women Feel Like, No Matter How Hard They Try, They May Never Achieve Their Dreams.

We Have To Make Sure America Writes The Rules Of The Global Economy, And We Should Do It Today While Our Economy Is In The Position Of Global Strength, Because If We Don't Write The Rules For Trade Around The World, Guess What: China Will.

We Are One Nation Under God, And We May Call That God Different Names But We Remain One Nation.

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

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

The Kind Of Violence, Looting, Destruction That We Saw From A Handful Of Individuals In Baltimore, There's No Excuse For That. That's Not A Statement. That's Not Politics. That's Not Activism. That's Just Criminal Behavior.

Don't Just Consume Things, Create Things

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.

If You Were Successful, Somebody Along The Line Gave You Some Help. There Was A Great Teacher Somewhere In Your Life.

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

The Interests Of All Cypriots Would Be Advanced With A Bizonal Bicommunal Federation.

After A Breakthrough Year For America, Our Economy Is Growing And Creating Jobs At The Fastest Pace Since 1999.

When You've Got Little Kids, And You're Tucking Them In. When You Open A Door And They're In Their Pajamas And They're, You Know, Wrestling With You And Asking You, You Know, To Read To Them And Stuff, [the White House] Starts Feeling Like Home Pretty Quick. Not To Mention Having A Mother-in-law Upstairs, And The Dog, And Now Two.

For Everywhere We Look, There Is Work To Be Done. The State Of Our Economy Calls For Action: Bold And Swift. And We Will Act Not Only To Create New Jobs But To Lay A New Foundation For Growth. We Will Build The Roads And Bridges, The Electric Grids And Digital Lines That Feed Our Commerce And Bind Us Together. We Will Restore Science To Its Rightful Place And Wield Technology's Wonders To Raise Health Care's Quality And Lower Its Costs.

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

Alongside My Own Deep Personal Faith, I Am A Follower, As Well, Of Our Civic Religion. I Am A Big Believer In The Separation Of Church And State.

Now, As The World's Largest Economy And As The World's Second Largest Emitter, America Bears Our Responsibility To Address Climate Change, And We Intend To Meet That Responsibility.

Families Across America Are Feeling The Pinch As They Watch Debts Mount, Bills Pile Up And Savings Disappear.

If You Look At Sort Of How Politics Has Divided Itself Here In This Country, The Big Divide Right Now Is Between Urban Areas, Which Have Become Increasingly Democratic, And Rural Or Exurban Areas That Feel As If They're Being Ignored.

California Is Our Biggest Economy. California Is Our Biggest Agricultural Producer. So What Happens Here Matters To Every Working American.

Each Of Us Deserves The Freedom To Pursue Our Own Version Of Happiness. No One Deserves To Be Bullied.

If You Look At Countries Like South Africa, Where You Had A Black Majority, There Have Been Efforts To Tax And Help That Black Majority, But It Hasn't Come In The Form Of A Formal Reparations Program.

Shooting In Orlando Is A Sobering Reminder That Attacks On Any American, Regardless Of Race, Ethnicity, Religion Or Sexual Orientation, Is An Attack On All Of Us And On The Fundamental Values Of Equality And Dignity That Define Us As A Country. And No Act Of Hate Or Terror Will Ever Change Who We Are Or The Values That Make Us Americans.

So If Somebody Wants To Build A Coal-powered Plant, They Can; It's Just That It Will Bankrupt Them Because They're Going To Be Charged A Huge Sum For All That Greenhouse Gas That's Being Emitted.

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.

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

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

I Don't Want My Generals Or My Defense Secretary Or My National-security Team To Ever Feel Deploying Weapons To Kill People As Routine Or Abstract, Even If The Targets Are Bad People.

But The Question Is, Do We Care Enough? Do We Care Enough To Keep Standing Up For The Country That We Know Is Possible, Even If It's Hard, And Even If It's Politically Uncomfortable? Do We Care Enough To Sustain The Passion And The Pressure To Make Our Communities Safer And Our Country Safer? Do We Care Enough To Do Everything We Can To Spare Other Families The Pain That Is Felt Here Today?

Yes, Our Greatness As A Nation Has Depended On Individual Initiative, On A Belief In The Free Market. But It Has Also Depended On Our Sense Of Mutual Regard For Each Other, Of Mutual Responsibility. The Idea That Everybody Has A Stake In The Country, That We're All In It Together And Everybody's Got A Shot At Opportunity. Americans Know This. We Know That Government Can't Solve All Our Problems - And We Don't Want It To. But We Also Know That There Are Some Things We Can't Do On Our Own. We Know That There Are Some Things We Do Better Together.

I Know That There Are Millions Of Americans Who Are Content With Their Health Care Coverage - They Like Their Plan And, Most Importantly, They Value Their Relationship With Their Doctor.

The Globe Is Shrinking, The Information Age Is Bringing A Lot Of Changes. People Are Anxious About Their Future And Their Children's Futures.

What Is Portrayed As High-minded Positions On Issues Sometimes Is Just Designed To Carve Out Some Of Their Commercial Interests.

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

What I Consistently Say To Young People - I Say It In The United States, But I'll Say It Here In Germany And Across Europe: Do Not Take For Granted Our Systems Of Government And Our Way Of Life. I Think There Is A Tendency, Because We Have Lived In An Era That Has Been Largely Stable And Peaceful, At Least In Advanced Countries, Where Living Standards Have Generally Gone Up, There Is A Tendency I Think To Assume That That's Always The Case.

I Have Never Had To Travel More Than Thirty Seconds From Home To Office, And It's Because Of That That I've Been Able To Maintain, Really A Family Life That Has Nurtured And Sustained Me During This Time [of Presidency].

There Is A Certain Percentage Of The White Population ... If They Started Having More Middle-class Black Kids Who Are Friends With Their Kids, Eating Cheerios In Their Kitchen, Their Attitudes Start Changing.

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.

Unlike My Opponent, I Will Not Let Oil Companies Write This Country's Energy Plan, Or Endanger Our Coastlines, Or Collect Another $4 Billion In Corporate Welfare From Our Taxpayers.

If You’re Walking Down The Right Path And You’re Willing To Keep Walking, Eventually You’ll Make Progress.

If We Don’t Uphold Our Constitution And Our Values, That Over Time, That Will Make Us Less Safe And That Will Be A Recruitment Tool For Organizations Like Al Qaeda. That’s What I Have To Keep My Eye On.

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."

Most People Who Serve In Washington Have Been Trained Either As Lawyers Or As Political Operatives--professions That Tend To Place A Premium On Winning Arguments Rather Than Solving Problems.

We've Said To The Iranians All Along . . . We Still Remain Open To Diplomacy. But It's Been Very Clear That The Iranians Don't Want To Engage With Us.

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

There's No Doubt That Probably At Least Once A Week, Maybe Once A Day, I Said, "ah, I Should Have Done That Better."

There's A Utility In The Democracy Refreshing Itself On An Ongoing Basis.

We've Got To Be Able To Distinguish Between Dangerous Individuals Who Need To Be Incapacitated And Incarcerated Versus Young People Who Are In An Environment In Which They Are Adapting, But If Given Different Opportunities, A Different Vision Of Life, Could Be Thriving The Way We Are. That's What Strikes Me. There But For The Grace Of God. And That, I Think, Is Something That We All Have To Think About.

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.

Turns Out I'm Really Good At Killing People. Didn't Know That Was Gonna Be A Strong Suit Of Mine.

The Problem Is That Young People Are Less Likely To Vote Than Older People. What Results Is A Situation In Which Sometimes The Elections Don't Fully Reflect The Views Of The American Population.

When It Comes To Crime, The Violent Crime Rate In America Has Been Lowered During My Presidency And Any Time In The Last Three, Four Decades.

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.

I Think I'm Able To Reach A Lot Of Folks, Despite The Fact That The Conventional News Media Sometimes Says, "you Know, This Speech Is Too Long," Or "it's Too Complicated," Or "he Needs To Have Better Sound Bites," Or What Have You.

For More Than Four Decades, The Libyan People Have Been Ruled By A Tyrant - Moammar Gaddafi. He Has Denied His People Freedom, Exploited Their Wealth, Murdered Opponents At Home And Abroad, And Terrorized Innocent People Around The World - Including Americans Who Were Killed By Libyan Agents.

We Will Continue To Deepen Our Engagement Using Every Element Of American Power - Diplomacy, Military, Economic Development, The Power Of Our Values And Our Ideals.

I Do Think That All Politicians Today Have To Be More Attentive To People Wanting To Be Heard, Wanting To Have More Control Over Their Lives.

The Easiest Way To Get 15 Minutes Of Fame Is To Be Rude To Somebody.

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

Under My Plan Of A Cap And Trade System, Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket… Because I’m Capping Greenhouse Gasses, Coal Power Plants, Natural Gas…you Name It…whatever The Plants Were, Whatever The Industry Was, They Would Have To Retro-fit Their Operations. That Will Cost Money…they Will Pass That Money On To The Consumers.

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.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer A Christian Nation

There’s No Doubt That There’s Some Folks Who Just Really Dislike Me Because They Don’t Like The Idea Of A Black President.

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

[the White House Staff] Start Bringing In Their Kids, Who You Think Should Be Babies And Now Are In Second Grade Or Something, And You've Watched Them Grow Up. So I Think What Ends Up Happening Is You End Up Maintaining Those Networks And Those Contacts, But The Concentrated Interactions And Experience That You Have Here, I Don't Think, I Don't Expect You Can Duplicate Anyplace Else.

There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around. I Think The Problem Here Is That In Our School Systems, And To Some Degree - And This Is Where It Is Relevant - With School Boards Around The Country That Are Mandating Curriculums And Textbooks, You Start Seeing This Weird Watering Down Of Scientific Fact So That Our Kids Are Growing Up In An Environment - And This Connects To What I Was Saying Earlier Abou The Media - Where Everything's Contested. Where Nothing Is True.

I Will Begin To Remove Our Troops From Iraq Immediately.

Sustaining The Energy And Focus Involved In Doing A Good Job I Think Starts To Gets Tougher The Longer You Do It.

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.

As You Get Older, Your Mind Gets A Little More Set. And It Needs The Poking And Prodding And Breaking Through Of Stereotypes That I Think Young People Provide.

We Were Still Able To See The Phone Records Of A Potential Terrorist Cause, We Held Them, Now You Have To Hope The Phone Company Still Has Them, You Have To Argue With Their Chief Counsel By The Time You Get Access To It, And Try To Find Out Who They've Been Talking To Before It's Too Late.

And Joe Biden, Thank You For Being The Best Vice President I Could Ever Hope For.

[t]hese Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans Are Also The Tax Cuts That Are Least Likely To Promote Growth.

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

We Are Reorganizing How We Work With State And Local Governments To Make Sure That We Are Not Prioritizing Families [for Deportation], And You Are Gonna See, I Think, A Substantial Change Even As The Case Works Its Way Through The Courts.

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.

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

There Have Been Times Where, Let's Say On Lgbt Issues, When We Were Trying To End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, And I Got The Pentagon And Bob Gates, A Republican Holdover From The [george W.] Bush Administration, To Authorize A Study Of How You Might End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Headed Up By Jeh Johnson, Who At That Time Was A Council To The Justice Department. And It Was Going To Take A Year To Conduct That Study, Issue A Report, And Figure Out How It Might Be Implemented, What Effect It Would Have On Unit Cohesion And Military Effectiveness.

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

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

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.

I'm Not Saying I'm Impervious To Criticism.

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.

I Can Say With Confidence That I Never Bought Into The Hype, And I Made Sure That The People Around Me Didn't Buy Into The Hype, And I Did Not Surround Myself With People Who Fed Me The Hype. And I'm Glad Of That As Well.

It's Only When You Hitch Your Wagon To Something Larger Than Yourself That You Realize Your True Potential.

Greatest Leadership

Any Discuss About Taxes Ends Up Being, Are You Raising Them Or Lowering Them, As The Opposed To The Question I Ask - Are We Raising Them For High Income Individuals That Can Afford It, And Lowering Them For Lower Income People Who Really Need Help. Those Old Categories Don't Work, And They're Preventing Us From Solving Them Problems.

A Political Consultant, When We First Started Thinking About Senate Race, Said, "you Can Have One Funny Name. You Can Be 'barack Smith.' Or You Can Be 'joe Obama.' But 'barack Obama' - That's Not Gonna Work."

I Think We Want To See New Voices And New Ideas Emerge - That's Part Of The Reason Why Term Limits Are A Really Useful Thing.

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.

We've Got To Be Able To Have A Conversation And Recognize We're All Americans; We All Want The Best For This Country. We May Have Some Disagreements In Terms Of How To Get There, But All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong, That Jobs Are Growing. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That People Aren't Bankrupt When They Get Sick. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Young People Can Afford An Education.

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.

Today, Women Make Up About Half Our Workforce. But They Still Make 77 Cents For Every Dollar A Man Earns. That Is Wrong, And In 2014, It’s An Embarrassment. Women Deserve Equal Pay For Equal Work.

This Comes From A Group Of People Who`ve Been Wrong About Every Foreign Policy Issue Over The Last Two Decades. They Supported Hillary Clinton`s War In Libya. They Supported President [barack] Obama`s Bombing Of Assad.

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

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

Justice Needs To Be Served, What I Think People Of Baltimore Want More Than Anything Else Is The Truth. That's What People Around The Country Expect.

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

My Particular Worries On Any Given Day - How I'm Doing In The Polls Or What Somebody Is Saying About Me... For Good Or For Ill - Isn't Particularly Relevant. What Is Relevant Is: What Am I Building That Lasts?

Believe It Or Not, Entertainment Is Part Of Our American Diplomacy, It Is Part Of What Makes Us Exceptional, Part Of What Makes Us Such A World Power. Hundreds Of Millions Of People May Never Set Foot In The United States, But Thanks To You, They've Experienced A Small Part Of What Makes Our Country Special. They've Learned Something About Our Values. We Have Shaped A World Culture Through You...in A Way That Has Made The World Better.

It's Useful For Activists Just To Be Out There To Keep You Mindful And Not Get Complacent, Even If Ultimately You Think Some Of Their Criticism Is Misguided.

This Is My Number One Priority. I've Got A Lot Of Things On My Plate. But My Top Priority Is To Defeat Isil And To Eliminate The Scourge Of This Barbaric Terrorism That's Been Taking Place Around The World. Groups Like Isil Can't Destroy Us. They Can't Defeat Us. They Don't Produce Anything. They're Not An Existential Threat To Us. It Is Very Important For Us To Not Respond With Fear.

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

You Can't Manage [country] The Way You Would Manage A Family Business.

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.

We Will Encourage More Americans To Study In Muslim Communities

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

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

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

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.

We Have To Create That Bridge For The Future. And That Means Making Sure We're Paying Attention To The Wages Of Workers In Countries, Making Sure That We're Investing In Their Education And Their Skills.

To Those Leaders Around The Globe Who Seek To Sow Conflict, Or Blame Their Society's Ills On The West - Know That Your People Will Judge You On What You Can Build, Not What You Destroy.

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

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.

This Union May Never Be Perfect, But Generation After Generation Has Shown That It Can Always Be Perfected.

What You Have Is Mitt Romney Running Around The Country Saying 'well, You Know, My Wife Tells Me That What Women Really Care About Are Economic Issues, And When I Listen To My Wife, That's What I'm Hearing.' Guess What? His Wife Has Actually Never Worked A Day In Her Life.

I Think That Dealing With Guns Is One Way To Handle The Violent-crime Issues That We Have In This Country.

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.

I Am Somebody Who Usually Writes Out The Rough Draft In Longhand. Then I Type It Into The Computer, And That Is Where I Do My Editing. I Find That If I Write It On The Computer, I Go Too Quick. So I Like Getting That First Draft Out And Then Typing It In; You Are Less Self-conscious About It.

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

I Thought I Could Start Over, You See. But Now I Know You Can Never Start Over. Not Really. You Think You Have Control, But You Are Like A Fly In Somebody Else's Web. Sometimes I Think That's Why I Like Accounting. All Day, You Are Only Dealing With Numbers. You Add Them, Multiply Them, And If You Are Careful, You Will Always Have A Solution. There's A Sequence There. An Order. With Numbers, You Can Have Control.

This Is Our Moment...while We Breathe, We Hope. And Where We Are Met With Cynicism And Doubts And Those Who Tell Us That We Can't, We Will Respond With That Timeless Creed That Sums Up The Spirit Of A People: Yes, We Can.

In The Absence Of Sound Oversight,responsible Businesses Are Forced To Compete Against Unscrupulous And Underhanded Businesses, Who Are Unencumbered By Any Restrictions On Activities That Might Harm The Environment, Or Take Advantage Of Middle-class Families, Or Threaten To Bring Down The Entire Financial System.

Responsible Business

America Leads - Not With Bluster, But With Persistent, Steady Resolve.

Let's Also Make Sure That A High School Diploma Puts Our Kids On A Path To A Good Job. Right Now, Countries Like Germany Focus On Graduating Their High School Students With The Equivalent Of A Technical Degree From One Of Our Community Colleges, So That They're Ready For A Job. At Schools Like P-tech In Brooklyn ... Students Will Graduate With A High School Diploma And An Associate Degree In Computers Or Engineering. We Need To Give Every American Student Opportunities Like This.

Part Of America's Genius Has Always Been Its Ability To Absorb Newcomers, To Forge A National Identity Out Of The Disparate Lot That Arrived On Our Shores.

Prosperity Without Freedom Is Just Another Form Of Poverty.

You Don't Like Dealing With Somebody Who Denies Horrible Things Happening To Your People Or Threatens Future Horrible Things To Your People.

I Can Be Much More Sarcastic And, I Think, Sometimes Withering In My Assessments Of Things Than I Allow To Show In My Public Life.

We Know That Isil And Other Terrorist Groups Are Actively Encouraging People, Around The World And In Our Country, To Commit Terrible Acts Of Violence, Oftentimes As Lone-wolf Actors.

Terrorist Groups

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.

First Of All, I Think Everybody Has To Acknowledge Don't Underestimate The Guy [donald Trump], Because He's Going To Be 45th President Of The United States.

We Must Educate Our Children To Become Like Young Egyptian People.

Egyptian Revolution

Just Listen To What Mr. [donald] Trump Has To Say And Make Your Own Judgment With Respect To How Confident You Feel About His Ability To Manage Things Like Our Nuclear Triad.

To Anyone Out There Who Has Ever Been Assaulted: You Will Never Be Alone. You Are Never Alone. We Have Your Back. I've Got Your Back.

Violence Against Women

Put Simply, What I'd Like To Do Is To See The First Two Years Of Community College Free For Everybody's Who Is Willing To Work For It.

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

We Know That Every Father Has A Personal Responsibility To Do Right By Their Kids - To Encourage Them To Turn Off The Video Games And Pick Up A Book; To Teach Them The Difference Between Right And Wrong; To Show Them Through Our Own Example The Value In Treating One Another As We Wish To Be Treated. And Most Of All, To Play An Active And Engaged Role In Their Lives.

Unfortunately, You've Grown Up Hearing Voices That Incessantly Warn Of Government As Nothing More Than Some Separate, Sinister Entity That's At The Root Of All Our Problems. Some Of These Same Voices Also Do Their Best To Gum Up The Works. They'll Warn That Tyranny Is Always Lurking Just Around The Corner. You Should Reject These Voices.

But Shouldn't We Also Quit Marketing Murder As A Game?

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.

We Are Going Through Historic Times, And My Vision Is A World, First Of All, In Which America Continues To Be That One Indispensable Nation. Because We're Taking Care Of Our Own People, Because Our Economy Is Strong And Our Middle Class Is Growing, And People Feel Like Hard Work Is Rewarded, And We Are Continuing To Expand Opportunity And Diversity And Tolerance And Respect.

First And Foremost, It's Important To Remember That, From My Perspective At Least, My Most Important Legacy Was Making Sure That The World Didn't Go Into A Great Depression.

When The United States Stands Up For Human Rights, By Example At Home And By Effort Abroad, We Align Ourselves With Men And Women Around The World Who Struggle For The Right To Speak Their Minds, To Choose Their Leaders, And To Be Treated With Dignity And Respect. We Also Strengthen Our Security And Well Being, Because The Abuse Of Human Rights Can Feed Many Of The Global Dangers That We Confront - From Armed Conflict And Humanitarian Crises, To Corruption And The Spread Of Ideologies That Promote Hatred And Violence.

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.

When It Comes To Preventing Iran From Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon, I Will Take No Options Off The Table. ... That Includes All Elements Of American Power: A Political Effort Aimed At Isolating Iran, A Diplomatic Effort To Sustain Our Coalition And Ensure That The Iranian Program Is Monitored, An Economic Effort That Imposes Crippling Sanctions And, Yes, A Military Effort To Be Prepared For Any Contingency.

The United Kingdom And The European Union Will Remain Indispensable Partners Of The United States Even As They Begin Negotiating Their Ongoing Relationship To Ensure Continued Stability, Security And Prosperity For Europe, Great Britain And Northern Ireland, And The World.

What We May Think Is Funny Or Cute May End Up Being Powerfully Hurtful.

Since Taking Office, I've Made It Clear That The United States Was Prepared To Begin A New Chapter Of Engagement With The Islamic Republic Of Iran. We Offered The Iranian Government A Clear Choice. It Could Fulfill Its International Obligations And Realize Greater Security, Deeper Economic And Political Integration With The World, And A Better Future For All Iranians. Or It Could Continue To Flout Its Responsibilities And Face Even More Pressure And Isolation.

We Run Everything To Ground. If You See Something, Say Something. Report Your Concerns To Law Enforcement. They Will Be Looked At, They Will Be Reviewed.

I Think That [donald Trump] Clearly Was Able To Tap Into A Lot Of Grievances. And He Has A Talent For Making A Connection With His Supporters That Overrode Some Of The Traditional Benchmarks Of How You'd Run A Campaign Or Conduct Yourself As A Presidential Candidate. What Will Be Interesting To See Is How That Plays Out During The Course Of His Presidency.

My Central Focus Is What Are We Doing To Protect The American People And The American Homeland? Afghanistan And Pakistan Are Critical Elements In That Process.

Our Nation Owes A Debt To Its Fallen Heroes That We Can Never Fully Repay, But We Can Honor Their Sacrifice.

The Sort Of Seeing Cruelty And Callousness Of That Sort From Young People Is Heartbreaking.

I Consider It Part Of My Responsibility As President Of The United States To Fight Against Negative Stereotypes Of Islam Wherever They Appear.

I Think The American People Can Change Washington. But I Think That It Is Not Going To Change, Because Somebody From On High Directs That Change.

People Can Change

No Black Or White America-just United States Of America.

The Campaign Was A More Significant Training Ground Than I Think People Give It Credit For. By The Time I Got Here, I Think I Had A Pretty Good Sense Of What Was Required. But The Circumstances In Which I Came In Were Different Than Most Executives, Right? The Enterprise Was In The Midst Of A Major Crisis.

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.

I Do Think That There Is A Big Difference Between Family Farms And Agri-business, And One Of The Distressing Things That I Think Has Occurred Is With Consolidation Of Farm Lands. You've Seen Large Agri-businesses Benefit From Enormous Profits From Existing Farm Programs, And I Think We Should Be Focusing Most Of Those Programs On Those Family Farmers.

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

I Had Said From The Start That I Thought Iraq Was A Mistake, That We Should Have Stayed Focused On Afghanistan. I Think It Was The Right Decision Because The Taliban At That Point Had Gotten A Lot Of Momentum Before I'd Gotten Into Office, Partly Because We Hadn't Been Paying Attention As Much As We Needed To To Afghanistan.

The Holy Koran Tells Us, 'o Mankind! We Have Created You Male And A Female; And We Have Made You Into Nations And Tribes So That You May Know One Another.'

The Government Has To Treat All Citizens Equally. I Am A Strong Supporter Not Of A Weak Version Of Civil Unions, But Of A Strong Version, In Which The Rights That Are Conferred At The Federal Level To Persons Who Are Part Of The Same-sex Union Are Compatible. When It Comes To Federal Rights, The Over 1,100 Rights That Right Now Are Not Being Given To Same-sex Couples, I Think That's Unacceptable.

[america] Will Stand Steadfast With Israel In Pursuit Of Security And A Lasting Peace.

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

I Will Never Forget That The Only Reason I'm Standing Here Today Is Because Somebody, Somewhere Stood Up For Me When It Was Risky. Stood Up When It Was Hard. Stood Up When It Wasn't Popular. And Because That Somebody Stood Up, A Few More Stood Up. And Then A Few Thousand Stood Up. And Then A Few Million Stood Up. And Standing Up, With Courage And Clear Purpose, They Somehow Managed To Change The World.

When All Americans Are Treated As Equal We Are All More Free.

Marriage Equality

My Advice To African Leaders Is To Make Sure That If, In Fact, China Is Putting In Roads And Bridges, Number One, That They Are Hiring African Workers; Number Two, That The Roads Don't Just Lead From The Mine To The Port To Shanghai.

On Easter I Do Reflect On The Fact That As A Christian I Am Supposed To Love, And I Have To Say That Sometimes, When I've Listened To Less-than-loving Expressions By Christians, I Get Concerned.

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.

Republicans In Congress Have Two Choices Here: They Can Act Responsibly, And Pay America’s Bills; Or They Can Act Irresponsibly, And Put America Through Another Economic Crisis. But They Will Not Collect A Ransom In Exchange For Not Crashing The American Economy.

Because Of You, In Afghanistan We've Broken The Momentum Of The Taliban. Because Of You, We've Begun A Transition To The Afghans That Will Allow Us To Bring Our Troops Home From There. And Around The Globe, As We Draw Down In Iraq, We Have Gone After Al Qaeda So That Terrorists Who Threaten America Will Have No Safe Haven, And Osama Bin Laden Will Never Again Walk The Face Of This Earth.

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