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I Believe In American Exceptionalism, Just As I Suspect That The Brits Believe In British Exceptionalism And The Greeks Believe In Greek Exceptionalism.

-Barack Obama

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I Believe In American

Barack Obama

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I Believe In American Exceptionalism, Just As I Suspect That The Brits Believe In British Exceptionalism And The Greeks Believe In Greek Exceptionalism.

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

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

I Don't Think I Underestimated [vladimir Putin], But I Think That I Underestimated The Degree To Which, In This New Information Age, It Is Possible For Misinformation For Cyber Hacking And So Forth To Have An Impact On Our Open Societies, Our Open Systems, To Insinuate Themselves Into Our Democratic Practices In Ways That I Think Are Accelerating.

Our Kids Grew Up Here [in The White House]. Some Of Our Best Friends Have Been Made Here In This Place. There Have Been Moments That Were Highlights For Us - That - You Know, Are Going To Be Hard To Duplicate.

When Friends Are In Trouble, America Helps.

We Are A Nation Of Laws.

We're Not Going To Baby Sit A Civil War.

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.

Our Goal Is To Have A Country That's Not Divided By Race.

You Will Not See Any Of Your Taxes Increase One Single Dime.

While We Breathe, We Will Hope.

I Do Make Sure That I've Got People Who Are Experts That Are Helping Me Make The Best Decisions Possible.

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

It's Time To Fundamentally Change The Way That We Do Business In Washington. To Help Build A New Foundation For The 21st Century, We Need To Reform Our Government So That It Is More Efficient, More Transparent, And More Creative. That Will Demand New Thinking And A New Sense Of Responsibility For Every Dollar That Is Spent.

Even While We May At Times Disagree, As Friends Sometimes Will, The Bonds Between The United States And Israel Are Unbreakable And The Commitment Of The United States To The Security Of Israel Is Ironclad.

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.

For Me And Michelle, This Visit Has Therefore Held Special Meaning. Throughout My Life, Including My Work As A Young Man On Behalf Of The Urban Poor, I Have Always Found Inspiration In The Life Of Gandhiji And In His Simple And Profound Lesson To Be The Change We Seek In The World. And Just As He Summoned Indians To Seek Their Destiny, He Influenced Champions Of Equality In My Own Country, Including A Young Martin Luther King

I Will Never Apologize For Saying That The Future Of Humanity And The Future Of The World Is Going To Be Defined By What We Have In Common As Opposed To Those Things That Separate Us And Ultimately Lead Us Into Conflict.

The Wort Terrorist Attack In American History Also Brought Out The Best In Our Country...we Are United As Americans.

American History

I've Consistently Said, We Need To Support Charter Schools. I Think It Is Important To Experiment, By Looking At How We Can Reward Excellence In The Classroom.

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 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."

As Opposed To Getting Into Arguments About, Well, These Folks Have Been Treated Fairly So Now We're Going To Be Doing Things That, Very Easily In The Minds Of A Lot Americans Feel Like, "now I'm Being Treated Unfairly."

We May Not Be Able To Stop Evil In The World, But How We Treat One Another Is Entirely Up To Us.

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.

You Can Be Stylish, And Powerful Too.

For The Sake Of Our Economy, Our Security, And The Future Of Our Planet, I Will Set A Clear Goal As President: In Ten Years, We Will Finally End Our Dependence On Oil From The Middle East.

Community Colleges Play An Important Role In Helping People Transition Between Careers By Providing The Retooling They Need To Take On A New Career.

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.

You Know, I Think That We Are Going To Be Ok. Look, Malia Is 10, So Three Years From Now She Is 13. Who Knows What Happens To Teenagers?

There Is No Excuse For Not Trying.

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

In Order For Us To Compete With China, We've Also Got To Make Sure, Though, That We're Taking - Taking Care Of Business Here At Home. If We Don't Have The Best Education System In The World, If We Don't Continue To Put Money Into Research And Technology That Will Allow Us To Create Great Businesses Here In The United States, That's How We Lose The Competition.

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

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools. We Must Make Sure That People Who Have The Grades, The Desire And The Will, But Not The Money, Can Still Get The Best Education Possible.

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

But We Reject The Belief That America Must Choose Between Caring For The Generation That Built This Country And Investing In The Generation That Will Build Its Future.

I Have Fought Against Spending. I Have Fought Against Special Interests. I Have Fought For Reform.

Democracy Demands That The Religiously Motivated Translate Their Concerns In To Universal, Rather Than Religion-specific, Values... It Requires That Their Proposals Be Subject To Argument And Amenable To Reason. Now I May Be Opposed To Abortion For Religious Reasons, To Take One Example, But If I Seek To Pass A Law Banning The Practice, I Cannot Simply Point To The Teachings Of My Church Or Evoke God's Will. I Have To Explain Why Abortion Violates Some Principle That Is Accessible To People Of All Faiths, Including Those With No Faith At All.

We Did Not Come To Fear The Future. We Came Here To Shape It.

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

The American People Intuitively Understand This, Which Is Why The Majority Of Catholics Practice Birth Control And Some Of Those Opposed To Gay Marriage Nevertheless Are Opposed To A Constitutional Amendment To Ban It. Religious Leadership Need Not Accept Such Wisdom In Counseling Their Flocks, But They Should Recognize This Wisdom In Their Politics.

With The Changing Economy, No One Has Lifetime Employment. But Community Colleges Provide Lifetime Employability.

We Have To Have Better Intelligence. We Have To Have Better Interdiction Capabilities. And So The Issue Is Not How Much We Spend Or How Hard We Try; The Issue Is Are We Doing It The Right Way? Are We Being Smart About It?

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.

Chancellor [angela] Merkel Is Perhaps The Only Leader Left Among Our Closest Allies That Was There When I Arrived. So In Some Ways We Are Now The Veterans Of Many Challenges Over The Last Eight Years.

It's Probably A Prerequisite For The Job, Or At Least You Have To Have Enough Craziness To Think That You Can Do The Job. I Think That [donald Trump] Has Not Spent A Lot Of Time Sweating The Details Of, You Know, All The Policies.

As You Might Imagine, If You're A Teenager Having A Couple Of People With Microphones And Guns Always Following You Around, That Could Grate On Them. But You Know, They've Handled It With Grace And I Give Michelle [obama] Most Of The Credit For How Well They've Done, But I Also Just Think They Are Graceful, Good Young, Young Women.

We, The People, Recognize That We Have Responsibilities As Well As Rights; That Our Destinies Are Bound Together; That A Freedom Which Only Asks What's In It For Me, A Freedom Without A Commitment To Others, A Freedom Without Love Or Charity Or Duty Or Patriotism, Is Unworthy Of Our Founding Ideals, And Those Who Died In Their Defense.

My Job Is Exhilarating. It's Challenging. I Find That The Governance Part Of It, The Decision Making Part Of It - Actually Comes - Comes Pretty Naturally. I Think I've Got A Great Team. I Think We're Making Good Decisions. The The Hardest Thing About The Job Is Staying Focused. Because There's So Many Demands And Decisions That Are Pressed Upon You.

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

This Is American Leadership At Its Best: We Stand With People Who Fight For Their Own Freedom, And We Rally Other Nations On Behalf Of Our Common Security And Common Humanity.

Who You Are And Who You Love Should Never Be A Fireable Offense

I Was Raised By A Single Mom Who Had To Put Herself Through School While Looking After Two Kids. And She Worked Hard Every Day And Made A Lot Of Sacrifices To Make Sure We Got Everything We Needed. My Grandmother, She Started Off As A Secretary In A Bank. She Never Got A College Education, Even Though She Was Smart As A Whip. And She Worked Her Way Up To Become A Vice President Of A Local Bank, But She Hit The Glass Ceiling. She Trained People Who Would End Up Becoming Her Bosses During The Course Of Her Career.

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

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

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.

Islam Is Not Part Of The Problem In Combating Violent Extremism - It Is An Important Part Of Promoting Peace.

If We're Serious About Building An Economy That Lasts, We Have Got To Get Serious About Education. We Are Going To Have To Pick Up Our Games And Raise Our Standards.

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

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.

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

Filibuster Has Long Tradition, But Used To Harm Civil Rights.

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

I Think Same Sex Couples Should Be Able To Get Married.

The Men And Women Of America's Homeland Security Apparatus Do Important Work To Protect Us, And Republicans And Democrats In Congress Should Not Be Playing Politics With That.

We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend. And We Honor Those Ideals By Upholding Them Not When It's Easy, But When It Is Hard.

With Respect To Syria, We Are Going To Continue To Work As We Have Over The Last Five, Six Years To Push Towards A Political Transition And Settlement.

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 Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure. America Has A Debt Problem And A Failure Of Leadership. Americans Deserve Better. I, Therefore, Intend To Oppose The Effort To Increase America's Debt.

There Aren't A Lot Of Situations Where I Look Back And I Say, The Decision I Actually Made Or The Course We Actually Pursued Was The Wrong Course.

Nothing Will Deter Us From Building The Future We Want For Our Children. What Greater Rejection Of Those Who Would Tear Down Our World Than Marshaling Our Best Efforts To Save It.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until Our Gay Brothers And Sisters Are Treated Like Anyone Else Under The Law.

As Part Of The Coalition Against Isil, We Are Putting That Terrorist Network Under Tremendous Pressure.

If The Global Economy Is Unresponsive To People Who Feel Left Behind, If Inequality Continues To Grow, Then We Could End Up Seeing More And More Of These Divisions Arise Throughout Advanced Economies Around The World.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer Just A Christian Nation; We Are Also A Jewish Nation, A Muslim Nation, A Buddhist Nation, A Hindu Nation, And A Nation Of Nonbelievers.

Every President Who Has Tried To Bring About Big Changes I Think Elicits The Most Passionate Responses.

With Effort We Can Protect The Foundation Of Our Democracy, For Which So Many Marched Across This Bridge, The Right To Vote.

Stock Market Risk Is Ok, But Not For Social Security.

The Real Problem, If You Look At How, For Example, Hezbollah Got A Lot Of Missiles That Are A Grave Threat To Israel, It's Not Because They Were Legal, It's Not Because Somehow That Was Authorized Under International Law; It Was Because There Was Insufficient Intelligence Or Capacity To Stop Those Shipments.

I Want To Make Sure America Has Got The Best Education System In The World. And We're Retaining Our Workers For The Jobs Of Tomorrow.

I Think That There Have Been A Number Of Public Figures Where You Start Hearing Commentary That Is Dangerous Because What It Starts Doing Is It Starts Dividing Us Up As Americans.

I Think That There's Gonna Be A Lot Of Work To Do In Order To Consolidate The Transformations That I Was Interested In.

America Is Not - And Never Will Be - At War With Islam. We Will, However, Relentlessly Confront Violent Extremists.

On The Other Hand, It Is Also Undeniable That The Palestinian People - Muslims And Christians - Have Suffered In Pursuit Of A Homeland.

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

Politics In This Country [usa] Is Always Tough. It's Always Contentious, Because This Is A Big Country And A Diverse Country, And People Have Strong Points Of View, And We've Got A Great Diversity Of Interests.

The Presidency Has A Funny Way Of Making A Person Feel The Need To Pray.

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

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

When Michelle And I Decided That I Would Run For President, It Was Because Of A Shared Belief In The Power Of Community And Connection, A Commitment To The Idea That We Are Our Brothers' Keepers.

I Need You To Go Out And Talk To Your Friends And Talk To Your Neighbors. I Want You To Talk To Them Whether They Are Independent Or Whether They Are Republican. I Want You To Argue With Them And Get In Their Face.

What I Want All Of You To Know Is That We Are Going To Bring Those Who Killed Our Fellow Americans To Justice.

We Can Get This Done! Take A Vote, And Send Me That Bill.

Markets Will Rise And Fall, But This Is The United States Of America. No Matter What Some Agency May Say, We've Always Been And Always Will Be A Triple A Country.

Our First And Immutable Commitment Must Be To The Security Of Israel, Our Only True Ally In The Middle East And The Only Democracy.

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.

I Don't Take A Dime Of Their [lobbyist] Money, And When I Am President, They Won't Find A Job In My White House.

I've Come To Embrace The Notion That I Haven't Done Enough In My Life. I've Come To Confirm That One's Title, Even A Title Like President Of The United States, Says Very Little About How Well One's Life Has Been Led. No Matter How Much You've Done Or How Successful You've Been, There's Always More To Do, Always More To Learn, And Always More To Achieve.

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.

For The Palestinians' Efforts To Delegitimize Israel Will End In Failure. Palestinian Leaders Will Not Achieve Peace Or Prosperity If Hamas Insists On A Path Of Terror And Rejection. And Palestinians Will Never Realize Their Independence By Denying The Right Of Israel To Exist.

We Are In What We Hope Is An Intensive Diplomatic Phase Now. It Will Not Be Open-ended.

Here's The Truth: The Soviet Union Had Thousands Of Nuclear Weapons, And Iran Doesn't Have A Single One. But When The World Was On The Brink Of Nuclear Holocaust, Kennedy Talked To Khrushchev And He Got Those Missiles Out Of Cuba. Why Shouldn't We Have The Same Courage And The Confidence To Talk To Our Enemies? That's What Strong Countries Do, That's What Strong Presidents Do, That's What I'll Do When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

I Think It's True That We Shouldn't Apply A Strict Litmus Test And The Most Important Thing In Any Judge Is Their Capacity To Provide Fairness And Justice To The American People.

There's A Reason Why The Nra's Not Here. They're Just Down The Street. And Since This Is The Main Reason They Exist, You'd Think That They'd Be Prepared To Have A Debate With A President.

One Of The Brightest Lights Of Our Time-a Brilliant Writer, A Fierce Friend, And A Truly Phenomenal Woman.

The United States Of America Has Helped Underwrite The Global Security For More Than Six Decades With The Blood Of Our Citizens And The Strength Of Our Arms. The Service And Sacrifice Of Our Men And Women In Uniform Has Promoted Peace And Prosperity From Germany To Korea And Enabled Democracy To Take Hold In Places Like The Balkans.

I Want To Thank The Greek People Publicly For Their Humanitarian Response To The Crisis Of So Many Migrants And Refugees Seeking Safety In Europe. Greeks, Especially On The Islands, Have Shown Extraordinary Compassion And They've Rightly Earned The Admiration Of The World.

What The American People Understand Is That I Look At What We Need To Get Done To Keep The American People Safe And To Move Our Interests Forward, And I Make Those Decisions.

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

[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.

I'm Personally Very Grateful To My Many Friends In The Greek-american Community, Sons And Daughters Of Greece Who Have Found Success In Every Walk Of American Life.

I Am Confident That We Will One Day End The Scourge Of Modern Slavery, Because I Believe In Those Committed To This Issue.

I Believe In Returning The Nation's Wealth To Its Rightful Owners.

Even When You Go Up Ramp, And You Think About [franklin D. Roosevelt] Wheeling Himself Up, You Know, Got A Little Cigarette Holder In His Mouth, And It, That, That Awe That You Feel, That Reverence That You Feel For The Place Never Entirely Leaves.

No Country Can Hide From The Dangers Of Carbon Pollution

And Above All, Children Need Our Unconditional Love - Whether They Succeed Or Make Mistakes; When Life Is Easy And When Life Is Tough.

Military Surge In Afghanistan To Eliminate The Taliban.

I Think That Sometimes The Democrats Have To Run Upstream Or Swim Upstream Because We've Got The Republicans Making It Out As If We Don't Care About These Things, And We Should Be Able To Engage And Be Willing To Engage In The Discussion About Morality And Values.

My Wife Has Been My Closest Friend, My Closest Advisor. And ... She's Not Somebody Who Looks To The Limelight, Or Even Is Wild About Me Being In Politics. And That's A Good Reality Check On Me. When I Go Home, She Wants Me To Be A Good Father And A Good Husband. And Everything Else Is Secondary To That.

Despite All The Noise And Hullabaloo - Military Cooperation, Intelligence Cooperation, All Of That Has Continued. We Have Defended Them Consistently In Every Imaginable Way. But I Also Believe That Both For Our National Interests And Israel's National Interests That Allowing An Ongoing Conflict Between Israelis And Palestinians That Could Get Worse And Worse Over Time Is A Problem. And That Settlements Contribute.

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.

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.

If We're Going To Prevent People From Being Susceptible To The False Promises Of Extremism, Then The International Community Has To Offer Something Better And The United States Intends To Do Its Part.

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." (victory Speech, Nov. 7, 2012)

The Values That We Talked About, The Values Democracy And Free Speech And International Norms And Rule Of Law, Respecting The Ability Of Other Countries To Determine Their Own Destiny And Preserve Their Sovereignty And Territorial Integrity. Things Are Not Something That We Can Set Aside.

The Government Of Libya Announced The Death Of Moammar Gadhafi. This Marks The End Of A Long And Painful Chapter For The People Of Libya, Who Now Have The Opportunity To Determine Their Own Destiny In A New And Democratic Libya. The Gadhafi Regime Ruled The Libyan People With An Iron Fist. The Enormous Potential Of The Libyan People Was Held Back And Terror Was Used As A Political Weapon. The Last Major Regime Strongholds Have Fallen. The New Government Is Consolidating The Control Over The Country. And One Of The World's Longest-serving Dictators Is No More.

In December, I Agreed To Extend The Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans Because It Was The Only Way I Could Prevent A Tax Hike On Middle-class Americans. But We Cannot Afford $1 Trillion Worth Of Tax Cuts For Every Millionaire And Billionaire In Our Society. We Can't Afford It. And I Refuse To Renew Them Again.

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

Under My Plan Of A Cap-and-trade System, Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket.

I Also Believe That If We're Serious About Change, We Need To Have A Real Discussion About Public Financing For Congressional Elections.

The War Does Not End When You Come Home. It Lives On In Memories Of Your Fellow Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen And Marines Who Gave Their Lives. It Endures In The Wound That Is Slow To Heal, The Disability That Isn't Going Away, The Dream That Wakes You At Night, Or The Stiffening In Your Spine When A Car Backfires Down The Street.

They Assert That Their Program Is Purely Peaceful. . . . We Want Them To Demonstrate Clearly In The Actions They Propose That They Have Truly Abandoned Any Nuclear Weapons Ambition.

Battling Terrorism Must Go Beyond Belligerence Vs. Isolation.

I Do Not Talk To The Fbi Directors About Pending Investigations [on Hillary Clinton].

Imagine If You Had Genuine, High-quality Early-childhood Education For Every Child, And Suddenly Every Black Child In America - But Also Every Poor White Child Or Latino [child], But Just Stick With Every Black Child In America - Is Getting A Really Good Education. And They're Graduating From High School At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Going To College At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Able To Afford College At The Same Rates Because The Government Has Universal Programs. So Now They're All Graduating.

One Of The Things That You Learn, Having Been In This [president's] Office For Four Years, Is The Old Adage Of Abraham Lincoln's. That With Public Opinion There's Nothing You Can't Do And Without Public Opinion There's Very Little You Can Get Done.

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

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.

At The Constitutional Level, What We Of Course Have Assured Is That Women Have The Ability To Make These Reproductive Decisions Up To The Point Of Viability.

It [the Constitution] Didn't Break Free From The Essential Constraints That Were Placed By The Founding Fathers In The Constitution, At Least As It's Been Interpreted, And The Warren Court Interpreted It In The Same Way That Generally The Constitution Is A Charter Of Negative Liberties. It Says What The States Can't Do To You, It Says What The Federal Government Can't Do To You, But It Doesn't Say What The Federal Government Or The State Government Must Do On Your Behalf. And That Hasn't Shifted.

How You Staff, Particularly The Chief Of Staff, The National Security Adviser, Your White House Counsel, How You Set Up A Process In The System To Surface Information And Generate Options For A President, Understanding That Ultimately The President Is Going To Be The Final Decision-maker. That's Something That Has To Be Attended To Right Away.

There's Something About These Steps [in Oval Office] And Thinking About Everybody Who's Walked Here And All The Business That's Been Done Here.

Bernie Sanders Would Say, "you Still Have Millions Of African Americans Who Aren't Insured, And If We Had A Single-payer System, That Wouldn't Be The Case." And That's True.

African American

Now, As A Nation, We Don't Promise Equal Outcomes, But We Were Founded On The Idea Everybody Should Have An Equal Opportunity To Succeed. No Matter Who You Are, What You Look Like, Where You Come From, You Can Make It. That's An Essential Promise Of America. Where You Start Should Not Determine Where You End Up.

We're Not Going To Put The Cart Before The Horse And Just Think By Sending More Troops, We're Automatically Going To Make Americans Safe.

The Russians Can't Change Us Or Significantly Weaken Us. They Are A Smaller Country. They Are A Weaker Country. Their Economy Doesn't Produce Anything That Anybody Wants To Buy, Except Oil And Gas And Arms. They Don't Innovate. But They Can Impact Us If We Lose Track Of Who We Are.

Right Now I Would Rank Norway As The Largest Country In The World, I Have Never Seen Anything Like It

The Supreme Court Had The Choice Not Only Which Way To Rule, Pro- Or Anti-gay Marriage Rights, But Also How They Were Going To Rule. They Could Have Ruled Just Federalism, Saying, "this Isn't A Matter For Federal; This Isn't A Federal Issue At All. States Should Decide It." Or They Could Decide It On Equal Protection Grounds And Say That, "gay Discrimination Is Wrong."

The Old Rules May Say We Can’t Protect Our Environment And Promote Economic Growth At The Same Time, But In America, We’ve Always Used New Technologies - We’ve Used Science; We’ve Used Research And Development And Discovery To Make The Old Rules Obsolete.

Research And Development

Healthcare System Is Broken Without Lifetime Employment.

I've Been Saying For Years, We're Gonna Have To Spend A Lot More Time On Cyber Security.

As President, I Decided That A Strong, Confident America Could Advance Our National Security By Engaging Directly With The Iranian Government. We've Seen The Results.

I Always Tell Young People In Particular: Do Not Say That Nothing's Changed When It Comes To Race In America, Unless You Lived Through Being A Black Man In The 1950s Or '60s Or '70s.

We Do Need To Make Sure That We Have An Orderly, Lawful Immigration Process.

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

It Was Into My Father's Image, The Black Man, Son Of Africa, That I'd Packed All The Attributes I Sought In Myself, The Attributes Of Martin And Malcolm, Dubois And Mandela.

I Will Support Iraqis And Syrians Fighting To Reclaim Their Communities.

In A World Of Complex Threats, Our Security And Leadership Depends On All Elements Of Our Power - Including Strong And Principled Diplomacy.

I Think That Most Americans Don't Resent People For Getting Rich. They Want To Get Rich Themselves.

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

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?

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

No Other Country In The World Does What We Do. On Every Issue, The World Turns To Us, Not Simply Because Of The Size Of Our Economy Or Our Military Might - But Because Of The Ideals We Stand For, And The Burdens We Bear To Advance Them.

If We're Not Vigilant Foreign Countries Can Have An Impact On The Political Debate In The United States In Ways That Might Not Have Been True 10, 20, 30 Years Ago In - In Part Because Of The Way News Is Transmitted And In Part Because So Many People Are Skeptical Of Mainstream News Organizations That - Everything's True And Everything's False.

What We Can Do Is To Shape How That Process Of Global Integration Proceeds, So That It's Increasing Opportunity For Ordinary People, So That It's Creating Better Jobs, So That We Are Strengthening Protections For Workers, So That We Are Addressing Some Of The Environmental Challenges That Come With Rapid Growth.

For All The Noise And Anger That Too Often Surrounds The Immigration Debate, America Has Nothing To Fear From Today's Immigrants. They Have Come Here For The Same Reason That Families Have Always Come Here-for The Hope That In America, They Could Build A Better Life For Themselves And Their Families. Like The Waves Of Immigrants That Came Before Them And The Hispanic Americans Whose Families Have Been Here For Generations, The Recent Arrival Of Latino Immigrants Will Only Enrich Our Country.

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.

After A Decade Of Profligacy, The American People Are Tired Of Politicians Who Talk The Talk But Don't Walk The Walk When It Comes To Fiscal Responsibility. It's Easy To Get Up In Front Of The Cameras And Rant Against Exploding Deficits. What's Hard Is Actually Getting Deficits Under Control. But That's What We Must Do. Like Families Across The Country, We Have To Take Responsibility For Every Dollar We Spend.

We Understand The Concerns That People Have With Not Only Protecting Our Values, But Our Privacy Interests As Well. We Think That The Usa Freedom Act Was A Good Resolution Of That.

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

Our Founders Made It Extraordinarily Difficult To Amend The Constitution.

The World Must Come Together To Confront Climate Change. There Is Little Scientific Dispute That If We Do Nothing, We Will Face More Drought, Famine And Mass Displacement That Will Fuel More Conflict For Decades.

Some Of The Same Politicians And Pundits That Are So Quick To Reject The Possibility Of A Diplomatic Solution To Iran's Nuclear Program Are The Same Folks Who Were So Quick To Go To War In Iraq And Said It Would Take A Few Months.

The Best Way To Not Feel Hopeless Is To Get Up And Do Something.

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.

It Took A Lot Of Blood, Sweat And Tears To Get To Where We Are Today, But We Have Just Begun. Today We Begin In Earnest The Work Of Making Sure That The World We Leave Our Children Is Just A Little Bit Better Than The One We Inhabit Today.

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.

None Of This Is Fair To You. And Should It Continue, It Will Make It More Difficult To Keep Attracting The Kind Of Driven, Patriotic, Idealist Americans To Public Service That Our Citizens Deserved And That Our System Of Self-government Demands.

We, The People, Still Believe That Our Obligations As Americans Are Not Just To Ourselves, But To All Posterity. We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change, Knowing That The Failure To Do So Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations. Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science, But None Can Avoid The Devastating Impact Of Raging Fires And Crippling Drought And More Powerful Storms.

America, This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time. Our Time To Turn The Page On The Policies Of The Past. Our Time To Bring New Energy And New Ideas To The Challenges We Face. Our Time To Offer A New Direction For The Country We Love.

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

We Can Seize This Future Together Because We Are Not As Divided As Our Politics Suggests.

Futures Together

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

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

That's When America Soars, When We Look Out For One Another And We Take Care Of Each Other, When We Root For One Another's Success, When We Strive To Do Better And To Be Better Than The Generation That Came Before Us And Try To Build Something Better For Generations To Come, That's Why We Do What We Do. That's The Whole Point Of Public Service.

Without Investments In Research And Science That Will Create The Next Apple, Create The Next New Innovation That Will Sell Products Around The World, We Will Lose. If We're Not Training Engineers To Make Sure That They Are Equipped Here In This Country, Then Companies Won't Come Here. Those Investments Are What's Going To Help To Make Sure That We Continue To Lead This World Economy Not Just Next Year, But 10 Years From Now, 50 Years From Now, A Hundred Years From Now.

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.

How We Think About Terrorism Has To Be Defined And Specific Enough That It Doesn't Lead Us To Think That Any Horrible Actions That Take Place Around The World That Are Motivated In Part By An Extremist Islamic Ideology Is A Direct Threat To Us Or Something That We Have To Wade Into.

Nobody Said Democracies Supposed To Be Easy. It's Hard. And In A Big Country Like America, It Probably Should Be Hard.

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

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

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

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

Climate Change Constitutes A Serious Threat To Global Security, An Immediate Risk To Our National Security, And, Make No Mistake, It Will Impact How Our Military Defends Our Country.

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.

What We Have To Do Is Make Sure That Here In America, If You Work Hard, You Can Get Ahead. If You Worked Hard, Not Only Did You Have A Good Job, But You Also Had Decent Benefits, Decent Health Care. We've Got To Make Sure That We're Doing Everything We Can To Expand The Middle Class And People Who Are Working Hard Can Get Into The Middle Class.

We Stand With Israel As A Jewish Democratic State Because We Know That Israel Is Born Of Firmly Held Values That We, As Americans, Share: A Culture Committed To Justice, A Land That Welcomes The Weary, A People Devoted To Tikkun Olam. ... So America's Commitment ... And My Commitment To Israel And Israel's Security Is Unshakeable. It Is Unshakeable. ... I Am Proud To Say That No U.s. Administration Has Done More In Support Of Israel's Security Than Ours. None. Don't Let Anybody Else Tell You Otherwise. It Is A Fact.

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.

In The Unlikely Story That Is America, There Has Never Been Anything False About Hope. For When We Have Faced Down Impossible Odds; When We've Been Told That We're Not Ready, Or That We Shouldn't Try, Or That We Can't, Generations Of Americans Have Responded With A Simple Creed That Sums Up The Spirit Of A People: Yes We Can.

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