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I Believe We Can Keep The Promise Of Our Founders, The Idea That If You're Willing To Work Hard, It Doesn't Matter Who You Are Or Where You Come From Or What You Look Like Or Who You Love. It Doesn't Matter Whether You're Black Or White Or Hispanic Or Asian Or Native American Or Young Or Old Or Rich Or Poor, Able, Disabled, Gay Or Straight, You Can Make It Here In America If You're Willing To Try.

-Barack Obama

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I Believe We Can

Barack Obama

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I Believe We Can Keep The Promise Of Our Founders, The Idea That If You're Willing To Work Hard, It Doesn't Matter Who You Are Or Where You Come From Or What You Look Like Or Who You Love. It Doesn't Matter Whether You're Black Or White Or Hispanic Or Asian Or Native American Or Young Or Old Or Rich Or Poor, Able, Disabled, Gay Or Straight, You Can Make It Here In America If You're Willing To Try.

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Native American

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There Isn't Anyone Who Can't Serve ... Nobody Who Can't Help Somebody Else.

By The Way, You Know, Mitt Romney And Mccain, I Don't Agree With Them, But They Would Have Been Okay. I Could Have Been Satisfied With Them.

It Is My Judgment That Had I Spent The First Two Years Trying To Get A Single-payer System, All Those Folks Who Now Have Health Insurance That Didn't Have It Would Still Be Uninsured. And Those Are Millions Of People Whose Lives Are Impacted Right Now.

America Ranks 21st When It Comes To Math Education. We Rank 25th When It Comes To Science. We Used To Be Number One In The Proportion Of College Graduates. We Now Rank Ninth. And At An Age Where Knowledge, Skills, Are The Determinant Of How Successful We're Going To Be, Unless We Reverse That We're Going To Keep Slipping Behind Economically To A Lot Of Other Countries.

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

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.

All Too Rarely Do I Hear People Asking Just What It Is That We've Done To Make So Many Children's Hearts So Hard, Or What Collectively We Might Do To Right Their Moral Compass - What Values We Must Live By.

The Challenge There Is That Isil Doesn't Have An Air Force, So The Damage Done There Is Not Against Isil, It's Against The Syrian Regime.

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 We've Set The Bar With Respect To The Notion That It Is Possible To Provide Health Care For People. Now I Know That The Incoming Congress And Administration Talks About Repealing It. But We've Set A Bar That Shows That This Can Be Done. And That Core Principle Is One That The Majority Of Americans, Including Supporters Of Donald Trump Believe In.

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.

My Strong Preference Has Always Been To Legislate When I Can Get Legislation Done.

Is This Money Well Spent? This Is Taxpayer Money, It Is Going To Be Adding To The Deficit Short Term And If We Can't Justify It, Then We're Not Going To Spend Tens Or Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars, Just To Make Somebody Happy, If It's Not Good For The Economy.

It Was The Labor Movement That Helped Secure So Much Of What We Take For Granted Today. The 40-hour Work Week, The Minimum Wage, Family Leave, Health Insurance, Social Security, Medicare, Retirement Plans. The Cornerstones Of The Middle-class Security All Bear The Union Label.

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

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

Not Out Of Mere Charity, But Because Peace In Our Time Requires The Constant Advance Of Those Principles That Our Common Creed Describes; Tolerance And Opportunity, Human Dignity And Justice.

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

And Yes, My Plan Will Continue To Reduce The Carbon Pollution That Is Heating Our Planet - Because Climate Change Is Not A Hoax. More Droughts And Floods And Wildfires Are Not A Joke. They're A Threat To Our Children's Future. And In This Election, You Can Do Something About It.

I Don`t Know If Donald Trump`s Ever Been To An Actual Polling Place, But, You Know, He Doesn`t Even Worry If What He Says Is True. This Is Just About Him Worried That He`s Losing.

I'm Not A Particularly Ideological Person. There's Things, Some Values I Feel Passionately About.

I Think, The Argument Sometimes That I've Had With Folks Who Are Much More Interested In Sort Of Race-specific Programs Is Less An Argument About What Is Practically Achievable And Sometimes Maybe More An Argument Of "we Want Society To See What's Happened, And Internalize It, And Answer It In Demonstrable Ways." And Those Impulses I Very Much Understand.

There Was No Such Thing As Al Qaeda In Iraq, Until George Bush And John Mccain Decided To Invade Iraq.

Enforcement Priorities Developed By My Administration Are Not Affected By This Ruling. This Means That The People Who Might Have Benefited From The Expanded Deferred Action Policies, Long-term Residents Raising Children Who Are Americans Or Legal Residents, They Will Remain Low Priorities For Enforcement, As Long As You Have Not Committed A Crime, Our Limited Immigration Enforcement Resources Are Not Focused On You.

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.

The United States Will Do What We Must To Prevent Iran From Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon.

No Country Should Deny People Their Rights Because Of Who They Love, Which Is Why We Must Stand Up For The Rights Of Gays And Lesbians Everywhere.

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.

There Are Some Who Question The Scale Of Our Ambitions, Who Suggest That Our System Cannot Tolerate Too Many Big Plans. Their Memories Are Short, For They Have Forgotten What This Country Has Already Done, What Free Men And Women Can Achieve When Imagination Is Joined To Common Purpose, And Necessity To Courage.

Unless We Are Holding Ourselves Accountable Day In, Day Out, Not Just When There's A Crisis For Folks Who Have Power And Influence And Can Hire Lobbyists, But For The Nurse, The Teacher, The Police Officer, Who, Frankly, At The End Of Each Month, They've Got A Little Financial Crisis Going On. They're Having To Take Out Extra Debt Just To Make Their Mortgage Payments. We Haven't Been Paying Attention To Them. And If You Look At Our Tax Policies In America, It's A Classic Example.

That's Just How White Folks Will Do You. It Wasn't Merely The Cruelty Involved; I Was Learning That Black People Could Be Mean And Then Some. It Was A Particular Brand Of Arrogance, An Obtuseness In Otherwise Sane People That Brought Forth Our Bitter Laughter. It Was As If Whites Didn't Know They Were Being Cruel In The First Place. Or At Least Thought You Deserved Of Their Scorn.

We've Persevered Because Of A Belief We Share With The Iraqi People - A Belief That Out Of The Ashes Of War, A New Beginning Could Be Born In This Cradle Of Civilization. Through This Remarkable Chapter In The History Of The United States And Iraq, We Have Met Our Responsibility. Now, It's Time To Turn The Page.

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

Know That America Is A Friend Of Each Nation And Every Man, Woman, And Child Who Seeks A Future Of Peace And Dignity...[for] We Are Shaped By Every Language And Culture, Drawn From Every End Of This Earth.

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

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

Empowering Women Isn’t Just The Right Thing To Do - It’s The Smart Thing To Do.

There's No One Who I Believe Has Ever Captured The Soul Of America More Profoundly Than Abraham Lincoln Has.

[michelle Obama] Used To Say To Our Friends, "barack's Exactly The Kind Of Guy I Want To Be President. I Just Wish He Didn't Want To Do It When I Was Married To Him."

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've Got Two Daughters. 9 Years Old And 6 Years Old. I Am Going To Teach Them First Of All About Values And Morals. But If They Make A Mistake, I Don't Want Them Punished With A Baby.

I Don't Care Whether You're Driving A Hybrid Or An Suv. If You're Headed For A Cliff, You Have To Change Direction. That's What The American People Called For In November, And That's What We Intend To Deliver.

We Can't Wait For Congress To Do Its Job. So Where They Won't Act, I Will.

I Do Want To Once Again Speak Directly To The Iranian People. Yours Is A Great Civilization With A Vibrant Culture That Has So Much To Contribute To The World - In Commerce And In Science And In Arts. For Decades, Your Government's Threats And Actions To Destabilize Your Region Have Isolated Iran From Much Of The World, And Now Our Governments Are Talking With One Another. Following The Nuclear Deal, You, Especially Young Iranians, Have The Opportunity To Begin Building New Ties With The World.

I'm A Big Football Fan, But I Have To Tell You If I Had A Son, I'd Have To Think Long And Hard Before I Let Him Play Football.

When You've Got A Economy In Which 40 Percent Of Economic Growth Is Happening In The Financial Sector, That Turns Out That Was All An Illusion, That It Wasn't Growth Based On Real Products And Services, But Just A Bunch Of Paper Shuffling And A House Of Cards, Then What's Gonna Emerge, At Some Point, Is A Sense Of Resentment, A Sense That The System's Rigged, And It's Not Working For Ordinary People. And It's Not Fulfilling The Basic American Dream.

Even The Smallest Act Of Service, The Simplest Act Of Kindness, Is A Way To Honor Those We Lost, A Way To Reclaim That Spirit Of Unity That Followed 9/11.

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 Fake News That's Being Released By Some Foreign Government Is Almost Identical To Reports That Are Being Issued Through Partisan News Venues, Then It's Not Surprising That That Foreign Propaganda Will Have A Greater Effect, Because It Doesn't Seem That Far-fetched Compared To Some Of The Other Stuff That Folks Are Hearing From Domestic Propagandists.

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

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.

Having A Tax Code That Rewards Companies That Are Shipping Jobs Overseas Instead Of Companies That Are Investing Here In The United States, That Will Not Make Us More Competitive.

We Remain More Than A Collection Of Red States And Blue States. We Are And Forever Will Be The United States Of America.

If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can Keep Your Health Care Plan.

Keeping Promises

Broken Promises

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

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

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

I Think The American People Recognize Is After A Decade Of War It's Time To Do Some Nation Building Here At Home. And What We Can Now Do Is Free Up Some Resources, To, For Example, Put Americans Back To Work, Especially Our Veterans, Rebuilding Our Roads, Our Bridges, Our Schools, Making Sure That, You Know, Our Veterans Are Getting The Care That They Need When It Comes To Post-traumatic Stress Disorder And Traumatic Brain Injury, Making Sure That The Certifications That They Need For Good Jobs Of The Future Are In Place.

And Terrorists Who Seek To Harm Our Citizens Will Feel The Long Arm Of American Justice.

We Don't Ask You To Believe In Our Ability To Bring Change, Rather, We Ask You To Believe In Yours.

Sometimes If Your Only Approach Is Cutting Spending At A Time When The Economy's Contracting, Then The Economy Will Contract Further.

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.

There's No Doubt That I'm A Better President Now Than When I First Took Office. This Is Not A Job Where There's A Manual, And Over Time You Get A Better Sense Of What's Important, What's Not, How To See Around Corners And Anticipate Problems, As Opposed To Just Managing Problems Once They've Arrived.

Sometimes It May Seem As If Progress Is Stalled But What History Of Post-war Germany Shows Is That Strength And Determination And Focus And Adherence To The Values That We Care About Will Result In A Better Future For Our Children And Our Grandchildren.

And If That Child Should Ever Get The Chance To Travel The World And Someone Should Ask Her Where Is She From, We Believe That She Should Always Be Able To Hold Her Head High With Pride In Her Voice When She Answers, "i Am An American." That Is The Course We Seek. That Is The Change We Are Calling For.

My Greatest Hope Is To Be Able To Pass The Same Dreams And Hopes And Vision That I've Been Able To Enjoy In My Life, On To The Next Generation. Not Just For My Children - Because With A Mother Like Michelle, My Kids Are Going To Be Great - But For All Children. There Are Too Many Children In This Country For Whom The American Dream Is So Distant And The Odds Against Them Are So Daunting.

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

I Have To Be Able To Implement A Policy That Doesn't Completely Erase Borders And Boundaries. Not Because I Think That Honduran Child Who's Gotten Here Is Less Worthy Of Love, Attention, Opportunity Than My Child, But Because I'm The President Of The United States Of America And I'm Not Speaking As A Religious Leader.

The Forces That Divide Us Are Not As Strong As Those That Unite Us.

I Intend To Protect A Free And Open Internet, Extend Its Reach To Every Classroom, And Every Community, And Help Folks Build The Fastest Networks, So That The Next Generation Of Digital Innovators And Entrepreneurs Have The Platform To Keep Reshaping Our World.

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

Which Passages Of Scripture Should Guide Our Public Policy? Should We Go With Leviticus, Which Suggests Slavery Is Ok And That Eating Shellfish Is An Abomination? Or We Could Go With Deuteronomy, Which Suggests Stoning Your Child If He Strays From The Faith?

I Think What Is True Is That There's Been An Underlying Division In The United States. Some Of It Has To Do With The Fact That Economic Growth And Recovery Tends To Be Stronger In The Cities And In Urban Areas. In Some Rural Areas, Particularly Those That Were Reliant On Manufacturing, There Has Been Weaker Growth, Stagnation, People Feeling As If Their Children Won't Do As Well As They Will.

We Cannot Solve The Problems Of America If Every Time Somebody Somewhere Says Something Stupid, That Everybody Gets Up In Arms And We Forget About The War In Iraq Or We Forget About The Economy.

The Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure... It Is A Sign That We Now Depend On Ongoing Financial Assistance From Foreign Countries To Finance Our Government's Reckless Fiscal Policies.

The Success Of Our Economy Has Always Depended Not Just On The Size Of Our Gross Domestic Product, But On The Reach Of Our Prosperity; On The Ability To Extend Opportunity To Every Willing Heart - Not Out Of Charity, But Because It Is The Surest Route To Our Common Good.

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.

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.

What I Want To Communicate Is The Fact That In All My Travels Throughout The Muslim World, What I've Come To Understand Is That Regardless Of Your Faith - And America Is A Country Of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Non-believers - Regardless Of Your Faith, People All Have Certain Common Hopes And Common Dreams.

As I've Said Many Times, The Nuclear Deal Was Never Intended To Resolve All Of Our Differences With Iran. But Still, Engaging Directly With The Iranian Government On A Sustained Basis For The First Time In Decades Has Created A Unique Opportunity, A Window, To Try To Resolve Important Issues.

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.

Scripture Tells Us That We Shall Not Oppress A Stranger, For We Know The Heart Of A Stranger. We Were Strangers Once, Too.

The Study Of Law Can Be Disappointing At Times, A Matter Of Applying Narrow Rules And Arcane Procedure To An Uncooperative Reality; A Sort Of Glorified Accounting That Serves To Regulate The Affairs Of Those Who Have Power--and That All Too Often Seeks To Explain, To Those Who Do Not, The Ultimate Wisdom And Justness Of Their Condition. But That's Not All The Law Is. The Law Is Also Memory; The Law Also Records A Long-running Conversation, A Nation Arguing With Its Conscience.

It Was Unknowable Then, But So Much Of The Progress That Would Define The 20th Century, On Both Sides Of The Atlantic, Came Down To The Battle For A Slice Of Beach Only Six Miles Long And Two Miles Wide.

I Am Designating A New Director Of Recovery For Auto Communities And Workers To Cut Through Red Tape And Ensure That The Full Resources Of Our Federal Government Are Leveraged To Assist The Workers, Communities, And Regions That Rely On Our Auto Industry.

The Terrorists Do Not Speak For Over A Billion Muslims Who Reject Their Hateful Ideology.

If The People Cannot Trust Their Government To Do The Job For Which It Exists - To Protect Them And To Promote Their Common Welfare - All Else Is Lost.

Let's Take The Money That We've Been Spending On War Over The Last Decade To Rebuild America, Roads, Bridges Schools. We Do Those Things, Not Only Is Your Future Going To Be Bright But America's Future Is Going To Bright As Well.

I Think I Have A Pretty Good Take On Popular Culture That Maybe Makes Up For The Fact That I'm Not A Sound-bite Politician For The Nightly News.

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

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

Environmentalism Is Not An Upper-income Issue, It's Not A White Issue, It's Not A Black Issue, It's Not A South Or A North Or An East Or A West Issue. It's An Issue That All Of Us Have A Stake In. And If I Can Do Anything To Make Sure That Not Just My Daughter But Every Child In America Has Green Pastures To Run In And Clean Air To Breathe And Clean Water To Swim In, Then That Is Something I'm Going To Work My Hardest To Make Happen.

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.

Historically, When A Previous Us Administration Enters Into An Agreement, It Carries Forward Into The Future Administration.

Another Tradition To Politics, A Tradition (of Politics) That Stretched From The Days Of The Country’s Founding To The Glory Of The Civil Rights Movement, A Tradition Based On The Simple Idea That We Have A Stake In One Another, And That What Binds Us Together Is Greater Than What Drives Us Apart, And That If Enough People Believe In The Truth Of That Proposition And Act On It, Then We Might Not Solve Every Problem, But We Can Get Something Meaningful Done.

I Think We Need Missile Defense. But I Want To Make Sure It Works, That It's Cost Effective, That The Technologies Are Operable, That It's Our Best Possible Strategy, And That Hasn't Been Shown.

I'm Inspired By The People I Meet In My Travels--hearing Their Stories, Seeing The Hardships They Overcome, Their Fundamental Optimism And Decency. I'm Inspired By The Love People Have For Their Children. And I'm Inspired By My Own Children, How Full They Make My Heart. They Make Me Want To Work To Make The World A Little Bit Better. And They Make Me Want To Be A Better Man.

If We Aren't Willing To Pay A Price For Our Values, Then We Should Ask Ourselves Whether We Truly Believe In Them At All.

There's Just A Whole Different Attitude And Vibe When You're Not In Power As When You're In Power.

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.

I Think That The Fda Has Not Been Able To Catch Some Of These Things As Quickly As I Expect Them To Catch And So We’re Going To Be Doing A Complete Review Of Fda Operations. At Bare Minimum, We Should Be Able To Count On Our Government Keeping Our Kids Safe When They Eat Peanut Butter. That’s What Sasha Eats For Lunch. Probably Three Times A Week...

We Consume About 25 Percent Of The World's Oil. We Only Have 2 Percent Of The Reserves.

We Can't Expect To Solve Problems If All We Do Is Tear Each Other Down. You Can Disagree With A Certain Policy Without Demonizing The Person Who Espouses It.

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

One Of The Things I've Learned About Being President Is That We'll Work On Issues For Long Periods Of Time, Sometimes In Obscurity.

The Ability Of Republican Leaders To Rile Up Their Base - Helped Along By Folks Like Rush Limbaugh, Some Commentators On Fox News - I Think Created An Environment In Which Republican Voters Would Punish Republicans For Cooperating With Me. That Hothouse Of Back-and-forth Argument And - And Really Sharp Partisanship I Think Has Been Harmful To America.

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

The Cuban People Must Know That They Have A Friend And Partner In The United States Of America.

I Will Promise You This, That If We Have Not Gotten Our Troops Out By The Time I Am President, It Is The First Thing I Will Do. I Will Get Our Troops Home, We Will Bring An End To This War. You Can Take That To The Bank.

I'm Kind Of A Night Owl.

The United States Has Been Enriched By Muslim Americans. Many Other Americans Have Muslims In Their Families Or Have Lived In A Muslim-majority Country - I Know, Because I Am One Of Them.

It's The Job, I Think, Of Leaders To Try To Address Peoples' Real Legitimate Concerns And Channel Them In The Most Constructive Ways Possible.

No One Is Exempt From The Call To Find Common Ground.

If You're One Of The More Than 250 Million Americans Who Already Have Health Insurance, You Will Keep Your Health Insurance. This Law Will Only Make It More Secure And More Affordable.

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

Even Limited Military Actions End Up Carrying With Them Great Costs And Unintended Consequences.

The Journey Will Be Difficult. The Road Will Be Long. I Face This Challenge With Profound Humility, And Knowledge Of My Own Limitations. But I Also Face It With Limitless Faith In The Capacity Of The American People.

It Is Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, And Dig Deeper, And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had - To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us.

We Have A Rare Chance To Pursue A New Path, A Different, Better Future That Delivers Progress For Both Our Peoples And The Wider World. That's The Opportunity Before The Iranian People. We Need To Take Advantage Of That.

Guaranteed, Full Stop, Nobody Gets Treated Differently When It Comes To The Justice Department, Because Nobody Is Above The Law.

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

[a]lthough The Principle Of Equality Has Always Been Self-evident, It Has Never Been Self-executing.

It Is Possible For Leaders Or Regimes To Be Cruel, Bigoted, Twisted In Their World Views And Still Make Rational Calculations With Respect To Their Limits And Their Self-preservation.

If Democrats Are Not Showing Up In Those [rural] Places Even If You're Not Gonna Win Right Away But If You're Not In There At Least Making An Argument That, "hey, You Know What? It's The Democrats Who Are Trying To Raise Your Minimum Wage."

The Surest Path To Success Is To Surround Yourself With Brilliant Women

Surround Yourself

I'm Willing To Work With Anyone Of Either Party Who Has A Good Idea And The Commitment To See Through. And We Should All Expect You To Hold Us Accountable For Our Progress Or Our Failure To Deliver.

Hillary Clinton Possesses An Extraordinary Intelligence And A Remarkable Work Ethic. I Am Proud That She Will Be Our Next Secretary Of State.

One Of The Things That I've Learned, And I Think We've All Learned, Is That We Are Not Going To Get The Kind Of Decisive, Permanent Victories In This Fight Against Terrorism That We Would Get From Fighting Another Country. We're Not Going To Get That Macarthur/emperor Moment, Because By Definition, Even After Decimating Al Qaeda In The Fata, Even After Taking Out [osama] Bin Laden There's Still People There Who Have Both The Interest And The Capacity If We Don't Maintain Vigilance To Strike Against The United States.

But Having Made My Decision As Commander-in-chief Based On What I Am Convinced Is Our National Security Interests, I Will Seek Authorization For The Use Of Force From The American People's Representatives In Congress.

Immigration Is Part Of The Reason Why Our Economy Is Stronger And Better Positioned Than Most Of Our Other Competitors, Is Because We've Got A Younger Population That's More Dynamic When It Comes To Trade.

One Of The Things You Learn As President Is, As Powerful As This Office Is, You Have Limited Bandwidth. And The Time Goes By Really Quickly And You're Constantly Making Choices, And There Are Pressures On You From All Different Directions - Pressures On Your Attention, Not Just Pressures From Different Constituencies. And So You Have To Be Pretty Focused About Where Can You Have The Biggest, Quickest Impact.

John Mccain Has Not Spoken About My Muslim Faith.

If There's One Thing I Would Like To See, It'd Be For Us To Be Able To Price The Cost Of Carbon Emissions.

Carbon Emissions

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

We Remember The Surge And We Remember The Awakening -- When The Abyss Of Chaos Turned Toward The Promise Of Reconciliation. By Battling And Building Block By Block In Baghdad, By Bringing Tribes Into The Fold And Partnering With The Iraqi Army And Police, You Helped Turn The Tide Toward Peace.

America Is The Greatest Country On Earth. But Because Of Some Of The Mistakes That Have Been Made, We, I Think, Are Going To Have A Lot Of Work To Do In The Next Administration To Restore That Sense That America Is That Shining Beacon On A Hill.

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.

You Mentioned The Navy, For Example, And That We Have Fewer Ships Than We Did In 1916. Well, Governor, We Also Have Fewer Horses And Bayonets Because The Nature Of Our Military Has Changed. We Have These Things Called Aircraft Carriers Where Planes Land On Them. We Have These Ships That Go Underwater, Nuclear Submarines.

When I Touched My Hand Against The Western Wall And Placed My Prayer Between Its Ancient Stones, I Thought Of All The Centuries That The Children Of Israel Had Longed To Return To Their Ancient Homeland. When I Went To Sderot And Saw The Daily Struggle To Survive In The Eyes Of An Eight-year-old Boy Who Lost His Leg To A Hamas Rocket, And When I Walked Among The Hall Of Names At Yad Vashem, I Was Reminded Of The Existential Fear Of Israelis When A Modern Dictator Seeks Nuclear Weapons And Threatens To Wipe Israel Off The Face Of The Map - Face Of The Earth.

Try To Be As Honest As Possible.

Nothing Can Stand In The Way Of The Power Of Millions Of Voices Calling For Change.

For Too Many Of Us, It's Become Safer To Retreat Into Our Own Bubbles, Whether In Our Neighborhoods Or On College Campuses, Or Places Of Worship Or Especially Our Social Media Feeds, Surrounded By People Who Look Like Us And Share The Same Political Outlook And Never Challenge Our Assumptions. And Increasingly, We Become So Secure In Our Bubbles That We Start Accepting Only Information, Whether It's True Or Not, That Fits Our Opinions, Instead Of Basing Our Opinions On The Evidence That Is Out There.

We Are A Nation Of Christians And Muslims, Jews And Hindus, And Nonbelievers.

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

Focusing Your Life Solely On Making A Buck Shows A Certain Poverty Of Ambition. It Asks Too Little Of Yourself. Because It's Only When You Hitch Your Wagon To Something Larger Than Yourself That You Realize Your True Potential.

What Makes [cyber Security] Difficult Is Because It's Not Just A Government Problem. It Is A Private Sector And Government Problem. And There's Gotta Be A Lot More Cooperation.

Be Conscious Of God And Speak Always The Truth.

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.

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.

It's Also Wonderful To Be Back With My Great Friend And Ally, Chancellor [angela] Merkel. As I Reflect Back Over The Last Eight Years, I Could Not Ask For A Steadier Or More Reliable Partner On The World Stage, Often Through Some Very Challenging Times.

I've Got A Grocery Bill At The End Of Every Month.our Toothpaste, Our Orange Juice, That All Gets Paid. But I - It Is True That I Don't Carry My Wallet That Often.

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

I Absolutely Think That When We Talk About Family, Faith, Community, I Think It's Important For Democrats To Be Able To Connect With Folks Where They Live.

No One In America Should Ever Be Afraid To Walk Down The Street Holding The Hand Of The Person They Love.

To Young People: You Have To Stay Encouraged.

At A Certain Point You Can't Help But Lose Some Feel For What's On The Ground Because You're Not On The Ground.

The Hard Truth Is Carbon Pollution Has Built Up In Our Atmosphere For Decades Now. And Even If We Americans Do Our Part, The Planet Will Slowly Keep Warming For Some Time To Come.

To Resolve This Issue Will Require Iran To Come To The Table And Discuss In A Clear And Forthright Way How To Prove To The International Community That The Intentions Of Their Nuclear Program Are Peaceful. [...] The Question Is Going To Be Whether In These Discussions They Show Themselves Moving Clearly In That Direction.

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.

Jobs Was Brave Enough To Think Differently, Bold Enough To Believe He Could Change The World, And Talented Enough To Do It.

When We Succeed, We Succeed Because Of Our Individual Initiative, But Also Because We Do Things Together.

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.

For As Much As Government Can Do And Must Do, It Is Ultimately The Faith And Determination Of The American People Upon Which This Nation Relies. So Let Us Mark This Day With Remebrance, Of Who We Are And How Far We Have Traveled.

Sticking Your Head In The Sand Might Make You Feel Safer, But It’s Not Going To Protect You From The Coming Storm.

We Are Not Going To Be Able To Rebuild Afghanistan Into A Jeffersonian Democracy.

We Don't Really Have Any Kind Of Regulatory Structure At All.

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

I Do Think That It Is Impossible For Us To Think Only In Terms Of The Palestinian-israeli Conflict And Not Think In Terms Of What's Happening With Syria Or Iran Or Lebanon Or Afghanistan And Pakistan. These Things Are Interrelated. And If We Are Looking At The Region As A Whole And Communicating A Message To The Arab World And The Muslim World, That We Are Ready To Initiate A New Partnership Based On Mutual Respect And Mutual Interest, Then I Think That We Can Make Significant Progress.

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.

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

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.

There Is No Doubt That Thanks To The Steps That We Took Early On To Rescue Our Economy And To Rebuild It On A New Foundation, We Are Entering Into The New Year With New Confidence That America Is Coming Back.

America's Not Just [about] Looking Out For Yourself, It's Not Just About Greed, It's Not Just About Trying To Climb To The Very Top And Keep Everybody Else Down. ... Hard Work, That's A Value. Looking Out For One Another, That's A Value. The Idea That We're All In It Together And [that] I'm My Brother's Keeper And [my] Sister's Keeper, That's A Value.

One Of The Challenges Over The Last Decade Is America Has Done Experiments In Nation Building In Places Like Iraq And Afghanistan And We've Neglected, For Example, Developing Our Own Economy, Our Own Energy Sectors, Our Own Education System. And It's Very Hard For Us To Project Leadership Around The World When We're Not Doing What We Need To Do.

I Think The Turks' Willingness To Take Seriously Action On The Borders To Stop The Flow Of Foreign Fighters Joining Isil Is Significant.

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.

Part Of The Power Of The Internet Is That Information Flows Out There And It's Generally Not Censored And It's Generally Not Controlled By Any Single Authority.

Information Flow

A Low-carbon, Clean Energy Economy Can Be An Engine Of Growth For Decades To Come.

If You Look At The Current Mosul Campaign Against Isil, For Example The Few Thousand Troops That We Have There To Support That Effort Allows The Iraqi Military To Move Forward In An Effective Way.

Robin Williams Was An Airman, A Doctor, A Genie, A Nanny ... And Everything In Between. But He Was One Of A Kind.

How Does The Saying Go? When Two Locusts Fight, It Is Always The Crow That Feasts.' Is That A Luo Expression?' I Asked. Sayid's Face Broke Into A Bashful Smile. We Have A Similar Expression In Luo,' He Said, 'but Actually I Must Admit That I Read This Particular Expression In A Book By Chinua Achebe. The Nigerian Writer. I Like His Books Very Much. He Speaks The Truth About Africa's Predicament. The Nigerian, The Kenya - It Is The Same. We Share More Than Divides Us.

What Makes You A Man Is Not The Ability To Make A Child, It's The Courage To Raise One.

No One Built This Country On Their Own. This Nation Is Great Because We Built It Together.

America Must Always Lead On The World Stage.

I'm Proud Of The Fact That I Stood Up Early And Unequivocally In Opposition To Bush's Foreign Policy. [...] That Opposition Hasn't Changed.

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

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.

It [is] That Courage That Africa Most Desperately Needs.

My Administration Is Committed To Creating An Unprecedented Level Of Openness In Government.

Broken Promises

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

Rand`s [paul] A Libertarian. He Has A View Of The World That I Don`t Share. He Said That We Shouldn`t Have Any Troops In Iraq. He Agreed With Obama That Was A Disaster. When There Was A Chance To Do Something Constructive About Syria With A No-fly Zone, He Said We Don`t Need One.

The Most Powerful Political Moments For Me Come When I Feel Like My Actions Are Aligned With A Certain Truth. I Can Feel It. When I'm Talking To A Group And I'm Saying Something Truthful, I Can Feel A Power That Comes Out Of Those Statements That Is Different Than When I'm Just Being Glib Or Clever.

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.

Tonight, We Gather To Affirm The Greatness Of Our Nation - Not Because Of The Height Of Our Skyscrapers, Or The Power Of Our Military, Or The Size Of Our Economy. Our Pride Is Based On A Very Simple Premise, Summed Up In A Declaration Made Over Two Hundred Years Ago.

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

Companies In Mexico Are Not Going To Do Well If They Don't Have Some Connection To Not Just Markets, But Also Suppliers And Technology From The United States.

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.

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.

We Also Think This Is A Reminder Of The Long Tradition Of Bipartisan Foreign Policy That Has Been The Hallmark Of America At Moments Of Greatest Need, And That's The Kind Of Spirit That We Hope Will Be Reflected In Our Administration.

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James L. Buckley

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