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I Can Make A Firm Pledge, Under My Plan, No Family Making Less Than $250,000 A Year Will See Any Form Of Tax Increase. Not Your Income Tax, Not Your Payroll Tax, Not Your Capital Gains Taxes, Not Any Of Your Taxes.

-Barack Obama

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I Can Make A

Barack Obama

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I Can Make A Firm Pledge, Under My Plan, No Family Making Less Than $250,000 A Year Will See Any Form Of Tax Increase. Not Your Income Tax, Not Your Payroll Tax, Not Your Capital Gains Taxes, Not Any Of Your Taxes.

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The Trick Is Figuring Out How Do We Structure Government Systems That Pool Resources, And Hence Facilitate Some [wealth] Redistribution, Because I Actually Believe In Redistribution, At Least At A Certain Level, To Make Sure That Everybody's Got A Shot.

I Actually Believe That Some Residue Of Discrimination Would Lessen, Because It's My View That There Is A Certain Percentage Of The White Population That Stereotypes And Makes Assumptions About African Americans Because They Don't Inject The History Of Slavery And Jim Crow Into Current Incarceration Rates, Or Crime Rates, Or Poverty Rates, Or What Have You.

I'm No Longer Just A Candidate. I'm The President. I Know What It Means To Send Young Americans Into Battle, For I Have Held In My Arms The Mothers And Fathers Of Those Who Didn't Return. I've Shared The Pain Of Families Who've Lost Their Homes, And The Frustration Of Workers Who've Lost Their Jobs.

I Think At Times Of Significant Stress People Are Going To Be Looking For Something And They Don't Always Know Exactly What It Is That They're Looking For And They May Opt For Change Even If They're Not Entirely Confident What That Change Will Bring.

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.

Health Care Has Become A Proxy For A Broader Set Of Issues About How Much Government Should Be Involved In Our Economy, Particularly Coming Off A Huge Economic Crisis.

We've Got Some Fundamental Choices To Make About The Kind Of Country We Want To Be. Will We Accept An Economy Where Only A Few Of Us Do Spectacularly Well, Or Are We Going To Build An Economy Where Everyone Who Works Hard Has A Chance To Get Ahead?

We Will Stand Against Violence And Intimidation. We Will Stand For The Rights And Dignity Of All Human Beings.

Against Violence

We Will Outstretch The Hand If You Unclench Your Fist.

I Have Complete Confidence In Secret Service. These Guys And Gals Are Unbelievably Professional. They Know What They’re Doing And I Basically Do What They Tell Me To Do. Now, Sometimes I’m The First One To Admit That It Chafes A Little Bit Being Inside This Bubble. It’s The Hardest Adjustment Of Being President, Not Being Able To Just Take A Walk.

The Young Are Going To Be The Messengers Of This Continued Strengthening Of The Diversity In America.

We're Not Going To Deputize A Whole Bunch Of American Citizens To Start Grabbing People Or Turning Them In, In Part Because The Ordinary American Citizen May Not Know Whether Or Not This Person Is Illegal Or Not. But, You Know, The Notion That We're Going To Criminalize Priests, For Example, Or Doctors Who Are Providing Services To Individuals, And Throw Them In Jail For Doing What Their Calling Asks Them To Do, Which Is To Provide Help And Service To People In Need, I Think That Is A Mistake. I Think That's Out Of America's Character.

Keep In Mind That, When I Came In, We Had Had A Crisis That Was The Worst We've Seen Since The 1930s, And Working With People Like Chancellor Merkel, Working With The G-20 And Other Institutions Internationally, We Were Able To Stabilize The Financial System, Stabilize The Us Economy And Return To Growth.

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.

Prosperity Without Freedom Is Just Another Form Of Poverty.

Each Wave Of Immigrants That Have Come In Have Been Able To Assimilate, Integrate And Then Rise Up And Become Part Of This Great American Dream.

The True Test Of The American Ideal Is Whether We're Able To Recognize Our Failings And Then Rise Together To Meet The Challenges Of Our Time. Whether We Allow Ourselves To Be Shaped By Events And History, Or Whether We Act To Shape Them. Whether Chance Of Birth Or Circumstance Decides Life's Big Winners And Losers, Or Whether We Build A Community Where, At The Very Least, Everyone Has A Chance To Work Hard, Get Ahead, And Reach Their Dreams.

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

Clearly, Iran Has Influence In Iraq. Iraq Has A Majority Shi'a Population, They Have Relationships To Iran. Some Are Natural.

There Is Enormous Continuity Beneath The Day-to-day News That Makes America That Indispensable Nation When It Comes To Maintaining Order And Promoting Prosperity Around The World.

There Are Things I Cannot Say.

No Two Countries Are Identical, And Obviously, There's A Difference Between A Referendum On A Very Complex Relationship Between Great Britain And The Rest Of Europe, And A Presidential Election In The United States.

Americans... Still Believe In An America Where Anything's Possible - They Just Don't Think Their Leaders Do.

One Of The Things I Think I Can Bring To The Presidency Is To Make Government And Public Service Cool Again.

Ultimately, The Challenges Of The 21st Century Can't Be Met Without Collective Action. Agreement Will Almost Never Be Easy, And Results Won't Always Come Quickly. But I Am Committed To Respecting Different Points Of View, And To Forging A Consensus Instead Of Dictating Our Terms... That's How We Will Advance And Uphold Our Ideals.

If People Find That Controversial Then I Would Just Refer Them To The Sermon On The Mount.

I Will Begin To Remove Our Troops From Iraq Immediately.

Make Away Out Of No Way

We Too Often Let The Material Things Serve As Indicators That We're Doing Well, Even Though Something Inside Us Tells Us That Were Not Doing Our Best. That We Are Avoiding That Which Is Hard, But Also Necessary. That We Are Shrinking From Rather Than Rising To The Challenges Of The Age.

I Look Forward To Teaching The Occasional Class, 'cause I Was A Professor. And I Had Fun Doing It.

In A Moment When The Outcome Of Our Revolution Was Most In Doubt The Father Of Our Nation Ordered These Words Be Read To The People. Let It Be Told To The Future World That In The Depth Of Winter, When Nothing But Hope And Virtue Could Survive, That The City And The Country Alarmed At One Common Danger Came Forth To Meet It.

The American People Are A Non-ideological People. They Very Much Are Looking For Common-sense, Practical Solutions To The Problems That They Face. Oftentimes They've Got Contradictory Senses Of Various Issues And Policy Positions And I Don't Think That Either The Republican Party Or The Democratic Party Necessarily Capture Their Deepest Dreams When Those Parties Are Described In Caricature Or In Policy Terms.

Steve Was Among The Greatest Of American Innovators - Brave Enough To Think Differently, Bold Enough To Believe He Could Change The World, And Talented Enough To Do It...the World Has Lost A Visionary. And There May Be No Greater Tribute To Steve's Success Than The Fact That Much Of The World Learned Of His Passing On A Device He Invented.

How Do We In The African American Community Build A Culture In Which We Are Saying To Our Kids, "here's What It Takes To Succeed. Here's The Sacrifices You Need To Make To Be Able To Get Ahead. Here's How We Support Each Other. Here's How We Look Out For Each Other."

We Are Going To Trace More Effectively, How These Guns Are Ending Up On The Streets, To Unscrupulous Gun Dealers, Who Often Times Are Selling To Straw Purchasers. And Cracking Down On The Various Loopholes That Exist In Terms Of Background Checks For Children, The Mentally Ill.

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

The Most Expensive Care We Can Give, We're Giving Those Americans Without Insurance. It's Kind Of Stupid That We're Fighting The Notion That We Want To Quit Paying A Hidden Tax And Be Up Front About Covering People In A Way That Is Cost-effective.

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

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.

And Let Me Say This As A Politician I Can Promise You This, Political Leaders Will Never Take Risks If The People Do Not Push Them To Take Some Risks. You Must Create The Change That You Want To See.

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.

Don't Just Buy A New Video Game. Make One.

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.

What We Can Do Is Make Sure That Afghanistan Is Not A Safe Haven For Al Qaeda. What We Can Do It Make Sure That It Is Not Destabilizing Neighboring Pakistan, Which Has Nuclear Weapons. The Key Is We’ve Got To Have A Clear Objective...

To Those Americans Whose Support I Have Yet To Earn, I May Not Have Won Your Vote Tonight, But I Hear Your Voices. I Need Your Help. And I Will Be Your President, Too.

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

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.

But To Truly Transform Our Economy, Protect Our Security, And Save Our Planet From The Ravages Of Climate Change, We Need To Ultimately Make Clean, Renewable Energy The Profitable Kind Of Energy. So I Ask This Congress To Send Me Legislation That Places A Market-based Cap On Carbon Pollution And Drives The Production Of More Renewable Energy In America.

The Other Reason Might Be That You Want To Talk To Voters When You've Got Seven Primaries In Seven Days. Understand What's Happened In This Race - Where We Campaign Actively In A State, And Voters Have The Chance To See Me Directly, They Check Under The Hood, And They Kick The Tires, When We Don't Have As Much Time.

Our Intelligence Communities Spend A Lot Of Time And Effort Gathering A Lot Of Strands And A Lot Of Data [on Russian Hacking]. There Are Times Where They're Very Cautious And They Say, "we Think This Is What Happened, But We're Not Certain."

My Main Message Is To The Parents Of Trayvon Martin. You Know, If I Had A Son, He'd Look Like Trayvon.

My Only Agenda For The Next Two Years Is The Same As The One I’ve Had Since The Day I Swore An Oath On The Steps Of This Capitol — to Do What I Believe Is Best For America.

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.

We Should Never Hesitate To Use Military Force, And I Will Not, As President, In Order To Keep The American People Safe. But We Have To Use Our Military Wisely. And We Did Not Use Our Military Wisely In Iraq.

Politics Has Never Been For The Thin-skinned Or The Faint-of-heart, And If You Enter The Arena, You Should Expect To Get Roughed Up.

My Expectation Would Be That If We Can Begin Discussions Soon, Shortly After The Iranian Elections, We Should Have A Fairly Good Sense By The End Of The Year As To Whether They Are Moving In The Right Direction.

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.

There Wasn't A Time Where I Felt Fearful That I Couldn't Make The Best Decisions Possible.

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.

Peace Is Not Just The Absence Of War. True Peace Depends Upon Creating The Opportunity That Makes Life Worth Living. And To Do That, We Must Confront The Common Enemies Of Human Beings: Nuclear Weapons And Poverty; Ignorance And Disease.

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.

The Leaders We Revere And The Businesses That Last Are Generally Not The Result Of A Narrow Pursuit Of Popularity Or Personal Advancement, But Of Devotion To Some Bigger Purpose. That's The Hallmark Of Real Success. The Other Trapping Of Success Might Be The By Product Of This Larger Mission, But It Can't Be The Central Thing.

This Week I've Travelled More Than 15,000 Miles From America To China To Burma To Australia. I Have No Idea What Time It Is Right Now.

No Other Advanced Nation Endures This Kind Of Violence. None. Here In America, The Murder Rate Is Three Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. The Murder Rate With Guns Is Ten Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. And There's Nothing Inevitable About It. It Comes About Because Of Decisions We Make Or Fail To Make. And It Falls Upon Us To Make It Different.

Insist That The First Question Each Of Us Asks Isn't "what's Good For Me?" But "what's Good For The Country My Children Will Inherit?

If You Don't Have Any Fresh Ideas, Then You Use Stale Tactics To Scare The Voters. If You Don't Have A Record To Run On, Then You Paint Your Opponent As Someone People Should Run From. You Make A Big Election About Small Things.

I Think That Donald Trump Is Coming To This Office With Fewer Set Hard-and-fast Policy Prescriptions Than A Lot Of Other Presidents Might Be Arriving With.

We've Got To Make Sure That We Rebuild The Infrastructure In America, Because We Used To Be - Have The Best Bridges, The Best Roads, The Best Airports. And Now, When You Go To China Or You Go To Europe, You See That They Are Outstripping Us In Terms Of Infrastructure. And If We Put People Back To Work, That Would Be Good Not Only In The Short Term, But It Would Also Lay The Foundation, The Framework For Long-term Economic And Job Growth.

Look At Chancellor [angela] Merkel, Her Personal Story Helps To Tell A Story Of Incredible Achievement That The German People Have Embarked On And I Think Is Something That You Should Be Very Proud Of.

What Is Important Is That We Make Sure To Work Together, That We Understand Our Strength Comes From Unity And Not Division.

Working Together

The Conservative Revolution That Reagan Helped Usher In Gained Traction Because Reagan's Central Insight - That The Liberal Welfare State Had Grown Complacent And Overly Bureaucratic, With Democratic Policy Makers More Obsessed With Slicing The Economic Pie Than With Growing The Pie - Contained A Good Deal Of Truth.

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

Whatever We Think Of The Past, We Must Not Be Prisoners To It.

Undocumented Workers Can't Report If They're Not Being Paid Overtime, Or If Their Health And Safety Laws Are Being Violated, Of If They're Not Getting The Minimum Wage. And So A Lot Of Times Companies Prefer To Hire Them In Order To Take Advantage Of Them. We've Got To Crack Down On Those Employers.

And That, I Suppose, Is What I'd Been Trying To Tell My Mother That Day: That Her Faith In Justice And Rationality Was Misplaced, That We Couldn't Overcome After All, That All The Education And Good Intentions In The World Couldn't Help You Plug Up The Holes In The Universe Or Give You The Power To Change Its Blind, Mindless Course.

I Refuse To Leave Our Children With A Debt That They Cannot Repay.

Broken Promises

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.

So, Let Us Summon A New Spirit Of Patriotism, Of Responsibility, Where Each Of Us Resolves To Pitch In And Work Harder And Look Over Not Only Ourselves, But Each Other.

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.

Now, If You Have Or Had One Of These Plans Before The Affordable Care Act Came Into Law And You Really Liked That Plan, What We Said Was You Can Keep It If It Hasn't Changed Since The Law Passed.

You Know, I Have More Than Enough To Do Without Having To Worry About The Financial System.

The Terms Of Peace May Be Negotiated By Political Leaders, But The Fate Of Peace Is Up To Each Of Us.

Cutting Benefits Is Not The Right Answer. Raising The Retirement Age Is Not The Best Option.

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.

I'll Remember The View Out This Window [from Oval Cabinet], Because This Is Where We Had Our - The Playground That We Put In When Malia And Sasha Came In. Being Able Every Once In Awhile To Look Out The Window And See Your Daughters During The Summer, Swinging On That Swing Set, That Made The Presidency A Little Bit Sweeter.

The Importance Of Making Sure That The Sense Of Accountability When, In Fact, Law Enforcement Is Involved In A Deadly Shooting Is Something That I Think Communities Across The Board Are Going To Need To Consider, We Have A Great Opportunity, Coming Out Of Some Great Conflict And Tragedy, To Really Transform How We Think About Community Law Enforcement Relations So That Everybody Feels Safer And Our Law Enforcement Officers Feel, Rather Than Being Embattled, Feel Fully Supported.

We Know The Battle Ahead Will Be Long. But Always Remember That, No Matter What Obstacles Stand In Our Way, Nothing Can Stand In The Way Of The Power Of Millions Of Voices Calling For Change.

I Attend Trinity United Church Of Christ, And My Pastor [was] Jeremiah Wright.

It's A Generational Project Just To Get America To Live Up Fully To Its Ideals And To Have The Kind Of Society Where Everybody Has A Shot, And Every Kid Is Getting A Good Education, And People Are Getting Living Wages, And They Have Decent Retirement.

After My Election There Was Talk Of A Postracial America. And Such A Vision, However Well Intended, Was Never Realistic.

I Think It Is Possible For The World To See A Palestinian State - I'm Not Going To Put A Time Frame On It - That Is Contiguous, That Allows Freedom Of Movement For Its People, That Allows For Trade With Other Countries, That Allows The Creation Of Businesses And Commerce So That People Have A Better Life.

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.

I Think There Is Nothing Wrong With Instituting Policies That Say That Harassment Of Any Form, Whether It Comes Through The Internet Or Whether It Happens To You Face To Face, Is Unacceptable; That We've Got Zero Tolerance When It Comes To Sexual Harassment, We Have Zero Tolerance When It Comes To Harassing People Because Of Their Sexual Orientation, Because Of Their Race, Because Of Their Ethnicity.

As A Practical Matter, It Is Hard To Think Of Any Society In Human History In Which A Majority Population Has Said That As A Consequence Of Historic Wrongs, We Are Now Going To Take A Big Chunk Of The Nation's Resources Over A Long Period Of Time To Make That Right.

I'm Measuring My Actions Against That Inner Voice That For Me At Least Is Audible, Is Active, It Tells Me Where I Think I'm On Track And Where I Think I'm Off Track.

As We Look Forward To The New Year, Let's Resolve To Recommit Ourselves To The Values We Share.

I Believe In Keeping Guns Out Of Our Inner Cities, And That Our Leaders Must Say So In The Face Of The Gun Manufacturer's Lobby.

A Better Politics Is One Where We Appeal To Each Other’s Basic Decency Instead Of Our Basest Fears.

Now, I Swore An Oath To Uphold The Laws On The Books... Now, I Know Some People Want Me To Bypass Congress And Change The Laws On My Own... Believe Me, The Idea Of Doing Things On My Own Is Very Tempting. I Promise You. Not Just On Immigration Reform. But That's Not How - That's Not How Our System Works. That's Not How Our Democracy Functions. Thats Not How Our Constitution Is Written.

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

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.

I Think What Will Happen With Donald Trump Is There Are Going To Be Certain Elements Of His Temperament That Will Not Serve Him Well Unless He Recognizes Them And Corrects Them.

I Do Believe, Separate And Apart From Any Particular Election Or Movement, That We Are Going To Have To Guard Against A Rise In A Crude Sort Of Nationalism Or Ethnic Identity Or Tribalism That Is Built Around An Us And A Them.

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.

There Are Places I Want To Visit Where If I'm Wearing A Baseball Cap And Some Sunglasses I Think I Can Get Away With And Mingle In A Crowd.

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.

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

I Think Republicans Now Are Recognizing That [obamacare Cancellation] May Not Be What The American People, Including Even [donald] Trump Voters, Are Looking For. And My Hope Is That The President-elect, Members Of Congress From Both Parties Look At, "where Have We Objectively Made Progress, Where Things Are Working Better?" Don't Undo Things Just Because I Did Them. I Don't Have Pride Of Authorship.

We've Come To Be Consumed By A 24-hour, Slash-and-burn, Negative Ad, Bickering, Small-minded Politics That Doesn't Move Us Forward. Sometimes One Side Is Up And The Other Side Is Down. But There's No Sense That They Are Coming Together In A Common-sense, Practical, Nonideological Way To Solve The Problems That We Face.

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

Beside The Two Wars He Inherited In Iraq And Afghanistan, And Promised To End, A Financial Crisis At Home Had Pushed The United States To The Brink Of Another Great Depression. When We Spoke With The New President In March Of 2009, The Economy Was Losing 800,000 Jobs A Month, The Government Was Throwing Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars At Failing Banks, And The Auto Industry Was On The Verge Of Collapse. Politically Pummeled From All Sides, Obama Did His Best To Keep A Sense Of Humor.

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

Absolutely. I Think, I Think The American People, At Their Core, Are A Decent People. I Think That We Still Have Prejudice In Our Midst, But I Think That The Vast Majority Of Americans Are Willing, Are Willing To Judge People On The Basis Of Their Ideas And Their Character. And In The Case Of The Presidency, I Think What's Most Important Is Whether The American People Think That You Understand Their Hopes And Dreams And Struggles And Whether They Think You Can Actually Help Them Achieve Those Hopes And Dreams.

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.

American Leadership Is Not Simply A Matter Of Going It Alone And Bearing All Of The Burden Ourselves.

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

I Believe When Women Succeed America Succeeds!

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.

The Democrats Are As Concerned About Raising Our Kids And Making Sure That The Values Of Empathy And Hard Work And Discipline And Self-respect Are Instilled In Our Children, And I've Got A Six-year-old Daughter And A Three-year-old Daughter, And I'm Not Afraid To Talk About How I Want To Provide Them With The Sort Of Cultural Framework That's Going To Allow Them To Be Successful, Happy People.

We Can Be Civil To Each Other, And We Can Try To Express Ourselves Acknowledging That We're All Patriots, We're All Americans, And Not Assume The Absolute Worst In People's Motives.

We Right Now Give $15 Billion Every Year As Subsidies To Private Insurers Under The Medicare System. Doesn't Work Any Better Through The Private Insurers. They Just Skim Off $15 Billion.

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

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

I'm Less Interested In How We Label Ourselves. I'm More Interested In How We Treat Each Other. And If We're Treating Each Other Right, Then I Can Be African-american, I Can Be Multi-racial, I Can Be You Name It, What Matters Is, Am I Showing People Respect, Am I Caring For One, For Other People.

If We [american Nation] Are Only Thinking About Tomorrow Or The Next Day And Not Thinking About 10 Years From Now, We're Not Going To Control Our Own Economic Future, Because China, Germany - They're Making These [clean Energy] Investments. And I'm Not Going To Cede Those Jobs Of The Future To Those Countries. I Expect Those New Energy Sources To Be Built Right Here In The United States.

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 Cannot Have A Society, In Which Some Dictator Some Place Can Start Imposing Censorship Here In The United States.

We're Going To Have To Come Together And Take Meaningful Action To Prevent More Tragedies Like This, Regardless Of The Politics.

I Have Seen, The Desperation And Disorder Of The Powerless: How It Twists The Lives Of Children On The Streets Of Jakarta Or Nairobi In Much The Same Way As It Does The Lives Of Children On Chicago 's South Side.

We Can't Just Drill Our Way Out Of The Energy And Climate Challenge That We Face.

Americans Should Tremble Before Suggesting That Any Fellow Citizen Lacks Patriotism.

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.

I Have Said Repeatedly That America Doesn't Torture And I'm Going To Make Sure That We Don't Torture. Those Are Part And Parcel An Effort To Regain America's Moral Stature In The World.

Donald Trump Is Uniquely Unqualified To Be President.

It's The Best Deal Of, Of This Whole Thing Is It Turns Out I've Got This Nice Home Office. And At The End Of The Day, Yeah, I Can Come Home, Even If I've Got More Work To Do, I Can Have Dinner With Them. I Can Help Them With Their Homework. I Can Tuck Them In. If I've Gotta Go Back To The Office, I Can.

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

Donald Trump Will Be The Next President, The 45th President Of The United States. And It Will Be Up To Him To Set Up A Team That He Thinks Will Serve Him Well And Reflect His Policies. It Takes A While For People To Reconcile Themselves With That New Reality. Hopefully, It`s A Reminder That Elections Matter. I Think It`s Important For Us To Let Him Make His Decisions, And I Think The American People Will Judge Over The Course Of The Next Couple Of Years Whether They Like What They See.

You Don't Take It Personally. You Understand That If People Are Angry That Somehow The Government Is Failing, Then They Are Going To Look To The Guy Who Represents Government.

For Decades, Our Differences With Iran Meant That Our Governments Almost Never Spoke To Each Other. Ultimately, That Did Not Advance America's Interests.

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

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.

Race Is Still A Powerful Force In This Country. Any African American Candidate, Or Any Latino Candidate, Or Asian Candidate Or Woman Candidate Confronts A Higher Threshold In Establishing Himself To The Voters ... Are Some Voters Not Going To Vote For Me Because I'm African American? Those Are The Same Voters Who Probably Wouldn't Vote For Me Because Of My Politics.

Everybody Deserves Fair Treatment, Equal Treatment In The Eyes Of The Law And The State. And That Includes Gays, Lesbians, Transgender Persons. I Am Not A Fan Of Discrimination And Bullying Of Anybody On The Basis Of Race, On The Basis Of Religion, On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation Or Gender. This Is Actually Part And Parcel Of The Agenda That's Also Going To Be Front And Centre, And That Is How Are We Treating Women And Girls.

We Have An Epidemic Of Fatherlessness Here, And That's What I Agree With The President [barack Obama] On, And We Should Be Doing More To Promote And Protect Marriage As Between A Man And A Women For The Needs Of Our Children.

I'm Never Surprised By Controversies That Are Whipped Up In Washington.

We Should Raise The Minimum Wage So That No One Who Works Full Time Has To Live In Poverty

Thanksgiving Reminds Us That No Matter Our Differences, We're Still One People, Part Of Something Bigger Than Ourselves.

Democracy Is Hard Work.

As Tough As Things Have Been, I Am Convinced You Are Tougher. I've Seen Your Passion And I've Seen Your Service. I've Seen You Engage And I've Seen You Turn Out In Record Numbers. I've Heard Your Voices Amplified By Creativity And A Digital Fluency That Those Of Us In Older Generations Can Barely Comprehend. I've Seen A Generation Eager, Impatient Even, To Step Into The Rushing Waters Of History And Change Its Course.

I Don't Want To Pit Red America Against Blue America. I Want To Be President Of The United States Of America.

Broken Promises

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

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.

We Will Kill Bin Laden. We Will Crush Al Qaeda. That Has To Be Our Biggest National Security Priority.

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.

Secularists Are Wrong When They Ask Believers To Leave Their Religion At The Door Before Entering Into The Public Square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - Indeed, The Majority Of Great Reformers In American History - Were Not Only Motivated By Faith, But Repeatedly Used Religious Language To Argue For Their Cause. To Say That Men And Women Should Not Inject Their "personal Morality" Into Public Policy Debates Is A Practical Absurdity.

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.

I Don't Want To Exaggerate; Having As Many African American Men As We've Had In The Criminal-justice System, And The Amount Of Time It Takes For The Damage Done By That To Wash Through Our Society And Our Communities, The Disadvantages Born Out Of Kids Being Undiagnosed With Mental-health Problems Early, Or Not Getting The Kind Of Exposure To Reading And Math When They're 4 Or 5 Or 6 Years Old, That Carries A Cost.

The American People Recognize That Their Careers Or Their Kids' Careers Are Going To Have To Be More Dynamic. That They Might Not Be Working At A Single Plant For 30 Years. That They Might Have To Change Careers. They Might Have To Get More Education. They Might Have To Retool Or Retrain. And I Think The American People Are Game For That.

That's Why I Stand Here Tonight. Because For Two Hundred And Thirty Two Years, At Each Moment When That Promise Was In Jeopardy, Ordinary Men And Women - Students And Soldiers, Farmers And Teachers, Nurses And Janitors - Found The Courage To Keep It Alive.

You Have People Around The Country Who Are Benefitting From The Steps That We've Taken [with Obamacare] And As Long As They Continue To Get Helped, Then At Least I'll Know In My Own Mind That The Work We Did Here Had A Lasting Impact.

So While I Will Never Minimize The Costs Involved In Military Action, I Am Convinced That A Failure To Act In Libya Would Have Carried A Far Greater Price For America.

The Fact Is That I'm Also Friendly With Tom Coburn, One Of The Most Conservative Republicans In The United States Senate, Who, During His Campaign, Once Said That It Might Be Appropriate To Apply The Death Penalty To Those Who Carried Out Abortions.

My Father's Voice Had Nevertheless Remained Untainted, Inspiring, Rebuking, Granting Or Withholding Approval. 'you Do Not Work Hard Enough, Barry. You Must Help In Your People's Struggle. Wake Up, Black Man!

The Very Technologies That Empower Us To Do Great Good Can Also Be Used To Undermine Us And Inflict Great Harm.

We Do Not Benefit From A Relationship With China Or Any Other Country In Which We Put Our Values And Our Ideals Aside.

There's No Doubt That When It Comes To Our Treatment Of Native Americans As Well As Other Persons Of Color In This Country, We've Got Some Very Sad And Difficult Things To Account For. I Personally Would Want To See Our Tragic History, Or The Tragic Elements Of Our History, Acknowledged. I Consistently Believe That When It Comes To Whether It's Native Americans Or African-american Issues Or Reparations, The Most Important Thing For The U.s. Government To Do Is Not Just Offer Words, But Offer Deeds.

Native American

There's So Much Active Misinformation And It's Packaged Very Well And It Looks The Same When You See It On A Facebook Page Or You Turn On Your Television. If Everything Seems To Be The Same And No Distinctions Are Made, Then We Won't Know What To Protect.

The Time To Fix Our Broken Immigration System Is Now... We Need Stronger Enforcement On The Border And At The Workplace... But For Reform To Work, We Also Must Respond To What Pulls People To America... Where We Can Reunite Families, We Should. Where We Can Bring In More Foreign-born Workers With The Skills Our Economy Needs, We Should.

There Is A Reason Why George Washington Is Always One Of The Top Three Presidents, And It's Not Because Of His Prowess As A Military Leader; It's Not Because Of The Incredible Innovations In Policy That He Introduced. It's Because He Knew When It Was Time To Go.

I Want To Reduce America's Deficit By Cutting Spending That We Don't Need But Also By Asking The Wealthy To Do A Little Bit More So That We Can Invest In Things Like Research And Technology That Are The Key To A 21st Century Economy.

A Mother Deserves A Day Off To Care For A Sick Child Or Sick Parent Without Running Into Hardship - And You Know What, A Father Does, Too. It's Time To Do Away With Workplace Policies That Belong In A 'mad Men' Episode.

I Don't Want You Folks To Do A Lot Of Talking. Just Shut Up And Get Out Of The Way.

I Think That I'm A Better Speechwriter Than My Speechwriters. I Know More About Policies On Any Particular Issue Than My Policy Directors. And I'll Tell You Right Now That I'm Gonna Think I'm A Better Political Director Than My Political Director.

I Would Say Of All The Things That Have Happened During The Course Of My Presidency The Knowledge That You Have Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Who Have Been Killed, Millions Who Have Been Displaced, [makes Me] Ask Myself What Might I Have Done Differently Along The Course Of The Last Five, Six Years.

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.

Part Of What's Changed In Politics Is Social Media And How People Are Receiving Information.

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

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

We Have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists, And Their Own Path To Grace Is One That We Have To Revere And Respect As Much As Our Own

There Are Always Going To Be Some Complications.

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 And We Are Ending A War Not With A Final Battle But With A Final March Toward Home. This Is An Extraordinary Achievement

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.

[...] We Must Start By Inspiring Our Children With A Sense Of Purpose...by Nurturing Their Imagination So That They May Dream Big And Then Work Hard To Reach Those Dreams. Too Often, Our Children Spend Hours Playing Playstation Without Ever Finding Out How To Build Playstation. They Watch Television But Never Wonder How It's Put Together. They Surf Web Page After Web Page On The Internet, But Are Never Taught How To Design One.

[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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

The President And The Executive Branch Are Always Going To Have Greater Latitude And Greater Authority When It Comes To Protecting America Because Sometimes You Just Have To Respond Quickly And Not Everything That Is A Danger Can Be Publicized And Be Subject To Open Debate, But There Have To Be Some Guardrails.

Too Many Americans Who Struggle With Mental Health Illnesses Are Suffering In Silence Rather Than Seeking Help, And We Need To See To It That Men And Women Who Would Never Hesitate To Go See A Doctor If They Had A Broken Arm Or Came Down With The Flu, That They Have That Same Attitude When It Comes To Their Mental Health.

Ask Osama Bin Laden And The 22-out-of-30 Top Al-qaida Leaders Who've Been Taken Off The Field Whether I Engage In Appeasement. Or Whoever Is Left Out There, Ask Them About That.

The Bottom Line Is That It's Hard To Find A Model In Which You Can Practically Administer And Sustain Political Support For Those Kinds Of Efforts. And What Makes America Complicated As Well Is The Degree To Which This Is Not Just A Black/white Society, And It Is Becoming Less So Every Year.

I Think Where I Get Frustrated At Times Was The Belief That The President Can Do Anything If He Just Decides He Wants To Do It.

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 Nothing That America Can't Handle If We Actually Look Squarely At The Problem. ...change Depends On Our Actions.

We Can Choose A Future Where We Export More Products And Outsource Fewer Jobs. After A Decade That Was Defined By What We Bought And Borrowed, We're Getting Back To Basics, And Doing What America Has Always Done Best: We're Making Things Again.

In America, We Then Made A Commitment, Particularly After World War Ii With The Gi Bill, To Massively Expand Our Commitment To College Education, And That Meant We Had More Engineers And We Had More Scientists And That Meant We Had Better Technology, Which Meant That We Were More Productive And We Could Succeed In The Global Marketplace.

[fall Of The Berlin Wall] Is A Reminder That The Commitment Of The United States, To Europe Is Enduring And It's Rooted In The Values We Share; Our Commitment To Democracy, Our Commitment To Rule Of Law, Our Commitment To The Dignity Of All People In Our Own Countries And Around The World.

We Should Foster A Culture In Which People's Private Religious Beliefs, Including Atheists And Agnostics, Are Respected. And That's The Kind Of Culture That I Think Allows All Of Us, Then, To Believe What We Want. That's Freedom Of Conscience. That's What Our Constitution Guarantees.

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