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I Don't Believe That The American People Want Us To Focus On Our Job Security. They Want Us To Focus On Their Job Security. I Don't Think They Want More Gridlock. I Don't Think They Want More Partisanship. I Don't Think They Want More Obstruction. They Didn't Send Us To Washington To Fight Each Other In Some Sort Of Political Steel-cage Match To See Who Comes Out Alive. That's Not What They Want. They Sent Us To Washington To Work Together, To Get Things Done, And To Solve The Problems That They're Grappling With Every Single Day.

-Barack Obama

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I Don't Believe That

Barack Obama

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I Don't Believe That The American People Want Us To Focus On Our Job Security. They Want Us To Focus On Their Job Security. I Don't Think They Want More Gridlock. I Don't Think They Want More Partisanship. I Don't Think They Want More Obstruction. They Didn't Send Us To Washington To Fight Each Other In Some Sort Of Political Steel-cage Match To See Who Comes Out Alive. That's Not What They Want. They Sent Us To Washington To Work Together, To Get Things Done, And To Solve The Problems That They're Grappling With Every Single Day.

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The Single Biggest Threat That We Face Is A Nuclear Weapon Or Some Weapon Of Mass Destruction. What That Means Is That We Have To Be Extraordinarily Aggressive And Vigilant In Controlling Nuclear Proliferation.

Mass Destruction

There Are Very Few Moments In Our Lives Where We Have The Privilege To Witness History Taking Place. This Is One Of Those Moments. This Is One Of Those Times.

Let Me Tell You Another Place To Look For Some Savings. We Are Currently Spending $10 Billion A Month In Iraq When They Have A $79 Billion Surplus. It Seems To Me That If We're Going To Be Strong At Home As Well As Strong Abroad, That We Have To Look At Bringing That War To A Close.

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.

Nobody Wants To Put The Creditworthiness Of The United States In Jeopardy. Nobody Wants To See The United States Default. So We've Got To Seize This Moment, And We Have To Seize It Soon.

We Had A Farewell Dinner For Some Of My Senior Staff, And Generally Everybody Likes To Talk About How Cool I Was.

Both Our Nations [malasian And American] Are Committed To Building A Regional Order Where All Nations Play By The Same Rules And Disputes Are Resolved Peacefully And This Visit Will Be An Opportunity To Continue Deepening Our Cooperation On Behalf Of Regional Stability And Prosperity.

This Is Something That I'm Sure I'd Have Serious Debates With My Fellow Christians About. I Think That The Difficult Thing About Any Religion, Including Christianity, Is That At Some Level There Is A Call To Evangelize And Prostelytize. There's The Belief, Certainly In Some Quarters, That People Haven't Embraced Jesus Christ As Their Personal Savior That They're Going To Hell.

I Was Never Great, But I Was A Good [basketball] Player, And I Could Play Seriously. Now I'm Like One Of These Old Guys Who's Running Around, And The Guys I Play With, Who Are All A Lot Younger, They Sort Of Pity Me And Sympathize With Me. They Tolerate Me, But We All Know That I'm The Weak Link On The Court. And I Don't Like Being The Weak Link.

It's Time To Put Country Ahead Of Party. It's Time To Put The Next Generation Ahead Of The Next Election.

I Just Want To Go Through Central Park And Watch Folks Passing By. Spend The Whole Day Watching People. I Miss That.

I Always Say That Campaigning And Governing Are Two Different Things.

We Were Just At The Beginnings Of A Recovery [in 2010]. And The, You Know, Whoever Is President At That Point Is Gonna Get Hit And His Party's Gonna Get Hit. That Then Means That Suddenly You've Got A Redistricting In Which A Lot Of State Legislatures Are Now Republican. They Draw Lines That Give A Huge Structural Advantage In Subsequent Elections.

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.

The Spirit's There And That's Not Just My Imagination. I Think If You Look At Surveys And Attitudes Among Young People, You See It.

I Will Tell You, When 20 6-year-olds Are Gunned Down And Congress Literally Does Nothing, Yeah That's The Closest I Came To Feeling Disgusted.

If We Have A Phased Redeployment Where We're As Careful Getting Out As We Were Careless Getting In, Then There's Not Reason Why We Shouldn't Be Able To Prevent The Wholesale Slaughter I Think Some People Have Suggested Might Occur.

Iran Is A State Sponsor Of Terrorism. And For Them To Be Able To Provide Nuclear Technology To Non-state Actors, That's Unacceptable.

Every Single American - Gay, Straight, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender - Every Single American Deserves To Be Treated Equally In The Eyes Of The Law And In The Eyes Of Our Society. It’s A Pretty Simple Proposition.

In Terms Of My Conversations With [vladimir] Putin, These Are Conversations That Took Place Before The Election. As I Indicated, There Has Been Very Clear Proof That They Have Engaged In Cyber Attacks. This Isn't New. It's Not Unique To Russia. There Are A Number Of States Where We've Seen Low-level Cyber Attacks And Industrial Espionage And, You Know, Other Behavior That We Think Should Be Out Of Bounds.

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

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

The Last Thing That I Want To Do Is To Have The United States Be A Foil.

The President Does Not Have Power Under The Constitution To Unilaterally Authorize A Military Attack In A Situation That Does Not Involve Stopping An Actual Or Imminent Threat To The Nation.

We Can't Afford More Top-down Economics. What We Need Are Policies That Will Grow And Strengthen The Middle Class.

"the Donald" Is Not Really A Plans Guy.

No Country On Earth Would Tolerate Missiles Raining Down On Its Citizens From Outside Its Borders.

I Hope You Guys Are Up For A Fight. I Hope You Guys Are Game Because I Haven't Been Putting Up With 19 Months Of Airplanes And Hotel Food And Missing My Babies And My Wife - I Didn't Put Up For That Stuff Just To Come In Second.

The Internet Didn't Get Invented On Its Own. Government Research Created The Internet So That All The Companies Could Make Money Off The Internet. The Point Is, Is That When We Succeed, We Succeed Because Of Our Individual Initiative, But Also Because We Do Things Together.

The Only Time I Get Frustrated With Activist Criticism Is If I Have Recognized Them, And Invited Them To Work With Me To Figure Out How We Solve This Problem That They're Concerned About, And Either They Don't Engage Out Of The Sense Of Purity - "i'm Not Going To Shake His Hand" - Or You're Not Sufficiently Prepared So You Don't Even Know What To Ask For, Or You're Not Being Strategic As An Activist And Trying To Figure Out How The Process Has To Work In Order For You To Get What You Want.

Whether It's Coming From Fdr Or It's Coming From Ronald Reagan, If The Idea Is Right For The Times Then We're Gonna Apply It. And Things That Don't Work We're Gonna Get Rid Of.

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

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.

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

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.

I Have A Deep Appreciation For The Wisdom Of This Guy , George Washington.

You Know, In College, I Smoked A Little Pot, Did A Little Blow.

Through Words He Gave Voice To The Voiceless. Through Deeds He Gave Courage To The Faint Of Heart.

Young People: I Understand This Is Important To You, But As You Be Thinking About Climate Change, The Economy And Jobs, War And Peace, Maybe Way At The Bottom You Should Be Thinking About Marijuana.

We Believe That No Matter Where You Live - Whether A Village In Punjab Or The Bylanes Of Chandni Chowk, An Old Section Of Kolkata Or A New High-rise In Bangalore - Every Person Deserves The Same Chance To Live In Security And Dignity, To Get An Education, To Find Work, And To Give Their Children A Better Future.

I Can Think About What [mahatma] Gandhi Said Or [martin Luther] King Said About Violence Begetting Violence, And Still Be True To My Job By Asking Myself The Question Whenever We're Confronted With A Situation Where Some May Be Arguing For Military Action: Will This Actually Result In America Being Safer, Or The Most Lives Being Saved?

We Rise And Fall As One People, One Nation.

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.

Their [the Evangelicals'] Success Also Points To A Hunger For The Product They Are Selling, A Hunger That Goes Beyond Any Particular Issue Or Cause... They Need An Assurance That Somebody Out There Cares About Them, Is Listening To Them.

When Americans Are Called On To Innovate, That's What We Do - Whether It's Making More Fuel-efficient Cars Or More Fuel-efficient Appliances, Or Making Sure That We Are Putting In Place The Kinds Of Equipment That Prevents Harm To The Ozone Layer And Eliminates Acid Rain. At Every One Of These Steps, There Have Been Folks Who Have Said It Can't Be Done. There Have Been Naysayers Who Said This Is Going To Destroy Jobs And Destroy Industry. And It Doesn't Happen Because Once We Have A Clear Target To Meet, We Typically Meet It. And We Find The Best Ways To Do It.

Empathy Is A Quality Of Character That Can Change The World.

I Love Listening To These Guys Give Us Lectures About Debt And Deficits. I Inherited A Trillion-dollar Deficit. ... This Notion That Somehow We Caused The Deficits Is Just Wrong. It's Just Not True. ... If They Start Trying To Give You A Bunch Of Facts And Figures Suggesting That It's True, What They're Not Telling You Is They Baked All This Stuff Into The Cake With Those Tax Cuts And A Prescription Drug Plan That They Didn't Pay For And The Wars.

One Thing I Will Not Compromise Over Is Whether Or Not Congress Should Pay The Tab For A Bill They've Already Racked Up. If Congress Refuses To Give The United States The Ability To Pay Its Bills On Time, The Consequences For The Entire Global Economy Could Be Catastrophic.

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

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.

America Will Rise Again. And Hope Will Rise Again.

Iraq Is Sort Of A Situation Where You've Got A Guy Who Drove The Bus Into The Ditch. You Obviously Have To Get The Bus Out Of The Ditch, And That's Not Easy To Do, Although You Probably Should Fire The Driver.

I Want To Be Very Clear: I Will Not Sign On To Any Health Plan That Adds To Our Deficits Over The Next Decade.

Every Single Thing I`ve Done, From The Affordable Care Act To Pushing To Raise The Minimum Wage, To Making Sure That Young People Are Able To Go To College And Get Good Job Training, To What We`re Pushing Now In Terms Of Sick Paid Leave,everything I Do Has Been Focused On How Do We Make Sure The Middle Class Is Getting A Fair Deal.

And If We Walk Away Now, If We Simply Retreat Into Our Respective Corners, We Will Never Be Able To Come Together And Solve Challenges Like Health Care, Or Education, Or The Need To Find Good Jobs For Every American.

The American Story Has Never Been About Things Coming Easy. It Has Been About Rising To The Moment When The Moment Is Hard. About Rejecting Panicked Division For Purposeful Unity. About Seeing A Mountaintop From The Deepest Valley. That Is Why We Remember That Some Of The Most Famous Words Ever Spoken By An American Came From A President Who Took Office In A Time Of Turmoil: "the Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself.

If Everybody Who Voted In 2008 Shows Up In 2010, We Will Win This Election. We Will Win This Election.

We All Remember Abraham Lincoln As The Leader Who Saved Our Union. Founder Of The Republican Party.

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

The Thing That Has Disturbed Me Most About The Russian Hacking Episode Is - And The Thing That Surprised Me Most Has Not Been The Fact Of Russian Hacking. The Cyber World Is Full Of Information Gathering, You Know, Propaganda, Et Cetera. I Have Been Concerned About The Degree To Which, In Some Circles, You've Seen People Suggest That Vladimir Putin Has More Credibility Than The U.s. Government. I Think That's Something New.

Because Of The Civil Rights Movement, New Doors Of Opportunity And Education Swung Open For Everybody ... Not Just For Blacks And Whites, But Also Women And Latinos; And Asians And Native Americans; And Gay Americans And Americans With A Disability. They Swung Open For You, And They Swung Open For Me. And That's Why I'm Standing Here Today-because Of Those Efforts, Because Of That Legacy.

Native American

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

Did I Recognize That There Was Anger Or Frustration In The American Population? Of Course I Did. First Of All, We Had To Fight Back From The Worst Recession Since The Great Depression, And I Can Guarantee You If Your Housing Values Have Crashed And You've Lost Most Of Your Pension And You've Lost Your Job, You're Going To Be Pretty Angry.

Winter Came And The City [chicago] Turned Monochrome -- Black Trees Against Gray Sky Above White Earth. Night Now Fell In Midafternoon, Especially When The Snowstorms Rolled In, Boundless Prairie Storms That Set The Sky Close To The Ground, The City Lights Reflected Against The Clouds

If It's On Facebook, It All Looks The Same.

What I'm Thinking About Are The Millions Of People, Many Of Whom Write Me Very Personal Letters :"dear Mr. President: I Did Not Vote For You. I Was Against Obamacare. And Then My Son Who Didn't Have Health Insurance Signed Up And We Just Found Out That He Had An Illness. And Thankfully He's Now Covered, Otherwise He Might Not Have Gotten Treatment And I Might Have Lost My House."

In The Unlikely Story That Is America, There Has Never Been Anything False About Hope.

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

Today I Am Pledging To Cut The Deficit We Inherited In Half By The End Of My First Term In Office.

Broken Promises

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.

Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago.

Could Have Been

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.

Working Full-time Should Mean Enough To Support A Family.

We Cannot Simply Look To Austerity As A Strategy And It Is Incredibly Important That The Greek People See Improvements In Their Daily Lives So That They Can Carry With Them The Hope That Their Lives Will Get Better.

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

On September 11th, 2001, In Our Time Of Grief, The American People Came Together. We Offered Our Neighbors A Hand And We Offered The Wounded Our Blood. We Reaffirmed Our Ties To Each Other And Our Love Of Community And Country. On That Day, No Matter Where We Came From, What God We Prayed To, Or What Race Or Ethnicity We Were, We Were United As One American Family.

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

The Bottom Line Is This - Whereas Iran Was Steadily Expanding Its Nuclear Program, We Have Now Cut Off Every Single Path That Iran Could Have Used To Build A Bomb.

But It Will Depend On Young People Like You Being Open To New Ideas And New Possibilities. And It Will Require Young People Like You Never To Stereotype Or Assume The Worst About Other People.

Why Hang Out With Celebrities When I Can Hang Out With The People Who Made Me One?

What I'm Interested In Doing After I Get Out Of The Presidency Is To Make Sure That I'm Working With That Next Generation So That They Understand You Can't Just Rely On Inspiration.

Over The Last Few Years A Lot Of People Have Become Aware Of The Inequities In The Criminal Justice System, Right Now, With Our Overall Crime Rate And Incarceration Rate Both Falling, We're At A Moment When Some Good People In Both Parties, Republicans And Democrats And Folks All Across The Country, Are Coming Up With Ideas To Make The System Work Smarter And Better.

If Iran Cheats, The World Will Know It.

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.

What The American People Hope - What They Deserve - Is For All Of Us, Democrats And Republicans, To Work Through Our Differences; To Overcome The Numbing Weight Of Our Politics. For While The People Who Sent Us Here Have Different Backgrounds, Different Stories, Different Beliefs, The Anxieties They Face Are The Same. The Aspirations They Hold Are Shared: A Job That Pays The Bills; A Chance To Get Ahead; Most Of All, The Ability To Give Their Children A Better Life.

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

We Shouldn't Assume That Government Is Always Trying To Do The Wrong Thing.

Here's What I Can Tell The American People: 95 Percent Of You Will Get A Tax Cut. And If You Make Less Than $250,000, Less Than A Quarter-million Dollars A Year, Then You Will Not See One Dime's Worth Of Tax Increase.

Throughout History, Islam Has Demonstrated Through Words And Deeds The Possibilities Of Religious Tolerance And Racial Equality.

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

Greatest Leadership

The Federal Government And Our Democracy Is Not A Speedboat. It's An Oceanliner, As I Discovered When I Came Into Office. It Took A Lot Of Really Hard Work For Us To Make Significant Policy Changes, Even In Our First Two Years, When We Had Larger Majorities Than Mr. Trump Will Enjoy When He Comes Into Office.

Some Heinous Crimes Justify The Ultimate Punishment.

If We Get To A Point Where People In This Country Feel More Affinity With A Leader Who Is An Adversary And View The United States And Our Way Of Life As A Threat To Him, Then We're Gonna Have Bigger Problems Than Just Cyber Hacking.

Leadership Isn't Just Legislation, That It's A Matter Of Persuading People And Giving Them Confidence, And Bringing Them Together And Setting A Tone.

[donald Trump] Ran An Extraordinarily Unconventional Campaign And It Resulted In The Biggest Political Upset In Perhaps Modern Political History. American History.

Just From A Political Perspective, Do You Think The President Of The United States Going Into Re-election Wants Gas Prices To Go Up Higher? Look, Here's The Bottom Line With Respect To Gas Prices: I Want Gas Prices Lower Because They Hurt Families.

Government Without A Tough And Vibrant Media Is Not An Option For The United States Of America.

Legislatively, The Thing I'm Most Proud Of Is Healthcare, And I Will Continue To Be Most Proud Of It Because Not Only Do We Have 30 Million People Who Are Going To Get Healthcare, We've Got Six Million Young People Who Are Able To Stay On Their Parents' Plan Until They're 26.

And We Can See The Positive Impacts Right Here At Solyndra. Less Than A Year Ago, We Were Standing On What Was An Empty Lot. But Through The Recovery Act, This Company Received A Loan To Expand Its Operations. This New Factory Is The Result Of Those Loans.

There Is No Shame In Confusion Or Fear. "there Was Only Shame In The Silence Fear Had Produced. . . . It Was The Silence That Betrayed Us."

To This Day, The United States Is Profoundly Grateful For Our Friendship And Alliance With Greece.

I Found During The Course Of My Political Career On The National Scene There's A Point Where The Vanity Burns Away And You've Had Your Fill Of Your Name In The Papers, Or Big Adoring Crowds, Or The Exercise Of Power. And For Me That Happened Fairly Quickly. And Then You Are Really Focused On: What Am I Going To Get Done With This Strange Privilege That's Been Granted To Me? How Do I Make Myself Worthy Of It?

This Is A Core Principle Of My Presidency - If You Threaten America, You Will Find No Safe Haven.

Nobody's Cooler Than My Two Girls. They Just Seem To Take Whatever Comes With, You Know - Happiness And - Steadiness. And They're Loving School. They're Making Friends... And - They've Already Joined Some Clubs. And Sasha, You Know - I Think Maybe To Endear - Myself To Her, She - She Decided She Wanted To Join A Basketball Team. So - What More Could I Want?

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

I Know Cnn Has Taken Some Knocks Lately But The Fact Is, I Admire Their Commitment To Covering All Sides Of The Story, Just In Case One Of Them Happens To Be Accurate.

As A Student Of History, I Also Know Civilization's Debt To Islam.

I'd Say, Probably, Intellectually I've Drawn As Much From Judaism As Any Other Faith.

Because Of The Internet And Communications, The Clash Of Cultures Is Much More Direct. People Feel, I Think, Less Certain About Their Identity, Less Certain About Economic Security.

I'm Blown Away. I'm Flabbergasted The President [barack Obama] Made The Phone Call To Rouhani After 30-plus, `79, 33 Years Or So. And There's A Reason We Haven't Negotiated With Iran, Because They're State-sponsored Terrorists. They're The Central Bank For Terrorism Around The World.

Do I Need To Apologize For Mr.[tom] Coburn's Statements? Because I Certainly Don't Agree With Those, Either.

Democracy Demands That The Religiously Motivated Translate Their Concerns Into Universal, Rather Than Religion-specific, Values.

I Think That There's A Power In That [information Through Tweets And Sound Bites ]. There's Also A Danger, What Generates A Headline Or Stirs Up A Controversy And Gets Attention Isn't The Same As The Process Required To Actually Solve The Problem.

I Absolutely Think That It's Possible For Us To Find Common Ground.

Look, Americans Will Go For Leadership That Makes Sense. Our Job, You Know, As Public Officials, Is Not To Put Our Finger In The Air. Our Job Is To Listen, And Then Lead.

Now, Some Have Said I Blame Too Many Problems On My Predecessor, But Let's Not Forget That's A Practice That Was Initiated By George W. Bush.

I Would Love To See An America Where Race Is Understood In The Same Way That The Ethnic Diversity Of The White Population Is Understood.

There Are Problems That Just End Up Being Really Hard And By Definition The Only Problems That Come To My Desk Are The Ones That Nobody Else Can Solve.

Our Friends At The Republican Convention Were More Than Happy To Talk About Everything They Think Is Wrong With America, But They Didn't Have Much To Say About How They'd Make It Right. They Want Your Vote, But They Don't Want You To Know Their Plan.

Our Government Should Work For Us, Not Against Us. It Should Help Us, Not Hurt Us. It Should Ensure Opportunity Not Just For Those With The Most Money And Influence, But For Every American Who's Willing To Work. That's The Promise Of America - The Idea That We Are Responsible For Ourselves, But That We Also Rise Or Fall As One Nation; The Fundamental Belief That I Am My Brother's Keeper; I Am My Sister's Keeper.

If American Workers Are Being Denied Their Right To Organize And Collectively Bargain When I'm In The White House, I'll Put On A Comfortable Pair Of Shoes Myself. I'll Walk On That Picket Line With You As President Of The United States Of America, Because Workers Deserve To Know That Somebody Is Standing In Their Corner.

I Am A Firm Believer That You Don't Do Anything Significant By Yourself. Again, Maybe There Are Exceptions. There's The Picasso Or The Mozart.

I Get Letters From [people Getting Insurance] Right Now. "you Saved My Child's Life." "i Did Not Have To Sell My Home When My Wife Got Sick." And That Is What, As A Policy Maker, I'm Trying To Achieve During The Short Period Of Time That I'm Here.

Nothing In Life That’s Worth Anything Is Easy.

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

Isis Is A Virulent, Nasty Organization That Has Gained A Foothold In Ungoverned Spaces Effectively In Syria And Parts Of Western Iraq. We Have To Take It Seriously. They've Shown In Paris What They Can Do In An Organized Fashion.

My Hope Is Donald Trump Makes Things Better. And If He Does, We'll All Benefit From It.

I Cannot Swallow Whole The View Of Lincoln As The Great Emancipator.

There Are War-torn Countries, People Full Of Poverty, Who Still Voted, 60, 70 Percent. If Here In The United States Of America, We Voted At 60 Percent, 70 Percent, It Would Transform Our Politics.

Isil Is A Terrorist Organization, Pure And Simple. And It Has No Vision Other Than The Slaughter Of All Who Stand In Its Way.

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

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

My Hope Would Be That, As We're Moving Through The World Right Now, We're Able To Get That Psychological Or Emotional Peace By Seeing Very Concretely Our Kids Doing Better And Being More Hopeful And Having Greater Opportunities.

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

I Think We Have Two Conflicting Traditions In This Country. I Think It's Important For Us To Recognize That We've Got A Tradition Of Handgun Ownership And Gun Ownership Generally. And A Lot Of People - Law-abiding Citizens Use If For Hunting, For Sportsmanship, And For Protecting Their Families. We Also Have A Violence On The Streets That Is The Result Of Illegal Handgun Usage. And So I Think There Is Nothing Wrong With A Community Saying We Are Going To Take Those Illegal Handguns Off The Streets.

I Think There Are Hard-liners Inside Of Iran That Think It Is The Right Thing To Do To Oppose Us, To Seek To Destroy Israel, To Cause Havoc In Places Like Syria Or Yemen Or Lebanon, If They Don't Change At All, We're Still Better Off Having The Deal.

I Don't Have Much Patience For Anyone Who Denies That This Challenge Is Real.

Military Surge In Afghanistan To Eliminate The Taliban.

We Had To Get Out Of Chicago So Quick. Election Night Happens, Suddenly I'm Talking To Ben Bernanke And Hank Paulson And Trying To Figure Out Whether The World's Going To Fly Apart, And Michelle Is Trying To Figure Out Where The Girls Are Going To Go To School. And We Pack Up And Leave And Basically Our House In Chicago Just Became Like A Time Capsule. My Desk In My Home Office Still Had Stacks Of Articles And Bills And Stuff From 2008.

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

Progress Does Not Compel Us To Settle Centuries-long Debates About The Role Of Government For All Time, But It Does Require Us To Act In Our Time.

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

When The Economy Is Still Struggling, Putting People Back To Work, Finding Ways To Spur Economic Activity, Ultimately Can Help To Reduce The Structural Deficits And Debts That Countries Experience.

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

And So Our Goal On Health Care Is, If We Can Get, Instead Of Health Care Costs Going Up 6 Percent A Year, It's Going Up At The Level Of Inflation, Maybe Just Slightly Above Inflation, We've Made Huge Progress. And By The Way, That Is The Single Most Important Thing We Could Do In Terms Of Reducing Our Deficit. That's Why We Did It.

At Least Romney And Mccain, They Respect The Rule Of Law. At Least Romney And Mccain, They Understand Their Limitations.

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

To Ensure Prosperity Here At Home And Peace Abroad, We All Share The Belief We Have To Maintain The Strongest Military On The Planet.

There Are Gonna Be Elections Coming Up Among Our Nato Allies That We Have To Pay Attention To. I Anticipate That This Kind Of Thing Can Happen Again Here. And So In Addition To The Report Assessing What Exactly Happened, What We Have Also Done Is To Make Sure That The Department Of Homeland Security And Our Intelligence Teams Are Working With The Various Folks Who Run Our Elections.

I've Always Viewed The Paris Agreement As A Starting Point. If You Look At All The Commitments That Have Been Made By All The Countries, It's Still Not Sufficient To Deal With The Very Dangerous Situation We Face. What It Has Done Is That It Created An Architecture Whereby As Technology Improves, As We Find New Clean Sources Of Energy, As We Make Our Economies More Efficient, Then Gradually We Can Turn Up The Dial And Improve The Outcomes Of Paris.

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

I Am Convinced That Whenever We Exaggerate Or Demonize, Oversimplify Or Overstate Our Case, We Lose. Whenever We Dumb Down The Political Debate, We Lose. For It's Precisely The Pursuit Of Ideological Purity, The Rigid Orthodoxy And The Sheer Predictability Of Our Current Political Debate, That Keeps Us From Finding New Ways To Meet The Challenges We Face.

The Best Judge Of Whether Or Not A Country Is Going To Develop Is How It Treats Its Women. If It's Educating Its Girls, If Women Have Equal Rights, That Country Is Going To Move Forward. But If Women Are Oppressed And Abused And Illiterate, Then They're Going To Fall Behind.

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

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

African American

I Remember Reading [ Studs Terkel's] "working" When It First Came Out And Just Finding That Very Powerful. I Was Going Into Community Organizing. What Stuck Was To Reveal The Sacredness Of Ordinary People's Lives. That Everybody Has A Story. And I Think Studs Is Terrific At Drawing Out That Shimmering Quality Of People's Everyday Struggles.

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

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.

Inequality Also Distorts Our Democracy. It Gives An Outsized Voice To The Few Who Can Afford High-priced Lobbyists And Unlimited Campaign Contributions, And Runs The Risk Of Selling Out Our Democracy To The Highest Bidder. And It Leaves Everyone Else Rightly Suspicious That The System In Washington Is Rigged Against Them - That Our Elected Representatives Aren't Looking Out For The Interests Of Most Americans.

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

I Am The Eternal Optimist. I Think That, Over Time, People Respond To Civility And -- And Rational Argument.

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

Civility Also Requires Relearning How To Disagree Without Being Disagreeable. Surely You Can Question My Policies Without Questioning My Faith Or, For That Matter, My Citizenship.

Those Opposed To Abortion Cannot Simply Invoke God's Will-they Have To Explain Why Abortion Violates Some Principle That Is Accessible To People Of All Faiths.

If We Are Truly Created Equal Than Truly The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well, This Ruling Will Strengthen All Of Our Communities By Offering To All Same Sex Couples The Dignity Of Marriage Across This Great Land.

In The Muslim World, This Notion That Somehow Everything Is The Fault Of The Israelis Lacks Balance - Because There's Two Sides To Every Question. That Doesn't Mean That Sometimes One Side Has Done Something Wrong And Should Not Be Condemned. But It Does Mean There's Always Two Sides To An Issue. I Say The Same Thing To My Jewish Friends, Which Is You Have To See The Perspective Of The Palestinians. Learning To Stand In Somebody Else's Shoes To See Through Their Eyes, That's How Peace Begins. And It's Up To You To Make That Happen.

What's Good For America Better Damn Well Be Good For General Motors.

This Is What I Would Call Old Politics. This Is The Stuff We're Trying To Get Rid Of. Because The Problem Is, When We Start Breaking Down Into Conservative And Liberal, And We've Got A Bunch Of Set Predispositions, Whether It's On Gun Control, Or Its' On Health Care, Any Attempt To Do Health Care Is Socialized Medicine.

When You're A Candidate And You Say Something That Is Inaccurate Or Controversial, It Has Less Impact Than It Does When You're President Of The United States. Everybody Around The World's Paying Attention. Markets Move. National Security Issues Require A Level Of Precision In Order To Make Sure That You Don't Make Mistakes.

I've Said Consistently That I Always Reserve The Right, In Conjunction With A Broader International Effort, To Prevent Genocide Or Any Wholesale Slaughter Than Might Happen Inside Of Iraq Or Anyplace Else.

As You Travel Through The Middle East What Keeps On Striking Home To Me Is How Similar Everyone Is, And Yet The Degree To Which We Can Find Differences To Fight Wars Over. It Requires A Great Deal Of Empathy, I Think, Between Various Sides To Overcome This History And Live In Peace.

I Think At A Certain Age I Became Conscious Of The Power Of Words. And It Was Fairly Late. I Was Kind Of A Goofball - But I Was Always Subconsciously Thinking About Issues.

This Massacre In Orlando Is Therefore A Further Reminder Of How Easy It Is For Someone To Get Their Hands On A Weapon That Lets Them Shoot People In A School Or In A House Of Worship Or A Movie Theater Or In A Nightclub. And We Have To Decide If That's The Kind Of Country We Want To Be. And To Actively Do Nothing Is A Decision, As Well.

When Bp Was Not Moving Fast Enough On Claims, We Told Bp To Set Aside $20 Billion In A Fund - Managed By An Independent Third Party - To Help All Those Whose Lives Have Been Turned Upside Down By The Spill.

Estiven Rodriguez Couldn't Speak A Word Of English When He Moved To New York City At Age Nine. But Last Month, Thanks To The Support Of Great Teachers And An Innovative Tutoring Program, He Led A March Of His Classmates - Through A Crowd Of Cheering Parents And Neighbors - From Their High School To The Post Office, Where They Mailed Off Their College Applications. And This Son Of A Factory Worker Just Found Out He's Going To College This Fall.

The Good News Is I Think There Are A Lot Of Young People Certainly Who Were Involved In My Campaigns, And I Think Continue To Be Involved In Work Not Just Politically, But Through Nonprofits And Other Organizations, That Can Carry This Hard Work Of Democracy Forward.

For Now, Decisions Are Upon Us And We Cannot Afford Delay. We Cannot Mistake Absolutism For Principle Or Substitute Spectacle For Politics, Or Treat Name-calling As Reasoned Debate.

Our Founding Fathers, Faced With Perils We Can Scarcely Imagine, Drafted A Charter To Assure The Rule Of Law And The Rights Of Man, A Charter Expanded By The Blood Of Generations. Those Ideals Still Light The World, And We Will Not Give Them Up For Expedience's Sake.

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

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

We're Going To Have To Invest In The American People Again, In Tax Cuts For The Middle Class, In Health Care For All Americans, And College For Every Young Person Who Wants To Go. In Businesses That Can Create The New Energy Economy Of The Future. In Policies That Will Lift Wages And Will Grow Our Middle Class. These Are The Policies I Have Fought For My Entire Career.

Become A Teacher. Your Country Needs You.

I Was A Constitutional Law Professor, Which Means Unlike The Current President I Actually Respect The Constitution.

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.

It Is That Promise That Has Always Set This Country Apart-that Through Hard Work And Sacrifice, Each Of Us Can Pursue Our Individual Dreams But Still Come Together As One American Family, To Ensure That The Next Generation Can Pursue Their Dreams As Well.

Over The Last Several Days, We Have Heard From Members Of Congress Who Want Their Voices To Be Heard. I Absolutely Agree.

The People There, The Community, The Lessons That I Learned -- They're All Based Right In This Few Square Miles Where We'll Now Be Able To Give Something Back And Bring The World Back Home After This Incredible Journey.

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

Without Regard To Whether Some Place Is Wealthy Or Poor, Everybody Should Have The Chance At Clean Air And Clean Water.

Essentially, Iran Was Sanctioned Because Of What Had Happened At Fordow, Its Unwillingness To Comply With Previous U.n. Security Resolutions About Their Nuclear Program, And As Part Of The Package Of Sanctions That Was Slapped On Them, The Issue Of Arms And Ballistic Missiles Were Included.

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

Research And Development

When Friends Are In Trouble, America Helps.

I'm Not Just A Candidate, I'm The President

Presidential Elections Always Turn On Personalities, They Turn On How Campaigns Are Run, They Turn On Natural Desires For Change.

Every Decision, Every Debate, No Matter How Important It Is, With The Same Question: 'what Does This Mean For The Next Election? What Does It Mean For Your Poll Numbers? Is This Good For The Democrats Or Good For The Republicans? Who Won The News Cycle?' That's Just How Washington Is. They Can't Help It. They're Obsessed With The Sport Of Politics.

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.

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

America, Our Endless Blessings Bestow An Enduring Burden. But As Americans, We Welcome Our Responsibility To Lead.

We Can Lead This World And Make It Safer And More Secure For Our Children And Our Grandchildren, For Generations To Come.

The War On Drugs Has Been An Utter Failure. We Need To Rethink And Decriminalize Our Marijuana Laws.

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