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I Don't Regret The Fervor, Because I Do Believe, In The African American Community But Also For Other Communities, And I Know From Talking To People, For Communities Around The World, The Election Of An African American To The Most Powerful Office On Earth Meant Things Had Changed, And Not Just In Superficial Ways. That In Some Irreversible Way The World Was Different.

-Barack Obama

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I Don't Regret The

Barack Obama

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I Don't Regret The Fervor, Because I Do Believe, In The African American Community But Also For Other Communities, And I Know From Talking To People, For Communities Around The World, The Election Of An African American To The Most Powerful Office On Earth Meant Things Had Changed, And Not Just In Superficial Ways. That In Some Irreversible Way The World Was Different.

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[my Kids] Complained About Secret Service As They Became Teenagers, And Secret Service Has Done The Very Best Job They Could Accommodating Them, So It Hasn't Restricted Any Of Their Activities.

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.

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

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.

There Are Certain Things We Can Only Do Together. There Are Certain Things Only A Union Can Do. Only A Union Could Harness The Courage Of Our Pioneers To Settle The American West, Which Is Why President Abraham Lincoln Passed A Homestead Act Giving A Tract Of Land To Anyone Seeking A Stake In Our Growing Economy.

The World Only Makes Sense To Me Given My Life And My Background If, In Fact, We're Not Just An Assortment Of Tribes That Can Never Understand Each Other, But That We're, Rather, One Common Humanity That Can Meet And Learn And Love Each Other.

Common Humanity

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.

This Counter-terrorism Campaign Will Be Waged Through A Steady, Relentless Effort To Take Out Isil Wherever They Exist, Using Our Air Power And Our Support For Partner Forces On The Ground. This Strategy Of Taking Out Terrorists Who Threaten Us, While Supporting Partners On The Front Lines, Is One That We Have Successfully Pursued In Yemen And Somalia For Years.

Don't Get Cynical. Don't Ever Think You Can't Make A Difference.

The Greatest Gift That Michelle And I Have Received Over The Last Eight Years Has Been The Honor Of Serving As Your President And First Lady. Together, We Fought Our Way Back From The Worst Recession In 80 Years, And Got Unemployment To A Nine-year Low.

I'm Always Suspicious Of Politics Dividing People Instead Of Bringing Them Together.

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

In America, We Want A Peaceful Planet. We Want People To Be Able To Enjoy Their Lives And Know They're Going To Have A Bright And Prosperous Future, Not Be At War. That's Our Purpose.

Prosperous Future

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

I Don't Wanna Preempt An Announcement Next Week. And There's A Lot Of Technical Aspects To It. And If I - Say - That We're Doing One Thing. Then The Markets Might Interpret It Differently From What It Ends Up Being.

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

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

Everything We've Done Has Been Designed To Make Sure That We Address That Number One Priority. That's What The Sanctions Regime Was All About. That's How We Were Able To Mobilize The International Community, Including Some Folks That We Are Not Particularly Close To, To Abide By These Sanctions. That's How These Crippling Sanctions Came About, Was Because We [usa] Were Able To Gain Global Consensus That Iran Having A Nuclear Weapon Would Be A Problem For Everybody.

When What You’re Doing Doesn’t Work For 50 Years, It’s Time To Try Something New.

The More Freely Information Flows, The Stronger The Society Becomes, Because Then Citizens Of Countries Around The World Can Hold Their Own Governments Accountable. They Can Begin To Think For Themselves.

People Of Berlin - People Of The World - This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time.

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

The Genius Of Our Founders Is That They Designed A System Of Government That Can Be Changed. And We Should Take Heart, Because We’ve Changed This Country Before.

In Africa, You Often See That The Difference Between A Village Where Everybody Eats And A Village Where People Starve Is Government. One Has A Functioning Government, And The Other Does Not. Which Is Why It Bothers Me When I Hear People Say That Government Is The Enemy. They Don't Understand Its Fundamental Role.

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

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

I Didn't Have A Perfect Model, But I Wanted To Try To Blend My Own Personal Reflections And Experiences With This Broader Canvas To See How A Lot Of The Narratives We Have About Economy And Foreign Policy Got Stuck. Because We Have These Categories Of Liberal, Conservative, Free Marketer, Open Government - All These Stereotypes About Our Politics And The Categories We Try To Put Things In Are Inadequate To This Sort Of Complex, Ambiguous, Sometimes Contradictory Experience We Have As Ordinary People And That I Have As An Elected Official.

Here At Home, We Will Strengthen Our Defenses But Not Succumb To A Siege Mentality That Sacrifices The Open Society And Liberties And Values That We Cherish As Americans, Because Great And Proud Nations Don't Hunker Down And Hide Behind Walls Of Suspicion And Mistrust.

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

Rather Than Pointing Fingers Or Assigning Blame, Let’s Use This Occasion To Expand Our Moral Imaginations, To Listen To Each Other More Carefully, To Sharpen Our Instincts For Empathy And Remind Ourselves Of All The Ways That Our Hopes And Dreams Are Bound Together.

In Five Days, You Can Turn The Page On Policies That Put Greed And Irresponsibility On Wall Street Before The Hard Work And Sacrifice Of Folks On Main Street. In Five Days, You Can Choose Policies That Invest In Our Middle Class, And Create New Jobs, And Grow This Economy, So That Everyone Has A Chance To Succeed, Not Just The Ceo, But The Secretary And Janitor, Not Just The Factory Owner, But The Men And Women On The Factory Floor.

Both Of Our Nations [america And Germany] Were Proud To Join The Paris Climate Agreement Which The World Should Work To Implement Quickly. Continued Global Leadership On Climate In Addition To Increasing Private Investment And Clean Energy Is Gonna Be Critical To Meeting This Growing Threat.

I Support Ensuring That Committed Gay Couples Have The Same Rights And Responsibilities Afforded To Any Married Couple In This Country. I Believe Strongly In Stopping Laws Designed To Take Rights Away And Passing Laws That Extend Equal Rights To Gay Couples. I've Required All Agencies In The Federal Government To Extend As Many Federal Benefits As Possible To Lgbt Families As The Current Law Allows. And I've Called On Congress To Repeal The So-called Defense Of Marriage Act And To Pass The Domestic Partners Benefits And Obligations Act.

These People Are A Part Of Me. And They Are A Part Of America, This Country That I Love.

Come On! I Just Answered, Like, Eight Questions.

I Just Want People To Know The Facts And Science And The Information... Measles Is Preventable.

You Now Have The Potential Of 200 People Deciding Who Ends Up Being Elected President Every Single Time.

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.

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.

Excuses Are Tools Of The Incompetent Used To Build Bridges To Nowhere And Monuments Of Nothingness

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.

Please Proceed, Governor.

For Top Executives To Award Themselves These Kinds Of Compensation Packages In The Midst Of This Economic Crisis Isn't Just Bad Taste, It's Bad Strategy, And I Will Not Tolerate It As President.

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

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Pursuit Of Happiness

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Effective Immediately, We Will Only Pursue Phone Calls That Are Two Steps Removed From A Number Associated With A Terrorist Organization Instead Of Three.

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Think About It: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - These Countries Are Tiny Compared To The Soviet Union. They Don't Pose A Serious Threat To Us The Way The Soviet Union Posed A Threat To Us.

We've Seen How Militarized Gear Can Sometimes Give People A Feeling Like There's An Occupying Force, As Opposed To A Force That's Part Of The Community That's Protecting Them And Serving Them.

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

We Can Have Reasonable, Thoughtful Gun Control Measure That I Think Respect The Second Amendment And People's Traditions.

We Don't Have This Huge Footprint, We Are Less Likely To Be Targeted As, You Know, Occupiers [in Afghanistan And Iraq].

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The World Is Less Violent Than It Has Ever Been.

It's The Idea Held By Generations Of Citizens Who Believed That America Is A Constant Work In Progress; Who Believed That Loving This Country Requires More Than Singing Its Praises Or Avoiding Uncomfortable Truths. It Requires The Occasional Disruption, The Willingness To Speak Out For What's Right, And Shake Up The Status Quo.

We Want Our Children To Live In An America That Isn't Burdened By Debt, That Isn't Weakened By Inequality, That Isn't Threatened By The Destructive Power Of A Warming Planet.

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.

That Support Has Been So Constant And Gracious And Loving. Michelle And I Have Never Felt As If, At Any Stage, Folks Didn't Have Our Backs. And As A Consequence, I Think That Just Spurred Us On That Much More To Make Us Want To Do The Right Thing, And Do Our Best In The Positions That We Have.

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World.

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'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.

We've Been Able To Build Up The Afghan Security Forces And Stabilize It.

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We Have To Deal With The 11 Million Individuals Who Are Here Illegally. The Bill That Senator [marco] Rubio Put Forward, I Think Is A Great Place To Start.

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I Am A Christian. So, I Have A Deep Faith. So I Draw From The Christian Faith...so, I'm Rooted In The Christian Tradition. I Believe That There Are Many Paths To The Same Place.

I’m Convinced That A World In Which Girls Are Educated Is A Safer, More Stable, More Prosperous Place.

I Think That One Of The Things That We All Agree To Is That The Touchstone For Economic Policy Is, Does It Allow The Average American To Find Good Employment And See Their Incomes Rise; That We Can't Just Look At Things In The Aggregate, We Do Want To Grow The Pie, But We Want To Make Sure That Prosperity Is Spread Across The Spectrum Of Regions And Occupations And Genders And Races; And That Economic Policy Should Focus On Growing The Pie, But It Also Has To Make Sure That Everybody Has Got Opportunity In That System.

America Can Do Whatever We Set Our Mind To. That Is The Story Of Our History, Whether It's The Pursuit Of Prosperity For Our People, Or The Struggle For Equality For All Our Citizens; Our Commitment To Stand Up For Our Values Abroad, And Our Sacrifices To Make The World A Safer Place. Let Us Remember That We Can Do These Things Not Just Because Of Wealth Or Power, But Because Of Who We Are: One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.

As I Travel Around The World, It's Fascinating; European Leaders, Asian Leaders, They All Say To Me, America Is Actually Poised To Be The World Leader For Another Century - If We Can Fix Some Of This Political Dysfunction. ... We've Got A Lot Of National Security Challenges, But If We Get Our Economy Together, And If We Can Get Our Political System To Work Well, I Am Really Confident About Our Future.

Since I'm The President And Democrats Have Controlled The House And The Senate, It's Understandable That People Are Saying, You Know, 'what Have You Done?'

It Is This World, A World Where Cruise Ships Throw Away More Food In A Day Than Most Residents Of Port-au-prince See In A Year, Where White Folks' Greed Runs A World In Need, Apartheid In One Hemisphere, Apathy In Another Hemisphere...that's The World! On Which Hope Sits!

Our Job As Americans Is To Restore That Basic Bargain That Says, If You Work Hard, If You're Willing To Meet Your Responsibilities, You Can Get Ahead. You Can Get Ahead. Doesn't Matter What You Look Like, Doesn't Matter Where You Come From. Our Middle Class, When It's Growing, When It's Thriving, When There Are Ladders Of Opportunity For People To Do A Little Bit Better Each Year And Then Make Sure That Their Kids Are Doing Even Better Than Them, That's The American Dream. That's What We Got To Fight For. That Has To Be The North Star That Guides Everything We Do.

The Role Of Citizen In Our Democracy Does Not End With Your Vote.

You Can Put Lipstick On A Pig. It's Still A Pig.

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The Fear Among Economists Across The Political Spectrum That Was - Was That We Were Rapidly Plummeting Towards A Second Great Depression. So, In The Weeks And Months That Followed, We Undertook A Series Of Difficult Steps To Prevent That Outcome. And We Were Forced To Take Those Steps Largely Without The Help Of An Opposition Party, Which, Unfortunately, After Having Presided Over The Decision-making That Had Led To The Crisis, Decided To Hand It Over To Others To Solve.

I Think That The Issues We Have With Science These Days Are Not Restricted To What's Happening With Respect To Religion. There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around.

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

I 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.

The Best Anti-poverty Program Is A World-class Education.

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Peace Depends Upon Compromise Among Peoples Who Must Live Together Long After Our Speeches Are Over, Long After Our Votes Have Been Tallied.

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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.

When It Comes To The Budget, We Know That We Shouldn't Be Cutting More On Core Investments, Like Education, That Are Going To Help Us Grow In The Future. And We've Already Seen The Deficit Cut In Half. It's Going Down Faster Than Any Time In The Last 60 Years. So Why Would We Make More Cuts In Education, More Cuts In Basic Research? Nobody Thinks That's A Good Idea.

We've Been Able To Organize The International Community Around It In Ways That Aren't Going To Go Back.

[my Kids] Are, Sweet, Kind, Funny, Smart, Respectful People, And They Treat Everybody With Respect. That's Not Just The Biases Of A Parent. We Feel Pretty Good When We Hear Back From Friends, Cause They Still Have Sleepovers And They Go To Other Folks Houses And When The Parents Say, Oh You Know, Malia, She's Just So Sweet, Or Sasha Helped To Pick Up The Dishes.

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

If You Looked At Their Cable Bill, Their Telephone, Their Cell Phone Bill, Other Things They're Spending Money On, It May Turn Out That, It's Just That They Haven't Prioritized Health Care.

I Think A Lot Of Teachers Want To Talk About How To Continually Improve Performance.

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

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

Their Foreign Policy Is So Disjointed, Confusing, And Chaotic That, Really, People Need To Reexamine Those Who Want To Be Involved In Every War.

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.

It Will Take Time To Eradicate A Cancer Like Isil. And Any Time We Take Military Action, There Are Risks Involved - Especially To The Servicemen And Women Who Carry Out These Missions. But I Want The American People To Understand How This Effort Will Be Different From The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan. It Will Not Involve American Combat Troops Fighting On Foreign Soil.

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

A Lot Of Countries Have Advanced Capabilities. And Given The Vulnerabilities Of Our Infrastructure And Our Economies To Digital Platforms, We Have To Be Careful In Making Sure That This Doesn't Become A Lawless, Low-level Battlefield.

In Europe, Where The Terrorist Threat Is Probably Greatest At The Moment, The Amount Of Information-sharing That's Been Taking Place, The Effectiveness Of Law Enforcement Across Borders Gives Us The Ability To Protect Ourselves While Still Being True To The Basic Precepts Of Our Liberal Democracies. I Hope That That Continues, And It Is Something That I Think We Should Be Worried About.

Let's Also Say That The Justice Department And The Courts Are Making Sure, As I've Said In A Speech Before, That When Jamal Sends His Résumé In, He's Getting Treated The Same As When Johnny Sends His Résumé In.now, Are We Going To Have Suddenly The Same Number Of Ceos, Billionaires, Etc., As The White Community? In 10 Years? Probably Not, Maybe Not Even In 20 Years. But I Guarantee You That We Would Be Thriving, We Would Be Succeeding. We Wouldn't Have Huge Numbers Of Young African American Men In Jail.

Literacy Is The Most Basic Currency Of The Knowledge Economy.

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

If You Actually Took The Number Of Muslims Americans, We'd Be One Of The Largest Muslim Countries In The World.

If War Explodes In Sudan, It Could Have A Destabilizing Effect That Creates More Space For Terrorist Activity That Could Eventually Be Directed At Our Homeland.

If You're An American And You Are, You Know, Subscribing To The Ideals And The Creed And The Values That We Believe In As A Country, You Know, Then We Don't Have A Religious Test In This Country.

I Believe In Evolution, Scientific Inquiry, And Global Warming; I Believe In Free Speech, Whether Politically Correct Or Politically Incorrect, And I Am Suspicious Of Using Government To Impose Anybody's Religious Beliefs -including My Own- On Nonbelievers.

Of Course, Violence Will Not End With Our Combat Mission. Extremists Will Continue To Set Off Bombs, Attack Iraqi Civilians And Try To Spark Sectarian Strife. But Ultimately, These Terrorists Will Fail To Achieve Their Goals.

That Is The Story Of Our History - Whether It's The Pursuit Of Prosperity For Our People Or The Struggle For Equality For All Of Our Citizens, Our Commitment To Stand Up For Our Values Abroad, And Our Sacrifices To Make The World A Safer Place. Let Us Remember That We Can Do These Things Not Just Because Of Wealth Or Power, But Because Of Who We Are. One Nation Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.

The Notion That We Can Control The Flow Of Information Is Obsolete.

Our Focus On The Investigation Is Really Wide-ranging. And We Can't Limit It To Just One Point In Time.

The More We Are Using Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Sources, The Less Environmentally Problematic Facilities End Up Being A Problem For Everybody, But Particularly For Folks Who Have To Suffer The Consequences Of Some Of These Facilities.

I've Been Fighting With Acorn, Alongside Acorn, On Issues You Care About, My Entire Career.

We Have A Choice. We Can Shape Our Future, Or Let Events Shape It For Us. And If We Want To Succeed, We Can't Fall Back On The Stale Debates And Old Divides That Won't Move Us Forward.

You [as A President] Have To Have A Strong Team Around You. You Have To Have Respect For Institutions And The Process To Make Good Decisions Because You Are Inherently Reliant On Other Folks.

Some People In D.c. Talk About Me Like A Dog.

Hillary Clinton Has Been In Politics For The Same Reason I Am - Because We Can Improve Other People's Lives By Doing This Work.

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

The Trade Agreement Itself Does Have Labor And Environmental Protections, But We Have To Stand For Human Rights And We Have To Make Sure That Violence Isn't Being Perpetrated Against Workers Who Are Just Trying To Organize For Their Rights.

Michelle Will Tell You That When We Get Together For Christmas Or Thanksgiving, It's Like A Little Mini-united Nations... I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Bernie Mac, And I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Margaret Thatcher... We've Got It All.

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

The Greatest Threat To U.s. And Global Security Is No Longer A Nuclear Exchange Between Nations, But Nuclear Terrorism By Violent Extremists And Nuclear Proliferation To An Increasing Number Of States.

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

I Think There Are A Lot Of People Who Are Involved In The Tea Party Who Have Very Real And Sincere Concerns About Spending That's Out Of Control Or Generally Philosophically Believe That The Government Should Be Less Involved In Certain Aspects Of American Life Rather Than More Involved. And They Have Every Right And Obligation As Citizens To Be Involved And Engaged In This Process.

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.

Now Is Not The Time To Gut These Job-creating Investments In Science And Innovation. Now Is The Time To Reach A Level Of Research And Development Not Seen Since The Height Of The Space Race.

When I Was In Washington, I Would Usually Get Home From The Capitol At About 7:30 Or 8, And I Would Try To Write As Much As Possible. It Was Almost All In The Wee Hours.

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

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."

There's No Question That A Lot Of Americans On Both The Right And The Left Are Expressing Some Fears And Frustrations About The Dislocations Brought On By Globalisation. Many Of Those Frustrations Are Legitimate And They Need To Be Addressed.

The United States Often Finds Itself In A Situation Where If It Goes In Militarily Then It Is Criticized For Going In Militarily, And If It Doesn't Go In Militarily, Then People Say, Why Aren't You Doing Something Militarily?

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.

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

I Don't Look At My Pension. It's Not As Big As Yours So It Doesn't Take As Long.

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

I Will Continue To Urge Creditors To Take The Steps Needed To Put Greece On A Path Towards A Durable Economic Recovery Because It's In All Of Our Interests That Greece Succeeds.

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

No Deal Means A Greater Chance Of More War In The Middle East.

We Live In A Culture That Discourages Empathy. A Culture That Too Often Tells Us Our Principle Goal In Life Is To Be Rich, Thin, Young, Famous, Safe, And Entertained.

But I'm Here To Say That When We Do Speak Out, We're Going To Do So Because The United States Of America Does Believe, And Will Always Stand For, A Certain Set Of Universal Values.

The Memoir Was A Very Personal Book. I Wrote It As A Personal Journey And Search About Who My Father Was And How My Family Had Come Together And Come Apart - Sorting All That Out, You Know, Issues Of Personal Identity.

I've Enjoyed The Conversations That We've Had. [donald Trump] Is Somebody Who I Think Is Not Lacking In Confidence.

If You've Got A Business - You Didn't Build That.

Presidential Election

When We Were Working On Immigration Reform And There Was A Young Latino Man, Young Immigration Activist Here Who, In The Roosevelt Room, Refused To Shake My Hand.he Made A Point Of Saying, "i Can't Shake Your Hand; You're Deporting Too Many People." And I Just Said To Him, "young Man, I'm Glad That You Feel So Passionately About This Issue, But You're With The President Right Now In The White House. You've Got To Think About What's Going To Be Most Effective In Getting What You Need, What You're Trying To Accomplish. Because This May Not Be Your Best Strategy."

I'm About To Embark On What May Be As Important As An Initiative As Anything I Do As President, Trying To Nudge The World In The Direction Of Doing Something Serious About Climate Change.

The Criminal-justice System Is, Obviously, The Sole Source Of Racial Tension In This Country [usa] Or The Key Institution To Resolving The Opportunity Gap. It Is A Part Of The Broader Set Of Challenges That We Face In Creating A More Perfect Union.

I Want Every Math Teacher To Know Math. I Want Every Science Teacher To Have Expertise In Science. I Want Them To Know How To Inspire And Engage Young People.

My Parents Shared Not Only An Improbable Love, They Shared An Abiding Faith In The Possibilities Of This Nation. They Would Give Me An African Name, Barack, Or Blessed, Believing That In A Tolerant America Your Name Is No Barrier To Success.

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.

Now, Anybody Who Thinks That We Can Move This Economy Forward With Just A Few Folks At The Top Doing Well, Hoping That It's Going To Trickle Down To Working People Who Are Running Faster And Faster Just To Keep Up, You'll Never See It.

I Don’t Believe It Is Possible To Transcend Race In This Country. Race Is A Factor In This Society. The Legacy Of Jim Crow And Slavery Has Not Gone Away. It Is Not An Accident That African-americans Experience High Crime Rates, Are Poor, And Have Less Wealth. It Is A Direct Result Of Our Racial History.

For The United States Of America, The Best Is Yet To Come.

Best Is Yet To Come

I Believe There Are Too Many Children Who Need Loving Parents To Deny One Group Of People Adoption Rights. A Child Will Benefit From A Healthy, Loving Home, Whether The Parents Are Gay Or Not.

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

What Washington Needs Is Adult Supervision.

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.

America Is A Land Of Big Dreamers And Big Hopes. It Is This Hope That Has Sustained Us Through Revolution And Civil War, Depression And World War, A Struggle For Civil And Social Rights And The Brink Of Nuclear Crisis. And It Is Because Our Dreamers Dreamed That We Have Emerged From Each Challenge More United, More Prosperous, And More Admired Than Before.

I Wish The Country Had Fewer Lawyers And More Engineers.

There Is No Military Solution To The War In Iraq. Our Troops Can Help Suppress The Violence, But They Cannot Solve Its Root Causes. And All The Troops In The World Won't Be Able To Force Shia, Sunni, And Kurd To Sit Down At A Table, Resolve Their Differences, And Forge A Lasting Peace. In Fact, Adding More Troops Will Only Push This Political Settlement Further And Further Into The Future, As It Tells The Iraqis That No Matter How Much Of A Mess They Make, The American Military Will Always Be There To Clean It Up.

What We Shouldn't Be Doing Is Trying To Take Away Your Rights To Bargain For Better Wages Or Working Conditions... These So-called "right To Work" Laws, They Don't Have To Do With Economics; They Have Everything To Do With Politics. What They're Really Talking About Is Giving You The Right To Work For Less Money.

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.

People Are Less Certain Of Their National Identities Or Their Place In The World. It Starts Looking Different And Disorienting. And There Is No Doubt That That Has Produced Populist Movements Both From The Left And From The Right In Many Countries In Europe.

Affirmative Action Is Not Going To Be The Long-term Solution To The Problems Of Race In America, Because, Frankly, If You've Got 50 Percent Of African-american Or Latino Kids Dropping Out Of High School, It Doesn't Really Matter What You Do In Terms Of Affirmative Action. Those Kids Aren't Going To College.

The Banks, Because Of Mismanagement, Because Of Huge Risk Taking, Are Now In Very Vulnerable Positions. We Can Expect That We're Gonna Have To Do More To Shore Up The Financial System. We Also Are Gonna Have To Make Sure That We Set Up Financial Regulations So That Not Only Does This Never Happen Again, But You Start Having Some Sort Of - Trust In How The Credit Markets Work Again.

I Think That [having Not A Lot Of Time Sweating The Details] Can Be Both A Strength And A Weakness. I Think It Depends On How [donald Trump] Approaches It. If It Gives Him Fresh Eyes, Then That Can Be Valuable. But It Also Requires You Knowing What You Don't Know And Putting In Place People Who Do Have The Kinds Of Experience And Background And Knowledge That Can Inform Good Decision Making.

We Will Send An Additional 475 Service Members To Iraq. As I Have Said Before, These American Forces Will Not Have A Combat Mission - We Will Not Get Dragged Into Another Ground War In Iraq. But They Are Needed To Support Iraqi And Kurdish Forces With Training, Intelligence And Equipment.

I'm Not The Caricature That You See On Fox News Or Rush Limbaugh, But I'm Somebody Who Is Interested In Solving Problems And Is Pretty Practical, And That, Actually, A Lot Of The Things That We've Put In Place Worked Better Than People Might Think.

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

Futures Together

A Good Compromise, A Good Piece Of Legislation, Is Like A Good Sentence; Or A Good Piece Of Music. Everybody Can Recognize It. They Say, 'huh. It Works. It Makes Sense.'

The Iranians May Simply Try To Run Out The Clock.

[two Of The Most Unpopular Presidential Candidates Selected By The Two Parties In History] Indicates That There Is A Lot Of Cynicism Out There. It Indicates That The Corrosive Nature Of Everything From Talk Radio To Fake News To Negative Advertising Has Made People Lack Confidence In A Lot Of Our Existing Institutions.

Politics Didn't Lead Me To Working People. Working People Led Me Into Politics.

I Decided To Become A Community Organizer ... Change Won't Come From The Top, I Would Say. Change Will Come From A Mobilized Grass Roots.

If You're Saying That Prime Minister [benjamin] Netanyahu Got Fired Up, He's Been Fired Up Repeatedly During The Course Of My Presidency, Around The Iran Deal And Around Our Consistent Objection To Settlements.

Africa Doesn't Need Strongmen, It Needs Strong Institutions.

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.

The Point I Was Making Was Not That Grandmother Harbors Any Racial Animosity. She Doesn't. But She Is A Typical White Person.

It's Important To Know That The Vast Majority Of People Who Were Excited In 2008 Are Still Really Enthusiastic. We've Got More Volunteers Now Than Ever, And They're Engaged, They're Motivated, They're Not Paying Attention To The Ups And Downs Of Polls Or Washington.

My Administration Is Committed To Creating An Unprecedented Level Of Openness In Government. We Will Work Together To Ensure The Public Trust And Establish A System Of Transparency, Public Participation, And Collaboration. Openness Will Strengthen Our Democracy And Promote Efficiency And Effectiveness In Government.

99.9% Of Plumbers Make Less Than A Quarter Million Dollars A Year, And I'm Going To Give Joe A Break Whether He Wants It Or Not.

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.

Black Children, White Children, Latino Children. America Is Becoming More Diverse, It's Becoming More Tolerant As A Consequence There's More Interactions Between Groups. There Are Going Be Tensions That Arise.

For We Have Always Understood That When Times Change, So Must We, That Fidelity To Our Founding Principles Requires New Responses To New Challenges, That Preserving Our Individual Freedoms Ultimately Requires Collective Action.

It Is Time To Leave Behind The Divisive Battles Of The Past. It Is Time To Move Forward As One Nation.

That's Why The American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan Won't Just Throw Money At Our Problems, We'll Invest In What Works

In Order To Make The Tough Decisions We Have To Know What Our Values Are And Who We're Fighting For And Our Priorities And If We Are Spending $300 Billion On Tax Cuts For People Who Don't Need Them And Weren't Even Asking For Them, And We Are Leaving Out Health Care Which Is Crushing On People All Across The Country, Then I Think We Have Made A Bad Decision And I Want To Make Sure We're Not Shortchanging Our Long Term Priorities.

In Addition To Giving Our Children The Science And Math Skills They Need To Compete In The New Global Context, We Should Also Encourage The Ability To Think Creatively That Comes From A Meaningful Arts Education.

In Missouri, It's A 50/50 State, So I'm Kind Of Used To Half The State Being Mad At Me.

[j]ust Because You Have An Individual Right Does Not Mean That The State Or Local Government Can't Constrain The Exercise Of That Right.

One Thing You Learn In This Job [being Us President] Is That Even If Something's Not Your Fault, You're Still Responsible. And That's How It Should Be.

I Know There Are Problems That I Say To Myself, If Maybe I Was A Little More Gifted I Might Have Been Able To Solve. But That's Not Because I Believe What I Did Was A Mistake. It's That Maybe It Required The Talents Of A Lincoln.

Today, About 40 Percent Of America's Carbon Pollution Comes From Our Power Plants. There Are No Federal Limits To The Amount Those Plants Can Pump Into The Air. None. We Limit The Amount Of Toxic Chemicals Like Mercury, And Sulfur, And Arsenic In Our Air And Water, But Power Plants Can Dump As Much Carbon Pollution Into Our Atmosphere As They Want. It's Not Smart, It's Not Right, It's Not Safe, And I Determined It Needs To Stop.

When I Read History, I [see] What Typically Happens To Presidents And The Other Party During Tumultuous Times And How People React When The Economy Is Collapsing And They're Losing Their Homes, Losing Their Pensions - It Sort Of Tracks, What Ended Up Happening, Because Some Of That Is Human Nature.

We May Disagree About Gay Marriage, But Surely We Can Agree That It Is Unconscionable To Target Gays And Lesbians For Who They Are - Whether It's Here In The United States Or, As Hillary (clinton) Mentioned, More Extremely In Odious Laws That Are Being Proposed Most Recently In Uganda.

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

But I Also Want To Give Them A Pathway So That They Can Earn Citizenship, Earn A Legal Status, Start Learning English, Pay A Significant Fine, Go To The Back Of The Line, But They Can Then Stay Here And They Can Have The Ability To Enforce A Minimum Wage That They're Paid, Make Sure The Worker Safety Laws Are Available, Make Sure That They Can Join A Union.

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

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.

Part Of What We Have To Do A Better Job Of, If Our Democracy Is To Function In A Complicated Diverse Society Like This, Is To Teach Our Kids Enough Critical Thinking To Be Able To Sort Out What Is True And What Is False, What Is Contestable And What Is Incontestable. And We Seem To Have Trouble With That. And Our Political System Doesn't Help.

All Of These Different Strands In Me - The Black, The White, The African - All Of That Has Contributed Directly To My Success Because When I Meet People, I See A Piece Of Myself In Them. And Maybe They See A Piece Of Themselves In Me.

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