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I Have Always Had Extraordinarily Good Relations With Very Conservative Colleagues. And That's Not Because I Agree With Any Of Them Or Fudge On My Positions, But People Feel I Listen To Them And Give Them The Benefit Of The Doubt. I Assume The Best Of People. And That, I Think, Is An Attitude That Is Maybe Rare In Politics.

-Barack Obama

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I Have Always Had

Barack Obama

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I Have Always Had Extraordinarily Good Relations With Very Conservative Colleagues. And That's Not Because I Agree With Any Of Them Or Fudge On My Positions, But People Feel I Listen To Them And Give Them The Benefit Of The Doubt. I Assume The Best Of People. And That, I Think, Is An Attitude That Is Maybe Rare In Politics.

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

This Is The Moment When We Must Come Together To Save This Planet.

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 Learn From Our Mistakes, We Do Some Reflection, We Lick Our Wounds, We Brush Ourselves Off - Then We Go Forward, With The Presumption Of Good Faith In Our Fellow Citizens.

Don't Just Get Involved. Fight For Your Seat At The Table. Better Yet, Fight For A Seat At The Head Of The Table.

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

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.

I Am Somebody Who Usually Writes Out The Rough Draft In Longhand. Then I Type It Into The Computer, And That Is Where I Do My Editing. I Find That If I Write It On The Computer, I Go Too Quick. So I Like Getting That First Draft Out And Then Typing It In; You Are Less Self-conscious About It.

I Refuse To Accept Any Approach That Isn't Balanced. I'm Not Going To Ask Students And Seniors And Middle-class Families To Pay Down The Entire Deficit While People Like Me, Making Over $250,000, Aren't Asked To Pay A Dime More In Taxes.

Whether Our Forebears Were Strangers Who Crossed The Atlantic Or The Pacific Or The Rio Grande, We Are Here Only Because This Country Welcomed Them In And Taught Them That To Be An American Is About Something More Than What We Look Like, Or What Our Last Names Are, Or How We Worship.

It’s Not That I Want To Punish Your Success. I Want To Make Sure That Everybody Who Is Behind You, That They’ve Got A Chance For Success, Too. My Attitude Is That If The Economy’s Good For Folks From The Bottom Up, It’s Gonna Be Good For Everybody. I Think When You Spread The Wealth Around, It’s Good For Everybody.

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

The Nation That Leads The Clean Energy Economy Will Be The Nation That Leads The Global Economy.

I Believe That We Have Better Ideas. But I Also Believe That Good Ideas Don't Matter If People Don't Hear Them.

For History Tells Us That While These Truths May Be Self-evident, They've Never Been Self-executing. That While Freedom Is A Gift From God, It Must Be Secured By His People Here On Earth.

I Am Not In Favor Of Concealed Weapons. I Think That Creates A Potential Atmosphere Where More Innocent People Could (get Shot During) Altercations.

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.

I Think The Most Important Thing Is To Take The Long View On Things. We Live In Such A 24/7, Twitter-fed, Constant News Cycle, And Everything's A Crisis, Everything Is Terrible, Everything Is Doomsday, Everything Is - If It Doesn't Get Solved Tomorrow, Your Presidency Is Going Off The Rails.

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.

It's Harder To End A War Than Begin One. Indeed, Everything That American Troops Have Done In Iraq -- All The Fighting And All The Dying, The Bleeding And The Building, And The Training And The Partnering -- All Of It Has Led To This Moment Of Success. Now, Iraq Is Not A Perfect Place. It Has Many Challenges Ahead. But We're Leaving Behind A Sovereign, Stable And Self-reliant Iraq, With A Representative Government That Was Elected By Its People. We're Building A New Partnership Between Our Nations.

We Remember The Specter Of Sectarian Violence -- Al Qaeda's Attacks On Mosques And Pilgrims, Militias That Carried Out Campaigns Of Intimidation And Campaigns Of Assassination. And In The Face Of Ancient Divisions, You Stood Firm To Help Those Iraqis Who Put Their Faith In The Future.

Moammar Gadhafi Had More American Blood On His Hands Than Any Individual Other Than Osama Bin Laden.

Osama Bin Laden

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.

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

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

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

It's Up To [angela Merkel] Whether She Wants To Stand Again And Then Ultimately, It'll Be Up To The German People To Decide What The Future Holds. If I Were Here And I Were German And I Had A Vote, I Might Support Her.

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

We Can Rattle Our Sabers All We Want But, Realistically, We Don't Have Troops For An Invasion [iran] And Surgical Strikes Aren't Going To Work.

Lincoln, They Used To Talk About Him Almost As Bad As They Talk About Me. So Democracy Has Never Been For The Faint Of Heart.

Democracies Have

I've Made It Clear For Years That The Threat From Iran Is Grave.

The Democrats Should Not Waiver On Our Core Beliefs And Principles.

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.

On This Thanksgiving, As We Spend Time With Our Family And Friends, Let's All Reflect On What We're Thankful For In Our Own Lives. And Let's Remember Those Who Cannot Be With Their Loved Ones Because They're Serving Overseas. But Let's Also Do Our Part To Help Those Who Have No Place To Go For A Meal. I Encourage All Americans To Do What They Can To Help Those In Need-because The Best Way To Show Our Gratitude For What We Have Is By Doing Our Part For Those Who Have Less.

Family And Friends

I Have No Interest In Increasing The Size Of Government. I Just Want To Make Sure We Have Got A Smart Government That Is Regulating, For Example, The Financial Institutions Smartly, So I Don't Have To Engage In Any Kind Of Bank Bailouts.

I Did Not Suggest That Iran Is A Democracy; Just The Opposite. I Talked About It Being A Repressive Theocracy. What I Think Is Indisputable Is That Even Within This Repressive Regime, The Political Leaders There - Including The Supreme Leader - Are Sensitive To The Concerns Of The Population Within Bounds.

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

We Have To Enforce The Laws We've Already Got, Make Sure That We're Keeping Guns Out Of The Hands Of Criminals, Those Who Are Mentally Ill. I Also Share Your Belief That Weapons That Were Designed For Soldiers In War Theaters Don't Belong On Our Streets. And So What I'm Trying To Do Is To Get A Broader Conversation About How Do We Reduce The Violence Generally.

I Would Say That I Have Been Consistent In My Broad View Of How American Power Should Be Deployed, And The View That We Underestimate Our Power When We Restrict It To Just Our Military Power. We Shortchange Our Influence And Our Ability To Shape Events When That's The Only Tool We Think We Have In The Toolbox.

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

Public School System Status Quo Is Indefensible.

Few Artists Have Influenced The Sound And Trajectory Of Popular Music More Distinctly, Or Touched Quite So Many People With Their Talent. A Strong Spirit Transcends Rules,' Prince Once Said - And Nobody's Spirit Was Stronger, Bolder, Or More Creative. Our Thoughts And Prayers Are With His Family, His Band, And All Who Loved Him.

Climate Change Is One Of The Issues I Worry Most About Because Its Impacts Are Enormous. But They're Gradual, They're Not Immediate.

So Long As I'm Commander-in-chief, We Will Sustain The Strongest Military The World Has Ever Known. When You Take Off The Uniform, We Will Serve You As Well As You've Served Us - Because No One Who Fights For This Country Should Have To Fight For A Job, Or A Roof Over Their Head, Or The Care That They Need When They Come Home.

We've Evolved A Lot Since 9/11 Also, In Terms Of Our Law Enforcement Capabilities, Our Intelligence Capabilities, Military, Counterterrorism.

What I Remember Thinking At That Point, Having Gone Through Both The Ups And Downs Of My First Four Years, And Seeing The Sea Of People Was, "what A Remarkable Country This Is And How Lucky Am I That We Live In A Place Where The Son Of A Single Mom, Not Born Into Any Kind Of Fame Or Fortune, In A Pretty Remote State Somehow Can End Up Be In A Position To - To Make A Difference."

[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.

We Do Have To Balance This Issue Of Privacy And Security. Those Who Pretend That There's No Balance That Has To Be Struck And Think We Can Take A 100-percent Absolutist Approach To Protecting Privacy Don't Recognize That Governments Are Going To Be Under An Enormous Burden To Prevent The Kinds Of Terrorist Acts That Not Only Harm Individuals, But Also Can Distort Our Society And Our Politics In Very Dangerous Ways.

One Of The Things That We Have To Change In This Country Is The Idea That People Can't Disagree Without Challenging Each Other's Character And Patriotism. I Have Never Suggested That Sen. Mccain Picks His Positions On National Security Based On Politics Or Personal Ambition. I Have Not Suggested It Because I Believe That He Genuinely Wants To Serve America's National Interest. Now, It's Time For Him To Acknowledge That I Want To Do The Same. Let Me Be Clear: I Will Let No One Question My Love Of This Country.

In That Kind Of Environment, Where There's So Much Skepticism About Information That's Coming In, We're Gonna Have To Spend A Lot More Time Thinking About How Do We Protect Our Democratic Process.

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

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.

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

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.

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

For In Asia And Around The World, India Is Not Simply Emerging; India Has Already Emerged. And It Is My Firm Belief That The Relationship Between The United States And India - Bound By Our Shared Interests And Values - Will Be One Of The Defining Partnerships Of The 21st Century. This Is The Partnership I Have Come Here To Build. This Is The Vision That Our Nations Can Realise Together.

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

Let Me Even Say Before I Even Get Inaugurated, During The Transition We Are Going To Be Having Meetings All Across The Country With Community Organizations So That You Have Input Into The Agenda For The Next Presidency Of The United States Of America.

I Think The Irony ... Is That I Actually Would Like To See A Relatively Light Touch When It Comes To The Government.

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.

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.

If You Think That Running Your Economy Into The Ground And Having To Send Troops In In Order To Prop Up Your Only Ally Is Leadership, Then We've Got A Different Definition Of Leadership.

What We Also Have To Recognize Is That The Deficit Levels That I'm Inheriting, Over A Trillion Dollars, Coming Out Of Last Year, That That Is Unsustainable. At A Certain Point, Other Countries Stop Buying Our Debt, At A Certain Point, We'd End Up Having To Raise Interest Rates, And It Would End Up Creating More Economic Chaos And Potentially Inflation.

Just As Black Anger Often Proved Counterproductive, So Have These White Resentments Distracted Attention From The Real Culprits Of The Middle Class Squeeze - A Corporate Culture Rife With Inside Dealing, Questionable Accounting Practices, And Short-term Greed.

The United States Wants A Strong United Kingdom As A Partner. And The United Kingdom Is At Its Best When It's Helping To Lead A Strong Europe.

I'm Inspired By My Own Children, How Full They Make My Heart. They Make Me Want To Work To Make The World A Little Bit Better. And They Make Me Want To Be A Better Man.

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

It Is The Kindness To Take In A Stranger When The Levees Break; The Selflessness Of Workers Who Would Rather Cut Their Hours Than See A Friend Lose Their Job Which Sees Us Through Our Darkest Hours. It Is The Firefighter's Courage To Storm A Stairway Filled With Smoke, But Also A Parent's Willingness To Nurture A Child, That Finally Decides Our Fate.

I Will Continue To Believe That Israel's Security Is Paramount.

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

There Is Probably A Perverse Pride In My Administration... That We Were Going To Do The Right Thing, Even If Short-term It Was Unpopular. And I Think Anybody Who's Occupied This Office Has To Remember That Success Is Determined By An Intersection In Policy And Politics And That You Can't Be Neglecting Of Marketing And P.r. And Public Opinion.

The Science [of Global Warming] Is Beyond Dispute... Delay Is No Longer An Option. Denial Is No Longer An Acceptable Response

The Issue Of Climate Change Is One That We Ignore At Our Own Peril

The Irony Is That We've Seen This Model Work Really Well In Massachusetts Because Gov. Romney Did A Good Thing, Working With Democrats In The State To Set Up What Is Essentially The Identical Model And, As A Consequence, People Are Covered There. It Hasn't Destroyed Jobs. And As A Consequence, We Now Have A System In Which We Have The Opportunity To Start Bringing Down Costs As Opposed To Just Leaving Millions Of People Out In The Cold." "gov. Romney Said This Has To Be Done On A Bipartisan Basis

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

One Of The Thing About Being President - That Can't Be Taught, You Have To Experience, Is - There Is The Sheer Weight Of Decision Making. And When I Make A Decision To Send 17,000 Young Americans To Afghanistan - You Can Understand That Intellectually. But Understanding What That Means For Those Families, For Those Young People - When You End Up Sitting At Your Desk, Signing - A Condolence Letter To One Of The Family Members Of A Fallen Hero - You're Reminded Each And Every Day, At Every Moment, That - The Decisions You Make Count.

My Liberty Depends On You Being Free, Too.

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.

The World Is Complicated And Full Of Grays, But There's Still Truth There To Be Found.

... The Fact Is It Didn't Happen In The First Month, The First Six Weeks, In A Way That Was At All Acceptable. And Since I'm In Charge, Obviously, We Screwed It Up.

For The Young People Here: Practicality Is A Good Thing. There Are Times Where Compromise Is Necessary. That's Part Of Wisdom. But It's Also Important To Hang On To What You Believe.

When We Send Our Young Men And Women Into Harm's Way, We Have A Solemn Obligation Not To Fudge The Numbers Or Shade The Truth About Why They're Going, To Care For Their Families While They're Gone, To Tend To The Soldiers Upon Their Return, And To Never Ever Go To War Without Enough Troops To Win The War, Secure The Peace, And Earn The Respect Of The World.

To Those Leaders Around The Globe Who Seek To Sow Conflict, Or Blame Their Society's Ills On The West - Know That Your People Will Judge You On What You Can Build, Not What You Destroy.

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

David [cameron] Has Been An Outstanding Friend And Partner On The Global Stage And, Based On Our Conversation, I'm Confident That The Uk Is Committed To An Orderly Transition Out Of The Eu.

When It Comes To Our Military, What We Have To Think About Is Not, You Know Just Budgets, We've Got To Think About Capabilities.

The Good News Is That The Paris Agreement Is Not Just A Bilateral Agreement Between The United States And Some Other Country. You Have 200 Countries Who Came Together. It's An International Agreement.

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.

The Profound Mistake Of Reverend Wright's Sermons Is Not That He Spoke About Racism In Our Society. It's That He Spoke As If Our Society Was Static; As If No Progress Has Been Made; As If This Country - A Country That Has Made It Possible For One Of His Own Members To Run For The Highest Office In The Land And Build A Coalition Of White And Black; Latino And Asian, Rich And Poor, Young And Old - Is Still Irrevocably Bound To A Tragic Past.

Contrary To The Rumours You Have Heard, I Was Not Born In A Manger. I Was Actually Born On Krypton And Sent Here By My Father, Jor-el, To Save The Planet Earth.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until All Our Children... Know That They Are Cared For And Cherished And Always Safe From Harm.

[young People] Are Showing Enormous And Entrepreneurship And Working With Each Other Across Borders.

Entrepreneurship

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

We All Knew This. We All Knew That It Would Take More Time Than Any Of Us Want To Dig Ourselves Out Of This Hole Created By This Economic Crisis.

Those Opportunity Gaps Begin Early, Often At Birth. And They Compound Over Time, Becoming Harder And Harder To Bridge, Making Too Many Young Men And Women Feel Like, No Matter How Hard They Try, They May Never Achieve Their Dreams.

We Are Unique Among Advanced Countries That We Don't Have Universal Health Care. My Hope Was That I Was Able To Get A Hundred Percent Of People Health Care While I Was President. We Didn't Quite Achieve That, But We Were Able To Get 20 Million People Health Care Who Didn't Have It Before. And Obviously Some Of The Progress We Made Is Now Imperiled Because There's Still A Significant Debate Taking Place In The United States. For Those 20 Million People, Their Lives Have Been Better.

Unlike My Opponent, I Will Not Let Oil Companies Write This Country's Energy Plan, Or Endanger Our Coastlines, Or Collect Another $4 Billion In Corporate Welfare From Our Taxpayers.

In Order To Make Reforms Sustainable, The Greek Economy Needs The Space To Return To Growth And Start Creating Jobs Again.

We Are Not Going To Keep The Window Open Forever.

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

If, In [federal Housing Administration] Application, Black Folks Were Excluded From It, Then You Have To Override That By Going After Those Discriminatory Practices.

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!

[american Citizenship] Captures The Enduring Idea That This Country Only Works When We Accept Certain Obligations To One Another And To Future Generations

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

[t]hese Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans Are Also The Tax Cuts That Are Least Likely To Promote Growth.

Nobody Gets To Threaten The Full Faith And Credit Of The United States Just To Extract Political Concessions.

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.

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

Those Who Threaten Israel Threaten Us. Israel Has Always Faced These Threats On The Frontlines. And I Will Bring To The White House An Unshakable Commitment To Israel's Security. That Starts With Insuring Israel's Qualitative Military Advantage. I Will Insure That Israel Can Defend Itself From Any Threat - From Gaza To Tehran.

While We Breathe, We Will Hope.

Those Jeans Are Comfortable, And For Those Of You Who Want Your President To Look Great In His Tight Jeans, I'm Sorry I'm Not The Guy. It Just Doesn't Fit Me. I'm Not 20.

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.

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change. Now, It's True That No Single Event Makes A Trend. But The Fact Is The 12 Hottest Years On Record Have All Come In The Last 15. Heat Waves, Droughts, Wildfires, Floods-all Are Now More Frequent And More Intense. We Can Choose To Believe That Superstorm Sandy, And The Most Severe Drought In Decades, And The Worst Wildfires Some States Have Ever Seen Were All Just A Freak Coincidence. Or We Can Choose To Believe In The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science-and Act Before It's Too Late.

Let's Not Play Games. I Was Suggesting - You're Absolutely Right That John Mccain Has Not Talked About My Muslim Faith.

People Will Still Be Looking To The United States. Our Example Will Still Carry Great Weight.

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

If You Have Health Care, My Plan Will Lower Your Premiums. If You Don't, You'll Be Able To Get The Same Kind Of Coverage That Members Of Congress Give Themselves.

I Didn't Become A Christian Until Many Years Later, When I Moved To The South Side Of Chicago After College. It Happened Not Because Of Indoctrination Or A Sudden Revelation, But Because I Spent Month After Month Working With Church Folks Who Simply Wanted To Help Neighbors Who Were Down On Their Luck No Matter What They Looked Like, Or Where They Came From, Or Who They Prayed To. It Was On Those Streets, In Those Neighborhoods, That I First Heard God's Spirit Beckon Me. It Was There That I Felt Called To A Higher Purpose - His Purpose.

It's Not Just Enough To Change The Players. We've Gotta Change The Game.

I Believe The United States Of America Must Remain A Standard Bearer In The Conduct Of War. That Is What Makes Us Different From Those Whom We Fight. That Is A Source Of Our Strength. That Is Why I Prohibited Torture. That Is Why I Ordered The Prison At Guantanamo Bay Closed. And That Is Why I Have Reaffirmed America's Commitment To Abide By The Geneva Conventions. We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend.

Third, We Will Continue To Draw On Our Substantial Counterterrorism Capabilities To Prevent Isil Attacks. Working With Our Partners, We Will Redouble Our Efforts To Cut Off Its Funding; Improve Our Intelligence; Strengthen Our Defenses; Counter Its Warped Ideology; And Stem The Flow Of Foreign Fighters Into - And Out Of - The Middle East. And In Two Weeks, I Will Chair A Meeting Of The Un Security Council To Further Mobilize The International Community Around This Effort.

We Have To Recognize We've Got Some Big Problems On Race, Just Like We Got Still Big Problems On Crime, Just Like We Got Big Problems On Just About Everything. But We Also Have To Make Sure That We've - Draw Confidence From The Progress That We Have Made, 'cause Otherwise, You Get Into This Cycle Of Cynicism.

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

Native American

Right Around My First Year Of College - I Remember "song Of Solomon," By Toni Morrison, Just Moved Me Tremendously. The Power Of Language And How It Can Peel Back Truths, Bring Things To The Surface. So I Learned A Lot From Fiction.

[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.

I've Got Certain Responsibilities That I Have To Carry Out In A Very Specific Institution And In A Specific Moment In Time.

The Bush Administration's Failure To Be Consistently Involved In Helping Israel Achieve Peace With The Palestinians Has Been Both Wrong For Our Friendship With Israel, As Well As Badly Damaging To Our Standing In The Arab World.

A Lot Of Pictures Of Yourself - You Know, It's A Little Narcissistic.

Pictures Of Yourself

Part Of America's Genius Has Always Been Its Ability To Absorb Newcomers, To Forge A National Identity Out Of The Disparate Lot That Arrived On Our Shores.

We Have To Make Sure America Writes The Rules Of The Global Economy, And We Should Do It Today While Our Economy Is In The Position Of Global Strength, Because If We Don't Write The Rules For Trade Around The World, Guess What: China Will.

But If You - If What - The Reports Are True, What They're Saying Is, Is That As A Consequence Of Us Getting 30 Million Additional People Health Care, At The Margins That's Going To Increase Our Costs, We Knew That.

You Could See A Man Talking To Himself As Just Plain Crazy, Or Read About The Criminal On The Front Page Of The Daily Paper And Ponder The Corruption Of The Human Heart, Without Having To Think About Whether The Criminal Or Lunatic Said Something About Your Own Fate.

Let's Say I'm On The Policy Wonk End Of The Spectrum. As Much As I Can Dive Into A Briefing Book And Really Work To Master Various Subjects That Come Before My Desk, I'm Still Not An Expert On A Huge Amount Of The Stuff That We Work On.

Love And Hope Can Conquer Hate.

[our Troops In Iraq And Afganistan] Does Give Us The Ability To Make Sure That We Are Strengthening Those Folk Who Are Interested In Building Up Their Countries Rather Than Destroying Them, And Doing So In A Way That Is Sustainable And Doesn't Put A Constant Burden On The Amazing Men And Women That We've Got In Uniform.

You Have Countries Like India That Have Tried To Help Untouchables, With Essentially Affirmative-action Programs, But It Hasn't Fundamentally Changed The Structure Of Their Societies.

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

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.

Many Of You Know That I Got My Name, Barack, From My Father. What You May Not Know Is Barack Is Actually Swahili For 'that One.' And I Got My Middle Name From Somebody Who Obviously Didn't Think I'd Ever Run For President.

Foreign Assistance Is Not An End In Itself. The Purpose Of Aid Must Be To Create The Conditions Where It's No Longer Need.

For The Sake Of Our Security, Our Economy And Our Planet, We Must Have The Courage And Commitment To Change.

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.

Donald Trump Is Temperamentally Unfit.

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

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...

There Is No Individual Salvation Without Collective Salvation

To The Extent That We've Got A Fiscal Crisis Right Now, Part Of It Is Prompted By A Bullheaded Insistence On The Part Of The President, For Example, That We Should Extend All Of His Tax Cuts, Make All Of Them Permanent.

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

One Of The Things That I've Urged The President-elect To Do Is To Develop A Strong Working Relationship With The Intelligence Community And I Think It's Important That Congress, On A Bipartisan Basis.

You [bill Maher] Seem To Have Done Alright With Your Tv Show... I Mean, I Don't Get A Sense... To The Extent That They're Boycotting You, It's Because Of Your Other Wacky Views Rather Than Your Particular Views On Religion.

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

I Would Put Our Legislative And Foreign Policy Accomplishments In Our First Two Years Against Any President - With The Possible Exceptions Of Johnson, Fdr, And Lincoln - Just In Terms Of What We've Gotten Done In Modern History. But, You Know, But When It Comes To The Economy, We've Got A Lot More Work To Do. And We're Gonna Keep On At It.

I Think That We Are In A Position To Continue To Make Progress, But It's Gonna Require Us To Both Recognize What The Problems Are, Also Recognize The Progress We've Made. Last Point I'd Make On This, Since We're On Criminal Justice: During The Course Of My Presidency Crime Has Been The Lowest It's Been Probably Since The '60s.

But Race Is An Issue That I Believe This Nation Cannot Afford To Ignore Right Now. We Would Be Making The Same Mistake That Reverend Wright Made In His Offending Sermons About America - To Simplify And Stereotype And Amplify The Negative To The Point That It Distorts Reality.

I Think We Should All Hope For A Russia That Is Successful, Where Its People Are Employed And The Economy Is Growing And They Are Having Good Relationships With Their Neighbors.

I Think That What Is True Is That The Russians Intended To Meddle, And They Meddled. And It Could Be Another Country In The Future.

What Is The Empathy Deficit? The Inability Of People To Stand In Other Folks Shoes. It's Hard To Empathize With People Who Have Different Values Than You

How Donald Trump Reaches Out To Groups That May Not Have Supported Him, How He Signals His Interest In Their Issues Or Concerns, I Think Those Are The Kinds Of Things That Can Set A Tone That Will Help Move Things Forward Once He Has Actually Taken Office.

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

Don’t Ever Let Anybody Tell You That Your Efforts Don’t Matter Or That Your Voice Doesn’t Count. Don’t Ever Believe That You Can’t Make A Difference. You Have.

Yes, Our Greatness As A Nation Has Depended On Individual Initiative, On A Belief In The Free Market. But It Has Also Depended On Our Sense Of Mutual Regard For Each Other, Of Mutual Responsibility. The Idea That Everybody Has A Stake In The Country, That We're All In It Together And Everybody's Got A Shot At Opportunity. Americans Know This. We Know That Government Can't Solve All Our Problems - And We Don't Want It To. But We Also Know That There Are Some Things We Can't Do On Our Own. We Know That There Are Some Things We Do Better Together.

Every Major World Religion Has Identified Marriage As Between A Man And A Woman.

World Religions

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

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.

Physically, I Feel Probably As Good As I've Ever Felt. And I've Got As Much Energy As I Ever Did. But What You Feel After Eight Years - And I Think You'd Feel This No Matter What, But Anytime You Have A Big Transition, It Gets Magnified - Is Time Passes.

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.

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.

This Is About Respect For Women, The Judgments That Women Make And Their Doctors About Their Reproductive Health. It's An Important Part Of Who Women Are, Their Reproductive Health.

The Friendship That We Established Early On In Our Marriage ... That Carries You Through Tough Times. That And A Good Sense Of Humor.

We've Got To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong At Home So That We Can Project Military Power Overseas.

I Am Here For My Mother And All The Americans Who Are Forced To Spend Time Arguing With Health Insurance Companies Instead Of Focusing On Getting Well. I Am Here For The Millions Of Lives That Will Be Touched And In Some Cases, Saved, By Health Insurance Reform. I Am Here For The Small Businesses Who Are Forced To Choose Between Health Care And Hiring. I Am Here For The Seniors Who Are Unable To Afford The Prescriptions They Need.

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.

There Is A Big Risk For The Republicans In A Race, Especially With Hillary Clinton As A Likely Democratic Nominee In A Contest That Will Focus On The Possibility Of The First Woman President To Be Six Months Suspending Up The Nomination Of A Black Woman, Who Is Imminently Qualified.

I Warn Young People That I Interact With About This - You Get Into Unrealistic Expectations Where You Think That, "oh, We're Gonna Eliminate Racism Like That. After Obama's Elected How Could There Be Any Racism?".

The Second Thing We Have To Do Is To Make Sure That All Of Us Think About How We Approach Our Elections And Our Democracy Not Only To Secure Them From Vote Tampering, But Also To Make Sure That We Understand When Propaganda Is Being Churned Through The System.

I Will Call Not Just On Israel, But On The Palestinians, On The Arab States, And The International Community To Join Us In This Effort, Because The Burden Of Making Hard Choices Must Not Be Israel’s Alone.

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.

Well, Governor, We Also Have Fewer Horses And Bayonets.

Aircraft Carriers

How Do We Transform Mere Power Into Justice, Mere Sentiment Into Love?

I Don't Know The Facts Of When Joe Soptic's Wife Got Sick Or When She Died.

We Need To Reduce Our Dependence On Foreign Oil By Ending The Subsidies For Oil Companies, And Doubling Down On Clean Energy That Generates Jobs And Strengthens Our Security.

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

Because Of You, In Afghanistan We've Broken The Momentum Of The Taliban. Because Of You, We've Begun A Transition To The Afghans That Will Allow Us To Bring Our Troops Home From There. And Around The Globe, As We Draw Down In Iraq, We Have Gone After Al Qaeda So That Terrorists Who Threaten America Will Have No Safe Haven, And Osama Bin Laden Will Never Again Walk The Face Of This Earth.

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

We Must Act, Knowing That Our Work Will Be Imperfect.

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

We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change

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.

In The Absence Of Sound Oversight,responsible Businesses Are Forced To Compete Against Unscrupulous And Underhanded Businesses, Who Are Unencumbered By Any Restrictions On Activities That Might Harm The Environment, Or Take Advantage Of Middle-class Families, Or Threaten To Bring Down The Entire Financial System.

Responsible Business

I Do Not Accept That We Cannot Find A Common Sense Way To Preserve Our Traditions, Including Our Basic Second Amendment Freedoms And The Rights Of Law Abiding Gun Owners, While At The Same Time Reducing The Gun Violence That Unleashes So Much Mayhem On A Regular Basis.

For More Than 60 Years, The United States Has Stood By Our Allies And Partners In The Asia Pacific. That Includes Our Defence Partnership With Singapore, Which Stretches Back More Than Two Decades.

I Will Veto Any Effort To Get Rid Of Those Automatic Spending Cuts To Domestic And Defense Spending. There Will Be No Easy Off Ramps On This One.

When You've Got Little Kids, And You're Tucking Them In. When You Open A Door And They're In Their Pajamas And They're, You Know, Wrestling With You And Asking You, You Know, To Read To Them And Stuff, [the White House] Starts Feeling Like Home Pretty Quick. Not To Mention Having A Mother-in-law Upstairs, And The Dog, And Now Two.

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.'

Let Us Join Together Across Denominations, Religions And Cultures To Make A Habit Of Empathy And Reach Out To Those Most In Need. To Share The Blessings We Enjoy And To Advance The Cause Of Peace In All Corners Of Our World.

I Will Never Forget Who This Victory Truly Belongs To. It Belongs To You.

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

My Administration Will Be The Most Transparent In History

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