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I Know Starting Careers In Troubled Times Is A Challenge, But It Is Also A Privilege. Because It's Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, Dig Deeper And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had. To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us. So Don't Ever Shy Away From That Endeavor. Don't Stop Adding To Your Body Of Work. I Can Promise That You Will Be The Better For That Continued Effort As Will Be This Nation That We All Love.

-Barack Obama

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I Know Starting Careers

Barack Obama

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I Know Starting Careers In Troubled Times Is A Challenge, But It Is Also A Privilege. Because It's Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, Dig Deeper And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had. To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us. So Don't Ever Shy Away From That Endeavor. Don't Stop Adding To Your Body Of Work. I Can Promise That You Will Be The Better For That Continued Effort As Will Be This Nation That We All Love.

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In Our Democracy And Our Civic Discourse, It Seems As If Folks Who Take Religion The Most Seriously Are Sometimes Also Those Who Are Suspicious Of Those Not Like Them.

Two-thirds Of Americans Believe That, After A Baby's Heart Is Beating And They Can Feel Pain, That They Need Some Protection.

My Administration Will Not Authorize The Indefinite Military Detention Without Trial Of American Citizens. Indeed, I Believe That Doing So Would Break With Our Most Important Traditions And Values As A Nation.

Families Across America Are Feeling The Pinch As They Watch Debts Mount, Bills Pile Up And Savings Disappear.

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.

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.

I Believe Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman. I Am Not In Favor Of Gay Marriage.

I Believe That The Starting Point Of Faith Is Some Doubt, Not Bein' So Full Of Yourself And So Confident That You Are Right And That God Speaks Only To Us And Doesn't Speak To Others, That God Only Cares About Us And Doesn't Care About Others.

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.

I Went Through Six Years Of Battles On Health Care Because I Didn't Have $100 Million Worth Of Advertising Saying How It Would Never Work.

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

It's A Moral Imperative, It's An Economic Imperative, And It Is A Security Imperative. For We've Seen How Spikes In Food Prices Can Plunge Millions Into Poverty, Which, In Turn, Can Spark Riots That Cost Lives, And Can Lead To Instability. And This Danger Will Only Grow If A Surging Global Population Isn't Matched By Surging Food Production. So Reducing Malnutrition And Hunger Around The World Advances International Peace And Security - And That Includes The National Security Of The United States.

Get Involved In An Issue That You're Passionate About. It Almost Doesn't Matter What It Is ... We Give Too Much Of Our Power Away, To The Professional Politicians, To The Lobbyists, To Cynicism. And Our Democracy Suffers As A Result.

We Are One Nation Under God, And We May Call That God Different Names But We Remain One Nation.

I Just Want To Say That The Only Thing Less Popular Than Putting Money Into Banks Is Putting Money Into The Auto Industry.

I Do Not Believe Being Gay Or Lesbian Is A Choice.

Boston Is A Tough And Resilient Town. So Are Its People. I'm Supremely Confident That Bostonians Will Pull Together, Take Care Of Each Other, And Move Forward As One Proud City. And As They Do, The American People Will Be With Them Every Single Step Of The Way.

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.

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.

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

Let's Also Make Sure That A High School Diploma Puts Our Kids On A Path To A Good Job. Right Now, Countries Like Germany Focus On Graduating Their High School Students With The Equivalent Of A Technical Degree From One Of Our Community Colleges, So That They're Ready For A Job. At Schools Like P-tech In Brooklyn ... Students Will Graduate With A High School Diploma And An Associate Degree In Computers Or Engineering. We Need To Give Every American Student Opportunities Like This.

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

The Pain I Felt Was My Father's Pain.

I Don't Have To Negotiate An Arms Agreement With Great Britain Or With France.

America Leads - Not With Bluster, But With Persistent, Steady Resolve.

I Think It Is Important That We Are Targeting Hiv/aids Resources Into The Communities Where We're Seeing The Highest Growth Rates. That Means Education And Prevention, Particularly With Young People.

For America To Get More Entangled Militarily In Syria Is A Serious Step, And We Have To Do So Making Absolutely Certain That We Know Who We Are Helping; That We're Not Putting Arms In The Hands Of Folks Who Eventually Could Turn Them Against Us Or Allies In The Region.

I'm Not So Optimistic As To Think That You Would Ever Be Able To Garner A Majority Of An American Congress That Would Make Those Kinds Of Investments Above And Beyond The Kinds Of Investments That Could Be Made In A Progressive Program For Lifting Up All People.

We Were Very Effective, And I Was Very Effective, In Shaping Public Opinion Around My Campaigns. But There Were Big Stretches, While Governing, Where Even Though We Were Doing The Right Thing, We Weren't Able To Mobilize Public Opinion Firmly Enough Behind Us To Weaken The Resolve Of The Republicans To Stop Opposing Us Or To Cooperate With Us. And There Were Times During My Presidency Where I Lost The Pr Battle.

The Only Reason I Send A Single Young Man Or Woman In Uniform Anywhere In The World Is Because I Think It's Necessary To Keep Us Safe.

If We Got There And We Looked Up And We Said, "you Know What? Black Folks Are Still Doing A Little Bit Worse Off Than Whites, But It's Not Like It Was 20 Years Ago," Then We Can Have A Discussion About How Do We Get That Last Little Bit. But That's A High-class Problem To Have.

I Don't Have Time To Complain. I'm Going To Press On.

My Hope Is That's Something [donald Trump] Is Thinking About, Because Not Only Is The President Of The United States Somebody That The Entire Country Looks To For Direction But Sets The Agenda Internationally In A Lot Of Ways.

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

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.

The United States Is Doing Our Part By Increasing The Number Of Refugees We Resettle And I Want Again To Commend Angela [merkel], And More Importantly, The German People For The Extraordinary Leadership And Compassion That You Have Shown In The Face Of What I Know Is A Very Difficult Challenge.

First And Foremost, It's Important To Remember That, From My Perspective At Least, My Most Important Legacy Was Making Sure That The World Didn't Go Into A Great Depression.

If You Don't Have Good People, And You Don't Have A Good Process And You Don't Have, At Some Level, The Basic Reverence For [presidential] Office, And An Understanding Of The Incredible Responsibilities And Obligations, Then, I Think You Can Get Into Trouble.

Assault Weapons Ban Reintroduced.

Assault Weapons

I Would Have I Think Made A Bigger Mistake If I Had Said, "eh, Chemical Weapons. That Doesn't Really Change My Calculus." I Think It Was Important For Me As President Of The United States To Send A Message That In Fact There Is Something Different About Chemical Weapons [in Syria].

There Are Certain People In Our Popular Culture That Just Capture People's Imaginations. And In Death, They Become Even Larger. Now, I Have To Admit That It's Also Fed By A 24/7 Media That Is Insatiable.

The Future Rewards Those Who Press On. I Don't Have Time To Feel Sorry For Myself. I Don't Have Time To Complain. I'm Going To Press On.

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change.

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

I'd Like To Help Struggling Homeowners Who Can't Pay Their Mortgages, I'd Like To Invest In Our Crumbling Infrastructure, I'd Like To Reform The Tax System So Multimillionaires Can't Pretend Their Earnings Are Capital Gains And Pay At The Rate Of 15 Percent. I'd Like To Make Public Higher Education Free, And Pay For It With A Small Transfer Tax On All Financial Transactions. I'd Like To Do Much More - A New New Deal For Americans. But Republicans Are Blocking Me At Every Point.

When George Bush Came Into Office, We Had Surpluses. And Now We Have Half-a-trillion-dollar Deficit Annually. When George Bush Came Into Office, Our National Debt Was Around $5 Trillion. It's Now Over $10 Trillion. We've Almost Doubled It.

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

Over More Than A Decade, Iran Had Moved Ahead With Its Nuclear Program. And Before The Deal, It Had Installed Nearly 20,000 Centrifuges That Could Enrich Uranium For A Nuclear Bomb.

On Syria, It's Clear That The Indiscriminate Attacks On Civilians By The [bashar] Assad Regime And Russia Will Only Worsen The Humanitarian Catastrophe And That A Negotiated End To The Conflict Is The Only Way To Achieve Lasting Peace In Syria.

One Of The Proudest Things Of My Three Years In Office Is Helping To Restore A Sense Of Respect For America Around The World.

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We Buy Our Own Toilet Paper Even Here In The White House.

We Are Running Out Of Time

Running Out Of Time

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We Forget Now, But During His Life, Dr. King Wasn't Always Considered A Unifying Figure. Even After Rising To Prominence, Even After Winning The Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King Was Vilified By Many, Denounced As A Rabble Rouser And An Agitator, A Communist And A Radical. He Was Even Attacked By His Own People, By Those Who Felt He Was Going Too Fast Or Those Who Felt He Was Going Too Slow; By Those Who Felt He Shouldn't Meddle In Issues Like The Vietnam War Or The Rights Of Union Workers.

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

I Think That Canada Is One Of The Most Impressive Countries In The World, The Way It Has Managed A Diverse Population, A Migrant Economy. The Natural Beauty Of Canada Is Extraordinary. Obviously There Is Enormous Kinship Between The United States And Canada, And The Ties That Bind Our Two Countries Together Are Things That Are Very Important To Us.

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.

Starting Today, We Must Pick Ourselves Up, Dust Ourselves Off, And Begin Again The Work Of Remaking America.

Part Of People's Concern Is Just The Sense That Around The World The Old Order Isn't Holding And We're Not Quite Yet To Where We Need To Be In Terms Of A New Order That's Based On A Different Set Of Principles, That's Based On A Sense Of Common Humanity, That's Based On Economies That Work For All People.

Common Humanity

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

This Visit [to Singapore] Is An Occasion To Mark The 50th Anniversary Our Bilateral Relationship With Singapore, Which Is One Of Our Strongest And Most Reliable Partners In South-east Asia.

50th Anniversary

There Are Values That Transcend Race Or Culture, That Move Us Forward, And There's An Obligation For All Of Us Individually As Well As Collectively To Take Responsibility To Make Those Values Lived.

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

Hunter Pence Eats Pizza With A Fork.

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

Aircraft Carriers

We're Still Fighting To Make Sure That Basic Anti-discrimination Laws Are Enforced, Not Just At The Federal Level, By The Way, But Throughout Government And Throughout The Private Sector? And Those Are Fights That We Can Win Because - And This Is Where I Do Believe America Has Changed - The Majority, Not By Any Means 100 Percent, But The Majority Of Americans Believe In The Idea Of Nondiscrimination.

What I Believe Is That Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman, But What I Also Believe Is That We Have An Obligation To Make Sure That Gays And Lesbians Have The Rights Of Citizenship That Afford Them Visitations To Hospitals, That Allow Them To Be, To Transfer Property Between Partners, To Make Certain That They're Not Discriminated On The Job.

I Stand Here Today Humbled By The Task Before Us, Grateful For The Trust You Have Bestowed, Mindful Of The Sacrifices Borne By Our Ancestors.

The Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure. America Has A Debt Problem And A Failure Of Leadership. Americans Deserve Better. I, Therefore, Intend To Oppose The Effort To Increase America's Debt.

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.

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

I Think We Can Provide Common-sense Approaches To The Issue Of Illegal Guns That Are Ending Up On The Streets. We Can Make Sure That Criminals Don't Have Guns In Their Hands. We Can Make Certain That Those Who Are Mentally Deranged Are Not Getting A Hold Of Handguns. We Can Trace Guns That Have Been Used In Crimes To Unscrupulous Gun Dealers That May Be Selling To Straw Purchasers And Dumping Them On The Streets.

Iran Has To Live Up To Its International Obligations. . . . The President Has Said That Our Patience Is Not Unlimited.

Reading Is Important. If You Know How To Read Then The Whole World Opens Up To You

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

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.

Islamic Culture Has Given Us Majestic Arches And Soaring Spires; Timeless Poetry And Cherished Music; Elegant Calligraphy And Places Of Peaceful Contemplation.

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.

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

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

I'm Lebron, Baby. I Can Play On This Level. I Got Some Game.

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.

The Degree Of Polarization That Currently Exists In Washington Is Such Where I Think It's Fair To Say If I Presented A Cure For Cancer, Getting Legislation Passed To Move That Forward Would Be A Nail-biter.

The Idea Of America Endures. Our Destiny Remains Our Choice. And Tonight, More Than Two Centuries Later, It Is Because Of Our People That Our Future Is Hopeful, Our Journey Goes Forward, And The State Of Our Union Is Strong.

The Interesting Thing About The African-american Experience In This Country Is That We Are Sort Of A Mongrel Of People. I Mean We're All Kind Of Mixed Up.

I Wouldn't Consider Them Acts Of War, But I Would Consider Them Acts Of Property Damage, Commercial Theft That Are Serious.

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.

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

What We Have To Do Is Make Sure That Here In America, If You Work Hard, You Can Get Ahead. If You Worked Hard, Not Only Did You Have A Good Job, But You Also Had Decent Benefits, Decent Health Care. We've Got To Make Sure That We're Doing Everything We Can To Expand The Middle Class And People Who Are Working Hard Can Get Into The Middle Class.

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

No Black Or White America-just United States Of America.

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.

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

We May Come From Different Places And Have Different Stories, But We Share Common Hopes, And One Very American Dream.

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

We Are An American Family And We Rise And Fall Together As One Nation.

American Family

There's A Little Perspiration Involved In Bringing About Change Too.

I Have Never Had To Travel More Than Thirty Seconds From Home To Office, And It's Because Of That That I've Been Able To Maintain, Really A Family Life That Has Nurtured And Sustained Me During This Time [of Presidency].

The Worst Thing That Colonialism Did Was To Cloud Our View Of Our Past.

You Know, Sometimes I'll Go To An 8th-grade Graduation And There's All That Pomp And Circumstance And Gowns And Flowers. And I Think To Myself, It's Just 8th Grade ... An 8th-grade Education Doesn't Cut It Today. Let's Give Them A Handshake And Tell Them To Get Their Butts Back In The Library!

[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.

I Think I Did In The Sense That There's A Whole Generation Coming Up Behind Us That Was Engaged, Inspired, Worked For Change During The Course Of My Presidency, Saw What Was Possible. And That Generation, It's Coming.

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

When You Start Just Focusing Exclusively On Trying To Tear The Other Person Down Instead Of What You Are Going To Do On Behalf Of The American People To Deal With This Economy, Then That's Not Serving Democrats, That's Not Serving Republicans, That's Not Serving Anybody.

We Are Still The America That Does The Hard Things, That Does The Great Things. We're The Nation That Always Dared To Dream. We're The Nation That Dared To Take Risks.

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

Cutting The Deficit By Gutting Our Investments In Innovation And Education Is Like Lightening An Overloaded Airplane By Removing Its Engine. It May Make You Feel Like You're Flying High At First, But It Won't Take Long Before You Feel The Impact.

You Know, My Faith Is One That Admits Some Doubt.

We're Starting To Make Some Progress. But There's Still Gonna Be Some Pain Out There. If I Don't Have This Done In Three Years, Then There's Gonna Be A One-term Proposition.

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

I Think What Grows The Economy Is When You Get That Tax Credit That We Put In Place For Your Kids Going To College. I Think That Grows The Economy. I Think What Grows The Economy Is When We Make Sure Small Businesses Are Getting A Tax Credit For Hiring Veterans Who Fought For Our Country. That Grows Our Economy.

In Texas, We Hold Very Dear To Intrusions Against Our Personal Liberty. We Fight Very Hard Against That.

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.

With Effort We Can Protect The Foundation Of Our Democracy, For Which So Many Marched Across This Bridge, The Right To Vote.

We Are Convinced, As Some Of You May Be Convinced, That Changing The Way We Produce And Use Energy Is Essential To America's Economic Future, That It Will Create Millions Of New Jobs, Power New Industries, Keep Us Competitive, And Spark New Innovation.

Women Can't Wait For Equal Pay. And I Won't Stop Fighting To Address This Inequality.

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.

I Try Never To Get Too High When Things Are Going Well. I Try Never To Get Too Low When Things Are Going Poorly. I Try To Keep An Even Keel.

I Have Been In Washington For A While Now, And Most Things Don't Surprise Me. The Fact That Twenty 6-year-olds Were Gunned Down In The Most Violent Fashion Possible And This Town Couldn't Do Anything About It Was Stunning To Me.

I've Said This Before, And I Know This Raises Questions In The Minds Of Some Evangelicals. I Do Not Believe That My Mother, Who Never Formally Embraced Christianity As Far As I Know ... I Do Not Believe She Went To Hell.

Raises Questions

I've Been To 57 States.

That Is The Difference We Make In The World. And Our Own Safety, Our Own Security, Depends Upon Our Willingness To Do What It Takes To Defend This Nation And Uphold The Values That We Stand For - Timeless Ideals That Will Endure Long After Those Who Offer Only Hate And Destruction Have Been Vanquished From The Earth.

If John Mccain Wants To Have A Debate About Who Has The Temperament, And Judgment, To Serve As The Next Commander-in-chief, That's A Debate I'm Ready To Have.

Our Intelligence Agencies Will Continue To Gather Information About The Intentions Of Governments - As Opposed To Ordinary Citizens - Around The World, In The Same Way That The Intelligence Services Of Every Other Nation Does. We Will Not Apologize Simply Because Our Services May Be More Effective.

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.

Jerusalem Will Remain The Capital Of Israel And It Must Remain Undivided."truth: Obama Later Said, "this Was An Example Where We Had Some Poor Phrasing In The Speech And We Immediately Tried To Correct The Interpretation That Was Given. The Point We Were Simply Making Was, Is That We Don't Want Barbed Wire Running Through Jerusalem.

The System Isn't Working When 12 Million People Live In Hiding, And Hundreds Of Thousands Cross Our Borders Illegally Each Year; When Companies Hire Undocumented Immigrants Instead Of Legal Citizens To Avoid Paying Overtime Or To Avoid A Union; When Communities Are Terrorized By Ice Immigration Raids -- When Nursing Mothers Are Torn From Their Babies, When Children Come Home From School To Find Their Parents Missing, When People Are Detained Without Access To Legal Counsel. When All That's Happening, The System Just Isn't Working.

I Think That When It Comes To Issues Of Trade, I Think It Is Important For Us To Be In Favor Of Trade, But I Also Think It Is Important To Make Sure That We Are Putting In Place The Labor Standards, The Environmental Standards, That Are Going To Provide Some Of A Fighting Chance For American Workers.

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.

The United States Does Not Have A Monopoly On Crazy People. It's Not The Only Country That Has Psychosis. And Yet We Kill Each Other In These Mass Shootings At Rates That Are Exponentially Higher Than Anyone Else. Well, What's The Difference? The Difference Is That These Guys Can Stack Up A Bunch Of Ammunition In Their Houses, And That's Sort Of Par For The Course.

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.

Like No Other Illness, Aids Tests Our Ability To Put Ourselves In Someone Else's Shoes - To Empathize With The Plight Of Our Fellow Man. While Most Would Agree That The Aids Orphan Or The Transfusion Victim Or The Wronged Wife Contracted The Disease Through No Fault Of Their Own, It Has Too Often Been Easy For Some To Point To The Unfaithful Husband Or The Promiscuous Youth Or The Gay Man And Say This Is Your Fault. You Have Sinned. I Don't Think That's A Satisfactory Response. My Faith Reminds Me That We All Are Sinners.

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

We Do Want People To Know If In Fact We Learn Of An Incident That's Focused On A Particular City.if We Learn Of Long-term Planning, That's Focused On A Particular Industry Or Infrastructure. And So We Feel We Have An Obligation To Let People Know If We Have Information Of A Credible Threat Or Not.

We Have Known For Decades That Our Survival Depends On Finding New Sources Of Energy. Yet We Import More Oil Today Than Ever Before.

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.

The Government Has To Treat All Citizens Equally. I Am A Strong Supporter Not Of A Weak Version Of Civil Unions, But Of A Strong Version, In Which The Rights That Are Conferred At The Federal Level To Persons Who Are Part Of The Same-sex Union Are Compatible. When It Comes To Federal Rights, The Over 1,100 Rights That Right Now Are Not Being Given To Same-sex Couples, I Think That's Unacceptable.

The United States Was Founded On The Idea That All People Are Endowed With Inalienable Rights, And That Principle Has Allowed Us To Work To Perfect Our Union At Home While Standing As A Beacon Of Hope To The World. Today, That Principle Is Embodied In Agreements Americans Helped Forge - The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, The Geneva Conventions, And Treaties Against Torture And Genocide - And It Unites Us With People From Every Country And Culture.

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.

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.

I Can Guarantee That Not Because I Give Attorney General [loretta] Lynch A Directive. That Is Institutionally How We Have Always Operated. I Do Not Talk To The Attorney General About Pending Investigations [on Hillary Clinton].

Guarantees That

If All It Took Was Someone Proclaiming I Believe Jesus Christ And That He Died For My Sins, And That Was All There Was To It, People Wouldn't Have To Keep Coming To Church, Would They.

The Balkanization Of The Media Means That Nobody Is Having A Single Conversation With A Single Set Of Agreed-upon Facts And Assumptions The Way You Had As Recently As The 90s.

Our Kids Grew Up Here [in The White House]. Some Of Our Best Friends Have Been Made Here In This Place. There Have Been Moments That Were Highlights For Us - That - You Know, Are Going To Be Hard To Duplicate.

I Want To Make Sure America Has Got The Best Education System In The World. And We're Retaining Our Workers For The Jobs Of Tomorrow.

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

I Believe That The Free Enterprise System Is The Greatest Engine Of Prosperity The World's Ever Known.

At Various Periods In American History, People Get Pretty Rambunctious When It Comes To Our Democratic Debate.

American History

You Know, The Bowling Alley Doesn‘t Seem To Be Improving My Game. That‘s The One Thing I Have Noticed.

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

All Of Us Have A Responsibility To Work For The Day When The Mothers Of Israelis And Palestinians Can See Their Children Grow Up Without Fear; When The Holy Land Of The Three Great Faiths Is The Place Of Peace That God Intended It To Be; When Jerusalem Is A Secure And Lasting Home For Jews And Christians And Muslims, And A Place For All Of The Children Of Abraham To Mingle Peacefully Together As In The Story Of Isra - (applause) - As In The Story Of Isra, When Moses, Jesus, And Mohammed, Peace Be Upon Them, Joined In Prayer. (applause.)

I Try To Explain To Them About The Aloha Spirit. And It's That Spirit That I Am Absolutely Convinced Is What America Is Looking For Right Now.

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.

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

We've Got A Lot Of Work To Do Economically In This Country To Bring About A More Just And Fair Economy.

The American People Intuitively Understand This, Which Is Why The Majority Of Catholics Practice Birth Control And Some Of Those Opposed To Gay Marriage Nevertheless Are Opposed To A Constitutional Amendment To Ban It. Religious Leadership Need Not Accept Such Wisdom In Counseling Their Flocks, But They Should Recognize This Wisdom In Their Politics.

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.

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

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

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."

If, Technologically, It Is Possible To Make An Impenetrable Device Or System Where The Encryption Is So Strong That There's No Key - There's No Door At All - Then How Do We Apprehend The Child Pornographer? How Do We Solve Or Disrupt A Terrorist Plot?

The Thing I Know For Sure Is That At The End Of My Life, What I'm Going To Remember Is The Love I Felt For My Family And My Friends, And Whatever Good I Did For Other People.

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.

We Need Somebody Who's Got The Heart, The Empathy, To Recognize What It's Like To Be A Young Teenage Mom, The Empathy To Understand What It's Like To Be Poor Or African-american Or Gay Or Disabled Or Old - And That's The Criterion By Which I'll Be Selecting My Judges.

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.

The Dollar Is The Reserve Currency Of The World.

What Makes America Exceptional Are The Bonds That Hold Together The Most Diverse Nation On Earth.

My Hope And Expectation Is That Regardless Of What Donald Trump Said During The Campaign, He's Going To Have To Look Carefully At The Realities When He Moves Forward.

The Biggest Threat That We Face Right Now Is Not A Nuclear Missile Coming Over The Skies. It's In A Suitcase. This Is Why The Issue Of Nuclear Proliferation Is So Important. It Is The - The Biggest Threat To The United States Is A Terrorist Getting Their Hands On Nuclear Weapons.

My Core Goal Is To Dismantle, Defeat, Destroy Al Qaeda And Its Allies That Killed Americans And Are Still Plotting To Go Kill Americans.

It Is In The Interests Of All Of Us - The United States, China And The Rest Of The World - To Make Sure That The Rules Of The Road Are Upheld. These Rules And Norms Are Part Of The Foundation Of Regional Stability, And They Have Allowed Nations Across The Region, Including China, To Grow And Prosper.

Globalization Is A Fact, Because Of Technology, Because Of An Integrated Global Supply Chain, Because Of Changes In Transportation. And We're Not Going To Be Able To Build A Wall Around That.

Even Those Who Claim The Bible's Inerrancy Make Distinctions Between Scriptural Edicts, Sensing That Some Passages - The Ten Commandments, Say, Or A Belief In Christ's Divinity - Are Central To Christian Faith, While Others Are More Culturally Specific And May Be Modified To Accommodate Modern Life.

The United States Has To Go Through Structural Reforms In Terms Of Improving Our Education System Or Revamping Our Infrastructure Or, You Know, Looking At Some Regulations That Weren't Properly Controlling Excesses On Wall Street.

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

Presidential Election

Iran Has Agreed To Deepen Our Coordination As We Work To Locate Robert Levinson, Missing From Iran For More Than Eight Years. Even As We Rejoice In The Safe Return Of Others, We Will Never Forget About Bob. Each And Every Day Our Hearts Are With The Levinson Family, And We Will Not Rest Until Their Family Is Whole Again.

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.

Just Like I Described In Health Care, Yeah, Somebody Comes In, They Got New Ideas, Maybe Ideas That Are Completely Opposite Of My Ideas. Maybe Some Of It Goes, Maybe Some Of That Progress Goes Back. Maybe They Think Of Some Things We Didn't Think Of, And So In Some Other Areas - We Can Learn Something.

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

I Am Reminded Every Day Of My Life, If Not By Events, Then By My Wife, That I Am Not A Perfect Man.

My Guiding Principle As President Has Been To Try To Do The Right Thing Even When It's Not Politically Convenient.

Guiding Principles

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.

If Iran Does Not Take Steps In The Near Future To Live Up To Its Obligations, Then The United States Will Not Continue To Negotiate Indefinitely... Our Patience Is Not Unlimited.

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

Our Goal Is To Have A Country That's Not Divided By Race.

This Is Where I Think Policies Do Need To Be Somewhat Race-specific, Is Making Sure That Institutions Are Not Discriminatory. So You've Got Something Like The Fha [federal Housing Administration], Which Was On Its Face A Universal Program That Involved A Huge Mechanism For Wealth Accumulation And People Entering Into The Middle Class.

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

Greatest Leadership

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

Futures Together

So Long As Our Relationship Is Defined By Our Differences, We Will Empower Those Who Sow Hatred Rather Than Peace, Those Who Promote Conflict Rather Than The Cooperation That Can Help All Of Our People Achieve Justice And Prosperity. This Cycle Of Suspicion And Discord Must End.

Will Not Collect A Ransom In Exchange For Not Crashing The American Economy.

American Economy

After A Century Of Striving, After A Year Of Debate, After A Historic Vote, Health Care Reform Is No Longer An Unmet Promise. It Is The Law Of The Land.

We As A Country Have To Do Some Soul-searching.

We Are Now At A Point Where Because We In Fact Have Been Successful At Stopping A Number Of Plots, A Threat Has Evolved. We Do See These Lone-wolf Actors. We Do See These Encouragements For Troubled Individuals To Pick Up A Gun And Act Out Of This Ideology.

Across The Globe There Are Girls Who Will One Day Lead Nations, If Only We Afford Them The Chance To Choose Their Own Destinies.

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

It Is My Strong Belief That Israel Has Not Just The Right But The Obligation To Protect Itself.

I Mentioned Charter Schools, And Experimenting With Our School System, To Make It Work. I Think That's Something We Really Have To Pay Attention To.

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