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I've Said Repeatedly That Where We See Terrorist Organizations Like Al-qaeda Or Isil, They Have Perverted And Distorted And Tried To Claim The Mantle Of Islam For An Excuse, For Basically Barbarism And Death. These Are People Who Kill Children, Kill Muslims, Take Sex Slaves - There's No Religious Rationale That Would Justify In Any Way Any Of The Things That They Do.

-Barack Obama

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I've Said Repeatedly That

Barack Obama

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I've Said Repeatedly That Where We See Terrorist Organizations Like Al-qaeda Or Isil, They Have Perverted And Distorted And Tried To Claim The Mantle Of Islam For An Excuse, For Basically Barbarism And Death. These Are People Who Kill Children, Kill Muslims, Take Sex Slaves - There's No Religious Rationale That Would Justify In Any Way Any Of The Things That They Do.

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While The Future Is Unknowable, The Winds Always Blow In The Direction Of Human Progress.

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That's What The Leadership Was Teaching Me, Day By Day: That The Self-interest I Was Supposed To Be Looking For Extended Well Beyond The Immediacy Of Issues, That Beneath The Small Talk And Sketchy Biographies And Received Opinions, People Carried With Them Some Central Explanation Of Themselves. Stories Full Of Terror And Wonder, Studded With Events That Still Haunted Or Inspired Them. Sacred Stories.

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Best Is Yet To Come

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You Like Pie? I Like Pie.

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African American

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To Try To Blackmail A President Into Giving Them Some Concessions On Issues That Have Nothing To Do With The Budget.

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Mass Destruction

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So On This Human Rights Day, Let Us Rededicate Ourselves To The Advancement Of Human Rights And Freedoms For All, And Pledge Always To Live By The Ideals We Promote To The World.

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I Think That There's No Doubt That As I See Friends, Families, Children Of Gay Couples Who Are Thriving, You Know, That Has An Impact On How I Think About These Issues.

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Research And Development

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

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My Powers Of Empathy, My Ability To Reach Into Another's Heart, Cannot Penetrate The Blank Stares Of Those Who Would Murder Innocents With Abstract, Serene Satisfaction.

I'm Really Excited About The Prospect Of A Woman President Of The United States.

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

One Thing I Think We Have To Do Is To Make Sure That The Undocumented Workers Who Are Living In America Today, That They Have To Take Responsibility. They've Got To Register, Pay A Fine, Pay Their Back Taxes, Learn English And Then Get On A Pathway In Which They Could Have The Prospect Of Being Here Legally.

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.

The Affordable Care Act Is Here To Stay.

Affordable Care Act

I Actually Believe That We Need Missile Defense, Because Of Iran And North Korea And The Potential For Them To Obtain Or To Launch Nuclear Weapons, But I Also Believe That, When We Are Only Spending A Few Hundred Million Dollars On Nuclear Proliferation, Then We're Making A Mistake.

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African American

There Are Certain Occupations - Probably, Most Prominently, Politics - Where There Would Be A Bias Against Somebody Who's Agnostic Or Atheist In Running For Office.

So While An Incredible Amount Of Progress Has Been Made, On This Fifth Anniversary, I Wanted To Come Here And Tell The People Of This City Directly: My Administration Is Going To Stand With You - And Fight Alongside You - Until The Job Is Done. Until New Orleans Is All The Way Back, All The Way.

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

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

A Free Market Was Never Meant To Be A Free Licence To Take Whatever You Can Get, However You Can Get It.

The Terrorists Do Not Speak For Over A Billion Muslims Who Reject Their Hateful Ideology.

Now You Have A Choice: We Can Give More Tax Breaks To Corporations That Ship Jobs Overseas, Or We Can Start Rewarding Companies That Open New Plants And Train New Workers And Create New Jobs Here, In The United States Of America.

The Presidency Has A Funny Way Of Making A Person Feel The Need To Pray.

That Sort Of Lack Of Awareness On The Part Of An Activist About The Constraints Of Our Political System And The Constraints On This Office, I Think, Sometimes Would Leave Me To Mutter Under My Breath. Very Rarely Did I Lose It Publicly. Yeah, Usually I'd Just Smile.

You And I, As Citizens, Have The Obligation To Shape The Debates Of Our Time, Not Only With The Votes We Cast, But The Voices We Lift In Defense Of Our Most Ancient Values And Enduring Ideas.

The Role Of Government Has Never Been To Plan Every Detail Or Dictate Every Outcome. At Its Best, Government Has Simply Knocked Away Barriers To Opportunity And Laid The Foundation For A Better Future. Our People -- With All Their Drive And Ingenuity -- Always End Up Building The Rest. And If We Can Do That Again -- If We Can Continue Building That Foundation And Making Those Hard Decisions On Behalf Of The Next Generation -- I Have No Doubt That We Will Leave Our Children The America That We All Hope For.

I Then Spoke To Chancellor (angela) Merkel Of Germany And We Agreed That The United States And Our European Allies Will Work Closely Together In The Weeks And Months Ahead.

You Can't Rest On Your Laurels. Your Own Body Of Work Is Yet To Come.

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.

Contrary To The Claims Of Some Of My Critics And Some Of The Editorial Pages, I Am An Ardent Believer In The Free Market.

Our First And Immutable Commitment Must Be To The Security Of Israel, Our Only True Ally In The Middle East And The Only Democracy.

What Is Also True Is That Partly Because My Docket Was Really Full Here, So I Couldn't Be Both Chief Organizer Of The Democratic Party And Function As Commander-in-chief And President Of The United States. We Did Not Begin What I Think Needs To Happen Over The Long Haul, And That Is Rebuild The Democratic Party At The Ground Level.

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.

Although We May Come From Vastly Different Stories And Very Different Walks Of Life, We Are One People Who Possess Common Values And Common Ideals; Who Celebrate Individual Excellence But Also Share A Recognition That Together, We Can Accomplish Great And Wonderful Things We Can't Accomplish Alone.

Together We Can

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.

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.

One Of The Challenges Over The Last Decade Is America Has Done Experiments In Nation Building In Places Like Iraq And Afghanistan And We've Neglected, For Example, Developing Our Own Economy, Our Own Energy Sectors, Our Own Education System. And It's Very Hard For Us To Project Leadership Around The World When We're Not Doing What We Need To Do.

Rather Than Fight The Same Tired Battles That Have Dominated Washington For Decades, It's Time To Try Something New. Let's Invest In Our People Without Leaving Them A Mountain Of Debt. Let's Meet Our Responsibility To The Citizens Who Sent Us Here. Let's Try Common Sense.

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

It's Time To "stop Being Ambivalent." ... They (groups Like The Islamic State) Have No Ideology Beyond Violence And Chaos And The Slaughter Of Innocent People.

As For Israel, Our Friendship Is Rooted Deeply In A Shared History And Shared Values. Our Commitment To Israel's Security Is Unshakeable. And We Will Stand Against Attempts To Single It Out For Criticism In International Forums.

Everybody Acknowledges That The Current Path We're On Is Unsustainable, Not Just For The People Who Don't Have Health Insurance But For Those Who Do.

I Look At Some Of The Kids That I Interact With, And They Were Born With So Many Disadvantages. And You Could Start Off In Your First Interaction With Them Saying, "unless They Get A Lot Of Compensatory Help, They're Not Going To Be Able To Compete; They're Just So Far Behind, And They're Wounded And They're Hurt."

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The Philippines Made A Lawful And Peaceful Effort To Resolve Their Maritime Claims With China Using The Tribunal Established Under The Law Of The Sea Convention (unclos). The Tribunal's Ruling Delivered A Clear And Legally Binding Decision On Maritime Claims In The South China Sea As They Relate To China And The Philippines - And That Ruling Should Be Respected. We Believe This Decision Can And Should Serve As An Opportunity To Renew Efforts To Address Maritime Claims Peacefully.

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

In Many Ways [those Middle-aged Black Ladies] My Touchstone, Because They Are What I Meant When I Talked About The Audacity Of Hope.

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We Need To Internalize This Idea Of Excellence. Not Many Folks Spend A Lot Of Time Trying To Be Excellent.

Losing The Pr Battles, Particularly About Healthcare, Translated Into Losing His Democratic Majorities In Congress, Beginning With A Republican Landslide In The Midterm Election Of 2010.

[white House] Feels Even More Like Home Now Because You Have All These Memories That Were Formed Watching Your Kids Grow Up.

That Is The True Genius Of America, A Faith In The Simple Dreams Of Its People, The Insistence On Small Miracles. That We Can Say What We Think, Write What We Think, Without Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Have An Idea And Start Our Own Business Without Paying A Bribe Or Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Participate In The Political Process Without Fear Of Retribution, And That Our Votes Will Be Counted.

Acts Of Sacrifice And Decency Without Regard To What's In It For You Create A Ripple Effect. Ones That Lift Up Families And Communities, That Spread Opportunity.

Isil Poses A Threat To The People Of Iraq And Syria, And The Broader Middle East - Including American Citizens, Personnel And Facilities. If Left Unchecked, These Terrorists Could Pose A Growing Threat Beyond That Region, Including To The United States.

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.

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

I Think Same Sex Couples Should Be Able To Get Married.

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.

I've Called On Congress To Repeal The So-called Defense Of Marriage Act To Help End Discrimination To Help End Discrimination Against Same-sex Couples In This Country. Now, I Want To Add We Have A Duty To Uphold Existing Law, But I Believe We Must Do So In A Way That Does Not Exacerbate Old Divides. And Fulfilling This Duty In Upholding The Law In No Way Lessens My Commitment To Reversing This Law. I've Made That Clear.

The Changes In Thinking About Same-sex Marriage Have Come Slowly At First And Then In Rapid Course. If Such Change Is Possible In This Area, Is It Also Possible In The Vexed And Sordid Realm Of Race Relations?

You Didn't Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen.

Presidential Election

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.

China Is Both An Adversary, But Also A Potential Partner In The International Community If It's Following The Rules. So My Attitude Coming Into Office Was That We Are Going To Insist That China Plays By The Same Rules As Everybody Else.

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

The Study Of Law Can Be Disappointing At Times, A Matter Of Applying Narrow Rules And Arcane Procedure To An Uncooperative Reality; A Sort Of Glorified Accounting That Serves To Regulate The Affairs Of Those Who Have Power--and That All Too Often Seeks To Explain, To Those Who Do Not, The Ultimate Wisdom And Justness Of Their Condition. But That's Not All The Law Is. The Law Is Also Memory; The Law Also Records A Long-running Conversation, A Nation Arguing With Its Conscience.

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

If You Look At How I've Tried To And How I'll Continue To Try To Govern, I'm Not Driven By Some Ideological Agenda. I'm A Pretty Practical Guy And I Just Want To Make Sure That Things Work.

We Must Build A World Free Of Unnecessary Barriers, Stereotypes, And Discrimination. ... Policies Must Be Developed, Attitudes Must Be Shaped, And Buildings And Organizations Must Be Designed To Ensure That Everyone Has A Chance To Get The Education They Need And Live Independently As Full Citizens In Their Communities.

Sometimes It May Seem As If Progress Is Stalled But What History Of Post-war Germany Shows Is That Strength And Determination And Focus And Adherence To The Values That We Care About Will Result In A Better Future For Our Children And Our Grandchildren.

Corporations Aren’t People. People Are People.

I Think That Part Of My Optimism Comes From The Belief That We As A People Could Actually, Regardless Of All The Disadvantage Of The Past, Regardless Of The Fact That A Lot Of Other Folks Got A Head Start In The Race, If We Were Able To Make The Race Fair Right Now.

In A World Of Complex Threats, Our Security And Leadership Depends On All Elements Of Our Power - Including Strong And Principled Diplomacy.

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.

I Think If You Worked At The Community Level In Chicago And Then A Politician On The South Side Of Chicago, And Worked At The State Level, Then You're Pretty Familiar With All The Variations Of Politics In The African American Community And Criticisms You May Get. If You're Not Familiar With Those Or You Don't Have A Thick Enough Skin To Take It, Then You Probably Wouldn't Have Gotten Here.

African American

Assault Weapons Ban Reintroduced.

Assault Weapons

I Am Very Proud Of The Fact I Do Not Cheat When I'm Playing Golf.

That's Silly Talk... Talk To My Wife. She'll Tell Me I Need To Learn To Just Put My Socks On The Hamper.

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.

Imagine If You Had Genuine, High-quality Early-childhood Education For Every Child, And Suddenly Every Black Child In America - But Also Every Poor White Child Or Latino [child], But Just Stick With Every Black Child In America - Is Getting A Really Good Education. And They're Graduating From High School At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Going To College At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Able To Afford College At The Same Rates Because The Government Has Universal Programs. So Now They're All Graduating.

Reading Makes All Other Learning Possible. We Have To Get Books Into Our Children's Hands Early And Often.

When You Try To Sow The Seeds Of Doubt In People`s Minds About The Legitimacy Of Our Election, That Undermines Democracy. Then You`re Doing The Work Of Our Adversaries For Them.

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

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

A Little Reminder To Those Who Don't Back Obama And Gay Marriage. It's Probably Cause You're Gay.

I've Always Wanted To Come To Greece.

If You're Reading Something From A Nobel Prize-winning Physicist Next To Some Guy In His Underwear Writing In His Basement, Or His Mom's Basement, On Text, It Looks Like It's Equally Plausible.

Both President Kennedy And President Reagan Were Roundly Criticized By Parts Of The Foreign Policy Establishment That Felt They Were Being Weak By Engaging Our Adversaries. So Some Of It Is Built Into A Political Lexicon That Makes You Sound Tougher If You Don't Talk To Somebody, And Rather, Very Loudly, Wield A Big Stick.

I've Been Keeping My Own Naughty And Nice List For Washington.

Jesus Lived A Life Of Peace, Love, Kindness And Forgiveness, During The Hustle And Bustle Of The Christmas Season, May We All Do Our Best To Follow His Example.

I'm Named Barack Hussein Obama. I'm African-american.

African American

I Was Watching A Documentary That During The Bay Of Pigs Crisis Jfk Had About Two Weeks Before Anybody Reported On It. Imagine That. I Think It's Fair To Say That If Something Like That Happens Under A Current President, They've Got To Figure Out In About An Hour What Their Response Is.

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.

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.

The Democrats Are Using The Human Trafficking Bill's Language That's Been There For 40 Years, Regarding The Use Of Federal Funds For Abortion.

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.

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

Politics Has Become So Bitter And Partisan, So Gummed Up By Money And Influence, That We Can't Tackle The Big Problems That Demand Solutions. And That's What We Have To Change First. We Have To Change Our Politics, And Come Together Around Our Common Interests And Concerns As Americans.

The Fact That There Is A Robust Debate In Congress Is Good. The Fact That The Debate Sometimes Seems Unanchored To Facts Is Not So Good.

Don't Shortchange The Future, Because Of Fear In The Present.

I've Said Many Times Around The World That Like Any Government, Like Any Country, Like, Any Set Of Human Institutions, We Have Our Flaws. We've Operated Imperfectly. There Are Times We've Made Mistakes.

America Does Not Presume To Know What Is Best For Everyone

In Sectors Like Energy, I Haven't Been Arguing For More Spending Per Se; I've Been Arguing That It Doesn't Make Sense For Us To Spend $4 Billion Subsidizing An Oil Industry That's Mature And Very Profitable. We Should Be Using That Money To Finance Clean Energy Of The Future.

It Is Legitimate For The Turks To Try To Defend Themselves.

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