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I Won Iowa Not Because The Demographics Dictated That I Would Win Iowa. It Was Because I Spent 87 Days Going To Every Small Town And Fair And Fish Fry And Bfw Hall, And There Were Some Counties Where I Might Have Lost, But Maybe I Lost By 20 Points Instead Of 50 Points. There's Some Counties Maybe I Won, That People Didn't Expect, Because People Had A Chance To See You And Listen To You And Get A Sense Of Who You Stood For And Who You Were Fighting For.

-Barack Obama

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I Won Iowa Not

Barack Obama

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I Won Iowa Not Because The Demographics Dictated That I Would Win Iowa. It Was Because I Spent 87 Days Going To Every Small Town And Fair And Fish Fry And Bfw Hall, And There Were Some Counties Where I Might Have Lost, But Maybe I Lost By 20 Points Instead Of 50 Points. There's Some Counties Maybe I Won, That People Didn't Expect, Because People Had A Chance To See You And Listen To You And Get A Sense Of Who You Stood For And Who You Were Fighting For.

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I'm Trying To Move An Aircraft Carrier Here, I'm Not Just Steering The Speedboat.

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It's One Of The Biggest Benefits Of Being President That You Really Don't Think About Until You Get Here.

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I Think Barack Obama 'll Talk About The Actions That We've Taken, Not Just Since 9/11, But Since Paris, To Help Keep The American People And American Interests Safe.

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The Cuban People Must Know That They Have A Friend And Partner In The United States Of America.

America Does Not Presume To Know What Is Best For Everyone

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.

A Child's Course In Life Should Be Determined Not By The Zip Code She's Born In, But By The Strength Of Her Work Ethic And The Scope Of Her Dreams.

There Are Things I Cannot Say.

If 90 Percent Or 95 Percent Of Those - Chemical Stockpiles [in Syria] Were Eliminated, That's A Lot Of Chemical Weapons That Are Not Right Now In The Hands Of Isil Or Nusra Or, For That Matter, The Regime.

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Call Loretta Lynch For A Vote. Get Her Confirmed. Put Her In Place. Let Her Do Her Job.

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Democracy Cannot Be Imposed On Any Nation From The Outside. Each Society Must Search For Its Own Path, And No Path Is Perfect.

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

Hunger, Disease And Poverty Can Lead To Global Instability And Leave A Vacuum For Extremism To Fill. So Instead Of Just Managing Poverty, We Must Offer Nations And People A Pathway Out Of Poverty. And As President I've Made Development A Pillar Of Our Foreign Policy, Alongside Diplomacy And Defense.

Part Of What Makes Me Most Optimistic Is If You Look At The Attitudes Of Young People. Across The Board, Young People Are Much More Comfortable With Respecting Differences. They Are Much More Comfortable With Diversity.

If We Want To Really Reduce Foreign Influence On Our Elections, Then We Better Think About How To Make Sure That Our Political Process, Our Political Dialogue Is Stronger Than It's Been.

One Of The Brightest Lights Of Our Time-a Brilliant Writer, A Fierce Friend, And A Truly Phenomenal Woman.

It's Important To Listen To What Scientists Have To Say, Even When It's Inconvenient, Especially When It's Inconvenient

Nobody's Madder Than Me About The Website Not Working As Well As It Should, Which Means It's Going To Get Fixed.

There's No Straight Line To Progress.

The President And The Executive Branch Are Always Going To Have Greater Latitude And Greater Authority When It Comes To Protecting America Because Sometimes You Just Have To Respond Quickly And Not Everything That Is A Danger Can Be Publicized And Be Subject To Open Debate, But There Have To Be Some Guardrails.

We, The People, Declare Today That The Most Evident Of Truths - That All Of Us Are Created Equal - Is The Star That Guides Us Still; Just As It Guided Our Forebears Through Seneca Falls, And Selma, And Stonewall; Just As It Guided All Those Men And Women, Sung And Unsung, Who Left Footprints Along This Great Mall, To Hear A Preacher Say That We Cannot Walk Alone; To Hear A King Proclaim That Our Individual Freedom Is Inextricably Bound To The Freedom Of Every Soul On Earth.

There's Been A Lot Of Talk About Body Cameras As A Silver Bullet Or A Solution. I Think The Task Force Concluded That There Is A Role For Technology To Play In Building Additional Trust And Accountability, But It's Not A Panacea, It Has To Be Embedded In A Broader Change In Culture And A Legal Framework That Ensures That People's Privacy Is Respected And That Not Only Police Officers But The Community Themselves Feel Comfortable With How Technologies Are Being Used.

I Know What The Counterterrorism Feels Like Because I Was There. But I Also Operated Within Limits. And Within The United States Government, We've Decided Long Ago That There Are Limits On What We're Going To Do In The War Against Terrorism.

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

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

Generally The Constitution Is A Charter Of Negative Liberties, Says What The States Can't Do To You, Says What The Federal Government Can't Do To You. But It Doesn't Say What The State Or Federal Government Must Do On Your Behalf.

Young Men Need To Show Women The Respect They Deserve And Recognize Sexual Assault And To Do Their Part To Stop It.

Domestic Violence

What Washington Needs Is Adult Supervision.

I Was Raised By A Single Mom Who Had To Put Herself Through School While Looking After Two Kids. And She Worked Hard Every Day And Made A Lot Of Sacrifices To Make Sure We Got Everything We Needed. My Grandmother, She Started Off As A Secretary In A Bank. She Never Got A College Education, Even Though She Was Smart As A Whip. And She Worked Her Way Up To Become A Vice President Of A Local Bank, But She Hit The Glass Ceiling. She Trained People Who Would End Up Becoming Her Bosses During The Course Of Her Career.

As You Get Older, Your Mind Gets A Little More Set. And It Needs The Poking And Prodding And Breaking Through Of Stereotypes That I Think Young People Provide.

No Other Advanced Nation Endures This Kind Of Violence. None. Here In America, The Murder Rate Is Three Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. The Murder Rate With Guns Is Ten Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. And There's Nothing Inevitable About It. It Comes About Because Of Decisions We Make Or Fail To Make. And It Falls Upon Us To Make It Different.

Why Can't I Just Eat My Waffle?

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

Michelle, I Love You. The Other Night, I Think The Entire Country Saw Just How Lucky I Am. Malia And Sasha, You Make Me So Proud…but Don't Get Any Ideas, You're Still Going To Class Tomorrow. And Joe Biden, Thank You For Being The Best Vice President I Could Ever Hope For.

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.

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

One Voice Can Change A Room, And If One Voice Can Change A Room, Then It Can Change A City, And If It Can Change A City, It Can Change A State, And If It Change A State, It Can Change A Nation, And If It Can Change A Nation, It Can Change The World. Your Voice Can Change The World.

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

The Ability Of Republican Leaders To Rile Up Their Base - Helped Along By Folks Like Rush Limbaugh, Some Commentators On Fox News - I Think Created An Environment In Which Republican Voters Would Punish Republicans For Cooperating With Me. That Hothouse Of Back-and-forth Argument And - And Really Sharp Partisanship I Think Has Been Harmful To America.

Nature Is Actually Resilient, If We Take Care To Just Stop Actively Destroying It.

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.

My Administration Doesn’t Have Any Secrets, And From Now On, Neither Will You.

Hope -- Hope In The Face Of Difficulty. Hope In The Face Of Uncertainty. The Audacity Of Hope! In The End, That Is God’s Greatest Gift To Us...a Belief In Things Not Seen. A Belief That There Are Better Days Ahead.

I Honor, We Honor The Service Of John Mccain, And I Respect His Many Accomplishments, Even If He Chooses To Deny Mine. My Differences With Him Are Not Personal; They Are With The Policies He Has Proposed In This Campaign.

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.

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.

Arne Duncan Is Done More To Bring Our Educational System, Sometimes Kicking And Screaming, Into The 21st Century Than Anyone Else.

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

Any Fool Can Have A Child. That Doesn't Make You A Father. It's The Courage To Raise A Child That Makes You A Father.

I Do Think That All Politicians Today Have To Be More Attentive To People Wanting To Be Heard, Wanting To Have More Control Over Their Lives.

John Mccain Likes To Say That He'll Follow Bin Laden To The Gates Of Hell - But He Won't Even Go To The Cave Where He Lives.

Our Hearts Are Broken Today For The Parents And Grandparents, Sisters And Brothers Of These Children And The Families Of The Adults We Lost....may God Bless The Memory Of The Victims And In The Words Of Scripture Heal The Broken Hearted And Bind Up Their Wounds.

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...

Rather Than Double-down On The Top-down Economics That Let A Fortunate Few Play By Their Own Rules, Let’s Embrace An Economic Patriotism That Says We Rise Or Fall Together, As One Nation, And As One People.

We All Want The Greek People To Prosper, To Be Able To Provide A Good Life For Their Families And Their Children. That Would Be Good For Greece, That Would Be Good For The European Union, Good For The United States, And Ultimately, Good For The World.

The Other Thing Is Going To Be Me Being Able To Show Not Just The American People Or The Israeli People But The World That, In Fact, We Have Mechanisms In Place That Will Prevent Iran From Having A Nuclear Weapon.

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 That Leadership More Than Anything Is About Setting A Course And Describing A Vision For People.

I Do Make Sure That I've Got People Who Are Experts That Are Helping Me Make The Best Decisions Possible.

Those Aren't The Kinds Of Folks Who Represent Our Core American Values.

American Values

I Think It's About Time! Who Cares Whether He Is Looking For Votes Or Not! At Least Your Country Is Moving Forward With The Times!

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Joshua Lederberg

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