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If We Can’t Puncture Some Of The Mythology Around Austerity, Politics Or Tax Cuts Or The Mythology That’s Been Built Up Around The Reagan Revolution, Where Somehow People Genuinely Think That He Slashed Government And Slashed The Deficit And That The Recovery Was Because Of All These Massive Tax Cuts, As Opposed To A Shift In Interest-rate Policy - If We Can’t Describe That Effectively, Then We’re Doomed To Keep On Making More And More Mistakes.

-Barack Obama

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If We Can’t Puncture

Barack Obama

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If We Can’t Puncture Some Of The Mythology Around Austerity, Politics Or Tax Cuts Or The Mythology That’s Been Built Up Around The Reagan Revolution, Where Somehow People Genuinely Think That He Slashed Government And Slashed The Deficit And That The Recovery Was Because Of All These Massive Tax Cuts, As Opposed To A Shift In Interest-rate Policy - If We Can’t Describe That Effectively, Then We’re Doomed To Keep On Making More And More Mistakes.

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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.

For Me, Lincoln Is Like Just A Handful Of People - A Gandhi, Or A Picasso, Or A Martin Luther King Jr. - Who Is An Original And Captures Something Essential.

That Window Is Closing. . . . Now, The Clock Is Ticking. . . . We're Not Going To Have These Talks Just Drag Out In A Stalling Process. . . . We Haven't Given Away Anything - Other Than The Opportunity For Us To Negotiate

Clock Is Ticking

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.

Those Are The Ladies Sitting In Church. And In The Same Way That They Might Feel A Joy And Release On Sunday, They Are Still Going To Work On Monday. And That's Who I Was Listening To During This Process. And If At The End Of My Presidency They Feel Like I Did A Pretty Good Job, Then I'll Feel Pretty Good.

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

And As Husbands And Fathers And Brothers, We Have To Step Up - Because Every Girl’s Life Matters. Every Daughter Deserves The Same Chance As Our Sons. Every Woman Should Be Able To Go About Her Day - To Walk The Streets Or Ride The Bus - And Be Safe, And Be Treated With Respect And Dignity. She Deserves 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.

This Notion That's Peddled By The Religious Right - That They Are Oppressed Is Not True. Sometimes It's A Cynical Ploy To Move Their Agenda Ahead. The Classic Example Being That Somehow Secularists Are Trying To Eliminate Christmas, Which Strikes Me As Some Kind Of Manufactured Controversy.

It's Not Enough To Celebrate The Ideals That We're Built On, Liberty And Justice And Equality For All. Those Just Can't Be Words On Paper, The Work Of Every Generation Is To Make Those Words Mean Something, Concrete In The Lives Of Our Children. And We Won't Get There As Long As Kids In Baltimore Or Ferguson Or New York Or Appalachia Or The Mississippi Delta Or The Pine Ridge Reservation Believe That Their Lives Are Somehow Worthless.

You Can’t Let Your Failures Define You. You Have To Let Your Failures Teach You.

Increasing America’s Debt Weakens Us Domestically And Internationally. Leadership Means That 'the Buck Stops Here.' Instead, Washington Is Shifting The Burden Of Bad Choices Today Onto The Backs Of Our Children And Grandchildren. America Has A Debt Problem And A Failure Of Leadership.

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 And We Are Ending A War Not With A Final Battle But With A Final March Toward Home. This Is An Extraordinary Achievement

Iran Is A State Sponsor Of Terrorism. And For Them To Be Able To Provide Nuclear Technology To Non-state Actors, That's Unacceptable.

We're Showing That There's No Excuse For Other Nations To Come Together, Both Developed And Developing, To Achieve A Strong Global Climate Agreement Next Year.

Societies Held Together By Fear And Repression May Offer The Illusion Of Stability For A Time, But They Are Built Upon Fault Lines That Will Eventually Tear Asunder.

I Think [ Unpopular Presidential Candidates ] Indicates, At Least On The Democratic Side, That We've Got More Work To Do To Strengthen Our Grassroots Networks.

As Iraqi Forces Continue The Liberation Of Mosul, I'm Pleased That Nato Will Be Meeting The Commitment We Made In Warsaw To Begin Training Additional Forces In Iraq.

So I'm Not Proposing Anything Radical. I Just Believe That Anybody Making Over $250,000 A Year Should Go Back To The Income Tax Rates We Were Paying Under Bill Clinton. Back When Our Economy Created Nearly 23 Million New Jobs, The Biggest Budget Surplus In History, And Plenty Of Millionaires To Boot. ... At The Same Time, Most People Agree That We Should Not Raise Taxes On Middle-class Families Or Small Businesses -- Not When So Many Folks Are Just Trying To Get By.

I Think It's True That We Shouldn't Apply A Strict Litmus Test And The Most Important Thing In Any Judge Is Their Capacity To Provide Fairness And Justice To The American People.

Every Woman Should Have Access To The Healthcare That She Needs.

I Know That Gaps Can Be Closed. And They Can Be Closed Substantially, More Than I Think We Believe.

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

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

If You're A Progressive, You've Got To Be Worried About How The Federal Government Is Spending Its Revenue, Because We Don't Have Enough Money To Spend On Things Like Early Childhood Education That Are So Important.

On The Spectrum Of Successful Politicians, I'm Not Introverted The Way Some Have Been.

The People Of The United Kingdom Have Spoken, And We Respect Their Decision. The Special Relationship Between The United States And The United Kingdom Is Enduring, And The United Kingdom's Membership In Nato Remains A Vital Cornerstone Of Us Foreign, Security And Economic Policy.

Internationally, I Have Obviously Been Deeply Concerned About How We Fight The Terrorist Threat.

Strong Countries And Strong Presidents Talk To Their Adversaries. That's What Kennedy Did With Khrushchev. That's What Reagan Did With Gorbachev. That's What Nixon Did With Mao. I Mean Think About It. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - These Countries Are Tiny Compared To The Soviet Union. They Don't Pose A Serious Threat To Us The Way The Soviet Union Posed A Threat To Us. And Yet We Were Willing To Talk To The Soviet Union At The Time When They Were Saying We're Going To Wipe You Off The Planet.

Oftentimes, Misunderstandings And Antagonism Surfaces Most Strongly When Economic Times Are Tough. And That's Not Surprising. If Everybody Is Working And Feeling Good And Making Money And Buying A New House And A Big Screen Tv, You're Less Worried About What Other Folks Are Doing.

I Look Forward To Hosting Prime Minister Lee [hsien Loong], Whose Friendship And Partnership I Appreciate Very Much And With Whom I've Worked Throughout My Administration. This Will Also Be An Opportunity For Me To Reciprocate The Hospitality That The Prime Minister And The People Of Singapore Showed To Me During My Visit To Singapore For The Apec Summit In 2009.

What Reagan Ushered In Was A Skepticism Toward Government Solutions To Every Problem. I Don't Think That Has Changed

I've Been To 57 States.

Corporations Aren’t People. People Are People.

We Are Willing To Uphold Principles That Have Resulted In Unprecedented Prosperity And Security Throughout Europe And Around The World. With The Threat Of Climate Change Only Becoming More Urgent, Angela [merkel] And I Focused On The Need For American And E.u. Leadership To Advance Global Cooperation.

My Conviction Is That Those Fights Need To Be Fought Right Now And Can Be Won. And If In Fact We Have Finite Political Capital, Energy, Resources, We Need To Win Those Fights.

I Don't Think There's A Lot Of Dispute For This. You Can Argue That We Didn't Get Everything Done That We Wanted To Get Done, But I Can Make A Really Strong Argument, And I Think Prove, That By Almost Every Measure The Country's Better Off Now Than When I Started.

If You Like Your Existing Plan You Get To Keep It

The Thing That Has Disturbed Me Most About The Russian Hacking Episode Is - And The Thing That Surprised Me Most Has Not Been The Fact Of Russian Hacking. The Cyber World Is Full Of Information Gathering, You Know, Propaganda, Et Cetera. I Have Been Concerned About The Degree To Which, In Some Circles, You've Seen People Suggest That Vladimir Putin Has More Credibility Than The U.s. Government. I Think That's Something New.

My Mother Was The One Constant In My Life. When I Think About My Mom Raising Me Alone When She Was 20, And Working And Paying The Bills, And, You Know, Trying To Pursue Your Own Dreams, I Think Is A Feat That Is Unmatched.

Steve Was Among The Greatest Of American Innovators - Brave Enough To Think Differently, Bold Enough To Believe He Could Change The World, And Talented Enough To Do It...the World Has Lost A Visionary. And There May Be No Greater Tribute To Steve's Success Than The Fact That Much Of The World Learned Of His Passing On A Device He Invented.

America's Not Just [about] Looking Out For Yourself, It's Not Just About Greed, It's Not Just About Trying To Climb To The Very Top And Keep Everybody Else Down. ... Hard Work, That's A Value. Looking Out For One Another, That's A Value. The Idea That We're All In It Together And [that] I'm My Brother's Keeper And [my] Sister's Keeper, That's A Value.

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

If You Only Think About Yourself - How Much Money Can I Make, What Can I Buy, How Nice Is My House, What Kind Of Fancy Car Do I Have? - Over The Long Term, I Think, You Get Bored. I Think Your Life Becomes Diminished. The Way To Live A Full Life Is To Think: What Can I Do For Others?

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Later, I Would Realize That The Position Of Most Black Students In Predominantly White Colleges Was Already Too Tenuous, Our Identities Too Scrambled, To Admit To Ourselves That Our Black Pride Remained Incomplete. And To Admit Our Doubt And Confusion To Whites, To Open Up Our Psyches To General Examination By Those Who Had Caused So Much Of The Damage In The First Place, Seemed Ludicrous, Itself An Expression Of Self-hatred - For There Seemed No Reason To Expect That Whites Would Look At Our Private Struggles As A Mirror Into Their Own Souls, Rather Than Yet More Evidence Of Black Pathology.

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Who Cares If It's A Campaign Strategy, And Who Are Other People To Say It's Ridiculous? I'm Not Gay, But I Strongly Support Gay Marriage. What If Someone Told You You Couldn't Marry The One You Love? I Think It's About Time! Let People Who Love Each Other That Are The Same Sex Get Married. They Deserve The Right To Be Happy Also.

Back In The '50s And '60s, Most Politicians Were Concerned About Not Talking About Faith, Partly Because There Were Consequences You Had To Deal With - (for Instance) Catholicism Had Been Made An Issue.

There's No Doubt That On The Issue Of Abortion, Oftentimes It's Very Difficult To Split The Difference, Although We Can Agree On The Notion That None Of Us Are Pro-abortion And All Of Us Would Like To See A Reduction In Unwanted Pregnancies, For Example, And We Could Focus On Those Issues.

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Jobs Was Brave Enough To Think Differently, Bold Enough To Believe He Could Change The World, And Talented Enough To Do It.

I Think We All Know That World Owes An Enormous Debt To Greece And The Greek People.

A Nuclear Iran Is A Threat To America's National Security, And It Is A Threat To Israel's National Security. We Cannot Afford To Have A Nuclear Arms Race In The Most Volatile Region Of The World.

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.

Gas Tax Holiday Is A Classic Washington Gimmick.

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

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.

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

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

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

World Religions

You Have To Exercise, Or At Some Point You'll Just Break Down.

If We're Going To Prevent Large Parts Of This Earth From Becoming Not Only Inhospitable But Uninhabitable In Our Lifetimes, We're Going To Have To Keep Some Fossil Fuels In The Ground Rather Than Burn Them And Release More Dangerous Pollution Into The Sky.

I Take The Constitution Very Seriously. The Biggest Problems That We're Facing Right Now Have To Do With [the President] Trying To Bring More And More Power Into The Executive Branch And Not Go Through Congress At All. And That's What I Intend To Reverse When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

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The Way We Have To Measure Progress Is Not, "is There Ever Going To Be An Incident Of Racism In The Country?" It's, "how Does The Majority Of Our Country Respond?"

At A Certain Point You Can't Help But Lose Some Feel For What's On The Ground Because You're Not On The Ground.

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.

Lieutenant Al-kaseasbeh's Dedication, Courage And Service To His Country And Family Represent Universal Human Values That Stand In Opposition To The Cowardice And Depravity Of Isil, Which Has Been So Broadly Rejected Around The Globe.

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Working Together

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

One Of The Most Durable And Destructive Legacies Of Discrimination Is The Way We've Internalized A Sense Of Limitation; How So Many In Our Community Have Come To Expect So Little From The World And From Themselves.

If You Want To Know Who We Are, Who America Is, How We Respond To Evil-that's It: Selflessly, Compassionately, Unafraid.

What's Good For America Better Damn Well Be Good For General Motors.

Now, The Iranian People Are A Great People, And Persian Civilization Is A Great Civilization. Iran Has Acted In Ways That's Not Conducive To Peace And Prosperity In The Region: Their Threats Against Israel; Their Pursuit Of A Nuclear Weapon Which Could Potentially Set Off An Arms Race In The Region That Would Make Everybody Less Safe; Their Support Of Terrorist Organizations In The Past - None Of These Things Have Been Helpful.

We Must Carry Forward The Work Of The Women Who Came Before Us And Ensure Out Daughters Have No Limits On Their Dreams, No Obstacles To Their Achievements And No Remaining Ceilings To Shatter.

I Actually Believe That Some Residue Of Discrimination Would Lessen, Because It's My View That There Is A Certain Percentage Of The White Population That Stereotypes And Makes Assumptions About African Americans Because They Don't Inject The History Of Slavery And Jim Crow Into Current Incarceration Rates, Or Crime Rates, Or Poverty Rates, Or What Have You.

Each Path To Knowledge Involves Different Rules And These Rules Are Not Interchangeable.

Our Alliance With Our Nato Partners Has Been A Cornerstone Of U.s. Foreign Policy For Nearly 70 Years, In Good Times And In Bad And Through Presidents Of Both Parties Because The United States Has A Fundamental Interest In Europe's Stability And Security.

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

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I Never Understood That Line. The Point Was To Inhale. That Was The Point.

I Am Designating A New Director Of Recovery For Auto Communities And Workers To Cut Through Red Tape And Ensure That The Full Resources Of Our Federal Government Are Leveraged To Assist The Workers, Communities, And Regions That Rely On Our Auto Industry.

[young People] Are Much Less Likely To Express Attitudes That Defied Us Between Us And Them. They See Themselves As Part Of A Global Economy That They Can Navigate Successfully.

As We Keep Up The Pressure, Our Air Campaign Will Continue To Hit Isil Harder Than Ever.

Together We Resolve That A Great Nation Must Care For The Vulnerable And Protect Its People From Life's Worst Hazards And Misfortune.

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

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

There's So Much Active Misinformation And It's Packaged Very Well And It Looks The Same When You See It On A Facebook Page Or You Turn On Your Television. If Everything Seems To Be The Same And No Distinctions Are Made, Then We Won't Know What To Protect.

You Can Choose A Future Where More Americans Have The Chance To Gain The Skills They Need To Compete, No Matter How Old They Are Or How Much Money They Have. Education Was The Gateway To Opportunity For Me. It Was The Gateway For Michelle. And Now More Than Ever, It Is The Gateway To A Middle-class Life.

People Are Discouraged From Voting And Part Of What Is Important For Latino Citizens Is To Make Your Voice Heard, Because You're Not Just Speaking For Yourself. You're Speaking For Family Members, Friends, Classmates Of Yours In School.

My Finely Honed Political Instincts Tell Me That Almost Nobody Believes That They Should Be Paying Higher Taxes.

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.

We Are In What We Hope Is An Intensive Diplomatic Phase Now. It Will Not Be Open-ended.

America Is A Strong And Resilient Country. And I Know We Will Succeed, If We Put Aside Partisanship And Politics And Work Together As One Nation.

There Will Be Setbacks And False Starts. There Are Many Who Won't Agree With Every Decision Or Policy I Make As President. And We Know The Government Can't Solve Every Problem. But I Will Always Be Honest With You About The Challenges We Face. I Will Listen To You, Especially When We Disagree. And, Above All, I Will Ask You To Join In The Work Of Remaking This Nation, The Only Way It's Been Done In America For 221 Years -- Block By Block, Brick By Brick, Calloused Hand By Calloused Hand.

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

Part Of What's Changed In Politics Is Social Media And How People Are Receiving Information.

Our Government Shouldn't Make Promises We Cannot Keep, But We Must Keep The Promises We've Already Made.

What We've Said To The Girls Is: 'if You Guys Ever Decide That You're Going To Get A Tattoo, Then Mommy And Me Will Get The Exact Same Tattoo, In The Same Place.' And We'll Go On Youtube And Show It Off As A Family Tattoo.

Our Vulnerability To Russia Or Any Other Foreign Power Is Directly Related To How Divided, Partisan, Dysfunctional Our Political Process Is. That's The Thing That Makes Us Vulnerable.

The Internet And Twitter And All These Things Are Very Powerful, But It Also Means Sometimes That Instead Of Having A Dialogue We Just Start Calling Folks - Calling Each Other Names. And That's True On The Left Or The Right.

Rather Take That Moral Sense And Apply It To The Particulars Of A Job That Is Going To Test Those Ethical And Moral Precepts Differently Than If You're A Professor, Or A Business Person, Or A Dad. And If I Were Not Comfortable With The Judicious Use Of Our Military To Protect The American People, Than I Shouldn't Have Run For President. And Having Said That, I Do Think That The Wisdom Of A [martin Luther] King Or A [mahatma] Gandhi Can Inform My Decisions.

There's A Reason Why The Nra's Not Here. They're Just Down The Street. And Since This Is The Main Reason They Exist, You'd Think That They'd Be Prepared To Have A Debate With A President.

Here's What I Can Tell The American People: 95 Percent Of You Will Get A Tax Cut. And If You Make Less Than $250,000, Less Than A Quarter-million Dollars A Year, Then You Will Not See One Dime's Worth Of Tax Increase.

We Need Earmark Reform, And When I'm President, I Will Go Line By Line To Make Sure That We Are Not Spending Money Unwisely.

We Will Keep The Promise Of Social Security By Taking The Responsible Steps To Strengthen It - Not By Turning It Over To Wall Street.

To Me The Question Right Now Is: How Do I Close That First Three-quarters Of The Achievement Gap, Education Gap, Wealth Gap? What Gives Me The Best Chance To Do That? And I'm Pretty Darn Sure That If America Is A Just Society And Treating People Well Right Now, Irrespective Of Past Wrongs, That I'm Going To Close A Big Chunk Of That Gap. I've Seen It.

We've Got To Stop The Name-calling And We've Got To Stop Looking At The Next Election. We've Got To Be Focused On Figuring Out What We're Doing For The Next Generation.

I Am Sorry That They Are Finding Themselves In This Situation Based On Assurances They Got From Me.

I Want To Express Our Grieve And Condolences To The Families Of Two Hostages: One American, Dr. Warren Weinstein And An Italian Giovanni Laporto Who Were Tragically Killed In A U.s. Counterterrorism Operation.

I Said This Right After The Election - We Have To Remind Ourselves We're On The Same Team. Vladimir Putin's Not On Our Team.

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

Become A Teacher. Your Country Needs You.

The Peaceful Transition Of Power Is One Of The Hallmarks Of Our Democracy.

Here's The Truth: Even If Countries Like The United States Curb Our Emissions, If Growing Countries Like India - With Soaring Energy Needs - Don't Also Embrace Cleaner Fuels, Then We Don't Stand A Chance Against Climate Change.

I Think Ultimately Is, Donald Trump Is Pragmatic.

And I Agree That The Democratic Legislators In Massachusetts Might Have Given Some Advice To Republicans In Congress About How To Cooperate, But The Fact Of The Matter Is We Used The Same Advisers And They Say It's The Same Plan.

Angela Merkel Has Been An Extraordinary Partner For Me And For The United States Throughout My Presidency.

With Respect To The Pledge I Made That If You Like Your Plan You Can Keep It. The Way I Put That Forward Unequivocally Ended Up Not Being Accurate.

Every Country Has Violent, Hateful, Or Mentally Unstable People. What's Different Is Not Every Country Is Awash With Easily Accessible Guns.

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

We Built This Country By Making Things, By Producing Goods We Could Sell.

But Let Me Perfectly Clear, Because I Know You'll Hear The Same Old Claims That Rolling Back These Tax Breaks Means A Massive Tax Increase On The American People: If Your Family Earns Less Than $250,000 A Year, You Will Not See Your Taxes Increased A Single Dime. I Repeat: Not One Single Dime.

I Think We've Done A Pretty Good Job Staying In Touch With The American People. But At A Certain Point You Can't Help But Lose Some Feel For What's On The Ground Because You're Not On The Ground.

Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science.

If In Fact The Republicans Make Some Modifications [of Obamacare], Some Of Which I May Have Been Seeking Previously, But They Wouldn't Cooperate Because They Didn't Wanna Make The System Work, And Re-label It As Trumpcare, I'm Fine With That.

Whatever Success I Have Achieved, Whatever Positions Of Leadership I Have Held Have Depended Less On Ivy League Degrees Or Sat Scores Or Gpas And Have Instead Been Due To That Sense Of Connection And Empathy, The Special Obligation I Felt As A Black Man Like You To Help Those Who Need It Most, People Who Didn't Have The Opportunities That I Had Because There, But For The Grace Of God Go I. I Might Have Been In Their Shoes. I Might Have Been In Prison. I Might Have Been Unemployed. I Might Not Have Been Able To Support A Family. And That Motivates Me.

We've Got An Extraordinarily Complex Tax System That's Full Of Loopholes That Are Exploited By Special Interests. I'd Like To See Those Loopholes Closed.

The People There, The Community, The Lessons That I Learned -- They're All Based Right In This Few Square Miles Where We'll Now Be Able To Give Something Back And Bring The World Back Home After This Incredible Journey.

Even As We Do All That's Necessary To Ensure Israel's Security, Even As We Are Clear-eyed About The Difficult Challenges Before Us, And Even As We Pledge To Stand By Israel Through Whatever Tough Days Lie Ahead, I Hope We Do Not Give Up On That Vision Of Peace. For If History Teaches Us Anything, If The Story Of Israel Teaches Us Anything, It Is That With Courage And Resolve, Progress Is Possible. Peace Is Possible.

I Hope That This [hacking] Does Not Continue To Be Viewed Purely Through A Partisan Lens.i Think There Are Republicans As Well As Democrats Who Are Concerned About This.

Another Tradition To Politics, A Tradition (of Politics) That Stretched From The Days Of The Country’s Founding To The Glory Of The Civil Rights Movement, A Tradition Based On The Simple Idea That We Have A Stake In One Another, And That What Binds Us Together Is Greater Than What Drives Us Apart, And That If Enough People Believe In The Truth Of That Proposition And Act On It, Then We Might Not Solve Every Problem, But We Can Get Something Meaningful Done.

I Look Forward To Hosting An Iftar Dinner Celebrating Ramadan Here At The White House Later This Week, And Wish You A Blessed Month.

Unless We Are Holding Ourselves Accountable Day In, Day Out, Not Just When There's A Crisis For Folks Who Have Power And Influence And Can Hire Lobbyists, But For The Nurse, The Teacher, The Police Officer, Who, Frankly, At The End Of Each Month, They've Got A Little Financial Crisis Going On. They're Having To Take Out Extra Debt Just To Make Their Mortgage Payments. We Haven't Been Paying Attention To Them. And If You Look At Our Tax Policies In America, It's A Classic Example.

Operations In Iraq And Afghanistan And The War On Terrorism Have Reduced The Pace Of Military Transformation And Have Revealed Our Lack Of Preparation For Defensive And Stability Operations. This Administration Has Overextended Our Military.

I Have Muslim Members Of My Family. I Have Lived In Muslim Countries.

Heaven Forbid We've Got A Problem Where We Could Have Prevented A Terrorist Attack Or Apprehended Someone Who Is Engaged In Dangerous Activity, But We Didn't Do So Simply Because Of Inaction In The Senate.

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!

Faced With The Potential Of Mass Atrocities And A Call For Help From The Libyan People, The United States And Our Friends And Allies Stopped Gadhafi's Forces In Their Tracks. A Coalition That Included The United States, Nato And Arab Nations Persevered To Protect Libyan Civilians. So This Is A Momentous Day In The History Of Libya. The Dark Shadow Of Tyranny Has Been Lifted, And With This Enormous Promise The Libyan People Now Have A Great Responsibility: To Build An Inclusive And Tolerant And Democratic Libya That Stands As The Ultimate Rebuke To Gadhafi's Dictatorship.

I Think It's Important Not To Start Drawing Parallels, For Example, Between Theresa May, A Fairly Traditional Conservative Politician, Who's Now Prime Minister And Le Pen In France. Those Aren't The Same And The Situation In Each Country Is Different.

Sometimes People Just Feel As If We Want To Try Something To See If We Can Shake Things Up.

As Has Been Well Documented, I Smoked Pot As A Kid, And I View It As A Bad Habit And A Vice, Not Very Different From The Cigarettes That I Smoked As A Young Person Up Through A Big Chunk Of My Adult Life. I Don't Think It Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol.

I Will Tell You, When 20 6-year-olds Are Gunned Down And Congress Literally Does Nothing, Yeah That's The Closest I Came To Feeling Disgusted.

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

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.

Yesterday, John Mccain Actually Said That If He's President That He'll Take On, And I Quote, 'the Old Boys Network In Washington.' Now I'm Not Making This Up. This Is Somebody Who's Been In Congress For Twenty-six Years, Who Put Seven Of The Most Powerful Washington Lobbyists In Charge Of His Campaign. And Now He Tells Us That He's The One Who's Gonna' To Take On The Old Boys Network. The Old Boys Network? In The Mccain Campaign That's Called A Staff Meeting. Come, On!

Gabby Giffords Deserves A Vote. The Families Of Newtown Deserve A Vote. The Families Of Aurora Deserve A Vote. The Families Of Oak Creek, And Tucson, And Blacksburg, And The Countless Other Communities Ripped Open By Gun Violence - They Deserve A Simple Vote.

We Stand With Women By Fighting For Economic Security, Protecting Access To Health Care And Supporting Women's Leadership Across The Country

My Job Is Not To Represent Washington To You, But To Represent You To Washington.

What Is Certainly True Is That The American People, Just Like The German People, Just Like The British And People Around The World, Are Seeing Extraordinarily Rapid Change. The World Is Shrinking, The Economies Have Become Much More Integrated And Demographics Are Shifting.

While We Have Come A Long Way Since The Stonewall Riots In 1969, We Still Have A Lot Of Work To Do. Too Often, The Issue Of Lgbt Rights Is Exploited By Those Seeking To Divide Us. But At Its Core, This Issue Is About Who We Are As Americans. It's About Whether This Nation Is Going To Live Up To Its Founding Promise Of Equality By Treating All Its Citizens With Dignity And Respect.

A Political Candidacy Built Around Hope And Change And Compromise Would Eventually Become A Presidency Of Crisis And Confrontation.

But The Question Is, Do We Care Enough? Do We Care Enough To Keep Standing Up For The Country That We Know Is Possible, Even If It's Hard, And Even If It's Politically Uncomfortable? Do We Care Enough To Sustain The Passion And The Pressure To Make Our Communities Safer And Our Country Safer? Do We Care Enough To Do Everything We Can To Spare Other Families The Pain That Is Felt Here Today?

I Have Always Believed That What Brings Us Together Is Stronger Than What Pulls Us Apart.

Without Investments In Research And Science That Will Create The Next Apple, Create The Next New Innovation That Will Sell Products Around The World, We Will Lose. If We're Not Training Engineers To Make Sure That They Are Equipped Here In This Country, Then Companies Won't Come Here. Those Investments Are What's Going To Help To Make Sure That We Continue To Lead This World Economy Not Just Next Year, But 10 Years From Now, 50 Years From Now, A Hundred Years From Now.

I Don't Expect To Get 100 Percent Of What I Want, But What We Can't Do Is Go Back To The Kind Of Top-down Economics That Doesn't Work.

The Public School System Is Not About Educating Black Children. Never Has Been. Inner-city Schools Are About Social Control. Period. They’re Operated As Holding Pens—miniature Jails, Really. It’s Only When Black Children Start Breaking Out Of Their Pens And Bothering White People That Society Even Pays Any Attention To The Issue Of Whether These Children Are Being Educated.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until Our Gay Brothers And Sisters Are Treated Like Anyone Else Under The Law.

I'm A Strong Believer In Strong Encryption.

I Think A Basic Principle Of Our Constitution Is Nobody Above The Law

If You Want Some Additional Money For Your School, We'll Give It To You. But You've Got To Compete, Show Us That You're Going To Reform Your Education System So That Our Children Are Performing Better.

A Brighter Future Is Ours To Write. Let’s Begin This New Chapter — together — and Let’s Start The Work Right Now.

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.

Guaranteed, Full Stop, Nobody Gets Treated Differently When It Comes To The Justice Department, Because Nobody Is Above The Law.

I Don't Know What The Word Is In Austrian.

All Too Rarely Do I Hear People Asking Just What It Is That We've Done To Make So Many Children's Hearts So Hard, Or What Collectively We Might Do To Right Their Moral Compass - What Values We Must Live By.

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

Usually, I'm Pretty Good About Sorting Through The Options And Then Making Decisions That I'm Confident Are The Best Decisions In That Moment, Given The Information We Have. But There Are Times Where I Think I Wish I Could Have Imagined A Different Level Of Insight.

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

Futures Together

American Leadership Is Not Simply A Matter Of Going It Alone And Bearing All Of The Burden Ourselves.

He [barack Obama] Talked About A Crisises And He Was Blaming The Republicans On This Crisises. It's Like Me Blaming My Wife For My Drinking. I Don't Se How This Is The Republicans Fault.

Of Course, Israel Cannot Be Expected To Negotiate With Anyone Who Is Dedicated To Its Destruction. But While I Know You Have Had Differences With The Palestinian Authority, I Believe That You Do Have A True Partner In President Abbas.

I Spoke On The Phone With President Rouhani Of The Islamic Republic Of Iran. The Two Of Us Discussed Our Ongoing Efforts To Reach An Agreement Over Iran's Nuclear Program. While There Will Surely Be Important Obstacles To Moving Forward And Success Is By No Means Guaranteed, I Believe We Can Reach A Comprehensive Solution.

Iraq Is Sort Of A Situation Where You've Got A Guy Who Drove The Bus Into The Ditch. You Obviously Have To Get The Bus Out Of The Ditch, And That's Not Easy To Do, Although You Probably Should Fire The Driver.

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.

Keeping Our Military Strong Means Keepin' Our Families Strong.

Iran Has Made Vile Comments, Anti-semitic Comments, Comments About The Destruction Of Israel. It Is Precisely For That Reason That Even Before I Became President, I Said Iran Could Not Have A Nuclear Weapon.

My Hope Is That We Can Get A Republican-democratic Agreement On How We Strengthen Social Security As Well As Looking At Some Of These Other Major Expenditures That We Have That We've Got To Deal With To Make Sure That We're Not Just Leaving You Guys With A Mountain Of Debt.

I Love Listening To These Guys Give Us Lectures About Debt And Deficits. I Inherited A Trillion-dollar Deficit. ... This Notion That Somehow We Caused The Deficits Is Just Wrong. It's Just Not True. ... If They Start Trying To Give You A Bunch Of Facts And Figures Suggesting That It's True, What They're Not Telling You Is They Baked All This Stuff Into The Cake With Those Tax Cuts And A Prescription Drug Plan That They Didn't Pay For And The Wars.

So My Biggest Fun Has Been Watching My Daughters Grow Up. Now, Unfortunately They're Hitting The Age Where They Still Love Me, But They Think I'm Completely Boring. And So They'll Come In, Pat Me On The Head, Talk To Me For 10 Minutes, And Then They're Gone All Weekend. Right? They Break My Heart! So Now I've Got To Start Thinking, Well What's Going To Replace That Fun?

I've Got A Pen, And I've Got A Phone, And I Can Use That Pen To Sign Executive Orders And Take Executive Action. I've Got A Pen To Talk Executive Actions Where Congress Won't. Where Congress Isn't Acting, I'll Act On My Own. I Have Got A Pen And I Got A Phone. And That Is All I Need.

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.

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.

America Is Governed By Rules Of Law, And Those Are Not Ones That The President Of The United States Or Anybody Else Can Just Set Aside For The Sake Of Expediency Even When We Are Deeply Supportive Of Turkish Democracy, And Even When We Care Deeply About Any Attempts To Overthrow Their Government Or Any Other Illegal Actions, We've Got To Go Through A Legal Process.

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.

That May Prevent Us From Getting A Deal Done, It Is There To Be Had. Whether Ultimately Iran Can Seize That Opportunity - We Will Have To Wait And See, But It Is Not For Lack Of Trying On Our Part.

Generally Speaking In America, A Lot Of Environmentally Problematic Facilities Tend To Be Located In Places Where Poor Folks Live Because Wealthier Folks Have The Ability To Say, "not In My Backyard."

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.

When It Comes To Preventing Iran From Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon, I Will Take No Options Off The Table. ... That Includes All Elements Of American Power: A Political Effort Aimed At Isolating Iran, A Diplomatic Effort To Sustain Our Coalition And Ensure That The Iranian Program Is Monitored, An Economic Effort That Imposes Crippling Sanctions And, Yes, A Military Effort To Be Prepared For Any Contingency.

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

They Will Tell You That The Americans Who Sleep In The Streets And Beg For Food Got There Because They’re All Lazy Or Weak Of Spirit. That The Inner-city Children Who Are Trapped In Dilapidated Schools Can’t Learn And Won’t Learn And So We Should Just Give Up On Them Entirely. That The Innocent People Being Slaughtered And Expelled From Their Homes Half A World Away Are Somebody Else’s Problem To Take Care Of.

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

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.

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