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If We Get To A Point Where People In This Country Feel More Affinity With A Leader Who Is An Adversary And View The United States And Our Way Of Life As A Threat To Him, Then We're Gonna Have Bigger Problems Than Just Cyber Hacking.

-Barack Obama

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If We Get To

Barack Obama

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If We Get To A Point Where People In This Country Feel More Affinity With A Leader Who Is An Adversary And View The United States And Our Way Of Life As A Threat To Him, Then We're Gonna Have Bigger Problems Than Just Cyber Hacking.

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My Top Priority In Any Trade Negotiation Is Expanding Opportunity For Hardworking Americans. It's No Secret That Past Trade Deals Haven't Always Lived Up To Their Promise, And That's Why I Will Only Sign My Name To An Agreement That Helps Ordinary Americans Get Ahead, The Bill Put Forward Today Would Help Us Write Those Rules In A Way That Avoids The Mistakes From Our Past, Seizes Opportunities For Our Future And Stays True To Our Values.

I'm Not Sure We Have The Right Strategy In Afghanistan. Let Me Think This Over For A Few Months.

We Cannot Tolerate A Nuclear Iran. It Would Be A Game Changer. Not Only Would It Threaten Israel, A Country That Is Our Stalwart Ally, But It Would Also Create An Environment In Which You Could Set Off An Arms Race In This Middle East.

I Have Fought Against Spending. I Have Fought Against Special Interests. I Have Fought For Reform.

What We Should Be Asking Is Not Whether We Need A Big Government Or Small Government, But How We Can Create A Smarter And Better Government.

The Conversations Have Been Cordial. [donald Trump] Has Been Open To Suggestions, And The Main Thing That I've Tried To Transmit Is That There's A Different Between Governing And Campaigning, So That What He Has To Appreciate Is As Soon As You Walk Into This Office After You've Been Sworn In, You're Now In Charge Of The Largest Organization On Earth.

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.

You Know, The Truth Is That Right After 9/11, I Had A (flag) Pin. Shortly After 9/11, Particularly Because As We're Talking About The Iraq War, That Became A Substitute For, I Think, True Patriotism, Which Is Speaking Out On Issues That Are Of Importance To Our National Security, I Decided I Won't Wear That Pin On My Chest.

We Know That The Nation That Goes All-in On Innovation Today Will Own The Global Economy Tomorrow. This Is An Edge America Cannot Surrender.

Today, Women Make Up About Half Our Workforce. But They Still Make 77 Cents For Every Dollar A Man Earns. That Is Wrong, And In 2014, It’s An Embarrassment. Women Deserve Equal Pay For Equal Work.

Your Ability To Let Go Is Part Of The Duty That You Have.

When I Talked To [donald Trump] About - Our Intelligence Agencies, What I've Said To Him Is - Is That There Are Gonna Be Times Where You've Got Raw Intelligence That Comes In And In My Experience, Over Eight Years, The Intelligence Community Is Pretty Good About Saying, "look, We Can't Say For Certain What This Means." But There Are Gonna Be Times Where The Only Way You Can Make A Good Decision Is If You Have Confidence That The Process Is Working, And The People That You Put In Charge Are Giving You Their Very Best Assessments.

In Terms Of My Conversations With [vladimir] Putin, These Are Conversations That Took Place Before The Election. As I Indicated, There Has Been Very Clear Proof That They Have Engaged In Cyber Attacks. This Isn't New. It's Not Unique To Russia. There Are A Number Of States Where We've Seen Low-level Cyber Attacks And Industrial Espionage And, You Know, Other Behavior That We Think Should Be Out Of Bounds.

It's Not A Nice-to-have - It's A Must-have. It's Time We Stop Treating Child Care As A Side Issue, Or A Women's Issue, And Treat It Like The National Economic Priority That It Is For All Of Us.

Sometimes When These Kinds Of Things Happen, It Can Seem A Little Bit Too Much To Bear. But What I Want The People Of Louisiana Know Is That You're Not Alone On This. Even After The Tv Cameras Leave, The Whole Country Is Going To Continue To Support You And Help You Until We Get Folks Back In Their Homes And Lives Are Rebuilt.

We've Been Able To Organize The International Community Around It In Ways That Aren't Going To Go Back.

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

Michelle Will Tell You That When We Get Together For Christmas Or Thanksgiving, It's Like A Little Mini-united Nations... I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Bernie Mac, And I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Margaret Thatcher... We've Got It All.

I Just Want To Repeat That There's Nothing That We've Proposed That Would Make It Harder For You To Purchase A Firearm.

When People Are Oppressed, And Human Rights Are Denied - Particularly Along Sectarian Lines Or Ethnic Lines - When Dissent Is Silenced, It Feeds Violent Extremism, It Creates An Environment That Is Ripe For Terrorists To Exploit. When Peaceful, Democratic Change Is Impossible, It Feeds Into The Terrorist Propaganda That Violence Is The Only Answer Available.

When Times Change, So Must We.

We Are The Party Of Roosevelt. We Are The Party Of Kennedy. So Don't Tell Me That Democrats Won't Defend This Country. Don't Tell Me That Democrats Won't Keep Us Safe.

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

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.

I Don't Think That Any Economist Disputes That We're In The Worst Economic Crisis Since The Great Depression. The Good News Is That We're Getting A Consensus Around What Needs To Be Done.

That's Where Peace Begins - Not Just In The Plans Of Leaders, But In The Hearts Of People. Not Just In Some Carefully Designed Process, But In The Daily Connections - That Sense Of Empathy That Takes Place Among Those Who Live Together In This Land And In This Sacred City Of Jerusalem.

America's Strong Bonds With Israel Are Well Known - This Bond Is Unbreakable.

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.

We Don't Have This Huge Footprint, We Are Less Likely To Be Targeted As, You Know, Occupiers [in Afghanistan And Iraq].

We Cannot Help But Believe That The Old Hatreds Shall Someday Pass; That The Lines Of Tribe Shall Soon Dissolve; That As The World Grows Smaller, Our Common Humanity Shall Reveal Itself.

Common Humanity

Each Of Us Deserves The Freedom To Pursue Our Own Version Of Happiness. No One Deserves To Be Bullied.

The Genius Of Our Founders Is That They Designed A System Of Government That Can Be Changed. And We Should Take Heart, Because We’ve Changed This Country Before.

I Guarantee That There Is No Political Influence In Any Investigation Conducted By The Justice Department Or The Fbi, Not Just In This Case, But In Any Case, Full Stop, Period.

Guarantees That

What I Think Is Fair To Say Is That, Coming Out Of The Republican Camp, There Have Been Efforts To Suggest That Perhaps I'm Not Who I Say I Am When It Comes To My Faith - Something Which I Find Deeply Offensive, And That Has Been Going On For A Pretty Long Time.

Look, We Live In A Celebrity Culture And Sometimes You Get Caught In The Wave And The Buzz And A Lot Of It's Flattering But, You Know, One Of The Things That I Try To Remind People Of Is, Is That I Was In Politics As A State Senator Operating In Obscurity For Many Years. Before That I Was A Community Organizer Working In Low Income Communities In Chicago And Nobody Knew My Name Then. And So, Having Involved Myself In Public Service For A Pretty Long Time Without Getting Too Much Attention, Hopefully I Can Keep Some Of The Attention That I'm Getting Now In Perspective.

Who You Are, What You Are, Does Not Change After You Occupy The Oval Office. All It Does Is Magnify Who You Are. All It Does Is Shine A Spotlight On Who You Are.

One Of The Things That You Come Pretty Early On To Understand In This Job, And You Start Figuring Out Even During The Course Of The Campaign, Is That There's Barack Obama The Person And There's Barack Obama The Symbol, Or The Office Holder, Or What People Are Seeing On Television, Or Just A Representative Of Power. And So When People Criticize Or Respond Negatively To Me, Usually They're Responding To This Character That They're Seeing On Tv Called Barack Obama, Or To The Office Of The Presidency And The White House And What That Represents.

I Opposed The Defense Of Marriage Act In 1996. It Should Be Repealed And I Will Vote For Its Repeal On The Senate Floor. I Will Also Oppose Any Proposal To Amend The U.s. Constitution To Ban Gays And Lesbians From Marrying.

I Think Republicans Now Are Recognizing That [obamacare Cancellation] May Not Be What The American People, Including Even [donald] Trump Voters, Are Looking For. And My Hope Is That The President-elect, Members Of Congress From Both Parties Look At, "where Have We Objectively Made Progress, Where Things Are Working Better?" Don't Undo Things Just Because I Did Them. I Don't Have Pride Of Authorship.

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

Insurance Companies, Drug Companies Are Going To Have To Be Ponying Up, Partly Because Right Now They're Receiving Huge Subsidies.

When I Read History, I [see] What Typically Happens To Presidents And The Other Party During Tumultuous Times And How People React When The Economy Is Collapsing And They're Losing Their Homes, Losing Their Pensions - It Sort Of Tracks, What Ended Up Happening, Because Some Of That Is Human Nature.

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.

Now Let Me Be Clear - I Suffer No Illusions About Saddam Hussein. He Is A Brutal Man. A Ruthless Man. A Man Who Butchers His Own People To Secure His Own Power. He Has Repeatedly Defied Un Resolutions, Thwarted Un Inspection Teams, Developed Chemical And Biological Weapons, And Coveted Nuclear Capacity. He's A Bad Guy. The World, And The Iraqi People, Would Be Better Off Without Him.

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.

The United States Of America Has Helped Underwrite The Global Security For More Than Six Decades With The Blood Of Our Citizens And The Strength Of Our Arms. The Service And Sacrifice Of Our Men And Women In Uniform Has Promoted Peace And Prosperity From Germany To Korea And Enabled Democracy To Take Hold In Places Like The Balkans.

The Challenges Posed By Threats Like Terrorism, Proliferation, And Cyber Attacks Are Not Going Away Any Time Soon, And For Our Intelligence Community To Be Effective Over The Long Haul, We Must Maintain The Trust Of The American People And People Around The World.

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.

African American Boys Oftentimes Fall Behind In School Early, Start Feeling Discouraged, Check Out, Drop Out, End Up On The Streets And Then Get Into Trouble.

I Say That Is Because Those Are The Times Where Sometimes You Feel Actually A Little Bit Hurt. Because You Feel Like Saying To These Folks, "[don't] You Think If I Could Do It, I [would] Have Just Done It. Do You Think That The Only Problem Is That I Don't Care Enough About The Plight Of Poor People, Or Gay People, Or Immigrants, Or ...?"

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After A Decade Of Profligacy, The American People Are Tired Of Politicians Who Talk The Talk But Don't Walk The Walk When It Comes To Fiscal Responsibility. It's Easy To Get Up In Front Of The Cameras And Rant Against Exploding Deficits. What's Hard Is Actually Getting Deficits Under Control. But That's What We Must Do. Like Families Across The Country, We Have To Take Responsibility For Every Dollar We Spend.

I Remember When I Was In Chicago And Data Started Coming Out That When Black Folks Walk Into An Auto Dealership, And Women, Too, To Some Degree, They Are Automatically Given Higher Quotes, Worse Deals. And This Was Just Documented Extensively Across Auto Dealerships Around The Country. There Was A Tax Being Imposed On Black Folks. By Collecting That Data, You Can Construct Policies To Combat That.

The Greek People Are Entrepreneurial.

Entrepreneurial

We Will Harness The Sun And The Winds And The Soil To Fuel Our Cars And Run Our Factories.

I Think If You Look At Almost Every Year Under Every President Over The Last, I Don't Know, 20, 30 Years, You're Going To Be Hard-pressed To Find A Year In Which The Majority Of Americans Thought We Were On The Right Track.

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Last Time I Checked, Congress Was Created To Uphold The Values Of The Constitution, Not The Bible And Its Biased Teachings. 'all Men (including Women) Are Created Equal' And Are Afforded Unalienable Rights. Way To Go, Mr. President! Stand Up For What You Believe And For The People Of This Country.

I Don't Think We Should Ever Accept The Idea That Someone Can Come Along And Take Away Our Safety And Our Freedom.

I've Got Two Daughters And I Want To Make Sure That They Have The Same Opportunities That Anybody's Sons Have. That's Part Of What I'm Fighting For As President Of The United States.

If We Can Make Sure That That Young Boys Starting At The Age Of Three Or Four Already Knows Their Colors And Their Letters And Are Getting Good Preschool, And By The Time They Get Into School They've Got A Good Teacher And Are Getting The Support That They Need And Are Able To Keep Up With Their Classwork, That Is Going To Do More To Reduce The Incarceration Rate At The Same Time, Obviously, As It Increases The College Enrollment Rate.

I Know Many Of You Are Hurting And Angry About The Economy, And I Don't Blame You. It's The Worst Economy Since The Great Depression. When Consumers Can't Buy And Businesses Won't Expand For Lack Of Customers, The Government Has To Be The Purchaser And Employer Of Last Resort. We Learned That In The Great Depression, But Republicans Obviously Didn't - And They've Blocked Every Jobs Program I've Offered.

Great Depression

When The Economy's Shrinking, Providing Jobs, Spending On Things Like Infrastructure Can Actually Increase Revenue And Drive Down Debt. And Then, There's Going To Be A Time At Which Point Debt Has To Be Taken Care Of.

You Didn't Elect Me To Tell You What You Wanted To Hear. You Elected Me To Tell You The Truth.

African American

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

The Only People Who Don't Want To Disclose The Truth Are The People With Something To Hide.

Several Americans, Unjustly Detained By Iran, Are Finally Coming Home. In Some Cases, These Americans Faced Years Of Continued Detention, And I've Met With Some Of Their Families. I've Seen Their Anguish, How They Ache For Their Sons And Husbands. I Gave These Families My Word. I Made A Vow That We Would Do Everything In Our Power To Win The Release Of Their Loved Ones, And We Have Been Tireless.

Of Course, There's Been A Real Debate About Where To Invest And Where To Cut, And I'm Committed To Working With Members Of Both Parties To Cut Our Deficits And Debt. But We Can't Simply Cut Our Way To Prosperity.

Any So-called Leader Who Does Not Take This Issue (climate Change) Seriously Or Treats It Like A Joke Is Not Fit To Lead

It's Important To Make Sure That Governments Have Some Checks On What They Do, That People Can Oversee What's Being Done So The Government Doesn't Abuse It.

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.

Ultimately, I Remain Optimistic About Not Just America's Future, But The Direction That The World Is Growing.

The More We Are Using Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Sources, The Less Environmentally Problematic Facilities End Up Being A Problem For Everybody, But Particularly For Folks Who Have To Suffer The Consequences Of Some Of These Facilities.

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

I Will Cut Taxes - Cut Taxes - For 95 Percent Of All Working Families, Because, In An Economy Like This, The Last Thing We Should Do Is Raise Taxes On The Middle Class.

Americans Coming Home, An Iran That Has Rolled Back Its Nuclear Program And Accepted Unprecedented Monitoring Of The Program -these Things Are A Reminder Of What We Can Achieve When We Lead With Strength And With Wisdom, With Courage And Resolve And Patience. America Can Do And Has Done Big Things When We Work Together.

The Truth Is That, In Trying To Get At Terrorists Who Are In Countries That Either Are Unwilling Or Unable To Capture Those Terrorists Or Disable Them Themselves, There Are A Lot Of Situations Where The Use Of A Drone Is Going To Result In Much Fewer Civilian Casualties And Much Less Collateral Damage Than If I Send In A Battalion Of Marines.

There's No Straight Line To Progress.

But You See, A Rich Country Like America Can Perhaps Afford To Be Stupid.

I Have Made It Clear That We Will Hunt Down Terrorists Who Threaten Our Country, Wherever They Are. That Means I Will Not Hesitate To Take Action Against Isil In Syria, As Well As Iraq. This Is A Core Principle Of My Presidency: If You Threaten America, You Will Find No Safe Haven.

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.

I Very Much Believe In Reforming The Tax System.

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

You Know, In College, I Smoked A Little Pot, Did A Little Blow.

I Think That It's Important For Judges To Understand That If A Woman Is Out There Trying To Raise A Family, Trying To Support Her Family, And Is Being Treated Unfairly, Then The Court Has To Stand Up, If Nobody Else Will. And That's The Kind Of Judge That I Want.

This Comes From A Group Of People Who`ve Been Wrong About Every Foreign Policy Issue Over The Last Two Decades. They Supported Hillary Clinton`s War In Libya. They Supported President [barack] Obama`s Bombing Of Assad.

There Have Been Times Where, Let's Say On Lgbt Issues, When We Were Trying To End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, And I Got The Pentagon And Bob Gates, A Republican Holdover From The [george W.] Bush Administration, To Authorize A Study Of How You Might End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Headed Up By Jeh Johnson, Who At That Time Was A Council To The Justice Department. And It Was Going To Take A Year To Conduct That Study, Issue A Report, And Figure Out How It Might Be Implemented, What Effect It Would Have On Unit Cohesion And Military Effectiveness.

I Didn't Set A Red Line, The World Set A Red Line

One Thing I Will Not Compromise Over Is Whether Or Not Congress Should Pay The Tab For A Bill They've Already Racked Up. If Congress Refuses To Give The United States The Ability To Pay Its Bills On Time, The Consequences For The Entire Global Economy Could Be Catastrophic.

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.

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

If We Aren't Willing To Pay A Price For Our Values, Then We Should Ask Ourselves Whether We Truly Believe In Them At All.

Literacy Is The Most Basic Currency Of The Knowledge Economy.

I Believe That If We Stop Talking At One Another And Start Talking With One Another, We Can Get A Lot Done.

Today, On This Day Of Possibility, We Stand In The Shadow Of A Lanky, Raw-boned Man With Little Formal Education Who Once Took The Stage At Old Main And Told The Nation That If Anyone Did Not Believe The American Principles Of Freedom And Equality, That Those Principles Were Timeless And All-inclusive, They Should Go Rip That Page Out Of The Declaration Of Independence.

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.

Even While We May At Times Disagree, As Friends Sometimes Will, The Bonds Between The United States And Israel Are Unbreakable And The Commitment Of The United States To The Security Of Israel Is Ironclad.

We Have Concerns Whenever We See People Who Have Large Stockpiles Of Weapons, Or Appear To Be In The Process Of Accumulating Weapons And Ammunition.

When I Think About What I'm Going Through, As President, It Doesn't Compare To What The Folks That I'm Representing Are Going Through. They're Losing Jobs. They're Trying To Figure Out How To Pay Their Medical Bills. They've Seen Retirements Suddenly Dissipate Because Of What's Happening In The Stock Market. And So As Tough As The Job Might Be, And The Politics Of Washington Can Sometimes Be I'm Always Reminded Of How Fortunate I Am To Be Here, And What An Extraordinary Responsibility I Have To Try To Deliver On Some Of The Promises That I Made During The Election.

We Are Not At War With Islam. We Are At War With People Who Have Perverted Islam.

Sometimes We Take Somebody Who's Been In The Trenches And Fought The Good Fight And Been Steady For Granted. Sometimes We Act As If Never Having Done Something And Not Knowing What You're Doing Is A Virtue.

You Can Be Stylish, And Powerful Too.

I Want To Be Very Clear: I Will Not Sign On To Any Health Plan That Adds To Our Deficits Over The Next Decade.

We Should Be More Modest In Our Belief That We Can Impose Democracy On A Country Through Military Force.

I Changed Those Things That Were In Direct - My Direct Control. I Mean, I - Look, I'm Proud Of The Fact That, With Two Weeks To Go, We're Probably The First Administration In Modern History That Hasn't Had A Major Scandal In The White House.

And Whether I Earned Your Vote Or Not, I Have Listened To You. I Have Learned From You. And You’ve Made Me A Better President. And With Your Stories And Your Struggles, I Return To The White House More Determined And More Inspired Than Ever About The Work There Is To Do And The Future That Lies Ahead.

We Shouldn't Assume That Government Is Always Trying To Do The Wrong Thing.

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

Let Us Each Of Us Now Embrace With Solemn Duty, And Awesome Joy, What Is Our Lasting Birthright. With Common Effort And Common Purpose, With Passion And Dedication, Let Us Answer The Call Of History And Carry Into An Uncertain Future That Precious Light Of Freedom.

I Will Set Big Goals For This Country As President - Some So Large That The Technology To Reach Them Does Not Yet Exist.""i Will Recruit New Teachers And Make New Investments In Rural Schools, We'll Connect All Of America To 21st Century Technology And Telecommunications.

Ultimately, Peace Is Just Not About Politics. It's About Attitudes; About A Sense Of Empathy; About Breaking Down The Divisions That We Create For Ourselves In Our Own Minds And Our Own Hearts That Don't Exist In Any Objective Reality, But That We Carry With Us Generation After Generation. And I Know, Because America, We, Too, Have Had To Work Hard Over The Decades, Slowly, Gradually, Sometimes Painfully, In Fits And Starts, To Keep Perfecting Our Union.

Leadership Isn't Just Legislation, That It's A Matter Of Persuading People And Giving Them Confidence, And Bringing Them Together And Setting A Tone.

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

When Any Kind Of Military Action Is Popular It's Because Either There's Been A Very Clear, Direct Threat To Us - 9/11 - Or An Administration Uses Various Hooks To Suggest That American Interests Were Directly Threatened - Like In Panama Or Grenada. And Sometimes, Those Hooks Are More Persuasive Than Others, But Typically, They're Not Put Before Congress.

It Will Take Time To Eradicate A Cancer Like Isil. And Any Time We Take Military Action, There Are Risks Involved - Especially To The Servicemen And Women Who Carry Out These Missions. But I Want The American People To Understand How This Effort Will Be Different From The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan. It Will Not Involve American Combat Troops Fighting On Foreign Soil.

I Refuse To Leave Our Children With A Debt That They Cannot Repay.

Broken Promises

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

As You Might Imagine, If You're A Teenager Having A Couple Of People With Microphones And Guns Always Following You Around, That Could Grate On Them. But You Know, They've Handled It With Grace And I Give Michelle [obama] Most Of The Credit For How Well They've Done, But I Also Just Think They Are Graceful, Good Young, Young Women.

You Will Not See Any Of Your Taxes Increase One Single Dime.

You Look At Something Like Health Care, The Affordable Care Act. And For All The Controversy, We Now Have 20 Million People Who Have Health Insurance Who Didn't Have It. It's Actually Proven To Be More Effective, Cheaper Than Even Advocates Like Me Expected.

We Run Everything To Ground. If You See Something, Say Something. Report Your Concerns To Law Enforcement. They Will Be Looked At, They Will Be Reviewed.

I Believe We [americans] Are Strongest As A Nation, When The President And Congress Work Together.

Working Together

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.

Now Is The Time For All Of Us To Take Our Share Of Responsibility For A Global Response To Global Challenges.

From The Day I Took Office, I've Been Told That Addressing Our Larger Challenges Is Too Ambitious; Such An Effort Would Be Too Contentious. I've Been Told That Our Political System Is Too Gridlocked, And That We Should Just Put Things On Hold For A While. For Those Who Make These Claims, I Have One Simple Question: How Long Should We Wait? How Long Should America Put Its Future On Hold?

You Have To Be Involved In Terms Of What's Happening In Your Local Neighborhood And What Issues Are There.

It's Important To Recognize That You Can't Have 100 Percent Security And Also Then Have 100 Percent Privacy And Zero Inconvenience.

Progress In The Most Impoverished Parts Of Our World Enriches Us All.

The Study Of Geography Is About More Than Just Memorizing Places On A Map. It's About Understanding The Complexity Of Our World, Appreciating The Diversity Of Cultures That Exists Across Continents. And In The End, It's About Using All That Knowledge To Help Bridge Divides And Bring People Together.

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.

With Patient And Firm Determination, I Am Going To Press On For Jobs. I'm Going To Press On For Equality. I'm Going To Press On For The Sake Of Our Children. I'm Going To Press On For The Sake Of All Those Families Who Are Struggling Right Now. I Don't Have Time To Feel Sorry For Myself. I Don't Have Time To Complain. I Am Going To Press On.

Occasionally I Would Like The German People To Give Us The Benefit Of The Doubt, Given Our History, As Opposed To Assuming The Worst -- Assuming That We Have Been Consistently Your Strong Partners And That We Share A Common Set Of Values.

We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend. And We Honor Those Ideals By Upholding Them Not When It's Easy, But When It Is Hard.

Despite All The Noise And Hullabaloo - Military Cooperation, Intelligence Cooperation, All Of That Has Continued. We Have Defended Them Consistently In Every Imaginable Way. But I Also Believe That Both For Our National Interests And Israel's National Interests That Allowing An Ongoing Conflict Between Israelis And Palestinians That Could Get Worse And Worse Over Time Is A Problem. And That Settlements Contribute.

If Fake News That's Being Released By Some Foreign Government Is Almost Identical To Reports That Are Being Issued Through Partisan News Venues, Then It's Not Surprising That That Foreign Propaganda Will Have A Greater Effect, Because It Doesn't Seem That Far-fetched Compared To Some Of The Other Stuff That Folks Are Hearing From Domestic Propagandists.

I've Been Saying For Years, We're Gonna Have To Spend A Lot More Time On Cyber Security.

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.

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.

That's Part Of What I Tried To Describe To My Team And Supporters After The Election, There Was A Lot Of Disappointment.

The American People Recognize That Their Careers Or Their Kids' Careers Are Going To Have To Be More Dynamic. That They Might Not Be Working At A Single Plant For 30 Years. That They Might Have To Change Careers. They Might Have To Get More Education. They Might Have To Retool Or Retrain. And I Think The American People Are Game For That.

We Have To Deal With Issues Like Inequality, We Have Deal With Issues Of Economic Dislocation, We Have To Deal With Peoples Fears That Their Children Won't Do As Well As They Have. The More Aggressively And Effectively We Deal With Those Issues, The Less Those Fears May Channel Themselves Into Counter-productive Approaches That Pit People Against Each Other.

I Became A Lightning Rod For Some Partisan Battles. I Could Not Be Prouder Of The Track Record We've Put Together. By Almost Every Measure, The Country Is Significantly Better Off Than When I Came In.

Writing Has Been An Important Exercise To Clarify What I Believe, What I See, What I Care About, What My Deepest Values Are. The Process Of Converting A Jumble Of Thoughts Into Coherent Sentences Makes You Ask Tougher Questions.

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.

Its [dreams From My Father] Also A Reflection About How We Might Start A Better Conversation In Our Democracy About How To Solve Problems, Because It Feels As If Our Political System - It Just Seems There Is So Much Cynicism And Negativity In Our Politics.

I Think Ultimately Is, Donald Trump Is Pragmatic.

On The One Hand Information Is Moving Quick Or The Way In Which People Consume Information Is Changing So Fast. Clearly This Worked For [donald Trump], And It Gives Him A Direct Connection To A Lot Of The People That Voted For Him.

We Were Just At The Beginnings Of A Recovery [in 2010]. And The, You Know, Whoever Is President At That Point Is Gonna Get Hit And His Party's Gonna Get Hit. That Then Means That Suddenly You've Got A Redistricting In Which A Lot Of State Legislatures Are Now Republican. They Draw Lines That Give A Huge Structural Advantage In Subsequent Elections.

It Could Be Another Election Where The Alignments Between Republicans And Democrats Are Different Than They Were This Time And Who A Foreign Country Prefers.

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.

We Are At A Time In Our Country's History That Inclusive Language Is Better Than Exclusive Language.

A Green, Fifa Coins| Fifa Coins| Fifa Coins| Fifa Coins| Fifa Coins| Replica Watches|renewable Energy Economy Isn't Some Pie-in-the-sky, Far-off Future - It Is Now. It Is Creating Jobs - Now. It Is Providing Cheap Alternatives To $140-per-barrel Oil - Now. And It Can Create Millions Of Additional Jobs, An Entire New Industry, If We Act - Now.

When The Economy Is Still Struggling, Putting People Back To Work, Finding Ways To Spur Economic Activity, Ultimately Can Help To Reduce The Structural Deficits And Debts That Countries Experience.

I Cannot Swallow Whole The View Of Lincoln As The Great Emancipator.

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.

And That, I Suppose, Is What I'd Been Trying To Tell My Mother That Day: That Her Faith In Justice And Rationality Was Misplaced, That We Couldn't Overcome After All, That All The Education And Good Intentions In The World Couldn't Help You Plug Up The Holes In The Universe Or Give You The Power To Change Its Blind, Mindless Course.

I Make No Apologies For Being Reasonable.

I Am Who I Am. You Sort Of Get What You See With Me.

Pot Had Helped, And Booze, Maybe A Little Blow When You Could Afford It.

In The Wake Of 9/11, My Meetings With Arab And Pakistani Americans, For Example, Have A More Urgent Quality, For The Stories Of Detentions And Fbi Questioning And Hard Stares From Neighbors Have Shaken Their Sense Of Security And Belonging. They Have Been Reminded That The History Of Immigration In This Country Has A Dark Underbelly; They Need Specific Reassurances That Their Citizenship Really Means Something, That America Has Learned The Right Lessons From The Japanese Internments During World War Ii, And That I Will Stand With Them Should The Political Winds Shift In An Ugly Direction.

This Is The Moment When We Must Come Together To Save This Planet. Let Us Resolve That We Will Not Leave Our Children A World Where The Oceans Rise And Famine Spreads And Terrible Storms Devastate Our Lands.

I Think We Did A Really Good Job In Saving This Economy And Putting Us Back On The Track Of Growth.

Affirmative Action Is Not Going To Be The Long-term Solution To The Problems Of Race In America, Because, Frankly, If You've Got 50 Percent Of African-american Or Latino Kids Dropping Out Of High School, It Doesn't Really Matter What You Do In Terms Of Affirmative Action. Those Kids Aren't Going To College.

In The First Two Years, When I Had A Strong Majority In The House And The Senate, We Were As Productive As Any Administration Has Been Since The '60s. I Mean, We Got A Lot Done.

Don't Let Your Failures Define You.

America Is Not The Crude Stereotype Of A Self-interested Empire. Given Our Interdependence, Any World Order That Elevates One Nation Or Group Of People Over Another Will Inevitably Fail.

A Mother Deserves A Day Off To Care For A Sick Child Or Sick Parent Without Running Into Hardship - And You Know What, A Father Does, Too. It's Time To Do Away With Workplace Policies That Belong In A 'mad Men' Episode.

America At Its Best Is Inclusive And Not Exclusive.

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.

Perhaps I Possess A Certain Midwestern Sensibility That I Inherited From My Mother And Her Parents, A Sensibility That Warren Buffet Seems To Share: That At A Certain Point One Has Enough, That You Can Derive As Much Pleasure From A Picasso Hanging In A Museum As From One That's Hanging In Your Den, That You Can Get An Awfully Good Meal In A Restaurant For Less Than Twenty Dollars, And That Once Your Drapes Cost More Than The Average American's Yearly Salary, Then You Can Afford To Pay A Bit More In Taxes.

The Freedom Of Information Act Should Be Administered With A Clear Presumption: In The Face Of Doubt, Openness Prevails.

With The Changing Economy, No One Has Lifetime Employment. But Community Colleges Provide Lifetime Employability.

...as Parents, We Have To Find The Time And The Energy To Step In And Help Our Children Love Reading. We Can Read To Them, Talk To Them About What They're Reading, And Make Time For This By Turning Off The Television Set Ourselves. Libraries Are A Critical Tool To Help Parents Do This.

For Half Of The World's Population, Roughly Three Billion People Around The World Living On Less Than Two Dollars A Day, An Election Is At Best A Means, Not An End; A Starting Point, Not Deliverance. These People Are Looking Less For An "electocracy" Than For The Basic Elements That For Most Of Us Define A Decent Life--food, Shelter, Electricity, Basic Health Care, Education For Their Children, And The Ability To Make Their Way Through Life Without Having To Endure Corruption, Violence, Or Arbitrary Power.

[the Democrats] Have Got To Do A Better Job Of Showing Up.

There Is A Certain Percentage Of The White Population ... If They Started Having More Middle-class Black Kids Who Are Friends With Their Kids, Eating Cheerios In Their Kitchen, Their Attitudes Start Changing.

What You Have To Do Is To Look At What's Going To Keep Our Economic Growth Going, What's Going To Make Sure Jobs Are Being Created.

Both Of Our Nations [america And Germany] Were Proud To Join The Paris Climate Agreement Which The World Should Work To Implement Quickly. Continued Global Leadership On Climate In Addition To Increasing Private Investment And Clean Energy Is Gonna Be Critical To Meeting This Growing Threat.

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.

Michelle [obama] Never Fully Took To The Scrutiny. I Mean, She's Thrived As A First Lady, But It's Not Her Preference.

What Makes Us Exceptional - What Makes Us American - Is Our Allegiance To An Idea Articulated In A Declaration Made More Than Two Centuries Ago: “we Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident, That All Men Are Created Equal; That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Unalienable Rights; That Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness.”

Pursuit Of Happiness

Africa Doesn't Need Strongmen, It Needs Strong Institutions.

The Government Of Libya Announced The Death Of Moammar Gadhafi. This Marks The End Of A Long And Painful Chapter For The People Of Libya, Who Now Have The Opportunity To Determine Their Own Destiny In A New And Democratic Libya. The Gadhafi Regime Ruled The Libyan People With An Iron Fist. The Enormous Potential Of The Libyan People Was Held Back And Terror Was Used As A Political Weapon. The Last Major Regime Strongholds Have Fallen. The New Government Is Consolidating The Control Over The Country. And One Of The World's Longest-serving Dictators Is No More.

I Think We Need Missile Defense. But I Want To Make Sure It Works, That It's Cost Effective, That The Technologies Are Operable, That It's Our Best Possible Strategy, And That Hasn't Been Shown.

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.

Unless We Free Ourselves From A Dependence On These Fossil Fuels... We Are Condemning Future Generations To Global Catastrophe

You Know, When Trayvon Martin Was First Shot I Said That This Could Have Been My Son. Another Way Of Saying That Is Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago. And When You Think About Why, In The African American Community At Least, There's A Lot Of Pain Around What Happened Here, I Think It's Important To Recognize That The African American Community Is Looking At This Issue Through A Set Of Experiences And A History That Doesn't Go Away.

That's What Building A Body Of Work Is All About. It's About The Daily Labor, The Many Individual Acts, The Choices Large And Small That Add Up Over Time, Over A Lifetime To A Lasting Legacy. It's About Not Being Satisfied With The Latest Achievement, The Latest Gold Star, Because The One Thing I Know About A Body Of Work Is That It's Never Finished. It's Cumulative. It Deepens And Expands With Each Day You Give Your Best. You May Have Setbacks And You May Have Failures, But You're Not Done.

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

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

Futures Together

These Are Young People Who Made Mistakes That Aren't That Different Than The Mistakes I Made And The Mistakes That A Lot Of You Guys Made, We Have A Tendency Sometimes To Almost Take For Granted Or Think It's Normal That So Many Young People End Up In Our Criminal Justice System. It's Not Normal. ... What Is Normal Is Teenagers Doing Stupid Things.

Working Full-time Should Mean Enough To Support A Family.

The Point Is Isil Leaders Cannot Hide. And Our Next Message To Them Is Simple - You Are Next.

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

To Anyone Out There Who Has Ever Been Assaulted: You Will Never Be Alone. You Are Never Alone. We Have Your Back. I've Got Your Back.

Violence Against Women

Sustaining The Energy And Focus Involved In Doing A Good Job I Think Starts To - Starts To Gets Tougher The Longer You Do It.

Ultimately, I Think The Equal Protection Clause Does Guarantee Same-sex Marriage In All Fifty States.

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

When You're Out Of Work And You Can't Buy A Home Or You've Lost Your Home And You're Worried About Paying Your Bills, Then You Become More Worried About What Other Folks Are Doing. And Sometimes That Organizes Itself Around Kind Of A Tribal Attitude, And Issues Of Race Become More Prominent.

Gas Tax Holiday Is A Classic Washington Gimmick.

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