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In The Absence Of Sound Oversight,responsible Businesses Are Forced To Compete Against Unscrupulous And Underhanded Businesses, Who Are Unencumbered By Any Restrictions On Activities That Might Harm The Environment, Or Take Advantage Of Middle-class Families, Or Threaten To Bring Down The Entire Financial System.

-Barack Obama

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In The Absence Of

Barack Obama

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In The Absence Of Sound Oversight,responsible Businesses Are Forced To Compete Against Unscrupulous And Underhanded Businesses, Who Are Unencumbered By Any Restrictions On Activities That Might Harm The Environment, Or Take Advantage Of Middle-class Families, Or Threaten To Bring Down The Entire Financial System.

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Responsible Business

More From Barack Obama

A Good Compromise, A Good Piece Of Legislation, Is Like A Good Sentence; Or A Good Piece Of Music. Everybody Can Recognize It. They Say, 'huh. It Works. It Makes Sense.'

The Path Of America's Development Is Never A Straight Line. Sometimes We Move In Ways That Are Forwards; Sometime That Seem Back.

With The Magnitude Of The Challenges We Face Right Now, What We Need In Washington Are Not More Political Tactics, We Need More Good Ideas. We Don't Need More Point Scoring, We Need More Problem Solving.

To Those Of You Mourn The Loss Of A Loved One Today, My Heart Goes Out To You. We Remember That The Blessings That We Enjoy As Americans Came At A Dear Cost. Our Nation Owes A Debt To Its Fallen Heroes That We Cannot Ever Fully Repay. But We Can Honor Their Sacrifice, And We Must. We Must Honor It In Our Own Lives By Holding Their Memories Close To Our Hearts, And Heeding The Example They Set.

One Faction Of One Party, In One House Of Congress, In One Branch Of Government, Doesn't Get To Shut Down The Entire Government Just To Refight The Results Of An Election.

[afghanistan And Iraq] Are Still Countries That Are Fragile Enough That We're Gonna Have To Partner With Them In Some Way.

As A Product Of History And Faith, Jewish Americans Have Helped To Open Our Eyes To Injustice, To People In Need, And To The Simple Idea That We Ought To Recognize Ourselves In The Struggle Of Our Fellow Men And Women.

Today We Continue A Never Ending Journey To Bridge The Meaning Of Those Words With The Realities Of Our Time.

To Those Americans Whose Support I Have Yet To Earn, I May Not Have Won Your Vote Tonight, But I Hear Your Voices. I Need Your Help. And I Will Be Your President, Too.

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.

Our Unalienable Right To Life And Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness, Those Rights Were Stripped From College Kids In Blackburg And Santa Barbara, And From High Schoolers At Columbine. And, And From First Graders In Newtown, First Graders.

Pursuit Of Happiness

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

There Is No Doubt That Thanks To The Steps That We Took Early On To Rescue Our Economy And To Rebuild It On A New Foundation, We Are Entering Into The New Year With New Confidence That America Is Coming Back.

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.

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

I Have Said Repeatedly That America Doesn't Torture And I'm Going To Make Sure That We Don't Torture. Those Are Part And Parcel An Effort To Regain America's Moral Stature In The World.

I Think The Big Challenge That We've Got On Education Is Making Sure That From Kindergarten Or Prekindergarten Through Your 14th Or 15th Year Of School, Or 16th Year Of School, Or 20th Year Of School, That You Are Actually Learning The Kinds Of Skills That Make You Competitive And Productive In A Modern, Technological Economy.

If You Like Your Existing Plan You Get To Keep It

This Massacre In Orlando Is Therefore A Further Reminder Of How Easy It Is For Someone To Get Their Hands On A Weapon That Lets Them Shoot People In A School Or In A House Of Worship Or A Movie Theater Or In A Nightclub. And We Have To Decide If That's The Kind Of Country We Want To Be. And To Actively Do Nothing Is A Decision, As Well.

Members Of Congress On Both Sides Of The Aisle, Are Motivated By All Kinds Of Issues. They're Sincerely Interested In The Economy, In Terrorism, In Social Issues. But The One Overriding Thing They're Interested In Is Getting Reelected. And If They Think That It's Harder For Them To Get Reelected By Cooperating With Each Other, Then They Won't Cooperate.

What A Vindication Of The Belief That Ordinary People Can Do Extraordinary Things, What A Reminder Of What Bobby Kennedy Once Said, About How Small Actions Can Be Like Pebbles Being Thrown Into A Still Lake, And Ripples Of Hope Cascade Outwards And Change The World.

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.

[our Troops In Iraq And Afganistan] Does Give Us The Ability To Make Sure That We Are Strengthening Those Folk Who Are Interested In Building Up Their Countries Rather Than Destroying Them, And Doing So In A Way That Is Sustainable And Doesn't Put A Constant Burden On The Amazing Men And Women That We've Got In Uniform.

In The Campaign Back In 2007, 2008, People Would Say, "oh, He's Being Naïve. He Thinks That There's No Red States And Blue States. And Wait 'til He Gets Here." And I Will Confess That, I Didn't Fully Appreciate The Ways In Which Individual Senators Or Members Of Congress Now Are Pushed To The Extremes By Their Voter Bases. I Did Not Expect, Particularly In The Midst Of Crisis, Just How Severe That Partisanship Would Be.

Above All, Our Freedom Endures Because Of The Men And Women In Uniform Who Defend It.

I Will Never Forget Who This Victory Truly Belongs To. It Belongs To You.

My Expectation Would Be That If We Can Begin Discussions Soon, Shortly After The Iranian Elections, We Should Have A Fairly Good Sense By The End Of The Year As To Whether They Are Moving In The Right Direction.

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

I Believe That The Free Enterprise System Is The Greatest Engine Of Prosperity The World's Ever Known. I Believe In Self-reliance And Individual Initiative And Risk-takers Being Rewarded. But I Also Believe That Everybody Should Have A Fair Shot And Everybody Should Do Their Fair Share And Everybody Should Play By The Same Rules, Because That's How Our Economy's Grown. That's How We Built The World's Greatest Middle Class.

Scripture Tells Us To "run With Endurance The Race That Is Set Before Us." As We Do, May God Hold Close Those Who’ve Been Taken From Us Too Soon.

There's No One Who I Believe Has Ever Captured The Soul Of America More Profoundly Than Abraham Lincoln Has.

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

There Is Not A Liberal America And A Conservative America - There Is The United States Of America. There Is Not A Black America And A White America And Latino America And Asian America - There's The United States Of America.

And That Means That No Matter How We Reform Health Care, We Will Keep This Promise To The American People: If You Like Your Doctor, You Will Be Able To Keep Your Doctor, Period. If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You'll Be Able To Keep Your Health Care Plan, Period. No One Will Take It Away, No Matter What.

Keeping Promises

Al Qaeda, The Taliban, A Whole Host Of Networks That Are Bent On Attacking America, Who Have A Distorted Ideology, Who Have Perverted The Faith Of Islam, And So We Have To Go After Them.

One Of The Things That We Have To Change In This Country Is The Idea That People Can't Disagree Without Challenging Each Other's Character And Patriotism. I Have Never Suggested That Sen. Mccain Picks His Positions On National Security Based On Politics Or Personal Ambition. I Have Not Suggested It Because I Believe That He Genuinely Wants To Serve America's National Interest. Now, It's Time For Him To Acknowledge That I Want To Do The Same. Let Me Be Clear: I Will Let No One Question My Love Of This Country.

I Don't Have A Philosophical Objection, Necessarily, To A Travel Ban If That Is The Thing That Is Going To Keep The American People Safe.

The Hard Truth Is Carbon Pollution Has Built Up In Our Atmosphere For Decades Now. And Even If We Americans Do Our Part, The Planet Will Slowly Keep Warming For Some Time To Come.

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.

The True Test Of The American Ideal Is Whether We're Able To Recognize Our Failings And Then Rise Together To Meet The Challenges Of Our Time. Whether We Allow Ourselves To Be Shaped By Events And History, Or Whether We Act To Shape Them. Whether Chance Of Birth Or Circumstance Decides Life's Big Winners And Losers, Or Whether We Build A Community Where, At The Very Least, Everyone Has A Chance To Work Hard, Get Ahead, And Reach Their Dreams.

[the White House Staff] Start Bringing In Their Kids, Who You Think Should Be Babies And Now Are In Second Grade Or Something, And You've Watched Them Grow Up. So I Think What Ends Up Happening Is You End Up Maintaining Those Networks And Those Contacts, But The Concentrated Interactions And Experience That You Have Here, I Don't Think, I Don't Expect You Can Duplicate Anyplace Else.

We Can Rattle Our Sabers All We Want But, Realistically, We Don't Have Troops For An Invasion [iran] And Surgical Strikes Aren't Going To Work.

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

I Think That We've Had An Economy That's Been Out Of Balance For Too Long. So The General Principle Of Raising Taxes On Higher Income Americans, Like Myself, And Providing Relief To Those Who Haven't Benefited As Much From This New Global Economy, I Think Is A Sound One.

There Are Gonna Be A Core Set Of Values That Shouldn't Be Up For Debate. Should Be Our North Star.

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

You Like Pie? I Like Pie.

The Bottom Line Is That It's Hard To Find A Model In Which You Can Practically Administer And Sustain Political Support For Those Kinds Of Efforts. And What Makes America Complicated As Well Is The Degree To Which This Is Not Just A Black/white Society, And It Is Becoming Less So Every Year.

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

I'm Willing To Work With Anyone Of Either Party Who Has A Good Idea And The Commitment To See Through. And We Should All Expect You To Hold Us Accountable For Our Progress Or Our Failure To Deliver.

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

Americans... Still Believe In An America Where Anything's Possible - They Just Don't Think Their Leaders Do.

Israel Has Legitimate Concerns About Its Security Relative To Iran. I Mean, You Have A Large Country With A Significant Military That Has Proclaimed That Israel Shouldn't Exist, That Has Denied The Holocaust, That Has Financed Hezbollah, And As A Consequence, There Are Missiles That Are Pointed Towards Tel Aviv. There Are Very Good Reasons Why Israelis Are Nervous About Iran's Position In The World Generally.

There Was A Time When If You Had A Financial Crisis In Southeast Asia Somewhere, It Had No Impact On Our Markets. Today It Does.

There's No Straight Line To Progress.

The Sort Of Seeing Cruelty And Callousness Of That Sort From Young People Is Heartbreaking.

Whatever Decisions I Make Are Going To Be Based First On A Strategy To Keep Us Safe And Then We'll Figure Out How To Resource It.

It Wasn't Until About A Year, Year And A Half In Where I Began To Realize That The Pentagon And Our National-security Apparatus And The Cia Were All Getting Too Comfortable With The Technology As A Tool To Fight Terrorism, And Not Being Mindful Enough About How That Technology Is Being Used And The Dangers Of A Form Of Warfare That Is So Detached From What Is Actually Happening On The Ground. And So We Initiated This Big Process To Try To Get It In A Box.

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

I Think The Average American, If They Go To The Workplace, Somebody's Next To 'em, They're Not Poking Around Trying To Figure Out What Their Religious Beliefs Are.

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

Tough Talk Often Draws Headlines, But War Rarely Conforms To Slogans.

As I Said In My State Of The Union Address Ensuring The Security Of The United States And The Safety Of Our People Demands A Smart, Patient And Disciplined Approach To The World.

If You Listen To The Rhetoric, It Is So Over-the-top And So Overheated, And Most Importantly, Is Not Acknowledging The Fact That There's Nothing Else [like Guns] In Our Lives That We Purchase Where We Don't Try To Make It A Little Safer If We Can.

Torture Is How You Create Enemies, Not How You Defeat Them... Torture Is How You Get Bad Information, Not Good Intelligence. Torture Is How You Set Back America's Standing In The World, Not How You Strengthen It.

You Have Social Media And The Internet And Immigration And So, Suddenly, Cultures Are Clashing And People Feel As If They're Less Familiar With The People Around Them. That Causes Social Anxieties.

Now, I Know That He's Taken Some Flak Lately, But No One Is Prouder To Put This Birth Certificate To Rest Than The Donald. Now He Can Get To Focusing On The Issues That Matter. Like, Did We Fake The Moon Landing? What Really Happened In Roswell? And Where Are Biggie And Tupac?

You Haven't Seen A Lot Of Turnover In My Campaign. And The Culture Of My Campaign Is One In Which I Think Everybody Feels A Great Sense Of Ownership.

We Have To Have A President Who Is Clear That You Don't Deal With Russia Based On Staring Into His Eyes And Seeing His Soul. You Deal With Russia Based On, What Are Your - What Are The National Security Interests Of The United States Of America? And We Have To Recognize That The Way They've Been Behaving Lately Demands A Sharp Response From The International Community And Our Allies.

For The Sake Of Our Economy, Our Security, And The Future Of Our Planet, I Will Set A Clear Goal As President: In Ten Years, We Will Finally End Our Dependence On Oil From The Middle East.

We Believe That No Matter Where You Live - Whether A Village In Punjab Or The Bylanes Of Chandni Chowk, An Old Section Of Kolkata Or A New High-rise In Bangalore - Every Person Deserves The Same Chance To Live In Security And Dignity, To Get An Education, To Find Work, And To Give Their Children A Better Future.

The Borders Of Israel And Palestine Should Be Based On The 1967 Lines With Mutually Agreed Swaps, So That Secure And Recognized Borders Are Established For Both States.

If You Looked At Their Cable Bill, Their Telephone, Their Cell Phone Bill, Other Things They're Spending Money On, It May Turn Out That, It's Just That They Haven't Prioritized Health Care.

Even On Health Care What You've Seen Is A Lot Of Stories Surfacing Lately About People Who Said, "well, I Voted For [donald] Trump But I Don't Think He's Really Gonna Take Away My Health Care."

No Single Nation Should Pick And Choose Which Nations Holds Nuclear Weapons. And That's Why I Strongly Reaffirmed America's Commitment To Seek A World In Which No Nations Hold Nuclear Weapons.

Nuclear Weapons

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?

The Russians Can't Change Us Or Significantly Weaken Us. They Are A Smaller Country. They Are A Weaker Country. Their Economy Doesn't Produce Anything That Anybody Wants To Buy, Except Oil And Gas And Arms. They Don't Innovate. But They Can Impact Us If We Lose Track Of Who We Are.

We Cannot Simply Look To Austerity As A Strategy And It Is Incredibly Important That The Greek People See Improvements In Their Daily Lives So That They Can Carry With Them The Hope That Their Lives Will Get Better.

I Have Made It A Top Priority For My Administration To Deepen Cooperation With Israel Across The Whole Spectrum Of Security Issues - Intelligence, Military, Technology.

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 Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools. We Must Make Sure That People Who Have The Grades, The Desire And The Will, But Not The Money, Can Still Get The Best Education Possible.

I'm Measuring My Actions Against That Inner Voice That For Me At Least Is Audible, Is Active, It Tells Me Where I Think I'm On Track And Where I Think I'm Off Track.

We Now Live In A World Where The Most Valuable Skill You Can Sell Is Knowledge. Revolutions In Technology And Communication Have Created An Entire Economy Of High-tech, High-wage Jobs That Can Be Located Anywhere There's An Internet Connection. And Today, A Child In Chicago Is Not Only Competing For Jobs With One In Boston, But Thousands More In Bangalore And Beijing Who Are Being Educated Longer And Better Than Ever Before.

There's No Reason Why Americans Should Die When Afghans Are Perfectly Capable Of Defending Their Own Country.

Buy Health Insurance, Or Go To Jail.

How Do We In The African American Community Build A Culture In Which We Are Saying To Our Kids, "here's What It Takes To Succeed. Here's The Sacrifices You Need To Make To Be Able To Get Ahead. Here's How We Support Each Other. Here's How We Look Out For Each Other."

I Would Say To People Is, That Investigation, As It Has Already Been Stated, Is A Marathon And Not A Sprint. But It Is One Of Great Concern To The American People. And So We're Committed To Keeping People Informed.

In America, One Of Our Challenges, Historically, Is That We Have Very Low Voting Rates, Even During Presidential Elections.

If We Are Enforcing What Should Be The Rules Around Medicare And Making Sure The People Are Getting The Bang For The Buck, It's Not Going To Be Possible For Insurance Companies To Simply Pass On Those Costs To Medicare Recipients, Because Ultimately It's Uncle Sam That's Paying For Those Services Anyway.

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

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.

And Above All, Children Need Our Unconditional Love - Whether They Succeed Or Make Mistakes; When Life Is Easy And When Life Is Tough.

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

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

...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.

Believe It Or Not, Entertainment Is Part Of Our American Diplomacy, It Is Part Of What Makes Us Exceptional, Part Of What Makes Us Such A World Power. Hundreds Of Millions Of People May Never Set Foot In The United States, But Thanks To You, They've Experienced A Small Part Of What Makes Our Country Special. They've Learned Something About Our Values. We Have Shaped A World Culture Through You...in A Way That Has Made The World Better.

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

We Have The Power To Make The World We Seek, But Only If We Have The Courage To Make A New Beginning.

I Think Dona;d Trump Is Sincere In Wanting To Be A Successful President And Moving This Country Forward And I Don't Think Any President Ever Comes In Saying To Himself "i Want To Figure Out How To Make People Angry Or Alienate Half The Country."

It Is Important For Us To Understand That The Way We Are Perceived In The World Is Going To Make A Difference, In Terms Of Our Capacity To Get Cooperation And Root Out Terrorism. And One Of The Things That I Intend To Do As President Is To Restore America's Standing In The World.

Making A Difference

I Think The Greek People, Although It Is Difficult And Challenging And The Politics Of It I Know Are Not Good, Should Appreciate The Fact That In This Global Economy, The Greek Economy Was Going To Have To Go Through Some Structural Reforms.

Without Regard To Whether Some Place Is Wealthy Or Poor, Everybody Should Have The Chance At Clean Air And Clean Water.

But It Will Depend On Young People Like You Being Open To New Ideas And New Possibilities. And It Will Require Young People Like You Never To Stereotype Or Assume The Worst About Other People.

I Support Ensuring That Committed Gay Couples Have The Same Rights And Responsibilities Afforded To Any Married Couple In This Country. I Believe Strongly In Stopping Laws Designed To Take Rights Away And Passing Laws That Extend Equal Rights To Gay Couples. I've Required All Agencies In The Federal Government To Extend As Many Federal Benefits As Possible To Lgbt Families As The Current Law Allows. And I've Called On Congress To Repeal The So-called Defense Of Marriage Act And To Pass The Domestic Partners Benefits And Obligations Act.

It's Not Surprising Then They Get Bitter, They Cling To Guns Or Religion Or Antipathy To People Who Aren't Like Them, Or Anti-immigrant Sentiment, Or Anti-trade Sentiment, As A Way To Explain Their Frustrations.

[white House Is] The Finest Prison In The World.

Few Challenges Facing America And The World Are More Urgent Than Combating Climate Change. The Science Is Beyond Dispute And The Facts Are Clear.

Pastor Saeed Abedini Is Coming Home. Held For Three And A Half Years, His Unyielding Faith Has Inspired People Around The World In The Global Fight To Uphold Freedom Of Religion. Now Pastor Abedini Will Return To His Church And Community In Idaho.

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.

I'm Determined To Disagree With People Without Being Disagreeable. That's Part Of The Empathy. Empathy Doesn't Just Extend To Cute Little Kids. You Have To Have Empathy When You're Talking To Some Guy Who Doesn't Like Black People.

America Is A Nation Of Immigrants. And So The Question Is, How Do We Make Legal Immigration Faster, Less Bureaucratic, Cut The Red Tape?

Democracy Demands That The Religiously Motivated Translate Their Concerns Into Universal, Rather Than Religion-specific, Values.

There's One Issue That Will Define The Contours Of This Century More Dramatically Than Any Other, And That Is The Urgent And Growing Threat Of A Changing Climate.

We Are Not A Nation That Says, 'don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.' We Are A Nation That Says, 'out Of Many, We Are One.' We Are A Nation That Welcomes The Service Of Every Patriot. We Are A Nation That Believes That All Men And Women Are Created Equal. Those Are The Ideals That Generations Have Fought For. Those Are The Ideals That We Upheld Today.

I Do Have An Obligation To Make Sure That I Am Following Some Of The Rules. I Can't Simply Ignore Laws That Are Out There.

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

For Now, Decisions Are Upon Us And We Cannot Afford Delay. We Cannot Mistake Absolutism For Principle Or Substitute Spectacle For Politics, Or Treat Name-calling As Reasoned Debate.

More People Are Realising That Isil's Not A Caliphate. It's A Crime Ring.

Peace Is Not Merely The Absence Of Visible Conflict. Only A Just Peace Based On The Inherent Rights And Dignity Of Every Individual Can Truly Be Lasting.

When I Came Into Office, The World Was Divided. Iran Was Resurgent. Iran Is At Its Weakest Point, Economically, Strategically, Militarily, Then Since - Then In Many Years. And We Are Going To Continue To Keep The Pressure On To Make Sure That They Do Not Get A Nuclear Weapon. That's In America's National Interest And That Will Be The Case So Long As I'm President.

If The Global Economy Is Unresponsive To People Who Feel Left Behind, If Inequality Continues To Grow, Then We Could End Up Seeing More And More Of These Divisions Arise Throughout Advanced Economies Around The World.

The Greek People Have Gone Through Some Very Difficult Times And There's Still A Hard Road Ahead, But Despite Those Hardships, Greece Has Continued To Be A Reliable Ally, Has Shown True Compassion To Fellow Human Beings In Need. It's An Example Of The Greek Character.

The Actions Of Those In Power Can Have Enormous Consequences - A Price That They Themselves Almost Never Have To Pay.

On This Day, We Gather Because We Have Chosen Hope Over Fear, Unity Of Purpose Over Conflict And Discord.

I Want To Deal With The Homeless Situation Here In Washington, D.c. I Think It Is A Travesty That We've Got Men - And Increasingly Women - Families, Across The Street And The In Shadow Of This Great Capital, That Shows A Lack Of Concern, Not Just For The Capital, But For American, When We Are Allowing Something Like That To Happen.

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

Thank You, Planned Parenthood. God Bless You.

Since 1981, After Our Nations Severed Diplomatic Relations, We've Worked Through A International Tribunal To Resolve Various Claims Between Our Countries. The United States And Iran Are Now Settling A Long-standing Iranian Government Claim Against The United States Government. Iran Will Be Returned Its Own Funds, Including Appropriate Interest But Much Less Than The Amount Iran Sought. With The Nuclear Deal Done, Prisoners Released, The Time Was Right To Resolve This Dispute As Well.

Race Remains A Potent And Often Divisive Force In Our Society.

Sometimes If Your Only Approach Is Cutting Spending At A Time When The Economy's Contracting, Then The Economy Will Contract Further.

I Have Nothing To Hide. I Enjoy Being Myself. I'm Not Going To Change Who I Am Just Because It's Halloween.

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

We Don't Make Determinations About Who We Love. And That's Why I Think That Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation Is Wrong.

Justice Needs To Be Served, What I Think People Of Baltimore Want More Than Anything Else Is The Truth. That's What People Around The Country Expect.

I Am Absolutely Convinced That Race Relations On The Whole Are Actually Better Now Than They Were 20 Years [ago].

The Brain Is A Body Part Too; We Just Know Less About It.

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

Ours Is A Nation Of Laws: Of Citizens Who Live Under Them And For The Citizens Who Enforce Them. So, To A Community In Ferguson That Is Rightly Hurting And Looking For Answers, Let Me Call Once Again For Us To Seek Some Understanding Rather Than Simply Holler At Each Other. Let's Seek To Heal Rather Than To Wound Each Other.

What Is Important Is That We Make Sure To Work Together, That We Understand Our Strength Comes From Unity And Not Division.

Working Together

Now, As The World's Largest Economy And As The World's Second Largest Emitter, America Bears Our Responsibility To Address Climate Change, And We Intend To Meet That Responsibility.

Hillary Clinton Was An Outstanding Secretary Of State. She Would Never Intentionally Put America In Any Kind Of Jeopardy. And What I Also Know, Because I Handle A Lot Of Classified Information, Is That There's Classified And Then There's Classified. There's Stuff That Is Really Top Secret Top Secret, And There's Stuff That Is Being Presented To The President Or The Secretary Of State That You Might Not Want On The Transom Or, You Know, Going Out Over The Wire, But Is Basically Stuff That You Could Get In Open Source.

At Some Fundamental Level, Religion Does Not Allow For Compromise. It Insists On The Impossible. If God Has Spoken, Then Followers Are Expected To Live Up To God's Edicts, Regardless Of The Consequences. To Base One's Life On Such Uncompromising Commitment May Be Sublime; To Base Our Policy Making On Such Commitments Would Be A Dangerous Thing.

As We Look Forward To The New Year, Let's Resolve To Recommit Ourselves To The Values We Share.

We Also Think This Is A Reminder Of The Long Tradition Of Bipartisan Foreign Policy That Has Been The Hallmark Of America At Moments Of Greatest Need, And That's The Kind Of Spirit That We Hope Will Be Reflected In Our Administration.

I Don't Want To Be Invited To The Family Hunting Party.

America Is The Greatest Country On Earth. But Because Of Some Of The Mistakes That Have Been Made, We, I Think, Are Going To Have A Lot Of Work To Do In The Next Administration To Restore That Sense That America Is That Shining Beacon On A Hill.

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.

I Learned To Slip Back And Forth Between My Black And White Worlds. One Of Those Tricks I Had Learned: People Were Satisfied So Long As You Were Courteous And Smiled And Made No Sudden Moves. They Were More Than Satisfied; They Were Relieved -- Such A Pleasant Surprise To Find A Well-mannered Young Black Man Who Didn't Seem Angry All The Time.

Black And White

In Indonesia, I Had Spent Two Years At A Muslim School, Two Years At A Catholic School. In The Muslim School, The Teacher Wrote To Tell My Mother That I Made Faces During Koranic Studies.

No Party Has A Monopoly On Wisdom. No Democracy Works Without Compromise. But When Governor Romney And His Allies In Congress Tell Us We Can Somehow Lower Our Deficit By Spending Trillions More On New Tax Breaks For The Wealthy - Well, You Do The Math. I Refuse To Go Along With That. And As Long As I'm President, I Never Will.

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?

His Peaceful Resistance Shook The Foundations Of An Empire, Exposed The Emptiness Of A Repressive Ideology, And Proved That Moral Leadership Is More Powerful Than Any Weapon.

Moral Leadership

You Bomb Isil. You're Not Trying To Bomb Innocent People. And That Requires Intelligence And Confidence In Our Military To Be Able To Develop The Kinds Of Targets That We Need. We're Already Doing Special Forces, Who Are Going To Help Us Gather That Intelligence And Help Advise And Assist And Train Local Forces So That They Can Go After Isil In Areas Like Raqqah And Mosul.

Contrary To The Rumours You Have Heard, I Was Not Born In A Manger. I Was Actually Born On Krypton And Sent Here By My Father, Jor-el, To Save The Planet Earth.

All This Marked Them As Vaguely Liberal, Although Their Ideas Would Never Congeal Into Anything Like A Firm Ideology; In This, Too, They Were American.

Iran's Nuclear Program . . . There Was Going To Be A Time Limit . . .

For The World Has Changed, And We Must Change With It

I'm Suspicious Of Too Much Certainty In The Pursuit Of Understanding Just Because I Think People Are Limited In Their Understanding.

If Everybody Who Voted In 2008 Shows Up In 2010, We Will Win This Election. We Will Win This Election.

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

Four Years Ago, I Promised To End The War In Iraq. We Did. I Promised To Refocus On The Terrorists Who Actually Attacked Us On 9/11. We Have. We've Blunted The Taliban's Momentum In Afghanistan, And In 2014, Our Longest War Will Be Over. A New Tower Rises Above The New York Skyline, Al Qaeda Is On The Path To Defeat, And Osama Bin Laden Is Dead.

I Will Never Forget Who This Victory Truly Belongs To. It Belongs To You. It Belongs To You. I Was Never The Likeliest Candidate For This Office. We Didn't Start With Much Money Or Many Endorsements. Our Campaign Was Not Hatched In The Halls Of Washington. It Began In The Backyards Of Des Moines And The Living Rooms Of Concord And The Front Porches Of Charleston. It Was Built By Working Men And Women Who Dug Into What Little Savings They Had To Give $5 And $10 And $20 To The Cause.

Race Is Still A Powerful Force In This Country. Any African American Candidate, Or Any Latino Candidate, Or Asian Candidate Or Woman Candidate Confronts A Higher Threshold In Establishing Himself To The Voters ... Are Some Voters Not Going To Vote For Me Because I'm African American? Those Are The Same Voters Who Probably Wouldn't Vote For Me Because Of My Politics.

I Want To Thank The Greek People Publicly For Their Humanitarian Response To The Crisis Of So Many Migrants And Refugees Seeking Safety In Europe. Greeks, Especially On The Islands, Have Shown Extraordinary Compassion And They've Rightly Earned The Admiration Of The World.

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

Everybody Potentially Can Make The Claim That We Should All Be Treated Fairly.

Ours Is Not The First Generation To Understand The Dire Need For Health Reform. And I Am Not The First President To Take Up This Cause, But I Am Determined To Be The Last.

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up.

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've Always Viewed The Paris Agreement As A Starting Point. If You Look At All The Commitments That Have Been Made By All The Countries, It's Still Not Sufficient To Deal With The Very Dangerous Situation We Face. What It Has Done Is That It Created An Architecture Whereby As Technology Improves, As We Find New Clean Sources Of Energy, As We Make Our Economies More Efficient, Then Gradually We Can Turn Up The Dial And Improve The Outcomes Of Paris.

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

What I'm Thinking About Are The Millions Of People, Many Of Whom Write Me Very Personal Letters :"dear Mr. President: I Did Not Vote For You. I Was Against Obamacare. And Then My Son Who Didn't Have Health Insurance Signed Up And We Just Found Out That He Had An Illness. And Thankfully He's Now Covered, Otherwise He Might Not Have Gotten Treatment And I Might Have Lost My House."

They Say I Need To Be Seasoned; They Say I Need To Be Stewed. They Say, 'we Need To Boil All The Hope Out Of Him -- Like Us -- And Then He'll Be Ready.'

To Break Our Addiction To Oil Is One Of The Greatest Challenges That Our Generation Will Have To Master.

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.

It Is Very Important For I Think Those Of Us Who Desperately Want Peace, Who See War As, At Some Level, A Break-down, A Manifestation Of Human Weakness, To Understand That Sometimes It’s Also Necessary – And You Know, To – To Be Able To Balance Two Ideas At The Same Time; That We Are Constantly Striving For Peace, We Are Doubling Up On Our Diplomacy, We Are Going To Actively Engage, We Are Going To Try To See The World Through Other People’s Eyes And Not Just Our Own.

So I Came To My Christian Faith Later In Life, And It Was Because The Precepts Of Jesus Christ Spoke To Me In Terms Of The Kind Of Life That I Would Want To Lead. Jesus Christ Dying For My Sins Spoke To The Humility We All Have To Have As Human Beings, That We're Sinful And We're Flawed And We Make Mistakes, And That We Achieve Salvation Through The Grace Of God.

I'll Be The First Us President To Not Only Visit Kenya And Ethiopia, But Also To Address The Continent As A Whole, Building Off The African Summit That We Did Here Which Was Historic And Has, I Think, Deepened The Kinds Of Already Strong Relationships That We Have Across The Continent.

You Don't Know How It Would Have Turned Out If [kids] Would Grown Up In Chicago Instead, And A More Normal Environment.

It's A Generational Project Just To Get America To Live Up Fully To Its Ideals And To Have The Kind Of Society Where Everybody Has A Shot, And Every Kid Is Getting A Good Education, And People Are Getting Living Wages, And They Have Decent Retirement.

There Is A Word In South Africa - Ubuntu - That Describes His Greatest Gift: His Recognition That We Are All Bound Together In Ways That Can Be Invisible To The Eye; That There Is A Oneness To Humanity; That We Achieve Ourselves By Sharing Ourselves With Others, And Caring For Those Around Us.

It's Up To [angela Merkel] Whether She Wants To Stand Again And Then Ultimately, It'll Be Up To The German People To Decide What The Future Holds. If I Were Here And I Were German And I Had A Vote, I Might Support Her.

But Race Is An Issue That I Believe This Nation Cannot Afford To Ignore Right Now. We Would Be Making The Same Mistake That Reverend Wright Made In His Offending Sermons About America - To Simplify And Stereotype And Amplify The Negative To The Point That It Distorts Reality.

Those Jeans Are Comfortable, And For Those Of You Who Want Your President To Look Great In His Tight Jeans, I'm Sorry I'm Not The Guy. It Just Doesn't Fit Me. I'm Not 20.

Libraries Remind Us That Truth Isn't About Who Yells The Loudest But Who Has The Right Information.

I Will Veto Any Effort To Get Rid Of Those Automatic Spending Cuts To Domestic And Defense Spending. There Will Be No Easy Off Ramps On This One.

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.

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

Politics, Differences Of Religion Or Race, All That Fades Away When We Are Confronted With The Awesome Power Of Nature, And We're Reminded That All We Have Is Each Other.

And, As A Consequence Of The Pressure That We've Applied Over The Last Couple Of Weeks, We Have Syria -- For The First Time -- Acknowledging That It Has Chemical Weapons, Agreeing To Join The Convention That Prohibits The Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The Russians -- Their Primary Sponsors -- Saying That They Will Push Syria To Get All Of Their Chemical Weapons Out. The Distance That We've Traveled Over These Couple Of Weeks Is Remarkable.

I Make No Apologies For Us Wanting To Do This [bombing Iraq And Syria] Appropriately And In A Way That Is Consistent With American Values.

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.

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.

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

[about His Marijuana Use] I Did. It's Not Something That I'm Proud Of. It Was A Mistake As A Young Man, But You Know? I Mean Not Going To -- I Never Understood That Line. The Point Was To Inhale. That Was The Point.

We Can't Afford More Top-down Economics. What We Need Are Policies That Will Grow And Strengthen The Middle Class.

I Think, As You Get Older, That's When Your Ambitions Become "peculiar".

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.

We Know That Every Father Has A Personal Responsibility To Do Right By Their Kids - To Encourage Them To Turn Off The Video Games And Pick Up A Book; To Teach Them The Difference Between Right And Wrong; To Show Them Through Our Own Example The Value In Treating One Another As We Wish To Be Treated. And Most Of All, To Play An Active And Engaged Role In Their Lives.

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Marguerite Duras

Marcus Aurelius

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