Background Image

...

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.

-Barack Obama

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

In The Campaign Back

Barack Obama

...

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.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Barack Obama

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.

The Last Thing You Want To Do Is Raise Taxes In The Middle Of The Recession Because That Would Just Suck Up And Take More Demand Out Of The Economy And Put Businesses In A Further Hole.

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

We Can't Just Drill Our Way Out Of The Energy And Climate Challenge That We Face.

It's Probably A Prerequisite For The Job, Or At Least You Have To Have Enough Craziness To Think That You Can Do The Job. I Think That [donald Trump] Has Not Spent A Lot Of Time Sweating The Details Of, You Know, All The Policies.

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.

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.

I'm Skeptical That [the Republicans] Can Do [something Better With Healthcare] Mainly Because For Seven Years Now, Including When We First Tried To Pass Health Care, I Said To 'em, "okay, If [obamacare] Doesn't Work Tell Me What Does."

What Is A Danger Is That We Stay Stuck In A New Normal Where Unemployment Rates Stay High, People Who Have Jobs See Their Incomes Go Up, Businesses Make Big Profits. But They're Learned To Do More With Less, And So They Don't Hire.

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

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 President Does Not Have Power Under The Constitution To Unilaterally Authorize A Military Attack In A Situation That Does Not Involve Stopping An Actual Or Imminent Threat To The Nation. As Commander In Chief, The President Does Have A Duty To Protect And Defend The United States. In Instances Of Self-defense, The President Would Be Within His Constitutional Authority To Act Before Advising Congress Or Seeking Its Consent.

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

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

I Believe The United States Of America Must Remain A Standard Bearer In The Conduct Of War. That Is What Makes Us Different From Those Whom We Fight. That Is A Source Of Our Strength. That Is Why I Prohibited Torture. That Is Why I Ordered The Prison At Guantanamo Bay Closed. And That Is Why I Have Reaffirmed America's Commitment To Abide By The Geneva Conventions. We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend.

Don't Let Your Failures Define You.

If You Give Up On The Idea That Your Voice Can Make A Difference, Then Other Voices Will Fill The Void

We're Still Fighting To Make Sure That Basic Anti-discrimination Laws Are Enforced, Not Just At The Federal Level, By The Way, But Throughout Government And Throughout The Private Sector? And Those Are Fights That We Can Win Because - And This Is Where I Do Believe America Has Changed - The Majority, Not By Any Means 100 Percent, But The Majority Of Americans Believe In The Idea Of Nondiscrimination.

For We, The People, Understand That Our Country Cannot Succeed When A Shrinking Few Do Very Well And A Growing Many Barely Make It.

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change. Now, It's True That No Single Event Makes A Trend. But The Fact Is The 12 Hottest Years On Record Have All Come In The Last 15. Heat Waves, Droughts, Wildfires, Floods-all Are Now More Frequent And More Intense. We Can Choose To Believe That Superstorm Sandy, And The Most Severe Drought In Decades, And The Worst Wildfires Some States Have Ever Seen Were All Just A Freak Coincidence. Or We Can Choose To Believe In The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science-and Act Before It's Too Late.

E.u. Need To Be Nurtured And Cultivated And Protected And Fought For Because The Achievements That We've Seen On This Continent, In Contrast To A Divided Europe Of The Previous Century, Are Ones That Remind Us Of How Important It Is That We Work Together.

Working Together

Inequality Also Distorts Our Democracy. It Gives An Outsized Voice To The Few Who Can Afford High-priced Lobbyists And Unlimited Campaign Contributions, And Runs The Risk Of Selling Out Our Democracy To The Highest Bidder. And It Leaves Everyone Else Rightly Suspicious That The System In Washington Is Rigged Against Them - That Our Elected Representatives Aren't Looking Out For The Interests Of Most Americans.

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.

In My First Term, I Sang Al Green. In My Second Term, I'm Going With Young Jeezy.

Reversing Structural Problems In Our Economy That Have Been Building Up For Two Decades, That Was Gonna Take Time. It Was Gonna Take More Than A Year. It Was Gonna Take More Than Two Years. It Was Gonna Take More Than One Term. Probably Takes More Than One President.

I Started As A Community Organizer. Every One Of My Campaigns Was Premised On Getting New People Involved. And If There's A Theme In My Public Career It's That If Ordinary People Get Involved Then Good Things Happen. So I Want To See The Democratic Party Move In That Direction. And What That Means Is That We Aren't Just Micro-targeting To Eke Out Presidential Victories; It Means That We're Showing Up In Places Where Right Now We're Not Winning A Lot.

What I Worry About Would Be That You Essentially Have Two Chambers, The House And The Senate, But You Have Simply, Majoritarian, Absolute Power On Either Side. And That's Just Not What The Founders Intended.

I Might Have Arguments With The Size Of Reagan's Military Buildup, But Given The Soviet Invasion Of Afghanistan, Staying Ahead Of The Soviets Militarily Seemed A Sensible Thing To Do. Pride In Our Country, Respect For Our Armed Services, A Healthy Appreciation For The Dangers Beyond Our Borders, An Insistence That There Was No Easy Equivalence Between East And West--in All This I Had No Quarrel With Reagan. And When The Berlin Wall Came Tumbling Down, I Had To Give The Old Man His Due, Even If I Never Gave Him My Vote.

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.

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

These Days, The House Republicans Actually Give John Boehner A Harder Time Than They Give Me. Which Means Orange Really Is The New Black.

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.

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

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

American Values

Change Will Not Come If We Wait For Some Other Person Or Some Other Time. We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For. We Are The Change That We Seek.

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

I Think Since The Systematic Emergence Of Terrorism And The Assassination Attempts, Everything Has Tightened. My Hope Is That It Loosens Back Up Once I Leave.

The More Freely Information Flows, The Stronger The Society Becomes, Because Then Citizens Of Countries Around The World Can Hold Their Own Governments Accountable. They Can Begin To Think For Themselves.

We Are Not Going To Be Able To Rebuild Afghanistan Into A Jeffersonian Democracy.

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

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.

America Will Rise Again. And Hope Will Rise Again.

Someone Once Said That Every Man Is Trying To Live Up To His Father's Expectations Or Make Up For Their Father's Mistakes.

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.

When It Comes To The Budget, We Know That We Shouldn't Be Cutting More On Core Investments, Like Education, That Are Going To Help Us Grow In The Future. And We've Already Seen The Deficit Cut In Half. It's Going Down Faster Than Any Time In The Last 60 Years. So Why Would We Make More Cuts In Education, More Cuts In Basic Research? Nobody Thinks That's A Good Idea.

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

People Are Whupped. I'm Whupped. My Wife Is Whupped. Unless It's Your Job To Be Curious, Who Really Has The Time To Sit And Ask Questions And Explore Issues?

I Am Reminded Every Day Of My Life, If Not By Events, Then By My Wife, That I Am Not A Perfect Man.

I Think That To The Extent That We Focus On Problems Where We Can Build A Moral And A Political Consensus, Then I Think That We Move The Country Forward And When We Are Divided And Our Politics Is Focused On Dividing, Then I Think We're Less Successful, Not Just From The Perspective Of The Democratic Party Or The Republican Party But From The Perspective Of The Nation As A Whole.

For Decades, This Great Leader, Often At Dr. King’s Side, Was Denied His Rightful Place In History Because He Was Openly Gay. No Medal Can Change That, But Today, We Honor Bayard Rustin’s Memory By Taking Our Place In His March Towards True Equality, No Matter Who We Are Or Who We Love.

Elections Matter And Voting Counts.

What I Value Most About Pastor Wright Is Not His Day-to-day Political Advice. He's Much More Of A Sounding Board For Me To Make Sure That I Am Speaking As Truthfully About What I Believe As Possible And That I'm Not Losing Myself In Some Of The Hype And Hoopla And Stress That's Involved In National Politics.

Whenever I Look At The History Of Presidents I Deeply Admire - The One Thing That I'm Always Struck By Is Persistence. It's A Quality That's Underrated. Being Able To Plough Through, Being Able To Stay Buoyant In The Face Of Challenges.

I Can Be Much More Sarcastic And, I Think, Sometimes Withering In My Assessments Of Things Than I Allow To Show In My Public Life.

The American People Are Not Expecting Miracles. I Think If You Talk To The Average Person Right Now That They Would Say, 'well, Look, You Know Well, We're Having A Tough Time Right Now. We've Had Tough Times Before.' 'and You Know, We Don't Expect A New President Can Snap His Fingers And Suddenly Everything Is Gonna Be Okay. But What We Do Expect Is That The Guy Is Gonna Be Straight With Us. We Do Expect That He's Gonna Be Working Really Hard For Us.'

I Will Support Iraqis And Syrians Fighting To Reclaim Their Communities.

I See Donald Trump As A Phenomenon Of An Expression Of Certain Fears, Certain Resentments, That Have Been A Running Thread In American History.

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

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.

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.

We Don't Have Time For A Meeting Of The Flat Earth Society.

We Can Get This Done! Take A Vote, And Send Me That Bill.

John Kerry Believes In An America Where Hard Work Is Rewarded.

Instead Of Having A Set Of Policies That Are Equipping People For The Globalization Of The Economy, We Have Policies That Are Accelerating The Most Destructive Trends Of The Global Economy.

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

The Theater Is Necessary. Dance Is Necessary. Song Is Necessary. The Arts Are Necessary- They Are A Necessary Part Of Our Lives

The Opportunity Will Not Remain Open Indefinitely.

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.

Keeping Our Military Strong Means Keepin' Our Families Strong.

Filibuster Has Long Tradition, But Used To Harm Civil Rights.

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.

It's Not Appealing To Deal With Countries That Express Hatred Towards Us.

But I Also Want To Give Them A Pathway So That They Can Earn Citizenship, Earn A Legal Status, Start Learning English, Pay A Significant Fine, Go To The Back Of The Line, But They Can Then Stay Here And They Can Have The Ability To Enforce A Minimum Wage That They're Paid, Make Sure The Worker Safety Laws Are Available, Make Sure That They Can Join A Union.

You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of Other Kids Or Neighbors Who Were Wealthier Than You And Teased You. You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of High Expectations. But I Do Think That There Is A Youthful Ambition That Very Much Has To Do With Making Your Mark In The World. And I Think That Cuts Across The Experiences Of A Lot Of People Who End Up Achieving Something Significant In Their Field.

On The Other Hand, It Is Also Undeniable That The Palestinian People - Muslims And Christians - Have Suffered In Pursuit Of A Homeland.

I Do Not Believe Being Gay Or Lesbian Is A Choice.

John Mccain Has Not Spoken About My Muslim Faith.

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.

It’s Important To Make Sure That We’re Talking With Each Other In A Way That Heals, Not In A Way That Wounds." - Barack Obama, 44th U.s. President

There Are People In Iran Who Have The Same Aspirations As People All Around The World For A Better Life.

... The Fact Is It Didn't Happen In The First Month, The First Six Weeks, In A Way That Was At All Acceptable. And Since I'm In Charge, Obviously, We Screwed It Up.

I'd Say, Probably, Intellectually I've Drawn As Much From Judaism As Any Other Faith.

Some Of The Same Politicians And Pundits That Are So Quick To Reject The Possibility Of A Diplomatic Solution To Iran's Nuclear Program Are The Same Folks Who Were So Quick To Go To War In Iraq And Said It Would Take A Few Months.

Theoretically, You Can Make, Obviously, A Powerful Argument That Centuries Of Slavery, Jim Crow, Discrimination Are The Primary Cause For All Those Gaps. That Those Were Wrongs Done To The Black Community As A Whole, And Black Families Specifically, And That In Order To Close That Gap, A Society Has A Moral Obligation To Make A Large, Aggressive Investment, Even If It's Not In The Form Of Individual Reparations Checks, But In The Form Of A Marshall Plan, In Order To Close Those Gaps. It Is Easy To Make That Theoretical Argument.

If We Are Truly Created Equal Then Surely The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well

The Good News Is That The Paris Agreement Is Not Just A Bilateral Agreement Between The United States And Some Other Country. You Have 200 Countries Who Came Together. It's An International Agreement.

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

After A Breakthrough Year For America, Our Economy Is Growing And Creating Jobs At The Fastest Pace Since 1999.

Our Founding Fathers, Faced With Perils We Can Scarcely Imagine, Drafted A Charter To Assure The Rule Of Law And The Rights Of Man, A Charter Expanded By The Blood Of Generations. Those Ideals Still Light The World, And We Will Not Give Them Up For Expedience's Sake.

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?

I Believe When Women Succeed America Succeeds!

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

We Are Still The America That Does The Hard Things, That Does The Great Things. We're The Nation That Always Dared To Dream. We're The Nation That Dared To Take Risks.

And I Will Do Everything That I Can As Long As I Am President Of The United States To Remind The American People That We Are One Nation Under God, And We May Call That God Different Names But We Remain One Nation.

[j]ust Because You Have An Individual Right Does Not Mean That The State Or Local Government Can't Constrain The Exercise Of That Right.

My Job Is To Communicate To The American People That The Muslim World Is Filled With Extraordinary People Who Simply Want To Live Their Lives And See Their Children Live Better Lives. My Job To The Muslim World Is To Communicate That The Americans Are Not Your Enemy. We Sometimes Make Mistakes. But If You Look At The Track Record America Was Not Born As A Colonial Power, And That The Same Respect And Partnership That America Had With The Muslim World As Recently As 20 Or 30 Years Ago, There's No Reason Why We Can't Restore That. And That I Think Is Going To Be An Important Task.

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.

We Rise And Fall As One People, One Nation.

We Have Not Always Been In Sync On Every Issue In Terms Of Our Core Values, In Terms Of Her Integrity, Her Truthfulness, Her Thoughtfulness, [angela Merkel] Doing Her Homework, Knowing Her Facts, Her Commitment To Looking Out For The Interests Of The German People First, But Recognizing That Part Of Good Leadership On Behalf Of The Nation Requires Engaging The World As A Whole, And Participating Effectively In Multilaterally Institutions, I Think She's Been Outstanding.

Solyndra Is A Great Investment In Our Future

Tonight, Somewhere In America, A Young Person, Let's Say A Young Man, Will Struggle To Fall To Sleep, Wrestling Alone With A Secret He's Held As Long As He Can Remember. Soon, Perhaps, He Will Decide It's Time To Let That Secret Out. What Happens Next Depends On Him, His Family, As Well As His Friends And His Teachers And His Community. But It Also Depends On Us - On The Kind Of Society We Engender, The Kind Of Future We Build.

I Believe, In The Words Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., That There Is Such A Thing As Being Too Late, And When It Comes To Climate Change, That Hour Is Almost Upon Us.

When I Was A Kid, I Inhaled. Frequently. That Was The Point.

The Arc Of The Moral Universe May Bend Towards Justice, But It Doesn't Bend On Its Own.

Rand`s [paul] A Libertarian. He Has A View Of The World That I Don`t Share. He Said That We Shouldn`t Have Any Troops In Iraq. He Agreed With Obama That Was A Disaster. When There Was A Chance To Do Something Constructive About Syria With A No-fly Zone, He Said We Don`t Need One.

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.

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

We Are The Change We Have Been Waiting For.

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

I Put Forward A Budget Of What I Called "middle-class Economics" That Continues To Be Fiscally Prudent But Makes Necessary Investments For Us To Continue The Economic Momentum And Job Growth.

We're Opposing Russia's Aggression Against Ukraine, Which Is A Threat To The World, As We Saw In The Appalling Shoot-down Of Mh17.

We All Remember Abraham Lincoln As The Leader Who Saved Our Union. Founder Of The Republican Party.

We Must Act, Knowing That Our Work Will Be Imperfect.

I Refuse To Give In To The Notion That The American People Can't Handle Complicated Information.

I Would Say That I Have Been Consistent In My Broad View Of How American Power Should Be Deployed, And The View That We Underestimate Our Power When We Restrict It To Just Our Military Power. We Shortchange Our Influence And Our Ability To Shape Events When That's The Only Tool We Think We Have In The Toolbox.

Building New Roads And Bridges Creates Jobs. Growing Our Exports Creates Jobs. Reforming Our Outdated Tax System And Our Broken Immigration System Creates Jobs.

Our Stories May Be Singular, But Our Destination Is Shared.

The American People Are Going To Have A Good Choice.

We Can Lose So Much Of What We've Gained In Terms Of The Kind Of Democratic Freedoms And Market-based Economies And Prosperity That We've Come To Take For Granted.

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World.

I've Been Called Worse On The Basketball Court.

Basketball Court

There's No Doubt That When It Comes To Our Treatment Of Native Americans As Well As Other Persons Of Color In This Country, We've Got Some Very Sad And Difficult Things To Account For. I Personally Would Want To See Our Tragic History, Or The Tragic Elements Of Our History, Acknowledged. I Consistently Believe That When It Comes To Whether It's Native Americans Or African-american Issues Or Reparations, The Most Important Thing For The U.s. Government To Do Is Not Just Offer Words, But Offer Deeds.

Native American

For The United States Of America, The Best Is Yet To Come.

Best Is Yet To Come

For America To Get More Entangled Militarily In Syria Is A Serious Step, And We Have To Do So Making Absolutely Certain That We Know Who We Are Helping; That We're Not Putting Arms In The Hands Of Folks Who Eventually Could Turn Them Against Us Or Allies In The Region.

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.

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.

What Is Portrayed As High-minded Positions On Issues Sometimes Is Just Designed To Carve Out Some Of Their Commercial Interests.

Cathleen Falsani: What Is Sin? Barack Obama: Being Out Of Alignment With My Values.

We Need To Spend A Trillion Dollars Rebuilding Our Schools, Our Roads, Our Basic Science And Research Here In The United States.

What I've Said To [my Team] Is, "look, We Ran Our Leg Of The Race And We Did A Darn Good Job."

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.

Like No Other Illness, Aids Tests Our Ability To Put Ourselves In Someone Else's Shoes - To Empathize With The Plight Of Our Fellow Man. While Most Would Agree That The Aids Orphan Or The Transfusion Victim Or The Wronged Wife Contracted The Disease Through No Fault Of Their Own, It Has Too Often Been Easy For Some To Point To The Unfaithful Husband Or The Promiscuous Youth Or The Gay Man And Say This Is Your Fault. You Have Sinned. I Don't Think That's A Satisfactory Response. My Faith Reminds Me That We All Are Sinners.

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

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change.

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.

[a] Family With Two Kids That Earns The Minimum Wage Still Lives Below The Poverty Line. That's Wrong. That's Why, Since The Last Time This Congress Raised The Minimum Wage, 19 States Have Chosen To Bump Theirs Even Higher. Tonight, Let's Declare That In The Wealthiest Nation On Earth, No One Who Works Full-time Should Have To Live In Poverty, And Raise The Federal Minimum Wage To $9 An Hour.

The Truth Of The Matter Is That The Problem Of Police Shootings And Reactions In The Community.

If You're Saying That Prime Minister [benjamin] Netanyahu Got Fired Up, He's Been Fired Up Repeatedly During The Course Of My Presidency, Around The Iran Deal And Around Our Consistent Objection To Settlements.

Effective Immediately, We Will Only Pursue Phone Calls That Are Two Steps Removed From A Number Associated With A Terrorist Organization Instead Of Three.

If You're Really Concerned About Deficits, You Cannot Take Seriously A Budget That Would Give $30 Billion A Year Worth Of Tax Cuts To Not Just The Top 1 Percent But The Top 0.1 Percent.

I Think At A Certain Age I Became Conscious Of The Power Of Words. And It Was Fairly Late. I Was Kind Of A Goofball - But I Was Always Subconsciously Thinking About Issues.

If You Want A Model For What Is Possible, If You Want To See How To Build A Peaceful And Prosperous And Dynamic Society, Then Look At Berlin And Look At Germany.

[michelle Obama] Was The Hardest Sell. And She Never Fully Embraced Being In The Public Spotlight, Which Is Ironic, Given How Good She Is.

Just As Black Anger Often Proved Counterproductive, So Have These White Resentments Distracted Attention From The Real Culprits Of The Middle Class Squeeze - A Corporate Culture Rife With Inside Dealing, Questionable Accounting Practices, And Short-term Greed.

The Other Reason Might Be That You Want To Talk To Voters When You've Got Seven Primaries In Seven Days. Understand What's Happened In This Race - Where We Campaign Actively In A State, And Voters Have The Chance To See Me Directly, They Check Under The Hood, And They Kick The Tires, When We Don't Have As Much Time.

We, The People, Recognize That We Have Responsibilities As Well As Rights; That Our Destinies Are Bound Together; That A Freedom Which Only Asks What's In It For Me, A Freedom Without A Commitment To Others, A Freedom Without Love Or Charity Or Duty Or Patriotism, Is Unworthy Of Our Founding Ideals, And Those Who Died In Their Defense.

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

And So You [young Americans]need To Be The Idea Generation. The Generation Who's Always Thinking On The Cutting Edge, Who's Wondering How To Create And Keep The Next Wave Of American Jobs And American Innovations, Who's Figuring Out How To Out-compete The Idea Generations Of Indias And Chinas Of The World.

If We Are Going To Solve The Challenges We Face, You Need A President Who Will Pursue Genuine Solutions Day In And Day Out. And That Is My Commitment To You. We Need Immigration Reform That Will Secure Our Borders, And Punish Employers Who Exploit Immigrant Labor; Reform That Finally Brings The 12 Million People Who Are Here Illegally Out Of The Shadows By Requiring Them To Take Steps To Become Legal Citizens. We Must Assert Our Values And Reconcile Our Principles As A Nation Of Immigrants And A Nation Of Laws. That Is A Priority I Will Pursue From My Very First Day.

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.

Since Taking Office, I've Made It Clear That The United States Was Prepared To Begin A New Chapter Of Engagement With The Islamic Republic Of Iran. We Offered The Iranian Government A Clear Choice. It Could Fulfill Its International Obligations And Realize Greater Security, Deeper Economic And Political Integration With The World, And A Better Future For All Iranians. Or It Could Continue To Flout Its Responsibilities And Face Even More Pressure And Isolation.

When All Americans Are Treated As Equal We Are All More Free.

Marriage Equality

I Refuse To Condemn Your Generation And Future Generations To A Planet That's Beyond Fixing.

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.

Sanctions Alone Could Not Stop Iran's Nuclear Program. But They Did Help Bring Iran To The Negotiating Table.

[my Grandmother] Is A Typical White Person.

In Our Democracy And Our Civic Discourse, It Seems As If Folks Who Take Religion The Most Seriously Are Sometimes Also Those Who Are Suspicious Of Those Not Like Them.

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.

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

We've Evolved A Lot Since 9/11 Also, In Terms Of Our Law Enforcement Capabilities, Our Intelligence Capabilities, Military, Counterterrorism.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer A Christian Nation

We Should Not Anticipate That Every Time Countries Come Together That We Are Doing Some Revolutionary Thing. Instead Of Hitting Home Runs, Sometimes We're Going To Hit Singles.

Even As Ramadan Holds Profound Meaning For The World’s 1.5 Billion Muslims, It Is Also A Reminder To People Of All Faiths Of Our Common Humanity And The Commitment To Justice, Equality, And Compassion Shared By All Great Faiths. In That Spirit, I Wish Muslims Across America And Around The World A Blessed Month, And I Look Forward To Again Hosting An Iftar Dinner Here At The White House. Ramadan Kareem.

Let's Say I'm On The Policy Wonk End Of The Spectrum. As Much As I Can Dive Into A Briefing Book And Really Work To Master Various Subjects That Come Before My Desk, I'm Still Not An Expert On A Huge Amount Of The Stuff That We Work On.

What Do You Think A Stimulus Is? It’s Spending - That's The Whole Point! Seriously.

I've Always Wanted To Come To Greece.

One Thing You Learn In This Job [being Us President] Is That Even If Something's Not Your Fault, You're Still Responsible. And That's How It Should Be.

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.

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.

All Across The World, ...increasingly Dangerous Weather Patterns And Devastating Storms Are Abruptly Putting An End To The Long-running Debate Over Whether Or Not Climate Change Is Real. Not Only Is It Real, It's Here, And Its Effects Are Giving Rise To A Frighteningly New Global Phenomenon: The Man-made Natural Disaster.

I Know That Campaigns Can Seem Small, And Even Silly. Trivial Things Become Big Distractions. Serious Issues Become Sound Bites. And The Truth Gets Buried Under An Avalanche Of Money And Advertising. If You're Sick Of Hearing Me Approve This Message, Believe Me - So Am I.

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.

If You Want To Get At African American Poverty, The Income Gap, Wealth Gap, Achievement Gap, That The Most Important Thing Is To Make Sure That The Society As A Whole Does Right By People Who Are Poor, Are Working Class, Are Aspiring To A Better Life For Their Kids.

Islam Has Always Been A Part Of America’s Story.... And Since Our Founding, American Muslims Have Enriched The United States.

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.

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.

It Would Be Good For The Workers In Vietnam Even As It Helps Make Sure That They're Not Undercutting Competition Here In The United States.

I Stand Here Today As Hopeful As Ever That The United States Of America Will Endure, That It Will Prevail, That The Dream Of Our Founders Will Live On In Our Time.

Some Of Donald Trump's Gifts That Obviously Allowed Him To Execute One Of The Biggest Political Upsets In History, Those Are Ones That Hopefully He Will Put To Good Use On Behalf Of All The American People.

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

America’s Possibilities Are Limitless, For We Possess All The Qualities That This World Without Boundaries Demands: Youth And Drive; Diversity And Openness; An Endless Capacity For Risk And A Gift For Reinvention. My Fellow Americans, We Are Made For This Moment, And We Will Seize It - So Long As We Seize It Together.

I'll Turn The Page On A Growing Empire Of Classified Information. We'll Protect Sources And Methods, But We Won't Use Sources And Methods To Hide The Truth.

It Is In The Interests Of All Of Us - The United States, China And The Rest Of The World - To Make Sure That The Rules Of The Road Are Upheld. These Rules And Norms Are Part Of The Foundation Of Regional Stability, And They Have Allowed Nations Across The Region, Including China, To Grow And Prosper.

[fall Of The Berlin Wall] Is A Reminder That The Commitment Of The United States, To Europe Is Enduring And It's Rooted In The Values We Share; Our Commitment To Democracy, Our Commitment To Rule Of Law, Our Commitment To The Dignity Of All People In Our Own Countries And Around The World.

The Greek People Are Entrepreneurial.

Entrepreneurial

The Fact That My 15 Minutes Of Fame Has Extended A Little Longer Than 15 Minutes Is Somewhat Surprising To Me, And A Matter Of Bewilderment For My Wife.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer Just A Christian Nation; We Are Also A Jewish Nation, A Muslim Nation, A Buddhist Nation, A Hindu Nation, And A Nation Of Nonbelievers.

It Took A Lot Of Blood, Sweat And Tears To Get To Where We Are Today, But We Have Just Begun. Today We Begin In Earnest The Work Of Making Sure That The World We Leave Our Children Is Just A Little Bit Better Than The One We Inhabit Today.

No Country Should Deny People Their Rights Because Of Who They Love, Which Is Why We Must Stand Up For The Rights Of Gays And Lesbians Everywhere.

In Dealing With Those Nations That Break Rules And Laws, I Believe That We Must Develop Alternatives To Violence That Are Tough Enough To Actually Change Behavior -- For If We Want A Lasting Peace, Then The Words Of The International Community Must Mean Something. Those Regimes That Break The Rules Must Be Held Accountable. Sanctions Must Exact A Real Price. Intransigence Must Be Met With Increased Pressure -- And Such Pressure Exists Only When The World Stands Together As One.

We Need More Responsibility, But We Need It Not Just When There's A Crisis. I Mean, We've Had Years In Which The Reigning Economic Ideology Has Been What's Good For Wall Street, But Not What's Good For Main Street.

So Here's What I Want You To Know, And Here's What I Want All Our Men And Women In Uniform To Know: Because Of You, We Are Ending These Wars In A Way That Will Make America Stronger And The World More Secure. Because Of You.

So Long As Our Relationship Is Defined By Our Differences, We Will Empower Those Who Sow Hatred Rather Than Peace, Those Who Promote Conflict Rather Than The Cooperation That Can Help All Of Our People Achieve Justice And Prosperity. This Cycle Of Suspicion And Discord Must End.

Hope Is The Bedrock Of This Nation. The Belief That Our Destiny Will Not Be Written For Us, But By Us, By All Those Men And Women Who Are Not Content To Settle For The World As It Is, Who Have The Courage To Remake The World As It Should Be.

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.

I Commended Angela [merkel] For Her Leadership Along With President Hollande In Working To Resolve The Conflict In Ukraine. We Continued To Stand With The People Of Ukraine And For The Basic Principle That Nations Have A Right To Determine Their Own Destiny And We Discussed The Importance Of Maintaining Sanctions Until Russia Fully Complies With The Minsk Agreement.

The Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure. America Has A Debt Problem And A Failure Of Leadership. Americans Deserve Better. I, Therefore, Intend To Oppose The Effort To Increase America's Debt.

When It Comes To Crime, The Violent Crime Rate In America Has Been Lowered During My Presidency And Any Time In The Last Three, Four Decades.

My Hope Is Donald Trump Makes Things Better. And If He Does, We'll All Benefit From It.

And We Remember The End Of Our Combat Mission And The Emergence Of A New Dawn - The Precision Of Our Efforts Against Al Qaeda In Iraq, The Professionalism Of The Training Of Iraqi Security Forces, And The Steady Drawdown Of Our Forces. In Handing Over Responsibility To The Iraqis, You Preserved The Gains Of The Last Four Years And Made This Day Possible.

Trending Author

Richard Branson

Category