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It Is This World, A World Where Cruise Ships Throw Away More Food In A Day Than Most Residents Of Port-au-prince See In A Year, Where White Folks' Greed Runs A World In Need, Apartheid In One Hemisphere, Apathy In Another Hemisphere...that's The World! On Which Hope Sits!

-Barack Obama

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It Is This World,

Barack Obama

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It Is This World, A World Where Cruise Ships Throw Away More Food In A Day Than Most Residents Of Port-au-prince See In A Year, Where White Folks' Greed Runs A World In Need, Apartheid In One Hemisphere, Apathy In Another Hemisphere...that's The World! On Which Hope Sits!

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The Democrats Are Using The Human Trafficking Bill's Language That's Been There For 40 Years, Regarding The Use Of Federal Funds For Abortion.

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.

That Applies, By The Way, Even To Some Of The Folks Who Are Now [donald] Trump Supporters. They're Responding To A Fictional Character Named Barack Obama Who They See On Fox News Or Who They Hear About Through Rush Limbaugh.

We Can Be Civil To Each Other, And We Can Try To Express Ourselves Acknowledging That We're All Patriots, We're All Americans, And Not Assume The Absolute Worst In People's Motives.

[when I Ordered 30,000 More Troops Into Afghanistan] That Was The First Time In Which I Looked Out At A Crowd Of West Point Graduates And Knew That Some Of Those Might Not Come Back Because Of That Decision.

Now, Because He Knows That His Economic Theories Don't Work, He's Been Spending These Last Few Days Calling Me Every Name In The Book. Lately He's Called Me A Socialist For Wanting To Roll-back The Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans So We Can Finally Give Tax Relief To The Middle Class. I Don't Know What's Next. By The End Of The Week He'll Be Accusing Me Of Being A Secret Communist Because I Shared My Toys In Kindergarten. I Shared My Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich.

One Thing I Think We Have To Do Is To Make Sure That The Undocumented Workers Who Are Living In America Today, That They Have To Take Responsibility. They've Got To Register, Pay A Fine, Pay Their Back Taxes, Learn English And Then Get On A Pathway In Which They Could Have The Prospect Of Being Here Legally.

It Is The Kindness To Take In A Stranger When The Levees Break; The Selflessness Of Workers Who Would Rather Cut Their Hours Than See A Friend Lose Their Job Which Sees Us Through Our Darkest Hours. It Is The Firefighter's Courage To Storm A Stairway Filled With Smoke, But Also A Parent's Willingness To Nurture A Child, That Finally Decides Our Fate.

By The Way, You Know, Mitt Romney And Mccain, I Don't Agree With Them, But They Would Have Been Okay. I Could Have Been Satisfied With Them.

There Are Certain People In Our Popular Culture That Just Capture People's Imaginations. And In Death, They Become Even Larger. Now, I Have To Admit That It's Also Fed By A 24/7 Media That Is Insatiable.

Basically, I Am A Night Owl. My Wife Is An Early Bird, So She Goes To Bed Around 9:30, And My Kids Are In Bed About 8. So, If I Am Home, I Will Usually Start Writing About 9:30 And Go Till About 12:30 Or 1:30, Depending On What My Energy Level Is.

Let Me Even Say Before I Even Get Inaugurated, During The Transition We Are Going To Be Having Meetings All Across The Country With Community Organizations So That You Have Input Into The Agenda For The Next Presidency Of The United States Of America.

We've Got To Be Able To Have A Conversation And Recognize We're All Americans; We All Want The Best For This Country. We May Have Some Disagreements In Terms Of How To Get There, But All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong, That Jobs Are Growing. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That People Aren't Bankrupt When They Get Sick. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Young People Can Afford An Education.

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

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.

After All, There Were Thousands Of So-called Campus Radicals, Most Of Them White And Tenured And Happily Tolerated. No, It Remained Necessary To Prove Which Side You Were On, To Show Your Loyalty To The Black Masses, To Strike Out And Name Names.

Leather Jackets

The Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure... It Is A Sign That We Now Depend On Ongoing Financial Assistance From Foreign Countries To Finance Our Government's Reckless Fiscal Policies.

We, The People, Still Believe That Our Obligations As Americans Are Not Just To Ourselves, But To All Posterity.

So We Have A Choice To Make. We Can Once Again Let Washington's Bad Habits Stand In The Way Of Progress. Or We Can Pull Together And Say That In America, Our Destiny Isn't Written For Us But By Us. We Can Place Good Ideas Ahead Of Old Ideological Battles, And A Sense Of Purpose Above The Same Narrow Partisanship. We Can Act Boldly To Turn Crisis Into Opportunity And, Together, Write The Next Great Chapter In Our History And Meet The Test Of Our Time.

My Goal Is To Maintain The International Norm On Banning Chemical Weapons. I Want That Enforcement To Be Real. I Want It To Be Serious. I Want People To Understand That Gassing Innocent People, Delivering Chemical Weapons Against Children Is Not Something We Do. It's Prohibited In Active Wars Between Countries. We Certainly Don't Do It Against Kids. And We've Got To Stand Up For That Principle.

Even If The Criticism Is Not Always Perfectly Informed And In Some Cases I Would Deem Unfair, Just The Noise, Attention, Fuss Probably Keeps Powerful Officials Or Agencies On Their Toes. And They Should Be On Their Toes When It Comes To The Use Of Deadly Force.

I Think We Have Two Conflicting Traditions In This Country. I Think It's Important For Us To Recognize That We've Got A Tradition Of Handgun Ownership And Gun Ownership Generally. And A Lot Of People - Law-abiding Citizens Use If For Hunting, For Sportsmanship, And For Protecting Their Families. We Also Have A Violence On The Streets That Is The Result Of Illegal Handgun Usage. And So I Think There Is Nothing Wrong With A Community Saying We Are Going To Take Those Illegal Handguns Off The Streets.

Because As Tough As Things Have Been, I Am Convinced You Are Tougher. I've Seen Your Passion And I've Seen Your Service... I've Seen A Generation Eager, Impatient Even, To Step Into The Rushing Waters Of History And Change Its Course.

Hillary Clinton Possesses An Extraordinary Intelligence And A Remarkable Work Ethic. I Am Proud That She Will Be Our Next Secretary Of State.

We Can Choose A Future Where We Export More Products And Outsource Fewer Jobs. After A Decade That Was Defined By What We Bought And Borrowed, We're Getting Back To Basics, And Doing What America Has Always Done Best: We're Making Things Again.

Not Out Of Mere Charity, But Because Peace In Our Time Requires The Constant Advance Of Those Principles That Our Common Creed Describes; Tolerance And Opportunity, Human Dignity And Justice.

Community Colleges Play An Important Role In Helping People Transition Between Careers By Providing The Retooling They Need To Take On A New Career.

On Issues Like Ukraine, On Issues Like Syria, We've Had Very Significant Differences [with Russia].

We've Got To Identify New Strategies To Use Cleaner Energy, Because That Is A Recipe For Reducing The Overall Amount Of Pollution That's Out There.

The Bottom Line Is This - Whereas Iran Was Steadily Expanding Its Nuclear Program, We Have Now Cut Off Every Single Path That Iran Could Have Used To Build A Bomb.

Young People: I Understand This Is Important To You, But As You Be Thinking About Climate Change, The Economy And Jobs, War And Peace, Maybe Way At The Bottom You Should Be Thinking About Marijuana.

The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Slander The Prophet Of Islam

Part Of American Leadership Is Making Sure That We're Doing Nation Building Here At Home. That Will Help Us Maintain The Kind Of American Leadership That We Need.

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.

Politics Has Never Been For The Thin-skinned Or The Faint-of-heart, And If You Enter The Arena, You Should Expect To Get Roughed Up.

The Most Powerful Political Moments For Me Come When I Feel Like My Actions Are Aligned With A Certain Truth. I Can Feel It. When I'm Talking To A Group And I'm Saying Something Truthful, I Can Feel A Power That Comes Out Of Those Statements That Is Different Than When I'm Just Being Glib Or Clever.

The Only Time I Get Frustrated With Activist Criticism Is If I Have Recognized Them, And Invited Them To Work With Me To Figure Out How We Solve This Problem That They're Concerned About, And Either They Don't Engage Out Of The Sense Of Purity - "i'm Not Going To Shake His Hand" - Or You're Not Sufficiently Prepared So You Don't Even Know What To Ask For, Or You're Not Being Strategic As An Activist And Trying To Figure Out How The Process Has To Work In Order For You To Get What You Want.

Torture Is How You Create Enemies, Not How You Defeat Them.

I Get A Thick Book Full Of Death, Destruction, Strife, And Chaos. That's What I Take With My Morning Tea.

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.

We've Now Got A Group Of Young People In This Country Who For All Practical Purposes Are American. They Grew Up Here. They've Gone To School Here. They Don't Know Anything Other Than Being American Kids. But Their Parents May Have Brought Them Here Without All The Proper Paperwork - Might Have Brought Them Here When They Were Three, Might Have Brought Them Here When They Were Five. And So, Lo And Behold, By The Time They Finish School, And They're Ready To Go To College, They Find Out They Can't Go To College And, In Fact, Their Status As Americans Are Threatened.

The Belief That Peace Is Desirable Is Rarely Enough To Achieve It. Peace Requires Responsibility. Peace Entails Sacrifice.

Jason Rezaian Is Coming Home. A Courageous Journalist For The Washington Post Who Wrote About The Daily Lives And Hopes Of The Iranian People, He's Been Held For A Year And A Half. He Embodies The Brave Spirit That Gives Life To The Freedom Of The Press. Jason Has Already Been Reunited With His Wife And Mom.

We Know Hackers Steal People's Identities And Infiltrate Private E-mails. We Know Foreign Countries And Companies Swipe Our Corporate Secrets.

I Still Don't Feel Responsible For What Donald Trump Says Or Does. But I Do Feel A Responsibility As President Of The United States To Make Sure That I Facilitate A Good Transition And I Present To Him As Well, As The American People My Best Thinking, My Best Ideas About How You Move The Country Forward. To Speak Out With Respect To Areas Where I Think The Republican Party's Wrong, But To Pledge To Work With Them On Those Things That I Think Will Advance The Causes Of Security And Prosperity And Justice And Inclusiveness In America.

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.

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

My Hope Would Be That, As We're Moving Through The World Right Now, We're Able To Get That Psychological Or Emotional Peace By Seeing Very Concretely Our Kids Doing Better And Being More Hopeful And Having Greater Opportunities.

Michelle And I Don't Want Anyone Telling Us Who Our Family's Doctor Should Be - And No One Should Decide That For You Either. Under Our Proposals, If You Like Your Doctor, You Keep Your Doctor. If You Like Your Current Insurance, You Keep That Insurance. Period, End Of Story.

I Think When You're Governing, It Will Become Increasingly Apparent That If You Were To Just Eliminate Trade Deals With Mexico, For Example, Well, You've Got A Global Supply Chain. The Parts That Are Allowing Auto Plants That Were About To Shut Down To Now Employ Double Shifts Is Because They're Bringing In Some Of Those Parts To Assemble Out Of Mexico. And So It's Not As Simple As It Might Have Seemed.

Third, We Will Continue To Draw On Our Substantial Counterterrorism Capabilities To Prevent Isil Attacks. Working With Our Partners, We Will Redouble Our Efforts To Cut Off Its Funding; Improve Our Intelligence; Strengthen Our Defenses; Counter Its Warped Ideology; And Stem The Flow Of Foreign Fighters Into - And Out Of - The Middle East. And In Two Weeks, I Will Chair A Meeting Of The Un Security Council To Further Mobilize The International Community Around This Effort.

You Have To Be Organized, That You Have To Vote Even When It's Not Exciting.

I Was Able To Excite And Engage People Who Previously Hadn't Been Involved In Politics, And Part Of The Reason That I Was Able To Be Re-elected And Stay Relatively Popular In The United States Was Because Even When The Economy Was Bad Or We Had Problems, People Sensed That I Listened To Them And I Was On Their Side.

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

There Was Never A Promise That Race Relations In America Would Be Entirely Resolved During My Presidency Or Anybody's Presidency. I Mean, This Has Been A Running Thread - And - And Fault Line In American Life And American Politics Since Its Founding.

I Can Say Across Europe That Many Principles That Have Been Taken For Granted Here Around Free Speech, And Around Civil Liberties And An Independent Judiciary, And Fighting Corruption, Those Are Principles That, You Know, Not Perfectly But Generally, We Have Tried To Apply Not Just In Our Own Country But Also With Respect To Our Foreign Policy.

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

[this Upset] Means That Means Donald Trump Now Has To Transition To Governance.

This Is My Number One Priority. I've Got A Lot Of Things On My Plate. But My Top Priority Is To Defeat Isil And To Eliminate The Scourge Of This Barbaric Terrorism That's Been Taking Place Around The World. Groups Like Isil Can't Destroy Us. They Can't Defeat Us. They Don't Produce Anything. They're Not An Existential Threat To Us. It Is Very Important For Us To Not Respond With Fear.

In Five Days, You Can Turn The Page On Policies That Put Greed And Irresponsibility On Wall Street Before The Hard Work And Sacrifice Of Folks On Main Street. In Five Days, You Can Choose Policies That Invest In Our Middle Class, And Create New Jobs, And Grow This Economy, So That Everyone Has A Chance To Succeed, Not Just The Ceo, But The Secretary And Janitor, Not Just The Factory Owner, But The Men And Women On The Factory Floor.

The Politics Around Trade Has Always Been Tough, Particularly In The Democratic Party, Because People Have Memories Of Outsourcing And Job Loss.

Consistent With Section 202(d) Of The National Emergencies Act, 50 U.s.c. 1622(d), I Am Continuing For 1 Year The National Emergency Previously Declared On September 14, 2001, In Proclamation 7463, With Respect To The Terrorist Attacks Of September 11, 2001, And The Continuing And Immediate Threat Of Further Attacks On The United States. Because The Terrorist Threat Continues, The National Emergency Declared On September 14, 2001, And The Powers And Authorities Adopted To Deal With That Emergency Must Continue In Effect Beyond September 14, 2010.

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.

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.

People Call Me A Socialist Sometimes. But, No, You Gotta Meet Real Socialists. You'll Have A Sense Of What A Socialist Is.

The Same Would Be True For Something Like Social Security, Where Historically, If You Just Read The Law And The Fact That It Excluded Domestic Workers Or Agricultural Workers, You Might Not See Race In It, Unless You Knew That That Covered A Huge Chunk Of African Americans, Particularly In The South.

African American

Winston Churchill Used To Say That We, Americans, Try Every Other Option Before We Finally Do The Right Thing. After Everything Else Is Exhausted We Eventually Do The Right Thing And I Think That's True For Congress As Well. And It's Important For Americans To Remember That Politics Has Always Been Messy.

You Might Not Be Ready For Diplomacy With Beijing If You Can't Visit The Olympics Without Insulting Our Closest Ally.

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.

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

America Is, Is No Longer, Uh, What It, Uh, Could Be, Uh, What It Was Once Was, Uh, And I Say To Myself, Uh, I Don't Want That Future, Uh, For My Children.

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

The Gulf States Are Extraordinarily Suspicious Of Iran For Good Reason. They View Iran As Meddling In Their Affairs. They Have Seen Iran Level Asymmetric Attacks Against Their Facilities Or Their Interests.

If We Win All Those Fights, And Now Let's Say The Income Gap, And The Wealth Gap, And The Education Gap Have For The Most Part Been Closed - Let's Say Hypothetically, , First Of All, America As A Whole Would Be A Lot Richer.

The Surest Path To Success Is To Surround Yourself With Brilliant Women

Surround Yourself

The Federal Government And Our Democracy Is Not A Speedboat. It's An Oceanliner, As I Discovered When I Came Into Office. It Took A Lot Of Really Hard Work For Us To Make Significant Policy Changes, Even In Our First Two Years, When We Had Larger Majorities Than Mr. Trump Will Enjoy When He Comes Into Office.

The Most Expensive Care We Can Give, We're Giving Those Americans Without Insurance. It's Kind Of Stupid That We're Fighting The Notion That We Want To Quit Paying A Hidden Tax And Be Up Front About Covering People In A Way That Is Cost-effective.

The World Only Makes Sense To Me Given My Life And My Background If, In Fact, We're Not Just An Assortment Of Tribes That Can Never Understand Each Other, But That We're, Rather, One Common Humanity That Can Meet And Learn And Love Each Other.

Common Humanity

Whatever We Think Of The Past, We Must Not Be Prisoners To It.

In America, We Started The Public School System Very Early In The Century, And As A Consequence We Had More Skilled Workers Than Any Nation On Earth, Which Meant That We Were More Productive Than Any Nation On Earth.

Fdr, Jfk, Lbj [all Democratic Presidents ] We Have A Pretty Long List Of Presidents Who Maybe Were Not Entirely Forthcoming With Intelligence Information Before They Went To War, So I'd Be Cautious Against Making Legal Cases Against The Administration.

We Made America More Respected Around The World, Took On The Mantle Of Leadership In The Fight To Protect This Planet For Our Kids, And Much, Much More.

We Have A Rare Chance To Pursue A New Path, A Different, Better Future That Delivers Progress For Both Our Peoples And The Wider World. That's The Opportunity Before The Iranian People. We Need To Take Advantage Of That.

It Is Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, And Dig Deeper, And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had - To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us.

Sticking Your Head In The Sand Might Make You Feel Safer, But It’s Not Going To Protect You From The Coming Storm.

The American People Want To Make Sure That The Rules Of The Game Are Fair. And What That Means Is That If You Look At Surveys Around Americans' Attitudes On Trade, The Majority Of The American People Still Support Trade. But They're Concerned About Whether Or Not Trade Is Fair, And Whether We Get The Same Access To Other Countries' Markets That They Have With Us. Is There Just A Race To The Bottom When It Comes To Wages, And So Forth.

What The American People Understand Is That I Look At What We Need To Get Done To Keep The American People Safe And To Move Our Interests Forward, And I Make Those Decisions.

Everyone On My Team Should Be Extraordinarily Proud Of What They Have Done.

If We Are Truly Created Equal Than Truly The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well, This Ruling Will Strengthen All Of Our Communities By Offering To All Same Sex Couples The Dignity Of Marriage Across This Great Land.

The Notion That We Can Control The Flow Of Information Is Obsolete.

The Terror Attacks Have Reshaped The Campaign And May Have Given Another Boost To Donald Trump.

I Get Letters From [people Getting Insurance] Right Now. "you Saved My Child's Life." "i Did Not Have To Sell My Home When My Wife Got Sick." And That Is What, As A Policy Maker, I'm Trying To Achieve During The Short Period Of Time That I'm Here.

We Did Not Come To Fear The Future. We Came Here To Shape It.

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.'

Scientists And Engineers Ought To Stand Side By Side With Athletes And Entertainers As Role Models.

There Is No Shame In Confusion Or Fear. "there Was Only Shame In The Silence Fear Had Produced. . . . It Was The Silence That Betrayed Us."

If You're 54 Or 55, You Might Want To Listen Because This Will Affect You. The Idea, Which Was Originally Presented By Congressman Ryan, Your Running Mate, Is That We Would Give A Voucher To Seniors And They Could Go Out In The Private Marketplace And Buy Their Own Health Insurance.

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.

What I Believe Unites The People Of This Nation, Regardless Of Race Or Region Or Party, Young Or Old, Rich Or Poor, Is The Simple, Profound Belief In Opportunity For All - The Notion That If You Work Hard And Take Responsibility, You Can Get Ahead.

The Reforms We Seek Would Bring Greater Competition, Choice, Savings And Inefficiencies To Our Health Care System.

I'm Named Barack Hussein Obama. I'm African-american.

African American

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.

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

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.

As Part Of The Coalition Against Isil, We Are Putting That Terrorist Network Under Tremendous Pressure.

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

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.

The Government Can't Solve Every Problem, But An Enlightened Government Can Make Sure That People Can Work Hard For Their Dreams And Achieve Them.

It [is] That Courage That Africa Most Desperately Needs.

Like It Or Not, We Have To Have A Financial System That Is Healthy And Functioning.

Financial System

One Of The Things You Discover About Being President Is That There Are All These Rules And Norms And Laws And You Got To Pay Attention To Them.

To Young People: You Have To Stay Encouraged.

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.

American Politics Is Always Somewhat Fluid. In This Age Of Social Media, It Means That Voters Can Swing Back And Forth.

I Don't Want To Exaggerate; Having As Many African American Men As We've Had In The Criminal-justice System, And The Amount Of Time It Takes For The Damage Done By That To Wash Through Our Society And Our Communities, The Disadvantages Born Out Of Kids Being Undiagnosed With Mental-health Problems Early, Or Not Getting The Kind Of Exposure To Reading And Math When They're 4 Or 5 Or 6 Years Old, That Carries A Cost.

[american Citizenship] Captures The Enduring Idea That This Country Only Works When We Accept Certain Obligations To One Another And To Future Generations

I Wish The Country Had Fewer Lawyers And More Engineers.

A Relentless Focus On The Outward Markers Of Success Can Lead To Complacency. It Can Make You Lazy.

Funny Graduation

To Avoid Being Mistaken For A Sellout, I Chose My Friends Carefully. The More Politically Active Black Students. The Foreign Students. The Chicanos. The Marxist Professors And Structural Feminists And Punk-rock Performance Poets.

Leather Jackets

I'm Convinced We're Going To Rebuild Not Only The Auto Industry, But The Economy Better And Stronger Than Before. And At Its Heart Is Going To Be Three Powerful Words: Made In America. Made In America.

N Case You Missed It, This Week, There Was A Tragedy In Kansas. Ten Thousand People Died - An Entire Town Destroyed.

We Are Running Out Of Time

Running Out Of Time

Libya Is Still A Mess Right Now.

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

I Will Never Turn Medicare Into A Voucher. No American Should Ever Have To Spend Their Golden Years At The Mercy Of Insurance Companies. They Should Retire With The Care And Dignity They Have Earned.

Around The World, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- What They Did Was Hard. It Takes Time. It Takes More Than A Single Term. It Takes More Than A Single President. It Takes More Than A Single Individual.

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

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.

I Have Complete Confidence In Secret Service. These Guys And Gals Are Unbelievably Professional. They Know What They’re Doing And I Basically Do What They Tell Me To Do. Now, Sometimes I’m The First One To Admit That It Chafes A Little Bit Being Inside This Bubble. It’s The Hardest Adjustment Of Being President, Not Being Able To Just Take A Walk.

When It Comes To Immigration, I Have Actually Put More Money, Under My Administration, Into Border Security Than Any Other Administration Previously. We've Got More Security Resources At The Border - More National Guard, More Border Guards, You Name It - Than The Previous Administration. So We've Ramped Up Significantly The Issue Of Border Security.

We Do Not Benefit From A Relationship With China Or Any Other Country In Which We Put Our Values And Our Ideals Aside.

If You Can Look Back And Say, "the Economy's Better. Our Security's Better. The Environment's Better. Our Kids' Education Is Better," If You Can Say That You've Made Things Better, Then Considering All The Challenges Out There, You Should Feel Good. But I'm The First To Acknowledge That I Did Not Crack The Code In Terms Of Reducing This Partisan Fever.

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

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

In The Course Of A Healthy Debate, We Prioritize Different Goals, And The Different Means Of Reaching Them. But Without Some Common Baseline Of Facts, Without A Willingness To Admit New Information And Concede That Your Opponent Might Be Making A Fair Point, And That Science And Reason Matter - Then We're Going To Keep Talking Past Each Other, And We'll Make Common Ground And Compromise Impossible.

All The Good Things That Are Happening In America Don't Get Reported On A Lot.

While We May Not Live To See The Full Realization Of Our Ambition, We Will Have The Satisfaction Of Knowing That The World We Leave To Our Children Will Be Better Off For What We Did.

Know That America Is A Friend Of Each Nation And Every Man, Woman, And Child Who Seeks A Future Of Peace And Dignity...[for] We Are Shaped By Every Language And Culture, Drawn From Every End Of This Earth.

There Are Places And Moments In America Where This Nation’s Destiny Has Been Decided...selma Is Such A Place.

You're The Reason Why Selfless Soldiers Won't Be Kicked Out Of The Military Because Of Who They Are Or Who They Love.

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

Aircraft Carriers

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

Iran Has Agreed To Deepen Our Coordination As We Work To Locate Robert Levinson, Missing From Iran For More Than Eight Years. Even As We Rejoice In The Safe Return Of Others, We Will Never Forget About Bob. Each And Every Day Our Hearts Are With The Levinson Family, And We Will Not Rest Until Their Family Is Whole Again.

If War Explodes In Sudan, It Could Have A Destabilizing Effect That Creates More Space For Terrorist Activity That Could Eventually Be Directed At Our Homeland.

The Only Reason I Send A Single Young Man Or Woman In Uniform Anywhere In The World Is Because I Think It's Necessary To Keep Us Safe.

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

The Greatest Gift That Michelle And I Have Received Over The Last Eight Years Has Been The Honor Of Serving As Your President And First Lady. Together, We Fought Our Way Back From The Worst Recession In 80 Years, And Got Unemployment To A Nine-year Low.

My Administration Is Committed To Creating An Unprecedented Level Of Openness In Government. We Will Work Together To Ensure The Public Trust And Establish A System Of Transparency, Public Participation, And Collaboration. Openness Will Strengthen Our Democracy And Promote Efficiency And Effectiveness In Government.

We Were Still Able To See The Phone Records Of A Potential Terrorist Cause, We Held Them, Now You Have To Hope The Phone Company Still Has Them, You Have To Argue With Their Chief Counsel By The Time You Get Access To It, And Try To Find Out Who They've Been Talking To Before It's Too Late.

Simple Exchanges Can Break Down Walls Between Us, For When People Come Together And Speak To One Another And Share A Common Experience, Then Their Common Humanity Is Revealed. We Are Reminded That We're Joined Together By Our Pursuit Of A Life That's Productive And Purposeful, And When That Happens Mistrust Begins To Fade And Our Smaller Differences No Longer Overshadow The Things That We Share. And That's Where Progress Begins.

Common Humanity

People Take Pride In Being Irish-american And Italian-american. They Have A Particular Culture That Infuses The Whole Culture And Makes It Richer And More Interesting. I Think If We Can Expand That Attitude To Embrace African-americans And Latino-americans And Asian-americans, Then We Will Be In A Position Where All Our Kids Can Feel Comfortable With The Worlds They Are Coming Out Of, Knowing They Are Part Of Something Larger.

We Can Lead This World And Make It Safer And More Secure For Our Children And Our Grandchildren, For Generations To Come.

I Believe That The Best Measure Of Whether A Nation Is Going To Be Successful Is Whether They Are Tapping The Talents Of Their Women.

That Is The American Story. People, Just Like You, Following Their Passions, Determined To Meet The Times On Their Own Terms. They Weren't Doing It For The Money. Their Titles Weren't Fancy. But They Changed The Course Of History And So Can You.

The Leaders We Revere And The Businesses That Last Are Generally Not The Result Of A Narrow Pursuit Of Popularity Or Personal Advancement, But Of Devotion To Some Bigger Purpose. That's The Hallmark Of Real Success. The Other Trapping Of Success Might Be The By Product Of This Larger Mission, But It Can't Be The Central Thing.

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?

But If You - If What - The Reports Are True, What They're Saying Is, Is That As A Consequence Of Us Getting 30 Million Additional People Health Care, At The Margins That's Going To Increase Our Costs, We Knew That.

We Have To Be Successful At The Cutting-edge Industries Of The Future Like Twitter. But We Also Have Always Been A Country That Makes Stuff.

Being Successful

It Should Be The Power Of Our Vote, Not The Size Of Our Bank Accounts, That Drives Our Democracy

The Science [of Global Warming] Is Beyond Dispute... Delay Is No Longer An Option. Denial Is No Longer An Acceptable Response

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

This Victory Alone Is Not The Change We Seek; It Is Only The Chance For Us To Make That Change.

The Next Phase And This Is Part Of What I'm Interested In Doing After I Get Out Of The Presidency Is To Make Sure That I'm Working With That Next Generation So That They Understand You Can't Just Rely On Inspiration. There's A Little Perspiration Involved In Bringing About Change Too. That You Have To Be Organized, That You Have To Vote Even When It's Not Exciting.

I Will Work Every Single Day To Make Sure That America Continues To Be The Greatest Nation On Earth.

Your Voice Can Change The World.

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.

The Most Important Thing We Can Do Is To Make Sure That We've Got Very High Standards, We Expect A Lot Out Of All Of Our Young People, And We Make Sure That We Have The Best Teachers Possible In Every Classroom.

Women Deserve Equal Pay For Equal Work.

One Of The Things I Think The Next President Has To Do Is To Stop Fanning People's Fears. If We Spend All Our Time Feeding The American People Fear And Conflict And Division, Then They Become Fearful And Conflicted And Divided. And If We Feed Them Hope And We Feed Them Reason And Tolerance, Then They Will Become Tolerant And Reasonable And Hopeful.

I Actually Believe In Redistribution (of Wealth)

Redistribution Of Wealth

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 Think Marriage Is A Civil Right, But I Think That Being Able To Transfer Property Is A Civil Right.

We've Had Every Official In Hawaii, Democrat And Republican, Every News Outlet That Has Investigated This, Confirm That, Yes, In Fact, I Was Born In Hawaii, Aug. 4, 1961, In Kapiolani Hospital.

Their Foreign Policy Is So Disjointed, Confusing, And Chaotic That, Really, People Need To Reexamine Those Who Want To Be Involved In Every War.

We've Subsidized Oil Companies For A Century. That's Long Enough. It's Time To End The Taxpayer Giveaways To An Industry That Rarely Has Been More Profitable, And Double-down On A Clean Energy Industry That Never Has Been More Promising. Pass Clean Energy Tax Credits. Create These Jobs.

Hunter Pence Eats Pizza With A Fork.

I Can No More Disown (jeremiah Wright) Than I Can Disown The Black Community. I Can No More Disown Him Than I Can My White Grandmother - A Woman Who Helped Raise Me, A Woman Who Sacrificed Again And Again For Me, A Woman Who Loves Me As Much As She Loves Anything In This World, But A Woman Who Once Confessed Her Fear Of Black Men Who Passed By Her On The Street, And Who On More Than One Occasion Has Uttered Racial Or Ethnic Stereotypes That Made Me Cringe.

You Know, I Think That We Are Going To Be Ok. Look, Malia Is 10, So Three Years From Now She Is 13. Who Knows What Happens To Teenagers?

What We Have Done, I Think, Is Build A Model From A Lot Of Hard Lessons In Afghanistan And Iraq But In Other Places Around The World, Where We Are Working With Them In An Advisory Capacity.

Now, Today, Some Children Are Enrolled In Excellent Programs. Some Children Are Enrolled In Mediocre Programs. And Some Are Wasting Away Their Most Formative Years In Bad Programs....that's Why I'm Issuing A Challenge To Our States: Develop A Cutting-edge Plan To Raise The Quality Of Your Early Learning Programs; Show Us How You'll Work To Ensure That Children Are Better Prepared For Success By The Time They Enter Kindergarten. If You Do, We Will Support You With An Early Learning Challenge Grant That I Call On Congress To Enact.

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

There Are Patriots Who Opposed The War In Iraq And There Are Patriots Who Supported The War In Iraq. We Are One People, All Of Us Pledging Allegiance To The Stars And Stripes, All Of Us Defending The United States Of America.

The Problem Is That, Over Time, Big Pieces Of Business That Have To Get Done Without Leadership From Washington, Don't Get Done.

You Can't Just Heely Away From Your Problems Forever

I Think The Most Important Thing For The Public And The Press Is To Just Listen To What Donald Trump Says And Follow Up And Ask Questions About What Appear To Be Either Contradictory Or Uninformed Or Outright Wacky Ideas.

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

Is This Money Well Spent? This Is Taxpayer Money, It Is Going To Be Adding To The Deficit Short Term And If We Can't Justify It, Then We're Not Going To Spend Tens Or Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars, Just To Make Somebody Happy, If It's Not Good For The Economy.

Now You Have A Choice: We Can Give More Tax Breaks To Corporations That Ship Jobs Overseas, Or We Can Start Rewarding Companies That Open New Plants And Train New Workers And Create New Jobs Here, In The United States Of America.

If You're Looking For The Safe Choice, You Shouldn't Be Supporting A Black Guy Named Barack Obama To Be The Next Leader Of The Free World.

That Is The True Genius Of America, A Faith In The Simple Dreams Of Its People, The Insistence On Small Miracles. That We Can Say What We Think, Write What We Think, Without Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Have An Idea And Start Our Own Business Without Paying A Bribe Or Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Participate In The Political Process Without Fear Of Retribution, And That Our Votes Will Be Counted.

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

I've Made It Clear For Years That The Threat From Iran Is Grave.

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.

Here's The Truth: The Soviet Union Had Thousands Of Nuclear Weapons, And Iran Doesn't Have A Single One. But When The World Was On The Brink Of Nuclear Holocaust, Kennedy Talked To Khrushchev And He Got Those Missiles Out Of Cuba. Why Shouldn't We Have The Same Courage And The Confidence To Talk To Our Enemies? That's What Strong Countries Do, That's What Strong Presidents Do, That's What I'll Do When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

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.

Everybody Knows Politics Is A Contact Sport.

In That Kind Of Environment, Where There's So Much Skepticism About Information That's Coming In, We're Gonna Have To Spend A Lot More Time Thinking About How Do We Protect Our Democratic Process.

Even Limited Military Actions End Up Carrying With Them Great Costs And Unintended Consequences.

I Have No Patience With People Who Go Around Blowing Up Innocent People.

He [barack Obama] Talked About Deficit Reduction. This Got Me He Was Talking About How The Deficit's Being Reduced Faster In The Last 60 Years. That's Because He's Collected More Taxes. That's Like Bragging That You Paid Your Rent After You Robbed A Bank. It Makes No Sense.

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