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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.

-Barack Obama

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It Wasn't Until About

Barack Obama

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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.

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It May Be Something That Future Generations Are More Open To, But I Am Pretty Confident That For The Foreseeable Future, Using The Argument Of Nondiscrimination, And "let's Get It Right For The Kids Who Are Here Right Now," And Giving Them The Best Chance Possible, Is Going To Be A More Persuasive Argument.

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The Very Technologies That Empower Us To Do Great Good Can Also Be Used To Undermine Us And Inflict Great Harm.

Secularists Are Wrong When They Ask Believers To Leave Their Religion At The Door Before Entering Into The Public Square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - Indeed, The Majority Of Great Reformers In American History - Were Not Only Motivated By Faith, But Repeatedly Used Religious Language To Argue For Their Cause. To Say That Men And Women Should Not Inject Their "personal Morality" Into Public Policy Debates Is A Practical Absurdity.

On September 11th, 2001, In Our Time Of Grief, The American People Came Together. We Offered Our Neighbors A Hand And We Offered The Wounded Our Blood. We Reaffirmed Our Ties To Each Other And Our Love Of Community And Country. On That Day, No Matter Where We Came From, What God We Prayed To, Or What Race Or Ethnicity We Were, We Were United As One American Family.

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You're Going To Face A Choice In November. This Is A Choice Between The Policies That Got Us Into This Mess In The First Place And The Policies That Got Us Out Of This Mess - And What The Other Side Is Counting On Is People Not Having A Good Memory.

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Under My Plan Of A Cap And Trade System, Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket… Because I’m Capping Greenhouse Gasses, Coal Power Plants, Natural Gas…you Name It…whatever The Plants Were, Whatever The Industry Was, They Would Have To Retro-fit Their Operations. That Will Cost Money…they Will Pass That Money On To The Consumers.

I Don't Want You Folks To Do A Lot Of Talking. Just Shut Up And Get Out Of The Way.

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Broken Promises

Sometimes Hillary Clinton Doesn't Get The Credit She Deserves. But The Fact Is, Hillary Is Steady, And Hillary Is True.

Where We Get Into Problems, Typically, Is When Our Personal Religious Faith, Or The Community Of Faith That We Participate In, Tips Into A Sort Of Fundamentalist Extremism, In Which It's Not Enough For Us To Believe What We Believe, But We Start Feeling Obligated To, You Know, Hit You Over The Head Because You Don't Believe The Same Thing. Or To Treat You As Somebody Who's Less Than I Am.

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Through Words He Gave Voice To The Voiceless. Through Deeds He Gave Courage To The Faint Of Heart.

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Based On Current Surveys Of Public Opinion In The United States, It Turns Out That The Majority Of Americans Think I've Done A Pretty Good Job.

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

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African American

Most Americans Believe That Escalation Will Not Bring The War In Iraq To A Responsible End, And That's Why I've Proposed Not Just A Troop Cap, But A Phased Redeployment That Will Start Bringing Our Troops Home.

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

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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.

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Across The Globe There Are Girls Who Will One Day Lead Nations, If Only We Afford Them The Chance To Choose Their Own Destinies.

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

The Problem Is That Young People Are Less Likely To Vote Than Older People. What Results Is A Situation In Which Sometimes The Elections Don't Fully Reflect The Views Of The American Population.

The Truth Is That America Has Been Closely Divided Politically For Quite Some Time. That Was Reflected In Some Of The Challenges I Had With The Republican Congress.

Many Of Our Ideas Of Democracy, So Much Of Our Literature And Philosophy And Science Can Be Traced Back To Roots Right Here In Athens.

There Is No Excuse For Not Trying.

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Winnie The Pooh Seems To Me To Be A Fundamental Text On National Security.

National Security

We Long For Unity, But Are Unwilling To Pay The Price. But Of Course, True Unity Cannot Be So Easily Won. It Starts With A Change In Attitudes - A Broadening Of Our Minds, And A Broadening Of Our Hearts.

The Shadow Of Crisis Has Passed, And The State Of The Union Is Strong.

What Is Required Of Us Now Is A New Era Of Responsibility - A Recognition, On The Part Of Every American, That We Have Duties To Ourselves, Our Nation, And The World, Duties That We Do Not Grudgingly Accept But Rather Seize Gladly, Firm In The Knowledge That There Is Nothing So Satisfying To The Spirit, So Defining Of Our Character, Than Giving Our All To A Difficult Task. This Is The Price And The Promise Of Citizenship.

Being Attentive To Inequality And Not Tone Deaf To It. But Offering Prescriptions That Are Actually Going To Help Folks In Communities That Feel Forgotten. That's Going To Be Our Most Important Strategy. And I Think We Can Successfully Do That.

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?

In Many Ways [those Middle-aged Black Ladies] My Touchstone, Because They Are What I Meant When I Talked About The Audacity Of Hope.

We Ask Our Men And Women In Uniform To Leave Their Families, Our Guardsmen And Reservists To Leave Their Jobs. We Ask You To Fight, To Sacrifice, To Risk Your Lives For Your Country. The Last Thing You Should Have To Do Is Fight For A Job When You Come Home.

Those Who Oppose Reform Will Also Tell You That Under Our Plan, You Won't Get To Choose Your Doctor - That Some Bureaucrat Will Choose For You. That's Also Not True.

As A Nuclear Power - As The Only Nuclear Power To Have Used A Nuclear Weapon - The United States Has A Moral Responsibility To Act.

Nuclear Terrorism

Do I Need To Apologize For Mr.[tom] Coburn's Statements? Because I Certainly Don't Agree With Those, Either.

It's Time To End The Hypocrisy Of Those Who Accumulate Wealth Through The Global Economy, And Then Siphon Funds To Those Who Teach Children To Tear It Down.

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

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.

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.

America, We Weaken Our Ties When We Allow Our Political Dialogue To Become So Corrosive That People Of Good Character Aren't Even Willing To Enter Into Public Service; So Coarse With Rancor That Americans With Whom We Disagree Are Seen Not Just As Misguided But As Malevolent. We Weaken Those Ties When We Define Some Of Us As More American Than Others, When We Write Off The Whole System As Inevitably Corrupt, And When We Sit Back And Blame The Leaders We Elect Without Examining Our Own Role In Electing Them.

I Would Love To See An America Where Race Is Understood In The Same Way That The Ethnic Diversity Of The White Population Is Understood.

I Know What The Counterterrorism Feels Like Because I Was There. But I Also Operated Within Limits. And Within The United States Government, We've Decided Long Ago That There Are Limits On What We're Going To Do In The War Against Terrorism.

At Least Romney And Mccain, They Respect The Rule Of Law. At Least Romney And Mccain, They Understand Their Limitations.

I Know Cnn Has Taken Some Knocks Lately But The Fact Is, I Admire Their Commitment To Covering All Sides Of The Story, Just In Case One Of Them Happens To Be Accurate.

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All The Strands Of My Life Came Together And I Really Became A Man When I Moved To Chicago.

Those Who Are Troubled By Our Existing Programs Are Not Interested In A Repeat Of 9/11, And Those Who Defend These Programs Are Not Dismissive Of Civil Liberties. The Challenge Is Getting The Details Right, And That's Not Simple.

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.

Jerusalem Will Remain The Capital Of Israel, And It Must Remain Undivided.

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.

A Political Consultant, When We First Started Thinking About Senate Race, Said, "you Can Have One Funny Name. You Can Be 'barack Smith.' Or You Can Be 'joe Obama.' But 'barack Obama' - That's Not Gonna Work."

It Is Important To Combine Structural Reforms And Good Fiscal Stewardship With A Growth Strategy, Because When Your Economy's Growing And More Revenue's Coming In, That Helps Relieve Debt.

Nothing Is More Powerful Than The Black Church Experience. A Good Choir And A Good Sermon In The Black Church, It's Pretty Hard Not To Be Move And Be Transported.

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.

We Had To Get Out Of Chicago So Quick. Election Night Happens, Suddenly I'm Talking To Ben Bernanke And Hank Paulson And Trying To Figure Out Whether The World's Going To Fly Apart, And Michelle Is Trying To Figure Out Where The Girls Are Going To Go To School. And We Pack Up And Leave And Basically Our House In Chicago Just Became Like A Time Capsule. My Desk In My Home Office Still Had Stacks Of Articles And Bills And Stuff From 2008.

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.

We Think Of Faith As A Source Of Comfort And Understanding But Find Our Expressions Of Faith Sowing Division; We Believe Ourselves To Be A Tolerant People Even As Racial, Religious, And Cultural Tensions Roil The Landscape. And Instead Of Resolving These Tensions Or Mediating These Conflicts, Our Politics Fans Them, Exploits Them,and Drives Us Further Apart.

Well, I Think That When You Think About The Challenges We Face, These Are Challenges That Require Us To Look Forward And Not Backwards. When It Comes To The Economy I Think We Have To Recognize That We Are Now In A Global Economy. And That The Measure Of Our Success Is: How Well Are We Training Our Workers? How Well Are We Investing In The New Energy Economy?

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

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

I Was Able To See Faith As More Than Just A Comfort To The Weary Or A Hedge Against Death; Rather, It Was An Active, Palpable Agent In The World.

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.

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

Not Much Happens In Russian Federation Without Vladimir Putin.

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

The Banks, Because Of Mismanagement, Because Of Huge Risk Taking, Are Now In Very Vulnerable Positions. We Can Expect That We're Gonna Have To Do More To Shore Up The Financial System. We Also Are Gonna Have To Make Sure That We Set Up Financial Regulations So That Not Only Does This Never Happen Again, But You Start Having Some Sort Of - Trust In How The Credit Markets Work Again.

I Do Not Want Two Classes Of Citizens In This Country. I Want Everybody To Prosper. That's Going To Be A Top Priority.

We Do Not Want To Keep Our Troops In Afghanistan. We See No Military - We Seek No Military Bases There. It Is Agonizing For America To Lose Our Young Men And Women. It Is Costly And Politically Difficult To Continue This Conflict. We Would Gladly Bring Every Single One Of Our Troops Home If We Could Be Confident That There Were Not Violent Extremists In Afghanistan And Now Pakistan Determined To Kill As Many Americans As They Possibly Can.

I Don't Want To Make Promises, Not Knowing What The Situation's Going To Be Three Or Four Years Out.

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.

This Is A Time Of Great Change In The World But America's Always Been A Pillar Of Strength And A Beacon Of Hope To Peoples Around The Globe And That's What It Must Continue To Be.

Tonight, More Americans Are Out Of Work And More Are Working Harder For Less. More Of You Have Lost Your Homes And Even More Are Watching Your Home Values Plummet. More Of You Have Cars You Can't Afford To Drive, Credit Card Bills You Can't Afford To Pay, And Tuition That's Beyond Your Reach.

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

Nobody's Changing What You've Got. You Get To Keep It.

We Cannot Stop Every Act Of Senseless Violence. We Cannot Know Every Evil That Lurks In Troubled Minds. But If We Can Prevent Even One Tragedy Like This, Save Even One Life, Spare Other Families What These Families Are Going Through, Surely We've Got An Obligation To Try.

You And I, As Citizens, Have The Obligation To Shape The Debates Of Our Time, Not Only With The Votes We Cast, But The Voices We Lift In Defense Of Our Most Ancient Values And Enduring Ideas.

I'm Not Just A Candidate, I'm The President

I Believe Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman. I Am Not In Favor Of Gay Marriage.

For The First Time In Our History, The Winners Of The White House Turkey Pardon Were Chosen Through A Highly Competitive Online Vote. And Once Again, Nate Silver Completely Nailed It. The Guy Is Amazing.

I'm A Warrior For The Middle Class.

Abraham Lincoln And Millard Fillmore Had The Same Title. They Were Both Presidents Of The United States, But Their Tenure In Office And Their Legacy Could Not Be More Different.

We Have To Stand Up For These Issues When It's Tough, And That's What I've Done. I Did It When I Was In The State Legislature, Sponsoring The Illinois Version Of The Dream Act, So That Children Who Were Brought Here Through No Fault Of Their Own Are Able To Go To College, Because We Actually Want Well-educated Kids In Our Country Who Are Able To Succeed And Become Part Of This Economy And Part Of The American Dream.

Because Our Right To Worship Freely And Safely, That Right Was Denied To Christians In Charleston, South Carolina, And That Was Denied Jews In Kansas City, And That Was Denied Muslims In Chapel Hill, And Sikhs In Oak Creek. They Had Rights Too. Our Right To Peaceful Assembly, That Right Was Robbed From Movie Goers In Aurora And Lafayette.

We Have To All Shoulder The Responsibility For Keeping The Planet Habitable, Or We're Going To Suffer The Consequences - Together.

As A Student Of History, I Also Know Civilization's Debt To Islam.

I'm Never Surprised By Controversies That Are Whipped Up In Washington.

Leaving The Broken System The Way It Is, That`s Not A Solution.

I Have Become A Symbol Of The Possibility Of America Returning To Our Best Traditions.

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.

To Ensure Prosperity Here At Home And Peace Abroad, We All Share The Belief We Have To Maintain The Strongest Military On The Planet.

I Think I Have An Ongoing Conversation With God. I Think Throughout The Day, I'm Constantly Asking Myself Questions About What I'm Doing, Why Am I Doing It.

We Can Make Sure That People Who Don't Have Health Insurance Can Buy Into An Insurance Pool That Gives Them Better Bargaining Power.

Rather Than Double-down On The Top-down Economics That Let A Fortunate Few Play By Their Own Rules, Let’s Embrace An Economic Patriotism That Says We Rise Or Fall Together, As One Nation, And As One People.

This Idea That America Is Somehow On The Verge Of Collapse, This Vision Of Violence And Chaos Everywhere, Doesn't Really Jibe With The Experience Of Most People.

I Believe In American Exceptionalism, Just As I Suspect That The Brits Believe In British Exceptionalism And The Greeks Believe In Greek Exceptionalism.

Let's Face It, Fox News, You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone. It'll Be Harder To Convince The Public That Hillary Clinton Was Born In Kenya.

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'd Like To Think That "president Obama Believed Deeply In This Democracy And The American People."

The Supreme Court Nominations [example]. I Mean, The Fact That Mitch Mcconnell, The Leader Of The Republicans, Was Able To Just Stop A Nomination Almost A Year Before The Next Election And Really Not Pay A Political Price For It, That's A Sign That The Incentives For Politicians In This Town To Be So Sharply Partisan Have Gotten So Outta Hand That We're Weakening Ourselves.

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

Violence Against Women

The Cold War Has Been Over For A Long Time. I'm Not Interested In Having Battles That, Frankly, Started Before I Was Born.

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

If You're A Strong Man, You Should Not Feel Threatened By Strong Women.

We're Going To Achieve Our Goal. We Are Going To Degrade And Ultimately Defeat Isil.

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.'

That's Just How White Folks Will Do You. It Wasn't Merely The Cruelty Involved; I Was Learning That Black People Could Be Mean And Then Some. It Was A Particular Brand Of Arrogance, An Obtuseness In Otherwise Sane People That Brought Forth Our Bitter Laughter. It Was As If Whites Didn't Know They Were Being Cruel In The First Place. Or At Least Thought You Deserved Of Their Scorn.

I Am Not In Favor Of Concealed Weapons. I Think That Creates A Potential Atmosphere Where More Innocent People Could (get Shot During) Altercations.

You Could Analyze Me And Say That My Father Leaving And Being Absent Was A Motivator For Early Ambition, Trying To Prove Myself To This Apparition Who Had Vanished. You Could Argue That Me Being A Mixed Kid In A Place Where There Weren't A Lot Of Black Kids Around Might Have Spurred On My Ambitions. You Could Go Through A Whole Litany Of Things That Sparked Me Wanting To Do Something Important.

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