Background Image

...

My Second Piece Of Advice Is To Stay Global. As The World Continues To Change And We Become More Connected To Each Other, Globalization Will Bring Both Benefits And Disruptions To Our Lives. But Either Way, It's Here, And It's Not Going Away.

-Barack Obama

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

My Second Piece Of

Barack Obama

...

My Second Piece Of Advice Is To Stay Global. As The World Continues To Change And We Become More Connected To Each Other, Globalization Will Bring Both Benefits And Disruptions To Our Lives. But Either Way, It's Here, And It's Not Going Away.

Views: 7

Topic

More From Barack Obama

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.

We Can Give Our Intelligence And Law Enforcement Community The Powers They Need To Track Down And Take Out Terrorists Without Undermining Our Commitment To The Rule Of Law, Or Our Basic Rights And Liberties.

It's Not Because John Mccain Doesn't Care. It's Because John Mccain Doesn't Get It.

Campaigning Is Different From Governing.

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.

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 You Engage And I've Seen You Turn Out In Record Numbers. I've Heard Your Voices Amplified By Creativity And A Digital Fluency That Those Of Us In Older Generations Can Barely Comprehend. I've Seen A Generation Eager, Impatient Even, To Step Into The Rushing Waters Of History And Change Its Course.

Those Who Threaten Israel Threaten Us. Israel Has Always Faced These Threats On The Frontlines. And I Will Bring To The White House An Unshakable Commitment To Israel's Security. That Starts With Insuring Israel's Qualitative Military Advantage. I Will Insure That Israel Can Defend Itself From Any Threat - From Gaza To Tehran.

Many Of You Know That I Got My Name, Barack, From My Father. What You May Not Know Is Barack Is Actually Swahili For 'that One.' And I Got My Middle Name From Somebody Who Obviously Didn't Think I'd Ever Run For President.

Although We May Come From Vastly Different Stories And Very Different Walks Of Life, We Are One People Who Possess Common Values And Common Ideals; Who Celebrate Individual Excellence But Also Share A Recognition That Together, We Can Accomplish Great And Wonderful Things We Can't Accomplish Alone.

Together We Can

The Only Resolution Is For The Aspirations Of Both Sides To Be Met Through Two States, Where Israelis And Palestinians Each Live In Peace And Security. ... Israelis Must Acknowledge That Just As Israel's Right To Exist Cannot Be Denied, Neither Can Palestine's. The United States Does Not Accept The Legitimacy Of Continued Israeli Settlements.

We Remember The Surge And We Remember The Awakening -- When The Abyss Of Chaos Turned Toward The Promise Of Reconciliation. By Battling And Building Block By Block In Baghdad, By Bringing Tribes Into The Fold And Partnering With The Iraqi Army And Police, You Helped Turn The Tide Toward Peace.

The Easiest Way To Save Money Is To Waste Less Energy.

We Will Kill Bin Laden. We Will Crush Al Qaeda. That Has To Be Our Biggest National Security Priority.

Guaranteed, Full Stop, Nobody Gets Treated Differently When It Comes To The Justice Department, Because Nobody Is Above The Law.

Tonight, I Can Report To The American People And To The World That The United States Has Conducted An Operation That Killed Osama Bin Laden, The Leader Of Al Qaeda, And A Terrorist Who's Responsible For The Murder Of Thousands Of Innocent Men, Women, And Children.

They Assert That Their Program Is Purely Peaceful. . . . We Want Them To Demonstrate Clearly In The Actions They Propose That They Have Truly Abandoned Any Nuclear Weapons Ambition.

If We're Trying To Protect The American Public, We Should Not Put In Place A Travel Ban.

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.

Now, I Swore An Oath To Uphold The Laws On The Books... Now, I Know Some People Want Me To Bypass Congress And Change The Laws On My Own... Believe Me, The Idea Of Doing Things On My Own Is Very Tempting. I Promise You. Not Just On Immigration Reform. But That's Not How - That's Not How Our System Works. That's Not How Our Democracy Functions. Thats Not How Our Constitution Is Written.

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

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

I Know There Are Problems That I Say To Myself, If Maybe I Was A Little More Gifted I Might Have Been Able To Solve. But That's Not Because I Believe What I Did Was A Mistake. It's That Maybe It Required The Talents Of A Lincoln.

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

Islam Has Always Been Part Of America

We Continue To Urge China And Other Claimants To Work Constructively To Resolve These Disagreements, So That The South China Sea - Which Is So Vital To The Global Economy - Can Be Defined By Commerce And Cooperation.

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

My Hope And Expectation Is That Regardless Of What Donald Trump Said During The Campaign, He's Going To Have To Look Carefully At The Realities When He Moves Forward.

I Went Through Six Years Of Battles On Health Care Because I Didn't Have $100 Million Worth Of Advertising Saying How It Would Never Work.

If You Look At The Current Mosul Campaign Against Isil, For Example The Few Thousand Troops That We Have There To Support That Effort Allows The Iraqi Military To Move Forward In An Effective Way.

Every Three Weeks, We Bring Online As Much Solar Power As We Did In All Of 2008...that’s Why, Over The Past Six Years, We’ve Done More Than Ever Before To Combat Climate Change, From The Way We Produce Energy, To The Way We Use It.

Buy Health Insurance, Or Go To Jail.

I Think The American People Have A Generous Instinct. They Understand That We're A Nation Of Immigrants. But If Those Folks Are Going To Live In This Country, They Have To Be Put On A Pathway To Citizenship That Involves Them Paying A Fine, Making Sure That They Are At The Back Of The Line And Not Cutting In Front Of People Who Applied Legally To Come Into The Country.

If You Want Some Additional Money For Your School, We'll Give It To You. But You've Got To Compete, Show Us That You're Going To Reform Your Education System So That Our Children Are Performing Better.

It Will Be Up To Each Of You To Make Sure That Young People, African Americans, Latinos And Women Who Powered Our Victory In 2008 Stand Together Once Again.

African American

Libya Is Still A Mess Right Now.

Slowly, But Surely, We Are Moving In The Right Direction. We're On The Right Track. The Economy Is Getting Stronger

The Government Has To Treat All Citizens Equally. I Am A Strong Supporter Not Of A Weak Version Of Civil Unions, But Of A Strong Version, In Which The Rights That Are Conferred At The Federal Level To Persons Who Are Part Of The Same-sex Union Are Compatible. When It Comes To Federal Rights, The Over 1,100 Rights That Right Now Are Not Being Given To Same-sex Couples, I Think That's Unacceptable.

No Matter How Much You've Done, Or How Successful You've Been, There's Always More To Do, Always More To Learn, And Always More To Achieve.

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.

I Am Very Proud Of The Fact I Do Not Cheat When I'm Playing Golf.

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

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

I Want To Reform The Tax Code So That It's Simple, Fair, And Asks The Wealthiest Households To Pay Higher Taxes On Incomes Over $250,000 - The Same Rate We Had When Bill Clinton Was President; The Same Rate We Had When Our Economy Created Nearly 23 Million New Jobs, The Biggest Surplus In History, And A Lot Of Millionaires To Boot.

Long Before Being Nerdy Was Cool, There Was Leonard Nimoy. Leonard Was A Lifelong Lover Of The Arts And Humanities, A Supporter Of The Sciences, Generous With His Talent And His Time. And Of Course, Leonard Was Spock. Cool, Logical, Big-eared And Level-headed, The Center Of Star Trek’s Optimistic, Inclusive Vision Of Humanity’s Future. I Loved Spock.

What The American People Hope - What They Deserve - Is For All Of Us, Democrats And Republicans, To Work Through Our Differences; To Overcome The Numbing Weight Of Our Politics. For While The People Who Sent Us Here Have Different Backgrounds, Different Stories, Different Beliefs, The Anxieties They Face Are The Same. The Aspirations They Hold Are Shared: A Job That Pays The Bills; A Chance To Get Ahead; Most Of All, The Ability To Give Their Children A Better Life.

The Biggest Deficit That We Have In Our Society And In The World Right Now Is An Empathy Deficit. We Are In Great Need Of People Being Able To Stand In Somebody Else's Shoes And See The World Through Their Eyes.

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.

I Think There Are Hard-liners Inside Of Iran That Think It Is The Right Thing To Do To Oppose Us, To Seek To Destroy Israel, To Cause Havoc In Places Like Syria Or Yemen Or Lebanon, If They Don't Change At All, We're Still Better Off Having The Deal.

I Would Not Have The Justice Department Prosecuting And Raiding Medical Marijuana Users. It's Not A Good Use Of Our Resources.

I Don`t Think The Donald Trump`s Qualified To Be President Of The United States, And Every Time He Speaks, That Opinion Is Confirmed.

I Don’t Believe It Is Possible To Transcend Race In This Country. Race Is A Factor In This Society. The Legacy Of Jim Crow And Slavery Has Not Gone Away. It Is Not An Accident That African-americans Experience High Crime Rates, Are Poor, And Have Less Wealth. It Is A Direct Result Of Our Racial History.

Nobody Wants To Put The Creditworthiness Of The United States In Jeopardy. Nobody Wants To See The United States Default. So We've Got To Seize This Moment, And We Have To Seize It Soon.

I Found During The Course Of My Political Career On The National Scene There's A Point Where The Vanity Burns Away And You've Had Your Fill Of Your Name In The Papers, Or Big Adoring Crowds, Or The Exercise Of Power. And For Me That Happened Fairly Quickly. And Then You Are Really Focused On: What Am I Going To Get Done With This Strange Privilege That's Been Granted To Me? How Do I Make Myself Worthy Of It?

I Think That Canada Is One Of The Most Impressive Countries In The World, The Way It Has Managed A Diverse Population, A Migrant Economy. The Natural Beauty Of Canada Is Extraordinary. Obviously There Is Enormous Kinship Between The United States And Canada, And The Ties That Bind Our Two Countries Together Are Things That Are Very Important To Us.

When Your Team Loses, Everybody Gets Deflated. And It's Hard, And It's Challenging.

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

We Should Foster A Culture In Which People's Private Religious Beliefs, Including Atheists And Agnostics, Are Respected. And That's The Kind Of Culture That I Think Allows All Of Us, Then, To Believe What We Want. That's Freedom Of Conscience. That's What Our Constitution Guarantees.

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.

Everybody Acknowledges That The Current Path We're On Is Unsustainable, Not Just For The People Who Don't Have Health Insurance But For Those Who Do.

The Bush Administration's Failure To Be Consistently Involved In Helping Israel Achieve Peace With The Palestinians Has Been Both Wrong For Our Friendship With Israel, As Well As Badly Damaging To Our Standing In The Arab World.

The Notion That Somehow As A Consequence Of Me Knowing Somebody Who Engaged In Detestable Acts 40 Years Ago, When I Was 8 Years Old, Somehow Reflects On Me And My Values Doesn't Make Much Sense.

The Thing That Has Disturbed Me Most About The Russian Hacking Episode Is - And The Thing That Surprised Me Most Has Not Been The Fact Of Russian Hacking. The Cyber World Is Full Of Information Gathering, You Know, Propaganda, Et Cetera. I Have Been Concerned About The Degree To Which, In Some Circles, You've Seen People Suggest That Vladimir Putin Has More Credibility Than The U.s. Government. I Think That's Something New.

When You Start Just Focusing Exclusively On Trying To Tear The Other Person Down Instead Of What You Are Going To Do On Behalf Of The American People To Deal With This Economy, Then That's Not Serving Democrats, That's Not Serving Republicans, That's Not Serving Anybody.

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.

What We Saw Was That The Ferguson Police Department In Conjunction With The Municipality Saw Traffic Stops, Arrests, Tickets As A Revenue Generator, As Opposed To Serving The Community, And That It Systematically Was Biased Against African-americans In That City Who Were Stopped, Harassed, Mistreated, Abused, Called Names, Fined.

What Can I Do To Make Sure That Middle-class Families Are Feeling More Secure, That More Young People Are Able To Access Opportunity, That We Are Safe, That We Are Working With Our International Partners To Try To Create More Order At A Time When There's A Lot Of Chaos? How Do We Deal With Terrorism In A Way That's Consistent With Our Values? As Long As I Stay Focused On Those North Stars, Then I Tend Not To Get Too Rattled.

The Iranians May Simply Try To Run Out The Clock.

It's A Moral Imperative, It's An Economic Imperative, And It Is A Security Imperative. For We've Seen How Spikes In Food Prices Can Plunge Millions Into Poverty, Which, In Turn, Can Spark Riots That Cost Lives, And Can Lead To Instability. And This Danger Will Only Grow If A Surging Global Population Isn't Matched By Surging Food Production. So Reducing Malnutrition And Hunger Around The World Advances International Peace And Security - And That Includes The National Security Of The United States.

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

Where You Are Right Now Doesn't Have To Determine Where You'll End Up.

There Will Be Setbacks And False Starts. There Are Many Who Won't Agree With Every Decision Or Policy I Make As President. And We Know The Government Can't Solve Every Problem. But I Will Always Be Honest With You About The Challenges We Face. I Will Listen To You, Especially When We Disagree. And, Above All, I Will Ask You To Join In The Work Of Remaking This Nation, The Only Way It's Been Done In America For 221 Years -- Block By Block, Brick By Brick, Calloused Hand By Calloused Hand.

I Want People Around The World To Hear Me. To All Those Who Would Do Us Harm, No Act Of Terror Will Go Unpunished. It Will Not Dim The Light Of The Values That We Proudly Present To The Rest Of The World. No Act Of Violence Shakes The Resolve Of The United States Of America.

I've Always Wanted To Come To Greece.

How We Think About Terrorism Has To Be Defined And Specific Enough That It Doesn't Lead Us To Think That Any Horrible Actions That Take Place Around The World That Are Motivated In Part By An Extremist Islamic Ideology Is A Direct Threat To Us Or Something That We Have To Wade Into.

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.

Michelle, I Love You. The Other Night, I Think The Entire Country Saw Just How Lucky I Am. Malia And Sasha, You Make Me So Proud…but Don't Get Any Ideas, You're Still Going To Class Tomorrow. And Joe Biden, Thank You For Being The Best Vice President I Could Ever Hope For.

We Don't Ask You To Believe In Our Ability To Bring Change, Rather, We Ask You To Believe In Yours.

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

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 Think That Where I've Gotten Frustrated During The Course Of My Presidency Has Never Been Because I Was Getting Pushed Too Hard By Activists To See The Justness Of A Cause Or The Essence Of An Issue.

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

What Makes [cyber Security] Difficult Is Because It's Not Just A Government Problem. It Is A Private Sector And Government Problem. And There's Gotta Be A Lot More Cooperation.

We Are Going Through Historic Times, And My Vision Is A World, First Of All, In Which America Continues To Be That One Indispensable Nation. Because We're Taking Care Of Our Own People, Because Our Economy Is Strong And Our Middle Class Is Growing, And People Feel Like Hard Work Is Rewarded, And We Are Continuing To Expand Opportunity And Diversity And Tolerance And Respect.

Making Your Mark On The World Is Hard. If It Were Easy, Everybody Would Do It. But It's Not. It Takes Patience, It Takes Commitment, And It Comes With Plenty Of Failure Along The Way. The Real Test Is Not Whether You Avoid This Failure, Because You Won't. It's Whether You Let It Harden Or Shame You Into Inaction, Or Whether You Learn From It; Whether You Choose To Persevere.

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.

Our Intelligence Communities Spend A Lot Of Time And Effort Gathering A Lot Of Strands And A Lot Of Data [on Russian Hacking]. There Are Times Where They're Very Cautious And They Say, "we Think This Is What Happened, But We're Not Certain."

Together We Can Change Our Culture For The Better By Ending Violence Against Women And Girls, Artists Have A Unique Power To Change Minds And Attitudes And Get Us Thinking And Talking About What Matters, And All Of Us, In Our Lives, Have The Power To Set An Example. Join Our Campaign To Stop This Violence.

I Look Forward To Hosting An Iftar Dinner Celebrating Ramadan Here At The White House Later This Week, And Wish You A Blessed Month.

The Thing I Know For Sure Is That At The End Of My Life, What I'm Going To Remember Is The Love I Felt For My Family And My Friends, And Whatever Good I Did For Other People.

In A Global Economy Where Our Economies And Supply Chains Are Deeply Integrated, It's Not Even Possible.

Keep In Mind That, When I Came In, We Had Had A Crisis That Was The Worst We've Seen Since The 1930s, And Working With People Like Chancellor Merkel, Working With The G-20 And Other Institutions Internationally, We Were Able To Stabilize The Financial System, Stabilize The Us Economy And Return To Growth.

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

What Is True Is [bashar] Assad Got Rid Of His Chemical Weapons.

Chemical Weapons

Yes, This Is Hard. But There Should Be No Question That The United States Of America Is Stepping Up To The Plate. We Recognize Our Role In Creating This Problem; We Embrace Our Responsibility To Combat It. We Will Do Our Part, And We Will Help Developing Nations Do Theirs. But We Can Only Succeed In Combating Climate Change If We Are Joined In This Effort By Every Nation - Developed And Developing Alike. Nobody Gets A Pass.

I Think We Want To See New Voices And New Ideas Emerge - That's Part Of The Reason Why Term Limits Are A Really Useful Thing.

It Ought To Concern Every Person, Because It Is A Debasement Of Our Common Humanity. It Ought To Concern Every Community, Because It Tears At Our Social Fabric. It Ought To Concern Every Business, Because It Distorts Markets. It Ought To Concern Every Nation, Because It Endangers Public Health And Fuels Violence And Organized Crime. I’m Talking About The Injustice, The Outrage, Of Human Trafficking, Which Must Be Called By Its True Name - Modern Slavery.

Common Humanity

If You Think That We've Overregulated In The Environmental Space What I Can Show You Is That We Have Tripled The Amount Of Wind Power In This Country, Increased By Tenfold The Amount Of Solar Power. We Are Producing As Much Oil And Gas As We've Ever Produced.

People Always - I Think Were Surprised About Me Connecting With Folks In Small Town Iowa. And The Reason I Did Was - First Of All, I Had The Benefit That At The Time Nobody Expected Me To Win. And So I Wasn't Viewed Through This Prism Of Fox News And Conservative Media Making Me Scary. At The Time, I Didn't Think Seem Scary, Other Than Just Having A Funny Name. I Seemed Young.

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

National Security

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?

When It Comes To Our Foreign Policy, You Seem To Want To Import The Foreign Policies Of The 1980s, Just Like The Social Policies Of The 1950s And The Economic Policies Of The 1920s.

We Will Continue To Deepen Our Engagement Using Every Element Of American Power - Diplomacy, Military, Economic Development, The Power Of Our Values And Our Ideals.

I've Said Repeatedly That Where We See Terrorist Organizations Like Al-qaeda Or Isil, They Have Perverted And Distorted And Tried To Claim The Mantle Of Islam For An Excuse, For Basically Barbarism And Death. These Are People Who Kill Children, Kill Muslims, Take Sex Slaves - There's No Religious Rationale That Would Justify In Any Way Any Of The Things That They Do.

You Can Be Stylish, And Powerful Too.

The Countries Who Out-educate Us Today Will Out-compete Us Tomorrow.

It's Also Wonderful To Be Back With My Great Friend And Ally, Chancellor [angela] Merkel. As I Reflect Back Over The Last Eight Years, I Could Not Ask For A Steadier Or More Reliable Partner On The World Stage, Often Through Some Very Challenging Times.

We've Got To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong At Home So That We Can Project Military Power Overseas.

I Don't Regret The Fervor, Because I Do Believe, In The African American Community But Also For Other Communities, And I Know From Talking To People, For Communities Around The World, The Election Of An African American To The Most Powerful Office On Earth Meant Things Had Changed, And Not Just In Superficial Ways. That In Some Irreversible Way The World Was Different.

My Main Message Is To The Parents Of Trayvon Martin. You Know, If I Had A Son, He'd Look Like Trayvon.

History Doesn't Always Move In A Straight Line. Sometimes It Zigs And Zags.

I Would Put Our Legislative And Foreign Policy Accomplishments In Our First Two Years Against Any President - With The Possible Exceptions Of Johnson, Fdr, And Lincoln - Just In Terms Of What We've Gotten Done In Modern History. But, You Know, But When It Comes To The Economy, We've Got A Lot More Work To Do. And We're Gonna Keep On At It.

The Ideas Of Ancient Greece Helped Inspire America's Founding Fathers As They Reached For Democracy. Our Revolutionary Ideas Helped Inspire Greeks As They Sought Their Own Freedom.

I Can Say With Confidence That I Never Bought Into The Hype, And I Made Sure That The People Around Me Didn't Buy Into The Hype, And I Did Not Surround Myself With People Who Fed Me The Hype. And I'm Glad Of That As Well.

Nobody Likes Taxes. I Would Prefer That None Of Us Had To Pay Taxes, Including Myself.

And So Our Goal On Health Care Is, If We Can Get, Instead Of Health Care Costs Going Up 6 Percent A Year, It's Going Up At The Level Of Inflation, Maybe Just Slightly Above Inflation, We've Made Huge Progress. And By The Way, That Is The Single Most Important Thing We Could Do In Terms Of Reducing Our Deficit. That's Why We Did It.

Like Joe Biden And So Many Other Americans, I've Lost People I Love Deeply To Cancer. I've Heard Often From Those Whose Loved Ones Are Suffering From Alzheimer's, Addiction, And Other Debilitating Diseases. Their Heartbreak Is Real, And So We Have A Responsibility To Respond With Real Solutions.

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

For History Tells Us That While These Truths May Be Self-evident, They've Never Been Self-executing. That While Freedom Is A Gift From God, It Must Be Secured By His People Here On Earth.

I'm Not The Caricature That You See On Fox News Or Rush Limbaugh, But I'm Somebody Who Is Interested In Solving Problems And Is Pretty Practical, And That, Actually, A Lot Of The Things That We've Put In Place Worked Better Than People Might Think.

There Are So Many Errors And Misstatements In That List That I Won't Even Begin To Name Them. Obama Was Right About One Thing, Though - Islam Has Always Been A Part Of America's Story.

I Do Think That This Whole Area Of Cyber Is Something That At An International Level We Have To Work On And Develop Frameworks And International Norms So That We Don't See A Cyber Arms Race.

If You Think You Got A Better Idea In Terms Of How To Approach This That's Not Gonna Result In More Pollution, And More Asthma, And More Illness Then Put Your Ideas Out There. But Don't Just Oppose Things Because, "this Was Obama's Agenda."

The Interesting Thing About The African-american Experience In This Country Is That We Are Sort Of A Mongrel Of People. I Mean We're All Kind Of Mixed Up.

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

My Hope Is That's Something [donald Trump] Is Thinking About, Because Not Only Is The President Of The United States Somebody That The Entire Country Looks To For Direction But Sets The Agenda Internationally In A Lot Of Ways.

When You're A Candidate And You Say Something That Is Inaccurate Or Controversial, It Has Less Impact Than It Does When You're President Of The United States. Everybody Around The World's Paying Attention. Markets Move. National Security Issues Require A Level Of Precision In Order To Make Sure That You Don't Make Mistakes.

If You're An American And You Are, You Know, Subscribing To The Ideals And The Creed And The Values That We Believe In As A Country, You Know, Then We Don't Have A Religious Test In This Country.

I Actually Believe That Some Residue Of Discrimination Would Lessen, Because It's My View That There Is A Certain Percentage Of The White Population That Stereotypes And Makes Assumptions About African Americans Because They Don't Inject The History Of Slavery And Jim Crow Into Current Incarceration Rates, Or Crime Rates, Or Poverty Rates, Or What Have You.

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

I Can Think About What [mahatma] Gandhi Said Or [martin Luther] King Said About Violence Begetting Violence, And Still Be True To My Job By Asking Myself The Question Whenever We're Confronted With A Situation Where Some May Be Arguing For Military Action: Will This Actually Result In America Being Safer, Or The Most Lives Being Saved?

The Public School System Is Not About Educating Black Children. Never Has Been. Inner-city Schools Are About Social Control. Period. They’re Operated As Holding Pens—miniature Jails, Really. It’s Only When Black Children Start Breaking Out Of Their Pens And Bothering White People That Society Even Pays Any Attention To The Issue Of Whether These Children Are Being Educated.

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

There Are Very Few Moments In Our Lives Where We Have The Privilege To Witness History Taking Place. This Is One Of Those Moments. This Is One Of Those Times.

As Citizens, We Understand That It Is Not About What America May Do For Us. It's About What Can Be Done By Us, Together.

We're Going To Reverse A Trend That Is Killing Most Families In This Country, And That Is They're Having To Go In Their Pocket For More And More Money For Health Care Every Year.

John Mccain Has Not Spoken About My Muslim Faith.

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

As I Travel Around The World, It's Fascinating; European Leaders, Asian Leaders, They All Say To Me, America Is Actually Poised To Be The World Leader For Another Century - If We Can Fix Some Of This Political Dysfunction. ... We've Got A Lot Of National Security Challenges, But If We Get Our Economy Together, And If We Can Get Our Political System To Work Well, I Am Really Confident About Our Future.

We Have To Focus On How Do We Ensure The Economy Works For Everybody, And Not Just A Few.

Hostility And Hatred Are No Match For Justice; They Offer No Pathway To Peace.

I Think The American People, You Know, They're Going To Want That New Car Smell. They Want To Drive Something Off The Lot That Doesn't Have As Much Mileage As Me.

No Matter How Long It Takes, The United States Will Find And Bring To Justice The Terrorists Who Are Responsible For Kayla's Captivity And Death, Isil Is A Hateful And Abhorrent Terrorist Group Whose Actions Stand In Stark Contrast To The Spirit Of People Like Kayla.

Think About It: Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - These Countries Are Tiny Compared To The Soviet Union. They Don't Pose A Serious Threat To Us The Way The Soviet Union Posed A Threat To Us.

We Don't Believe In A Small America. We Believe In A Big America - A Tolerant America, A Just America, An Equal America - That Values The Service Of Every Patriot.

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

I'm A Strong Believer In Strong Encryption.

It Probably Wouldn't Be Good For Our Economy For A Bunch Of These Jobs To Come Back Because, There's No Way That People Could Be Getting Paid A Living Wage On Some Of These Jobs - At Least In Order To Be Competitive In An International Setting.

If You Don't Have Any Fresh Ideas, Then You Use Stale Tactics To Scare The Voters. If You Don't Have A Record To Run On, Then You Paint Your Opponent As Someone People Should Run From. You Make A Big Election About Small Things.

We Can't Expect To Solve Problems If All We Do Is Tear Each Other Down. You Can Disagree With A Certain Policy Without Demonizing The Person Who Espouses It.

And As Husbands And Fathers And Brothers, We Have To Step Up - Because Every Girl’s Life Matters. Every Daughter Deserves The Same Chance As Our Sons. Every Woman Should Be Able To Go About Her Day - To Walk The Streets Or Ride The Bus - And Be Safe, And Be Treated With Respect And Dignity. She Deserves That.

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

One Of The Interesting Things About Being In Public Life Is There Are Constantly These Pressures Being Placed On You From Different Sides. To Be Effective, You Have To Be Able To Listen To A Variety Of Points Of View, Synthesize Viewpoints.

We All Know A Lot Of People Who Died In 9/11, The World Trade Center. A Lot Of Money Funding That Mission Is Directly Tied - From The 9/11 Commission, Directly Tied To Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas.

I Am Willing To Work With Anybody Who Wants To Have A Serious Conversation About Our Fiscal Future. We're Not Going To Do This Under The Threat Of Blowing Up The Entire Economy. I Will Not Negotiate Over Congress' Responsibility To Pay The Bills That Have Already Been Racked Up. I Don't Know How I Can Be More Clear About This.

In Africa, You Often See That The Difference Between A Village Where Everybody Eats And A Village Where People Starve Is Government. One Has A Functioning Government, And The Other Does Not. Which Is Why It Bothers Me When I Hear People Say That Government Is The Enemy. They Don't Understand Its Fundamental Role.

Today’s Decision Was A Victory For People All Across This Country Whose Lives Will Be More Secure.

We Must Begin By Acknowledging A Hard Truth. We Will Not Eradicate Violent Conflict In Our Lifetimes. There Will Be Times When Nations, Acting Individually Or In Concert, Will Find The Use Of Force Not Only Necessary But Morally Justified.

Let Us Remember That We Can Do These Things Not Just Because Of Wealth Or Power, But Because Of Who We Are: One Nation Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.

Justice For All

I Love Listening To These Guys Give Us Lectures About Debt And Deficits. I Inherited A Trillion-dollar Deficit. ... This Notion That Somehow We Caused The Deficits Is Just Wrong. It's Just Not True. ... If They Start Trying To Give You A Bunch Of Facts And Figures Suggesting That It's True, What They're Not Telling You Is They Baked All This Stuff Into The Cake With Those Tax Cuts And A Prescription Drug Plan That They Didn't Pay For And The Wars.

Keep Guns Out Of Inner Cities-but Also Problem Of Morality.

We'll Build New Ties Of Trade And Of Commerce, Culture And Education That Unleash The Potential Of The Iraqi People.

Throughout History, Islam Has Demonstrated Through Words And Deeds The Possibilities Of Religious Tolerance And Racial Equality.

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

When Friends Are In Trouble, America Helps.

Mr Speaker, Mr Vice President, Members Of Congress, Distinguished Guests, And Fellow Americans, Last Month I Went To Andrews Air Force Base And Welcomed Home Some Of Our Last Troops To Serve In Iraq. Together, We Offered A Final, Proud Salute To The Colors Under Which More Than A Million Of Our Fellow Citizens Fought, And Several Thousand Gave Their Lives. We Gather Tonight Knowing That This Generation Of Heroes Has Made The United States Safer And More Respected Around The World.

Unemployment Is Low, Incomes Are Up, Poverty Is Down - And That's Going To Be A Lasting Change.

America's Nurses Are The Beating Heart Of Our Medical System.

The Real Problem, If You Look At How, For Example, Hezbollah Got A Lot Of Missiles That Are A Grave Threat To Israel, It's Not Because They Were Legal, It's Not Because Somehow That Was Authorized Under International Law; It Was Because There Was Insufficient Intelligence Or Capacity To Stop Those Shipments.

I Will Cut Investments In Unproven Missile Defense Systems.

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.

America Is Number One In Wind Power.

If You Think That Running Your Economy Into The Ground And Having To Send Troops In In Order To Prop Up Your Only Ally Is Leadership, Then We've Got A Different Definition Of Leadership.

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

I'm Asking You To Believe. Not Just In My Ability To Bring About Real Change In Washington . . . I'm Asking You To Believe In Yours." Keeping Faith With Those Who Serve Must Always Be A Core American Value And A Cornerstone Of American Patriotism. Because America's Commitment To Its Servicemen And Women Begins At Enlistment, And It Must Never End.

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

[my Kids] Are, Sweet, Kind, Funny, Smart, Respectful People, And They Treat Everybody With Respect. That's Not Just The Biases Of A Parent. We Feel Pretty Good When We Hear Back From Friends, Cause They Still Have Sleepovers And They Go To Other Folks Houses And When The Parents Say, Oh You Know, Malia, She's Just So Sweet, Or Sasha Helped To Pick Up The Dishes.

At The Moment That We Persuade A Child, Any Child, To Cross That Threshold, That Magic Threshold Into A Library, We Change Their Lives Forever, For The Better

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

In This New, Hyper Competitive Age, None Of Us, None Of Us Can Afford To Be Complacent.

I Remember Reading [ Studs Terkel's] "working" When It First Came Out And Just Finding That Very Powerful. I Was Going Into Community Organizing. What Stuck Was To Reveal The Sacredness Of Ordinary People's Lives. That Everybody Has A Story. And I Think Studs Is Terrific At Drawing Out That Shimmering Quality Of People's Everyday Struggles.

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

We Stand With Women By Fighting For Economic Security, Protecting Access To Health Care And Supporting Women's Leadership Across The Country

We're Up Against The Conventional Thinking That Says Your Ability To Lead As President Comes From Longevity In Washington Or Proximity To The White House. But We Know That Real Leadership Is About Candor And Judgment And The Ability To Rally Americans From All Walks Of Life Around A Common Purpose, A Higher Purpose.

We Have A Stake In One Another...what Binds Us Together Is Greater Than What Drives Us Apart.

When Americans Are Called On To Innovate, That's What We Do - Whether It's Making More Fuel-efficient Cars Or More Fuel-efficient Appliances, Or Making Sure That We Are Putting In Place The Kinds Of Equipment That Prevents Harm To The Ozone Layer And Eliminates Acid Rain. At Every One Of These Steps, There Have Been Folks Who Have Said It Can't Be Done. There Have Been Naysayers Who Said This Is Going To Destroy Jobs And Destroy Industry. And It Doesn't Happen Because Once We Have A Clear Target To Meet, We Typically Meet It. And We Find The Best Ways To Do It.

This Book [dreams From My Father] Was More Of A Reflection On My Public Life, Now As A U.s. Senator And Before That As A State Senator; How My Perspectives Around The Issues Of The Day Are Shaped By My Background.

Bernie Sanders Would Say, "you Still Have Millions Of African Americans Who Aren't Insured, And If We Had A Single-payer System, That Wouldn't Be The Case." And That's True.

African American

I Could Say, As A Member Of Congress, We Usually Get An Alert If Something Is Going To Happen At The Capitol.

It's True That I Have Not Been Able To Completely Close Guantanamo, But We've Drastically Reduced The Population From 700 Or So To Around 60 Now.

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up. We Draw Strength From Our Victories, And We Learn From Our Mistakes, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, Knowing That Providence Is With Us, And That We Are Surely Blessed To Be Citizens Of The Greatest Nation On Earth.

From Obama's Book, "the Audacity Of Hope:" "i Am Not Willing To Have The State Deny American Citizens A Civil Union That Confers Equivalent Rights On Such Basic Matters As Hospital Visitation Or Health Insurance Coverage Simply Because The People They Love Are Of The Same Sex - Nor Am I Willing To Accept A Reading Of The Bible That Considers An Obscure Line In Romans To Be More Defining Of Christianity Than The Sermon On The Mount."

If You Actually Took The Number Of Muslims Americans, We'd Be One Of The Largest Muslim Countries In The World.

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.

I Think That Leadership More Than Anything Is About Setting A Course And Describing A Vision For People.

"the Donald" Is Not Really A Plans Guy.

The Degree Of Polarization That Currently Exists In Washington Is Such Where I Think It's Fair To Say If I Presented A Cure For Cancer, Getting Legislation Passed To Move That Forward Would Be A Nail-biter.

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.

Later, I Would Realize That The Position Of Most Black Students In Predominantly White Colleges Was Already Too Tenuous, Our Identities Too Scrambled, To Admit To Ourselves That Our Black Pride Remained Incomplete. And To Admit Our Doubt And Confusion To Whites, To Open Up Our Psyches To General Examination By Those Who Had Caused So Much Of The Damage In The First Place, Seemed Ludicrous, Itself An Expression Of Self-hatred - For There Seemed No Reason To Expect That Whites Would Look At Our Private Struggles As A Mirror Into Their Own Souls, Rather Than Yet More Evidence Of Black Pathology.

...i Believe Deeply That We Canot Solve The Challenges Of Your Time Unless We Solve Them Together - Unless We Perfect Our Union By Understanding That We May Have Differnt Stories, But We Hold Common Hopes; That We May Not Look The Same And We May Not Have Come From The Same Place, But We All Want To Move In The Same Direction - Towards A Better Future For Our Children And Our Grandchildren. This Belief Comes From My Unyielding Faith In The Decency And Generosity Of The American People.

We Had A Farewell Dinner For Some Of My Senior Staff, And Generally Everybody Likes To Talk About How Cool I Was.

Trending Author

Thomas Peterffy

Paul Zane Pilzer

Category