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My Wife Has Been My Closest Friend, My Closest Advisor. And ... She's Not Somebody Who Looks To The Limelight, Or Even Is Wild About Me Being In Politics. And That's A Good Reality Check On Me. When I Go Home, She Wants Me To Be A Good Father And A Good Husband. And Everything Else Is Secondary To That.

-Barack Obama

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My Wife Has Been

Barack Obama

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My Wife Has Been My Closest Friend, My Closest Advisor. And ... She's Not Somebody Who Looks To The Limelight, Or Even Is Wild About Me Being In Politics. And That's A Good Reality Check On Me. When I Go Home, She Wants Me To Be A Good Father And A Good Husband. And Everything Else Is Secondary To That.

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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.

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Raises Questions

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Christian Values

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

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

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Ten Thousand People Died, An Entire Town Destroyed.

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Scripture Tells Us That We Shall Not Oppress A Stranger, For We Know The Heart Of A Stranger. We Were Strangers Once, Too.

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

No U.s. Soldier Ever Dies In Vain Because They're Carrying Out The Missions Of Their Commander In Chief. And We Honor All The Service That They've Provided. Our Troops Have Performed Brilliantly. The Question Is For The Next President, Are We Making Good Judgments About How To Keep America Safe Precisely Because Sending Our Military Into Battle Is Such An Enormous Step.

I Think [ Chief Organizer Of The Democratic Party ] It's Something That I Have An Interest In.

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This Is My Last Election. After My Election, I Have More Flexibility.

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

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

Markets Will Rise And Fall, But This Is The United States Of America. No Matter What Some Agency May Say, We've Always Been And Always Will Be A Triple A Country.

But Do I Think That Our Actions In Anyway Violate The War Powers Resolution, The Answer Is No.

The Capacity Of Iraq's Security Forces Has Improved, And Iraq's Leaders Have Made Strides Toward Political Accommodation

In An Age Where There's So Much Active Misinformation And Its Packaged Very Well And It Looks The Same When You See It On A Facebook Page Or You Turn On Your Television. Where Some Overzealousness On The Part Of, You Know, A U.s. Official Is Equated With Constant And Severe Repression Elsewhere.

What's Good For America Better Damn Well Be Good For General Motors.

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'm Going To Insist On Making Sure That We've Got Decent Funding, That We've Got Enough Teachers, That We've Got Computers In The Classroom, But Unless You Turn Off The Television Set And Get Over A Certain Anti-intellectualism That I Think Pervades Some Low-income Communities, Our Children Are Not Going To Achieve.

Some Technologies Don't Pan Out; Some Companies Fail. But I Will Not Walk Away From The Promise Of Clean Energy. ... I Will Not Cede The Wind Or Solar Or Battery Industry To China Or Germany Because We Refuse To Make The Same Commitment Here.

Most People Who Serve In Washington Have Been Trained Either As Lawyers Or As Political Operatives--professions That Tend To Place A Premium On Winning Arguments Rather Than Solving Problems.

Sometimes I Wonder How Much Of These Debates Have To Do With The Desire, The Legitimate Desire, For That History To Be Recognized. Because There Is A Psychic Power To The Recognition That Is Not Satisfied With A Universal Program, It's Not Satisfied By The Affordable Care Act, Or An Expansion Of Pell Grants, Or An Expansion Of The Earned-income Tax Credit.

The Promotion Of Human Rights Cannot Be About Exhortation Alone. At Times, It Must Be Coupled With Painstaking Diplomacy. I Know That Engagement With Repressive Regimes Lacks The Satisfying Purity Of Indignation. But I Also Know That Sanctions Without Outreach -- Condemnation Without Discussion -- Can Carry Forward Only A Crippling Status Quo. No Repressive Regime Can Move Down A New Path Unless It Has The Choice Of An Open Door.

Try To Be As Honest As Possible.

One Of The Best Investments We Can Make In A Child’s Life Is High-quality Early Education.

Stock Market Risk Is Ok, But Not For Social Security.

With The Changing Economy, No One Has Lifetime Employment. But Community Colleges Provide Lifetime Employability.

We Have To Think About Affirmative Action And Craft It In Such A Way Where Some Of Our Children, Who Are Advantaged, Aren't Getting More Favorable Treatment Than A Poor White Kid Who Struggled More.

We Do Not Believe That In This Country, Freedom Is Reserved For The Lucky, Or Happiness For The Few.

The Russians Don't Make Determinations About What Our Defense Posture Is.

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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.

Weapons That Were Designed For Soldiers In War Theaters Don’t Belong On Our Streets.

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The Time To Fix Our Broken Immigration System Is Now... We Need Stronger Enforcement On The Border And At The Workplace... But For Reform To Work, We Also Must Respond To What Pulls People To America... Where We Can Reunite Families, We Should. Where We Can Bring In More Foreign-born Workers With The Skills Our Economy Needs, We Should.

In America, We're Getting Too Comfortable With Our Ability To Take Kinetic Strikes Around The World Without Having Enough Process To Avoid Consistently The Kinds Of Civilian Casualties That Can End Up Actually Hurting Us In The War Against Radicalization.

I've Got A Grocery Bill At The End Of Every Month.our Toothpaste, Our Orange Juice, That All Gets Paid. But I - It Is True That I Don't Carry My Wallet That Often.

There Aren't A Lot Of Situations Where I Look Back And I Say, The Decision I Actually Made Or The Course We Actually Pursued Was The Wrong Course.

The Size Of Your Paycheck Shouldn’t Determine Your Child’s Future.

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."

And To All Those Who Have Wondered If Americas Beacon Still Burns As Bright - Tonight We Proved Once More That The True Strength Of Our Nation Comes Not From Our The Might Of Our Arms Or The Scale Of Our Wealth, But From The Enduring Power Of Our Ideals: Democracy, Liberty, Opportunity, And Unyielding Hope. For That Is The True Genius Of America - That America Can Change. Our Union Can Be Perfected. And What We Have Already Achieved Gives Us Hope For What We Can And Must Achieve Tomorrow.

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

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.

This Is What I Would Call Old Politics. This Is The Stuff We're Trying To Get Rid Of. Because The Problem Is, When We Start Breaking Down Into Conservative And Liberal, And We've Got A Bunch Of Set Predispositions, Whether It's On Gun Control, Or Its' On Health Care, Any Attempt To Do Health Care Is Socialized Medicine.

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

It Was The Call Of Workers Who Organized; Women Who Reached For The Ballot; A President Who Chose The Moon As Our New Frontier; And A King Who Took Us To The Mountain Top And Pointed The Way To The Promised Land. Yes We Can!

There Is A Wonderful Book Called "gandhi's Truth," By Erik Erikson, The Psychologist. It Is A Great Book. And I Remember Reading That And Thinking About This Connection Between What We Think In Our Personal Lives And How That Manifests Itself In Our Politics. Those Are Two Books, Just Off The Top, That I Think Are Sort Of Representative Of Reading That I Did At That Time. I Never Get A Chance To Read Anymore.

Societies In Which We Are Able To Unify Ourselves Around Values And Ideals And Character And How We Treat Each Other And Cooperation And Innovation, Ultimately Are Gonna Be More Successful Than Societies That Don't.

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

We Are Reorganizing How We Work With State And Local Governments To Make Sure That We Are Not Prioritizing Families [for Deportation], And You Are Gonna See, I Think, A Substantial Change Even As The Case Works Its Way Through The Courts.

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.

Look, We Live In A Celebrity Culture And Sometimes You Get Caught In The Wave And The Buzz And A Lot Of It's Flattering But, You Know, One Of The Things That I Try To Remind People Of Is, Is That I Was In Politics As A State Senator Operating In Obscurity For Many Years. Before That I Was A Community Organizer Working In Low Income Communities In Chicago And Nobody Knew My Name Then. And So, Having Involved Myself In Public Service For A Pretty Long Time Without Getting Too Much Attention, Hopefully I Can Keep Some Of The Attention That I'm Getting Now In Perspective.

We Have To Acknowledge The Progress We Made, But Understand That We Still Have A Long Way To Go. That Things Are Better, But Still Not Good Enough.

Not Good Enough

Our Politics At Its Best Involves Us Recognizing Ourselves In Each Other. And Our Politics At Its Worst Are When We See Immigrants Or Women Or Blacks Or Gays Or Mexicans As Somehow Separate, Apart From Us.

We Have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists, And Their Own Path To Grace Is One That We Have To Revere And Respect As Much As Our Own

This Is Our Moment...while We Breathe, We Hope. And Where We Are Met With Cynicism And Doubts And Those Who Tell Us That We Can't, We Will Respond With That Timeless Creed That Sums Up The Spirit Of A People: Yes, We Can.

Will Not Collect A Ransom In Exchange For Not Crashing The American Economy.

American Economy

[with Donald Trump] We Are Moving Into An Era Where A Lot Of People Get Their Information Through Tweets And Sound Bites And Some Headline That Comes Over Their Phone.

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

No Discrimination, That's What We're About As A Country.

Contrary To The Claims Of Some Of My Critics And Some Of The Editorial Pages, I Am An Ardent Believer In The Free Market.

Some Banks Won’t Make It. Other Banks Are Going To Make Sure That We Strengthen. All Deposits Are Going To Be Safe For Ordinary People, But We’re Going To Have To Bring Out Some Of These Bad Assets.

The First Thing I Would Do Would Be To Move Forward With An Agenda To Make Sure That We Give D.c. The Opportunity To Elect Its Own Representatives And Have Some Political Power On Capitol Hill.

To Those Leaders Around The Globe Who Seek To Sow Conflict, Or Blame Their Society's Ills On The West - Know That Your People Will Judge You On What You Can Build, Not What You Destroy.

...started By Missionaries In 1841, Punahou Academy Had Grown Into A Prestigious Prep School, An Incubator For Island Elites...it Hadn't Been Easy To Get Me In, My Grandparents Told Her (my Mother); There Was A Long Waiting List, And I Was Considered Only Because Of The Intervention Of Gramps' Boss, Who Was An Alumnus (my First Experience With Affirmative Action, It Seems, Had Little To Do With Race).

If You Only Think About Yourself - How Much Money Can I Make, What Can I Buy, How Nice Is My House, What Kind Of Fancy Car Do I Have? - Over The Long Term, I Think, You Get Bored. I Think Your Life Becomes Diminished. The Way To Live A Full Life Is To Think: What Can I Do For Others?

To Resolve This Issue Will Require Iran To Come To The Table And Discuss In A Clear And Forthright Way How To Prove To The International Community That The Intentions Of Their Nuclear Program Are Peaceful. [...] The Question Is Going To Be Whether In These Discussions They Show Themselves Moving Clearly In That Direction.

The Internet And Twitter And All These Things Are Very Powerful, But It Also Means Sometimes That Instead Of Having A Dialogue We Just Start Calling Folks - Calling Each Other Names. And That's True On The Left Or The Right.

How Do We Transform Mere Power Into Justice, Mere Sentiment Into Love?

As President Of The United States, I Don't Bluff.

Donald Trump Seems To Do A Good Job Mentioning His Own Name.

The Path Towards Sustainable Energy Sources Will Be Long And Sometimes Difficult. But America Cannot Resist This Transition, We Must Lead It.

Now Let Me Be Clear - I Suffer No Illusions About Saddam Hussein. He Is A Brutal Man. A Ruthless Man. A Man Who Butchers His Own People To Secure His Own Power. He Has Repeatedly Defied Un Resolutions, Thwarted Un Inspection Teams, Developed Chemical And Biological Weapons, And Coveted Nuclear Capacity. He's A Bad Guy. The World, And The Iraqi People, Would Be Better Off Without Him.

My Identity Might Begin With The Fact Of My Race, But It Didn't, Couldn't End There. At Least That's What I Would Choose To Believe.

I Have 90 Percent Or 95 Percent Support In The African American Community And It's Not Sort Of "well, He's Black, So It's Okay. We're Not Going To Say Anything Even Though We're Seething." And I Hang Out With A Lot Of Middle-aged Black Women, And They're Not Casual In Their Support Of Me. There's A Lot Of Love Forthcoming. Partly Because They Understand The Constraints Of This Society. They Know That This Is Hard.

African American

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

I Think That What Is Always True When You Run Against An Incumbent President Is, Is That You End Up Talking More About That President's Record Than Your Vision For The Future, And I Think That The Democrats Do Have To Present A Proactive Agenda And Vision For The Country And Not Simply Run Against Something If They're Going To Be Successful.

Since I'm The President And Democrats Have Controlled The House And The Senate, It's Understandable That People Are Saying, You Know, 'what Have You Done?'

The Cuban People Must Know That They Have A Friend And Partner In The United States Of America.

It Was A Creed Written Into The Founding Documents That Declared The Destiny Of A Nation. Yes We Can. It Was Whispered By Slaves And Abolitionists As They Blazed A Trail Towards Freedom Through The Darkest Of Nights. Yes We Can. It Was Sung By Immigrants As They Struck Out From Distant Shores And Pioneers Who Pushed Westward Against An Unforgiving Wilderness. Yes We Can.

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Carl Friedrich Gauss

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