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On This Thanksgiving, As We Spend Time With Our Family And Friends, Let's All Reflect On What We're Thankful For In Our Own Lives. And Let's Remember Those Who Cannot Be With Their Loved Ones Because They're Serving Overseas. But Let's Also Do Our Part To Help Those Who Have No Place To Go For A Meal. I Encourage All Americans To Do What They Can To Help Those In Need-because The Best Way To Show Our Gratitude For What We Have Is By Doing Our Part For Those Who Have Less.

-Barack Obama

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On This Thanksgiving, As

Barack Obama

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On This Thanksgiving, As We Spend Time With Our Family And Friends, Let's All Reflect On What We're Thankful For In Our Own Lives. And Let's Remember Those Who Cannot Be With Their Loved Ones Because They're Serving Overseas. But Let's Also Do Our Part To Help Those Who Have No Place To Go For A Meal. I Encourage All Americans To Do What They Can To Help Those In Need-because The Best Way To Show Our Gratitude For What We Have Is By Doing Our Part For Those Who Have Less.

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More From Barack Obama

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.

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

You Haven't Seen A Lot Of Turnover In My Campaign. And The Culture Of My Campaign Is One In Which I Think Everybody Feels A Great Sense Of Ownership.

This Is Where I Think Policies Do Need To Be Somewhat Race-specific, Is Making Sure That Institutions Are Not Discriminatory. So You've Got Something Like The Fha [federal Housing Administration], Which Was On Its Face A Universal Program That Involved A Huge Mechanism For Wealth Accumulation And People Entering Into The Middle Class.

We Cannot Have A Society, In Which Some Dictator Some Place Can Start Imposing Censorship Here In The United States.

As President, I'm Committed To Making Washington Work Better And Rebuilding The Trust Of The People Who Sent Us Here.

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

You Have Countries Like India That Have Tried To Help Untouchables, With Essentially Affirmative-action Programs, But It Hasn't Fundamentally Changed The Structure Of Their Societies.

I Think It's A Healthy Thing For The Democratic Party To Go Through Some Reflection.

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

I Am Who I Am. You Sort Of Get What You See With Me.

We Have Known For Decades That Our Survival Depends On Finding New Sources Of Energy. Yet We Import More Oil Today Than Ever Before.

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

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

When I Think About What I'm Going Through, As President, It Doesn't Compare To What The Folks That I'm Representing Are Going Through. They're Losing Jobs. They're Trying To Figure Out How To Pay Their Medical Bills. They've Seen Retirements Suddenly Dissipate Because Of What's Happening In The Stock Market. And So As Tough As The Job Might Be, And The Politics Of Washington Can Sometimes Be I'm Always Reminded Of How Fortunate I Am To Be Here, And What An Extraordinary Responsibility I Have To Try To Deliver On Some Of The Promises That I Made During The Election.

You Have Social Media And The Internet And Immigration And So, Suddenly, Cultures Are Clashing And People Feel As If They're Less Familiar With The People Around Them. That Causes Social Anxieties.

It's Very Important That We Have A President Who Is Mindful Of The Cruelty That Is Perpetrated On Animals.

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.

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

Never Give Up On Your Dreams.

I Do Think That It Is Impossible For Us To Think Only In Terms Of The Palestinian-israeli Conflict And Not Think In Terms Of What's Happening With Syria Or Iran Or Lebanon Or Afghanistan And Pakistan. These Things Are Interrelated. And If We Are Looking At The Region As A Whole And Communicating A Message To The Arab World And The Muslim World, That We Are Ready To Initiate A New Partnership Based On Mutual Respect And Mutual Interest, Then I Think That We Can Make Significant Progress.

Michelle Will Tell You That When We Get Together For Christmas Or Thanksgiving, It's Like A Little Mini-united Nations... I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Bernie Mac, And I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Margaret Thatcher... We've Got It All.

I've Got A Pen, And I've Got A Phone, And I Can Use That Pen To Sign Executive Orders And Take Executive Action. I've Got A Pen To Talk Executive Actions Where Congress Won't. Where Congress Isn't Acting, I'll Act On My Own. I Have Got A Pen And I Got A Phone. And That Is All I Need.

Donald Trump Will Be The Next President, The 45th President Of The United States. And It Will Be Up To Him To Set Up A Team That He Thinks Will Serve Him Well And Reflect His Policies. And Those Who Didn't Vote For Him Have To Recognize That That's How Democracy Works. That's How This System Operates.

We Can't Get To The $4 Trillion In Savings That We Need By Just Cutting The 12 Percent Of The Budget That Pays For Things Like Medical Research And Education Funding And Food Inspectors And The Weather Service. And We Can't Just Do It By Making Seniors Pay More For Medicare.

Assault Weapons Ban Reintroduced.

Assault Weapons

Young Men Need To Show Women The Respect They Deserve And Recognize Sexual Assault And To Do Their Part To Stop It.

Domestic Violence

I Don't Want My Generals Or My Defense Secretary Or My National-security Team To Ever Feel Deploying Weapons To Kill People As Routine Or Abstract, Even If The Targets Are Bad People.

The Two Inaugurations Were Different. The First Inauguration I Was Thinking To Myself, "let's Make Sure I Don't Screw This Up." I Think There Is - People Always Talk About How Cool I Am. I Don't Care How Cool You Are.

Our Friends At The Republican Convention Were More Than Happy To Talk About Everything They Think Is Wrong With America, But They Didn't Have Much To Say About How They'd Make It Right. They Want Your Vote, But They Don't Want You To Know Their Plan.

After A Century Of Striving, After A Year Of Debate, After A Historic Vote, Health Care Reform Is No Longer An Unmet Promise. It Is The Law Of The Land.

Because Of The Internet And Communications, The Clash Of Cultures Is Much More Direct. People Feel, I Think, Less Certain About Their Identity, Less Certain About Economic Security.

Rather Than Fight The Same Tired Battles That Have Dominated Washington For Decades, It's Time To Try Something New. Let's Invest In Our People Without Leaving Them A Mountain Of Debt. Let's Meet Our Responsibility To The Citizens Who Sent Us Here. Let's Try Common Sense.

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

I Like My Quiet Time. There Is A Writer's Sensibility In Me Sometimes, Where I Step Back.

Ensuring That The Us Continues To Lead The World In Science And Technology Will Be A Central Priority For My Administration.

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.

I Think Ultimately Is, Donald Trump Is Pragmatic.

It's The Job, I Think, Of Leaders To Try To Address Peoples' Real Legitimate Concerns And Channel Them In The Most Constructive Ways Possible.

If We're Going To Prevent People From Being Susceptible To The False Promises Of Extremism, Then The International Community Has To Offer Something Better And The United States Intends To Do Its Part.

We Will Stand Against Violence And Intimidation. We Will Stand For The Rights And Dignity Of All Human Beings.

Against Violence

We Reward People A Lot For Being Rich, For Being Famous, For Being Cute, For Being Thin... One Of The Values I Think We Need To Instill In Our Country, In Our Children, Is A Sense Of 'usefulness', In Other Words, Are We Useful, Are We Making Other Peoples' Lives A Little Bit Better?

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.

As I Reflect Back On What's Worked For Me In This [presidential] Office It's Been That I've Gotten People Who Maybe Didn't Believe In The Process To Get Engaged. Ironically, I've Even Gotten The Other Side That Maybe Didn't Believe In The Process To Get Engaged.

But The Question Is, Do We Care Enough? Do We Care Enough To Keep Standing Up For The Country That We Know Is Possible, Even If It's Hard, And Even If It's Politically Uncomfortable? Do We Care Enough To Sustain The Passion And The Pressure To Make Our Communities Safer And Our Country Safer? Do We Care Enough To Do Everything We Can To Spare Other Families The Pain That Is Felt Here Today?

There's A Whole Generation Coming Up Behind Us That Was Engaged, Inspired, Worked For Change During The Course Of My Presidency, Saw What Was Possible.

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.

I Hope You Guys Are Up For A Fight. I Hope You Guys Are Game Because I Haven't Been Putting Up With 19 Months Of Airplanes And Hotel Food And Missing My Babies And My Wife - I Didn't Put Up For That Stuff Just To Come In Second.

If We Aren't Willing To Pay A Price For Our Values, Then We Should Ask Ourselves Whether We Truly Believe In Them At All.

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?

If We're Not There Making The Argument Then The Cultural Gulf That Republicans Try To Exploit Saying, "ah, These City Slickers: They're All Looking Down On You, They Don't Care About You. They're Just Trying To Help Out Their Various Special Interest Constituencies," That Argument Ends Up Being Successful.

And We Can See The Positive Impacts Right Here At Solyndra. Less Than A Year Ago, We Were Standing On What Was An Empty Lot. But Through The Recovery Act, This Company Received A Loan To Expand Its Operations. This New Factory Is The Result Of Those Loans.

I Would Meet Directly With The Leadership In Iran.

I've Said Very Clearly, Including In A State Of The Union Address, That I'm Against 'don't Ask, Don't Tell' And That We're Going To End This Policy.

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.

What Makes Us Exceptional - What Makes Us American - Is Our Allegiance To An Idea Articulated In A Declaration Made More Than Two Centuries Ago: “we Hold These Truths To Be Self-evident, That All Men Are Created Equal; That They Are Endowed By Their Creator With Certain Unalienable Rights; That Among These Are Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of Happiness.”

Pursuit Of Happiness

That Is Our Generation’s Task - To Make These Words, These Rights, These Values Of Life And Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness Real For Every American.

Pursuit Of Happiness

We've Gotta Restore The American People's Confidence In The Ethics Process By Ensuring That Political Self-interest Can No Longer Prevent Politicians From Enforcing Ethics Rules.

Our Resources May Be Finite, But Our Will Is Infinite, And I Am Confident That If We Come Together And Summon That Great American Spirit Once Again, We Will Meet The Challenges Of Our Time And Write The Next Great Chapter In Our American Story.

In Indonesia, I Had Spent Two Years At A Muslim School, Two Years At A Catholic School. In The Muslim School, The Teacher Wrote To Tell My Mother That I Made Faces During Koranic Studies.

Families Across America Are Feeling The Pinch As They Watch Debts Mount, Bills Pile Up And Savings Disappear.

My Job Is To Keep My Eye On The Ball And To Stay Focused On What Can We Get Done Every Single Day To Advance The Vision And Values That Brought Me Here.

I'm Here With The Girardo Family Here In St. Louis.

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.

National Legislation Will Prevent Other States' Flawed Concealed-weapons Laws From Threatening The Safety Of Illinois Residents.

My Particular Passion For Lincoln Dates Back From My Earliest Memories Of Politics.

I Delivered A Clear And Forceful Message That Although We Recognize Russia's Intelligence Gathering Will Sometimes Take Place Even If We Don't Like It, There's A Difference Between That Than Either Meddling With Elections Or Going After Private Organizations Or Commercial Entities, And That We're Monitoring It Carefully, And We Will Respond Appropriately If And When We See This Happening.

We Still Have Sanctions On Iran For Its Violations Of Human Rights, For Its Support Of Terrorism And For Its Ballistic Missile Program. And We Will Continue To Enforce These Sanctions Vigorously. Iran's Recent Missile Test, For Example, Was A Violation Of Its International Obligations.

Working Full-time Should Mean Enough To Support A Family.

Contrary To The Rumours You Have Heard, I Was Not Born In A Manger. I Was Actually Born On Krypton And Sent Here By My Father, Jor-el, To Save The Planet Earth.

That's Where Peace Begins - Not Just In The Plans Of Leaders, But In The Hearts Of People. Not Just In Some Carefully Designed Process, But In The Daily Connections - That Sense Of Empathy That Takes Place Among Those Who Live Together In This Land And In This Sacred City Of Jerusalem.

We As A Country Have To Do Some Soul-searching.

If A Jayvee Team Puts On Lakers Uniforms, That Doesn't Make Them Kobe Bryant.

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.

There's No Doubt That On The Issue Of Abortion, Oftentimes It's Very Difficult To Split The Difference, Although We Can Agree On The Notion That None Of Us Are Pro-abortion And All Of Us Would Like To See A Reduction In Unwanted Pregnancies, For Example, And We Could Focus On Those Issues.

There Are Institutional Obligations I Have To Carry Out That Are Important For A President Of The United States To Carry Out, But May Not Always Align With What I Think Would Move The Ball Down The Field On The Issues That I Care Most Deeply About.

If We're Serious About Building An Economy That Lasts, We Have Got To Get Serious About Education. We Are Going To Have To Pick Up Our Games And Raise Our Standards.

I Know That Gaps Can Be Closed. And They Can Be Closed Substantially, More Than I Think We Believe.

I Think Sometimes Europe May Take For Granted The Extraordinary Progress That's Been Made Over The Last 40, 50 Years. I Recognize That Sometimes There Is Great Frustration That Arises Out Of The Euro Zone Or Out Of The Eu.

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.

Part Of What We Have To Do A Better Job Of, If Our Democracy Is To Function In A Complicated Diverse Society Like This, Is To Teach Our Kids Enough Critical Thinking To Be Able To Sort Out What Is True And What Is False, What Is Contestable And What Is Incontestable. And We Seem To Have Trouble With That. And Our Political System Doesn't Help.

This Kind Of Inequality - A Level That We Haven’t Seen Since The Great Depression - Hurts Us All. When Middle-class Families Can No Longer Afford To Buy The Goods And Services That Businesses Are Selling...it Drags Down The Entire Economy From Top To Bottom. America Was Built On The Idea Of Broad-based Prosperity... That’s Why A Ceo Like Henry Ford Made It His Mission To Pay His Workers Enough So That They Could Buy The Cars He Made. It’s Also Why A Recent Study Showed That Countries With Less Inequality Tend To Have Stronger And Steadier Economic Growth Over The Long Run.

My Biggest Frustration So Far Is The Fact That This Society Has Not Been Willing To Take Some Basic Steps To Keep Guns Out Of The Hands Of People Who Can Do Just Unbelievable Damage. We're The Only Developed Country On Earth Where This Happens. ... And It Happens Once A Week. And It's A One-day Story. ... The Country Has To Do Some Soul-searching On This.

I Want To Make Sure That We, As A Nation, Stay Unified Because That's How We're Going To Achieve Our Missions.

I Think The Big Challenge That We've Got On Education Is Making Sure That From Kindergarten Or Prekindergarten Through Your 14th Or 15th Year Of School, Or 16th Year Of School, Or 20th Year Of School, That You Are Actually Learning The Kinds Of Skills That Make You Competitive And Productive In A Modern, Technological Economy.

I Have Been In Washington For A While Now, And Most Things Don't Surprise Me. The Fact That Twenty 6-year-olds Were Gunned Down In The Most Violent Fashion Possible And This Town Couldn't Do Anything About It Was Stunning To Me.

Let's Also Say That The Justice Department And The Courts Are Making Sure, As I've Said In A Speech Before, That When Jamal Sends His Résumé In, He's Getting Treated The Same As When Johnny Sends His Résumé In.now, Are We Going To Have Suddenly The Same Number Of Ceos, Billionaires, Etc., As The White Community? In 10 Years? Probably Not, Maybe Not Even In 20 Years. But I Guarantee You That We Would Be Thriving, We Would Be Succeeding. We Wouldn't Have Huge Numbers Of Young African American Men In Jail.

For The First Time, Preventing Nuclear Proliferation And Nuclear Terrorism Is Now At The Top Of America's Nuclear Agenda.

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

If We Get To A Point Where People In This Country Feel More Affinity With A Leader Who Is An Adversary And View The United States And Our Way Of Life As A Threat To Him, Then We're Gonna Have Bigger Problems Than Just Cyber Hacking.

It Is Very Important For I Think Those Of Us Who Desperately Want Peace, Who See War As, At Some Level, A Break-down, A Manifestation Of Human Weakness, To Understand That Sometimes It’s Also Necessary – And You Know, To – To Be Able To Balance Two Ideas At The Same Time; That We Are Constantly Striving For Peace, We Are Doubling Up On Our Diplomacy, We Are Going To Actively Engage, We Are Going To Try To See The World Through Other People’s Eyes And Not Just Our Own.

My Greatest Hope Is To Be Able To Pass The Same Dreams And Hopes And Vision That I've Been Able To Enjoy In My Life, On To The Next Generation. Not Just For My Children - Because With A Mother Like Michelle, My Kids Are Going To Be Great - But For All Children. There Are Too Many Children In This Country For Whom The American Dream Is So Distant And The Odds Against Them Are So Daunting.

Part Of What's Changed In Politics Is Social Media And How People Are Receiving Information.

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

My Conviction Is That Those Fights Need To Be Fought Right Now And Can Be Won. And If In Fact We Have Finite Political Capital, Energy, Resources, We Need To Win Those Fights.

Suppressing Ideas Never Succeeds In Making Them Go Away.

Reinvigorating The Civil Rights Division Of The Justice Department, Making Sure That In Our Department Of Education, Where We See Evidence Of Black Boys Being Suspended At Substantially Higher Rates Than White Boys For The Same Behavior, In The Absence Of That Kind Of Rigorous Enforcement Of The Nondiscrimination Principle, Then The Long-standing Biases That I Believe Have Weakened, But Are Still Clearly Present In Our Society, Assert Themselves In Ways That Usually Disadvantage African Americans.

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

Even On Health Care What You've Seen Is A Lot Of Stories Surfacing Lately About People Who Said, "well, I Voted For [donald] Trump But I Don't Think He's Really Gonna Take Away My Health Care."

We Are At A Time In Our Country's History That Inclusive Language Is Better Than Exclusive Language.

The Arts Are What Makes Life Worth Living. You've Got Food, You've Got Shelter, Yeah. But The Things That Make You Laugh, Make You Cry, Make You Connect - Make You Love Are Communicated Through The Arts. They Aren't Extras.

As Americans, We Can Take Enormous Pride In The Fact That Courage Has Been Inspired By Our Own Struggle For Freedom, By The Tradition Of Democratic Law Secured By Our Forefathers And Enshrined In Our Constitution. It Is A Tradition That Says All Men Are Created Equal Under The Law And That No One Is Above It.

I Am A Christian. So, I Have A Deep Faith. So I Draw From The Christian Faith...so, I'm Rooted In The Christian Tradition. I Believe That There Are Many Paths To The Same Place.

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.

I Think We Would Have Made A Lot More Mistakes And Would Have Accomplished A Lot Less Had We Not Been Grounded In Some Basic Truths.

We Will Keep The Promise Of Social Security By Taking The Responsible Steps To Strengthen It - Not By Turning It Over To Wall Street.

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.

How Does The Saying Go? When Two Locusts Fight, It Is Always The Crow That Feasts.' Is That A Luo Expression?' I Asked. Sayid's Face Broke Into A Bashful Smile. We Have A Similar Expression In Luo,' He Said, 'but Actually I Must Admit That I Read This Particular Expression In A Book By Chinua Achebe. The Nigerian Writer. I Like His Books Very Much. He Speaks The Truth About Africa's Predicament. The Nigerian, The Kenya - It Is The Same. We Share More Than Divides Us.

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

As Soon As The Recovery Is Well Under Way, We Need To Set Up A Long-term Plan To Reduce The Structural Deficit And Make Sure We Are Not Leaving A Mountain Of Debt For The Next Generation.

Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago.

Could Have Been

As I've Said Many Times, The Nuclear Deal Was Never Intended To Resolve All Of Our Differences With Iran. But Still, Engaging Directly With The Iranian Government On A Sustained Basis For The First Time In Decades Has Created A Unique Opportunity, A Window, To Try To Resolve Important Issues.

Generally Speaking In America, A Lot Of Environmentally Problematic Facilities Tend To Be Located In Places Where Poor Folks Live Because Wealthier Folks Have The Ability To Say, "not In My Backyard."

Jerusalem Will Remain The Capital Of Israel And It Must Remain Undivided."truth: Obama Later Said, "this Was An Example Where We Had Some Poor Phrasing In The Speech And We Immediately Tried To Correct The Interpretation That Was Given. The Point We Were Simply Making Was, Is That We Don't Want Barbed Wire Running Through Jerusalem.

Those Of Us Who Have The Privilege To Serve This Country Have An Obligation To Do Our Job As Best We Can. We Come From Different Parties, But We Are Americans First. And That's Why Disagreement Cannot Mean Dysfunction. It Can't Degenerate Into Hatred. The American People's Hopes And Dreams Are What Matters, Not Ours. Our Obligations Are To Them. Our Regard For Them Compels Us All, Democrats And Republicans, To Cooperate, And Compromise, And Act In The Best Interests Of Our Nation - One Nation, Under God, Indivisible With Liberty And Justice For All.

This Is Why The Anti-discrimination Principle Being Enforced Is Important. Because It Won't Stop If Some Of The Underlying Biases Aren't Challenged And Surfaced. And That In And Of Itself Creates Backlash And Denial. This Is What I Mean When I Say Better Is Hard.

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

African American

The World Thanks You For Sharing Nelson Mandela With Us.

It's Good To Get Fresh Legs In [the White House]. I Think That It Refreshes Our Democracy.

You Have The Ability And Gifts To Do Whatever You Want". It Is Your Turn Now To Change The World. Yes We Can!

On My Recent Trip To Israel, I Had The Opportunity To Visit Yad Vashem, Israel's National Holocaust Memorial, And Reaffirm Our Collective Responsibility To Confront Anti-semitism, Prejudice, And Intolerance Across The World. On This Yom Hashoah, We Must Accept The Full Responsibility Of Remembrance, As Nations And As Individuals-not Simply To Pledge "never Again," But To Commit Ourselves To The Understanding, Empathy And Compassion That Is The Foundation Of Peace And Human Dignity.

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.

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.

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

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

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up.

The Authorization I Propose Would Provide The Flexibility To Conduct Ground Combat Operations In Other More Limited Circumstances, Such As Rescue Operations Involving U.s. Or Coalition Personnel Or The Use Of Special Operations Forces To Take Military Action Against Isil Leadership, It Would Also Authorize The Use Of U.s. Forces In Situations Where Ground Combat Operations Are Not Expected Or Intended, Such As Intelligence Collection And Sharing, Missions To Enable Kinetic Strikes Or The Provision Of Operational Planning And Other Forms Of Advice And Assistance To Partner Forces.

I Have Been To This Point Unwilling To Sign On To Same-sex Marriage Primarily Because Of My Understandings Of The Traditional Definitions Of Marriage. But I Also Think You're Right That Attitudes Evolve, Including Mine.

Now, As A Nation, We Don't Promise Equal Outcomes, But We Were Founded On The Idea Everybody Should Have An Equal Opportunity To Succeed. No Matter Who You Are, What You Look Like, Where You Come From, You Can Make It. That's An Essential Promise Of America. Where You Start Should Not Determine Where You End Up.

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

Teddy Roosevelt Supported A Progressive Income Tax. If I Am Sitting Pretty And You've Got A Waitress Who Is Making Minimum Wage Plus Tips, And I Can Afford It And She Can't, What's The Big Deal For Me To Say, 'i'm Going To Pay A Little Bit More'? That Is Neighborliness.

Our Environment Is Too Important To Neglect And It's Time For The Federal Government To Focus On Real Solutions And Live Up To Their Promises.

I Remember When I Was In Chicago And Data Started Coming Out That When Black Folks Walk Into An Auto Dealership, And Women, Too, To Some Degree, They Are Automatically Given Higher Quotes, Worse Deals. And This Was Just Documented Extensively Across Auto Dealerships Around The Country. There Was A Tax Being Imposed On Black Folks. By Collecting That Data, You Can Construct Policies To Combat That.

I've Got Two Daughters. 9 Years Old And 6 Years Old. I Am Going To Teach Them First Of All About Values And Morals. But If They Make A Mistake, I Don't Want Them Punished With A Baby.

My Particular Worries On Any Given Day - How I'm Doing In The Polls Or What Somebody Is Saying About Me... For Good Or For Ill - Isn't Particularly Relevant. What Is Relevant Is: What Am I Building That Lasts?

Empathy Is A Quality Of Character That Can Change The World.

We've Said To The Iranians All Along . . . We Still Remain Open To Diplomacy. But It's Been Very Clear That The Iranians Don't Want To Engage With Us.

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

In My Heart I Know You Didn't Come Here Just For Me, You Came Here Because You Believe In What This Country Can Be. In The Face Of War, You Believe There Can Be Peace. In The Face Of Despair, You Believe There Can Be Hope. In The Face Of A Politics That's Shut You Out, That's Told You To Settle, That's Divided Us For Too Long, You Believe We Can Be One People, Reaching For What's Possible, Building That More Perfect Union.

[people] Are Looking For Some Means Of Control And What That Means Is Is That The Politics In All Of Our Countries Is Gonna Require Us To Manage Technology And Global Integration And All These Demographic Shifts In A Way That Makes People Feel More Control, That Gives Them More Confidence In Their Future.

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

Companies In Mexico Are Not Going To Do Well If They Don't Have Some Connection To Not Just Markets, But Also Suppliers And Technology From The United States.

We Worship An Awesome God In The Blue States, And We Don't Like Federal Agents Poking Around Our Libraries In The Red States. We Coach Little League In The Blue States And Have Gay Friends In The Red States.

I Will Call Not Just On Israel, But On The Palestinians, On The Arab States, And The International Community To Join Us In This Effort, Because The Burden Of Making Hard Choices Must Not Be Israel’s Alone.

There Have Been Periods Where The Folks Who Were Already Here Suddenly Say, 'well, I Don't Want Those Folks,' Even Though The Only People Who Have The Right To Say That Are Some Native Americans.

Native American

Black Churches Minister To Social Needs Out Of Necessity.

If You Work Hard. And Are Responsible. You Should Be Rewarded.

One Of The Great Things About Being Commander In Chief Is Getting To Know Our Men And Women In Uniform In A Very Intimate Way, Whether It's Visiting Walter Reed And Seeing Our Wounded Soldiers, Or Being On A Base And Talking To Families, Or Interacting With Them On Missions. They're The Best Of The Best: Always Thinking About The Mission, Not Thinking About Credit, Not Thinking About Who's Up Front.

Turns Out I'm Really Good At Killing People. Didn't Know That Was Gonna Be A Strong Suit Of Mine.

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

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

[two Of The Most Unpopular Presidential Candidates Selected By The Two Parties In History] Indicates That There Is A Lot Of Cynicism Out There. It Indicates That The Corrosive Nature Of Everything From Talk Radio To Fake News To Negative Advertising Has Made People Lack Confidence In A Lot Of Our Existing Institutions.

Rather Take That Moral Sense And Apply It To The Particulars Of A Job That Is Going To Test Those Ethical And Moral Precepts Differently Than If You're A Professor, Or A Business Person, Or A Dad. And If I Were Not Comfortable With The Judicious Use Of Our Military To Protect The American People, Than I Shouldn't Have Run For President. And Having Said That, I Do Think That The Wisdom Of A [martin Luther] King Or A [mahatma] Gandhi Can Inform My Decisions.

I Do Have An Obligation To Make Sure That I Am Following Some Of The Rules. I Can't Simply Ignore Laws That Are Out There.

The Biggest Challenge, I Think, Is Always Maintaining Your Moral Compass.

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.

If We [american Nation] Are Only Thinking About Tomorrow Or The Next Day And Not Thinking About 10 Years From Now, We're Not Going To Control Our Own Economic Future, Because China, Germany - They're Making These [clean Energy] Investments. And I'm Not Going To Cede Those Jobs Of The Future To Those Countries. I Expect Those New Energy Sources To Be Built Right Here In The United States.

The Consequences Of War Are Dire, The Sacrifices Immeasurable. We May Have Occasion In Our Lifetime To Once Again Rise Up In Defense Of Our Freedom, And Pay The Wages Of War. But We Ought Not we Will Not travel Down That Hellish Path Blindly.

My Liberty Depends On You Being Free, Too.

Mitt Romney Is Familiar With Jobs Being Shipped Overseas Because He Invested In Companies That Were Shipping Jobs Overseas.

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

More Broadly, Prime Minister Lee [hsien Loong] And I Will Work To Advance The Us-singapore Partnership Across The Board. We're Committed To Sustaining The Dynamism Of Our Economies With The Trans-pacific Partnership - The Highest-standard Trade Agreement Ever - Which Will Support Trade And Innovation In Both Our Countries.

People Of Berlin - People Of The World - This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time.

I Find It Amusing That Those Who Helped To Authorize And Engineer The Biggest Foreign Policy Disaster In Our Generation Are Now Criticizing Me For Making Sure That We Are On The Right Battlefield And Not The Wrong Battlefield In The War Against Terrorism.

There Is Nothing Wrong With Our Country, There Is Something Wrong With Our Politics...when This Country Is Operating Off A Common Ground, Nobody Can Stop Us. But When We're Divided, Then We End Up Having A Whole Lot Of Self-inflicted Problems.

If You Have Health Insurance, Then You Don't Have To Do Anything. If You've Got Health Insurance Through Your Employer, You Can Keep Your Health Insurance, Keep Your Choice Of Doctor, Keep Your Plan.

Iran Has Made Vile Comments, Anti-semitic Comments, Comments About The Destruction Of Israel. It Is Precisely For That Reason That Even Before I Became President, I Said Iran Could Not Have A Nuclear Weapon.

I Take The Constitution Very Seriously. The Biggest Problems That We're Facing Right Now Have To Do With [the President] Trying To Bring More And More Power Into The Executive Branch And Not Go Through Congress At All. And That's What I Intend To Reverse When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

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

After I Received The News, Malia Walked In And Said, "daddy, You Won The Nobel Peace Prize, And It Is Bo's Birthday!" And Then Sasha Added, "plus, We Have A Three-day Weekend Coming Up." So It's Good To Have Kids To Keep Things In Perspective.

There's Some Bittersweet Feelings About Leaving The People Here [in The White House]. 'cause Even Though All The Team You Assemble, You Know, You're Going To Stay In Touch With 'em, It's Not The Same, You Know? The Band Kind Of Breaks Up.

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.

I Just Miss - I Miss Being Anonymous.

I Find It Hard To Believe That My God Would Consign Four-fifths Of The World To Hell. I Can't Imagine That My God Would Allow Some Little Hindu Kid In India Who Never Interacts With The Christian Faith To Somehow Burn For All Eternity. That's Just Not Part Of My Religious Makeup.

America, This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time. Our Time To Turn The Page Of The Policies Of The Past.

To Those Americans Whose Support I Have Yet To Earn, I May Not Have Won Your Vote Tonight, But I Hear Your Voices. I Need Your Help. And I Will Be Your President, Too.

But The Basic Principle That We’re Going To Have To See Some Of This Debt Written Down, That The Government Is Going To Have To Support Some Banks, That Others That Are Not Viable, Essentially That We’re Going To Have To Do Something With Those Assets.

One Thing I Will Not Compromise Over Is Whether Or Not Congress Should Pay The Tab For A Bill They've Already Racked Up. If Congress Refuses To Give The United States The Ability To Pay Its Bills On Time, The Consequences For The Entire Global Economy Could Be Catastrophic.

Anybody Gone Into Whole Foods Lately And See What They Charge For Arugula? I Mean, They're Charging A Lot Of Money For This Stuff.

When We Were Working On Immigration Reform And There Was A Young Latino Man, Young Immigration Activist Here Who, In The Roosevelt Room, Refused To Shake My Hand.he Made A Point Of Saying, "i Can't Shake Your Hand; You're Deporting Too Many People." And I Just Said To Him, "young Man, I'm Glad That You Feel So Passionately About This Issue, But You're With The President Right Now In The White House. You've Got To Think About What's Going To Be Most Effective In Getting What You Need, What You're Trying To Accomplish. Because This May Not Be Your Best Strategy."

Politics In This Country [usa] Is Always Tough. It's Always Contentious, Because This Is A Big Country And A Diverse Country, And People Have Strong Points Of View, And We've Got A Great Diversity Of Interests.

It [the Constitution] Didn't Break Free From The Essential Constraints That Were Placed By The Founding Fathers In The Constitution, At Least As It's Been Interpreted, And The Warren Court Interpreted It In The Same Way That Generally The Constitution Is A Charter Of Negative Liberties. It Says What The States Can't Do To You, It Says What The Federal Government Can't Do To You, But It Doesn't Say What The Federal Government Or The State Government Must Do On Your Behalf. And That Hasn't Shifted.

All Americans Should Be Deeply Troubled By The Fatal Shootings Of Alton Sterling In Baton Rouge, Louisiana And Philando Castile In Falcon Heights, Minnesota. We've Seen Such Tragedies Far Too Many Times, And Our Hearts Go Out To The Families And Communities Who've Suffered Such A Painful Loss.

I Think We've Done A Pretty Good Job Staying In Touch With The American People. But At A Certain Point You Can't Help But Lose Some Feel For What's On The Ground Because You're Not On The Ground.

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

Together We Resolve That A Great Nation Must Care For The Vulnerable And Protect Its People From Life's Worst Hazards And Misfortune.

Now Is The Time To Keep The Promise Of Equal Pay For An Equal Day's Work, Because I Want My Daughters To Have Exactly The Same Opportunities As Your Sons.

Sometimes We Take Somebody Who's Been In The Trenches And Fought The Good Fight And Been Steady For Granted. Sometimes We Act As If Never Having Done Something And Not Knowing What You're Doing Is A Virtue.

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

Best Is Yet To Come

Obama Said If Elected His Government Would "harness Technology To Confront The Biggest Challenges That America Faces".

There Is No Individual Salvation Without Collective Salvation

That's Why The American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan Won't Just Throw Money At Our Problems, We'll Invest In What Works

I Think That America Has To Stand With Democracy.

We Seem To Have Trouble With [critical Thinking]. And Our Political System Doesn't Help.

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

What Is True, And I Think That We Can't Deny It, Is That Some Of The Same Concerns About Globalization, About Technology, Rapid Social Change That Were Reflected In Brexit, That's Been Reflected In Some Of The Debates In Germany And France And Other Places, That Those Exist In The United States As Well. My View Is That Over The Long Term, Over The Next 10, 15, 20 Years, If We Are Able To Address The Legitimate Economic Concerns Of Those Who Feel Left Behind By Globalization, Then Many Of These Tensions Will Be Reduced. And We Will See A World That Is Less Divided.

We're Not Going To Baby Sit A Civil War.

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

I Did Not Run For Office To Be Helping Out A Bunch Of, You Know, Fat Cat Bankers On Wall Street.

I Am Absolutely Convinced That Race Relations On The Whole Are Actually Better Now Than They Were 20 Years [ago].

The United States Of America Has Helped Underwrite The Global Security For More Than Six Decades With The Blood Of Our Citizens And The Strength Of Our Arms. The Service And Sacrifice Of Our Men And Women In Uniform Has Promoted Peace And Prosperity From Germany To Korea And Enabled Democracy To Take Hold In Places Like The Balkans.

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