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Over The Last Few Years A Lot Of People Have Become Aware Of The Inequities In The Criminal Justice System, Right Now, With Our Overall Crime Rate And Incarceration Rate Both Falling, We're At A Moment When Some Good People In Both Parties, Republicans And Democrats And Folks All Across The Country, Are Coming Up With Ideas To Make The System Work Smarter And Better.

-Barack Obama

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Over The Last Few

Barack Obama

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Over The Last Few Years A Lot Of People Have Become Aware Of The Inequities In The Criminal Justice System, Right Now, With Our Overall Crime Rate And Incarceration Rate Both Falling, We're At A Moment When Some Good People In Both Parties, Republicans And Democrats And Folks All Across The Country, Are Coming Up With Ideas To Make The System Work Smarter And Better.

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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.

All Of Us Share This World For But A Brief Moment In Time. The Question Is Whether We Spend That Time Focused On What Pushes Us Apart, Or Whether We Commit Ourselves To An Effort -- A Sustained Effort -- To Find Common Ground, To Focus On The Future We Seek For Our Children, And To Respect The Dignity Of All Human Beings.

The Irony Is That We've Seen This Model Work Really Well In Massachusetts Because Gov. Romney Did A Good Thing, Working With Democrats In The State To Set Up What Is Essentially The Identical Model And, As A Consequence, People Are Covered There. It Hasn't Destroyed Jobs. And As A Consequence, We Now Have A System In Which We Have The Opportunity To Start Bringing Down Costs As Opposed To Just Leaving Millions Of People Out In The Cold." "gov. Romney Said This Has To Be Done On A Bipartisan Basis

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until All Our Children... Know That They Are Cared For And Cherished And Always Safe From Harm.

By 2025 We Expect New Spacecraft Designed For Long Journeys To Allow Us To Begin The First Ever Crewed Missions Beyond The Moon Into Deep Space. So We'll Start By Sending Astronauts To An Asteroid For The First Time In History. By The Mid-2030s I Believe We Can Send Humans To Orbit Mars And Return Them Safely To Earth. And A Landing On Mars Will Follow And I Expect To Be Around In See It.

I'm Measuring My Actions Against That Inner Voice That For Me At Least Is Audible, Is Active, It Tells Me Where I Think I'm On Track And Where I Think I'm Off Track.

Independent Economists Say Immigration Reform Will Grow Our Economy And Shrink Our Deficits By Almost $1 Trillion In The Next Two Decades. And For Good Reason: When People Come Here To Fulfill Their Dreams - To Study, Invent, And Contribute To Our Culture - They Make Our Country A More Attractive Place For Businesses To Locate And Create Jobs For Everyone. So Let's Get Immigration Reform Done This Year.

If You Don't Have Good People, And You Don't Have A Good Process And You Don't Have, At Some Level, The Basic Reverence For [presidential] Office, And An Understanding Of The Incredible Responsibilities And Obligations, Then, I Think You Can Get Into Trouble.

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

It's Not Appealing To Deal With Countries That Express Hatred Towards Us.

I'm A Warrior For The Middle Class.

The More We Can Encourage Entrepreneurship, Particularly For Young People, The More They Have Hope. That Requires Some Reforms In These [african] Governments: Rooting Out Corruption, Increased Transparency And How Government Operates, Making Sure That Regulations Are Not Designed Just To Advantage Elites, But Are Allowing People Who Have A Good Idea To Get Out There And Get Things Done.

There Have Been Times Where, Let's Say On Lgbt Issues, When We Were Trying To End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, And I Got The Pentagon And Bob Gates, A Republican Holdover From The [george W.] Bush Administration, To Authorize A Study Of How You Might End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Headed Up By Jeh Johnson, Who At That Time Was A Council To The Justice Department. And It Was Going To Take A Year To Conduct That Study, Issue A Report, And Figure Out How It Might Be Implemented, What Effect It Would Have On Unit Cohesion And Military Effectiveness.

Operations In Iraq And Afghanistan And The War On Terrorism Have Reduced The Pace Of Military Transformation And Have Revealed Our Lack Of Preparation For Defensive And Stability Operations. This Administration Has Overextended Our Military.

Why Can't I Just Eat My Waffle?

I Will Cut Investments In Unproven Missile Defense Systems.

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."

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.

Let's Take Our Clothes Off And Party

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

Violence Against Women

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.

Politics Didn't Lead Me To Working People. Working People Led Me Into Politics.

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.

There Was A Time When If You Had A Financial Crisis In Southeast Asia Somewhere, It Had No Impact On Our Markets. Today It Does.

With The World's Unprecedented Inspections And Access To Iran's Program, We'll Know If Iran Ever Tries To Break Out.

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.

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

Who Cares If It's A Campaign Strategy, And Who Are Other People To Say It's Ridiculous? I'm Not Gay, But I Strongly Support Gay Marriage. What If Someone Told You You Couldn't Marry The One You Love? I Think It's About Time! Let People Who Love Each Other That Are The Same Sex Get Married. They Deserve The Right To Be Happy Also.

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.

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.

Last Time I Checked, Congress Was Created To Uphold The Values Of The Constitution, Not The Bible And Its Biased Teachings. 'all Men (including Women) Are Created Equal' And Are Afforded Unalienable Rights. Way To Go, Mr. President! Stand Up For What You Believe And For The People Of This Country.

We Must Build A World Free Of Unnecessary Barriers, Stereotypes, And Discrimination. ... Policies Must Be Developed, Attitudes Must Be Shaped, And Buildings And Organizations Must Be Designed To Ensure That Everyone Has A Chance To Get The Education They Need And Live Independently As Full Citizens In Their Communities.

I Will Continue To Urge Creditors To Take The Steps Needed To Put Greece On A Path Towards A Durable Economic Recovery Because It's In All Of Our Interests That Greece Succeeds.

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools.

I Am Not Opposed To All Wars. I'm Opposed To Dumb Wars.

It’s Important To Make Sure That We’re Talking With Each Other In A Way That Heals, Not In A Way That Wounds." - Barack Obama, 44th U.s. President

If Somebody Was Sending Rockets Into My House, Where My Two Daughters Sleep At Night, I’m Going To Do Everything In My Power To Stop That, And I Would Expect Israelis To Do The Same Thing.

At The Dawn Of The 21st Century, Where Knowledge Is Literally Power, Where It Unlocks The Gates Of Opportunity And Success, We All Have Responsibilities As Parents, As Librarians, As Educators, As Politicians, And As Citizens To Instill In Our Children A Love Of Reading So That We Can Give Them A Chance To Fulfill Their Dreams.

There Are Legitimate Concerns And Anxieties That The Forces Of Globalisation Are Leaving Too Many People Behind - And We Have To Take Those Concerns Seriously And Address Them. But The Answer Isn't To Turn Inward And Embrace Protectionism. We Can't Just Walk Away From Trade.

I'm Not Going To Wall Street [after The Presidency]. The Amount Of Time That I'll Be Investing In Issues Is Going To Be High. But It'll Be Necessarily In A Different Capacity.

International Inspectors Are On The Ground And Iran Is Being Subjected To The Most Comprehensive, Intrusive Inspection Regime Ever Negotiated To Monitor A Nuclear Program. Inspectors Will Monitor Iran's Key Nuclear Facilities 24 Hours A Day, 365 Days A Year. For Decades To Come, Inspectors Will Have Access To Iran's Entire Nuclear Supply Chain. In Other Words, If Iran Tries To Cheat - If They Try To Find Build A Bomb Covertly, We Will Catch Them.

John Conyers And I Were The Ones Who Wrote The Bill That Provides For Medicare For All. And, So, Even Though The Single-payer Plan Is Not What's Before The Congress, To Expand Medicare, So That People 55 And Up Would Be - Would Have The Chance To Buy In, That's - That Would Be A Step In The Right Direction, No Question About It.

Too Many Americans Who Struggle With Mental Health Illnesses Are Suffering In Silence Rather Than Seeking Help, And We Need To See To It That Men And Women Who Would Never Hesitate To Go See A Doctor If They Had A Broken Arm Or Came Down With The Flu, That They Have That Same Attitude When It Comes To Their Mental Health.

Ours Is A Nation Of Laws: Of Citizens Who Live Under Them And For The Citizens Who Enforce Them. So, To A Community In Ferguson That Is Rightly Hurting And Looking For Answers, Let Me Call Once Again For Us To Seek Some Understanding Rather Than Simply Holler At Each Other. Let's Seek To Heal Rather Than To Wound Each Other.

I Would Have To Investigate More Of Bill's Dancing Abilities, You Know, And Some Of This Other Stuff Before I Accurately Judge Whether He Was In Fact A Brother.

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.

You Have To Be Involved During Midterm Elections, You Have To Care About What Happens At A School Board Level.

I Am Living Testimony To The Moral Force Of Non-violence. I Know There's Nothing Weak - Nothing Passive - Nothing Naïve - In The Creed And Lives Of Gandhi And King.

In A Summer Marked By Instability In The Middle East And Eastern Europe, I Know The World Also Took Notice Of The Small American City Of Ferguson, Missouri - Where A Young Man Was Killed, And A Community Was Divided. So Yes, We Have Our Own Racial And Ethnic Tensions.

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.

Having The United Kingdom In The European Union Gives Us Much Greater Confidence About The Strength Of The Transatlantic Union And Is Part Of The Cornerstone Of Institutions Built After World War Ii That Has Made The World Safer And More Prosperous.

Excuses Are Tools Of The Incompetent Used To Build Bridges To Nowhere And Monuments Of Nothingness

My Administration Doesn’t Have Any Secrets, And From Now On, Neither Will You.

Now, As The World's Largest Economy And As The World's Second Largest Emitter, America Bears Our Responsibility To Address Climate Change, And We Intend To Meet That Responsibility.

What I Remember Thinking At That Point, Having Gone Through Both The Ups And Downs Of My First Four Years, And Seeing The Sea Of People Was, "what A Remarkable Country This Is And How Lucky Am I That We Live In A Place Where The Son Of A Single Mom, Not Born Into Any Kind Of Fame Or Fortune, In A Pretty Remote State Somehow Can End Up Be In A Position To - To Make A Difference."

And Joe Biden, Thank You For Being The Best Vice President I Could Ever Hope For.

The Presidency Has A Funny Way Of Making A Person Feel The Need To Pray.

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.

Because Of You, In Afghanistan We've Broken The Momentum Of The Taliban. Because Of You, We've Begun A Transition To The Afghans That Will Allow Us To Bring Our Troops Home From There. And Around The Globe, As We Draw Down In Iraq, We Have Gone After Al Qaeda So That Terrorists Who Threaten America Will Have No Safe Haven, And Osama Bin Laden Will Never Again Walk The Face Of This Earth.

I Don't Believe People Should To Be Able To Own Guns.

Come On! I Just Answered, Like, Eight Questions.

And, As A Consequence Of The Pressure That We've Applied Over The Last Couple Of Weeks, We Have Syria -- For The First Time -- Acknowledging That It Has Chemical Weapons, Agreeing To Join The Convention That Prohibits The Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The Russians -- Their Primary Sponsors -- Saying That They Will Push Syria To Get All Of Their Chemical Weapons Out. The Distance That We've Traveled Over These Couple Of Weeks Is Remarkable.

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.

When You Try To Sow The Seeds Of Doubt In People`s Minds About The Legitimacy Of Our Election, That Undermines Democracy. Then You`re Doing The Work Of Our Adversaries For Them.

There Is Not A Black America And A White America; A Latino America, An Asian America. There Is The United States Of America.

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.

Scripture Tells Us To "run With Endurance The Race That Is Set Before Us." As We Do, May God Hold Close Those Who’ve Been Taken From Us Too Soon.

I Absolutely Think That It's Possible For Us To Find Common Ground.

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

That's Why I Stand Here Tonight. Because For Two Hundred And Thirty Two Years, At Each Moment When That Promise Was In Jeopardy, Ordinary Men And Women - Students And Soldiers, Farmers And Teachers, Nurses And Janitors - Found The Courage To Keep It Alive.

Alongside My Own Deep Personal Faith, I Am A Follower, As Well, Of Our Civic Religion. I Am A Big Believer In The Separation Of Church And State.

Race Is Still A Powerful Force In This Country. Any African American Candidate, Or Any Latino Candidate, Or Asian Candidate Or Woman Candidate Confronts A Higher Threshold In Establishing Himself To The Voters ... Are Some Voters Not Going To Vote For Me Because I'm African American? Those Are The Same Voters Who Probably Wouldn't Vote For Me Because Of My Politics.

We Won't Apologise For Our Way Of Life, Nor Will We Weaver In Its Defence, And For Those Who Seek To Advance Their Aims By Inducing Terror And Slaughtering Innocents, We Say To You Now That Our Spirit Is Stronger And Cannot Be Broken, You Cannot Outlast Us, And We Will Defeat You.

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

Time Is Running Out For Iran To Address The International Community's Growing Concerns About Its Nuclear Program.

One Of The Proudest Things Of My Three Years In Office Is Helping To Restore A Sense Of Respect For America Around The World.

When I Was A Kid, I Inhaled. Frequently. That Was The Point.

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

If The Critics Are Right That I've Made All My Decisions Based On Polls, Then I Must Not Be Very Good At Reading Them.

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.

Healthcare System Is Broken Without Lifetime Employment.

To Restore America's Competitiveness, We Must Recruit A New Generation Of Science And Technology Leaders By Investing In Diversity.

We Need Not Throw Away 200 Years Of American Jurisprudence While We Fight Terrorism. We Need Not Choose Between Our Most Deeply Held Values, And Keeping This Nation Safe.

We, The People, Declare Today That The Most Evident Of Truths - That All Of Us Are Created Equal - Is The Star That Guides Us Still; Just As It Guided Our Forebears Through Seneca Falls, And Selma, And Stonewall; Just As It Guided All Those Men And Women, Sung And Unsung, Who Left Footprints Along This Great Mall, To Hear A Preacher Say That We Cannot Walk Alone; To Hear A King Proclaim That Our Individual Freedom Is Inextricably Bound To The Freedom Of Every Soul On Earth.

Chancellor [angela] Merkel Is Perhaps The Only Leader Left Among Our Closest Allies That Was There When I Arrived. So In Some Ways We Are Now The Veterans Of Many Challenges Over The Last Eight Years.

That's When America Soars, When We Look Out For One Another And We Take Care Of Each Other, When We Root For One Another's Success, When We Strive To Do Better And To Be Better Than The Generation That Came Before Us And Try To Build Something Better For Generations To Come, That's Why We Do What We Do. That's The Whole Point Of Public Service.

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

We Now Live In A World Where The Most Valuable Skill You Can Sell Is Knowledge. Revolutions In Technology And Communication Have Created An Entire Economy Of High-tech, High-wage Jobs That Can Be Located Anywhere There's An Internet Connection. And Today, A Child In Chicago Is Not Only Competing For Jobs With One In Boston, But Thousands More In Bangalore And Beijing Who Are Being Educated Longer And Better Than Ever Before.

Sustaining The Energy And Focus Involved In Doing A Good Job I Think Starts To Gets Tougher The Longer You Do It.

I've Enjoyed The Conversations That We've Had. [donald Trump] Is Somebody Who I Think Is Not Lacking In Confidence.

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.

From The First Moment A Woman Dared To Speak That Hope - Dared To Believe That The American Dream Was Meant For Her Too - Ordinary Women Have Taken On Extraordinary Odds To Give Their Daughters The Chance For Something Else; For A Life More Equal, More Free, And Filled With More Opportunity Than They Ever Had. In So Many Ways We Have Succeeded, But In So Many Areas We Have Much Work Left To Do.

Israel Is A True Friend. It Is Our Greatest Ally In The Region. And If Israel Is Attacked, America Will Stand With Israel. I've Made That Clear Throughout My Presidency.

We Must Carry Forward The Work Of The Women Who Came Before Us And Ensure Out Daughters Have No Limits On Their Dreams, No Obstacles To Their Achievements And No Remaining Ceilings To Shatter.

We Don't Quit. I Don't Quit. Let's Seize This Moment.

With Respect To Some Of The Specific Legislation Or Initiatives That I've Made, It's True That Republicans Often Opposed These Things. Sometimes They Opposed Them Because I Proposed Them. Now That They Are Responsible For Governing, I Think They'll Find That Reversing Them Would Be Counterproductive.

I Don't Have A Philosophical Objection, Necessarily, To A Travel Ban If That Is The Thing That Is Going To Keep The American People Safe.

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

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

We Reject All Efforts To Denigrate The Religious Beliefs Of Others.

It Was Young People Who Stubbornly Insisted On Justice, Stubbornly Refused To Accept The World As It Is That Transformed Not Just The Country But Transformed The World.

We Should Be More Modest In Our Belief That We Can Impose Democracy On A Country Through Military Force.

Buy Health Insurance, Or Go To Jail.

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.

The President And The Executive Branch Are Always Going To Have Greater Latitude And Greater Authority When It Comes To Protecting America Because Sometimes You Just Have To Respond Quickly And Not Everything That Is A Danger Can Be Publicized And Be Subject To Open Debate, But There Have To Be Some Guardrails.

Ultimately There Is No Dividing Line Between Main Street And Wall Street. We Will Rise Or We Will Fall Together As One Nation.

America Must Always Lead On The World Stage.

Inequality Also Distorts Our Democracy. It Gives An Outsized Voice To The Few Who Can Afford High-priced Lobbyists And Unlimited Campaign Contributions, And Runs The Risk Of Selling Out Our Democracy To The Highest Bidder. And It Leaves Everyone Else Rightly Suspicious That The System In Washington Is Rigged Against Them - That Our Elected Representatives Aren't Looking Out For The Interests Of Most Americans.

What Is Portrayed As High-minded Positions On Issues Sometimes Is Just Designed To Carve Out Some Of Their Commercial Interests.

If We Truly Believe In Our Public Schools, Then We Have A Moral Responsibility To Do Better - To Break The Either-or Mentality Around School Reform, And Embrace A Both-and Mentality. Good Schools Will Require Both The Structural Reform And The Resources Necessary To Prepare Our Kids For The Future.

Islam Has Always Been A Part Of America’s Story.... And Since Our Founding, American Muslims Have Enriched The United States.

We Think About The Enormous Costs Of Homelessness, Or The Enormous Cost Of Hiv/aids, Over The Long Term, As People Visit Emergency Rooms, Etc. The More We Are Investing In That Ounce Of Prevention The Better Off We're Going To Be.

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.

When We Start Using Religion As A Bludgeon In Politics, When We Start Questioning Other People's Faith, We Start Using Religion To Divide, Instead Of Bring The Country Together, Then I Think We've Got A Problem.

If You Like Your Existing Plan You Get To Keep It

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.

I Opposed The Defense Of Marriage Act In 1996. It Should Be Repealed And I Will Vote For Its Repeal On The Senate Floor. I Will Also Oppose Any Proposal To Amend The U.s. Constitution To Ban Gays And Lesbians From Marrying.

Each Side Has Legitimate Aspirations - And That's Part Of What Makes Peace So Hard. And The Deadlock Will Only Be Broken When Each Side Learns To Stand In The Other's Shoes; Each Side Can See The World Through The Other's Eyes. That's What We Should Be Encouraging. That's What We Should Be Promoting.

Iran Is Biggest Strategic Beneficiary Of Invasion Of Iraq.

I Am Confident That We Will One Day End The Scourge Of Modern Slavery, Because I Believe In Those Committed To This Issue.

Congress Is Hard To Deal With, Dealing With, You Know, Multiple Parliaments And Commissions And Unions And This And That And The Other, That's Very Complicated.

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.

The Nation That Leads The Clean Energy Economy Will Be The Nation That Leads The Global Economy.

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

As I've Said, There Were Patriots Who Supported This War, And Patriots Who Opposed It. And All Of Us Are United In Appreciation For Our Servicemen And Women, And Our Hopes For Iraqis' Future.

Lincoln Basically Pulled In All The People Who Had Been Running Against Him Into His Cabinet Because, Whatever Personal Feelings There Were, The Issue Was 'how Can We Get This Country Through This Time Of Crisis?'

A Nation That Can't Control Its Energy Sources Can't Control Its Future.

I Reserve The Right, As President Of The United States To Meet With Anybody At A Time And Place Of My Choosing If I Think It's Going To Keep America Safe.

The Russians Sought To Interfere With The Election Process - That The Cyber Hacking That Took Place By The Russians Was Part Of That Campaign, And That They Had A Clear Preference In Terms Of Outcomes.

Election Process

When You Look At What [new Generation] Believe In, How They Value Diversity, How They Believe In Science, How They Care About The Environment, How They Believe In, You Know, Everybody Getting A Fair Shot, How They Believe In Not Discriminating Against People For Sexual Orientation And You Know, Their Belief That We Have To Work With Other Countries To Create A More Peaceful World And To Alleviate Poverty, That's The Majority An Entire Generation That's Coming Up Behind Us.

The American Story Has Never Been About Things Coming Easy. It Has Been About Rising To The Moment When The Moment Is Hard. About Rejecting Panicked Division For Purposeful Unity. About Seeing A Mountaintop From The Deepest Valley. That Is Why We Remember That Some Of The Most Famous Words Ever Spoken By An American Came From A President Who Took Office In A Time Of Turmoil: "the Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself.

We Do Have To Balance This Issue Of Privacy And Security. Those Who Pretend That There's No Balance That Has To Be Struck And Think We Can Take A 100-percent Absolutist Approach To Protecting Privacy Don't Recognize That Governments Are Going To Be Under An Enormous Burden To Prevent The Kinds Of Terrorist Acts That Not Only Harm Individuals, But Also Can Distort Our Society And Our Politics In Very Dangerous Ways.

No Development Strategy Can Be Based Only Upon What Comes Out Of The Ground, Nor Can It Be Sustained While Young People Are Out Of Work.

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

That's Part Of What I Tried To Describe To My Team And Supporters After The Election, There Was A Lot Of Disappointment.

Some People Only Speak Of Freedom Of Speech While They're Out Of Power. Once They're In Power, They're Ruthless In Suppressing The Rights Of Others.

Freedom Of Speech

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?

And Then You've Got President Clinton Who Made The Case As Only He Can. After He Spoke, Somebody Sent Out A Tweet- They Said, You Should Appoint Him Secretary Of Explaining Stuff. I Like That- Secretary Of Explaining Stuff. Although, I Have To Admit, It Didn't Really Say Stuff. I Cleaned That Up A Little Bit.

Rather Than Pointing Fingers Or Assigning Blame, Let’s Use This Occasion To Expand Our Moral Imaginations, To Listen To Each Other More Carefully, To Sharpen Our Instincts For Empathy And Remind Ourselves Of All The Ways That Our Hopes And Dreams Are Bound Together.

The Government Of Libya Announced The Death Of Moammar Gadhafi. This Marks The End Of A Long And Painful Chapter For The People Of Libya, Who Now Have The Opportunity To Determine Their Own Destiny In A New And Democratic Libya. The Gadhafi Regime Ruled The Libyan People With An Iron Fist. The Enormous Potential Of The Libyan People Was Held Back And Terror Was Used As A Political Weapon. The Last Major Regime Strongholds Have Fallen. The New Government Is Consolidating The Control Over The Country. And One Of The World's Longest-serving Dictators Is No More.

Boston Is A Tough And Resilient Town. So Are Its People. I'm Supremely Confident That Bostonians Will Pull Together, Take Care Of Each Other, And Move Forward As One Proud City. And As They Do, The American People Will Be With Them Every Single Step Of The Way.

Globalization Is A Fact, Because Of Technology, Because Of An Integrated Global Supply Chain, Because Of Changes In Transportation. And We're Not Going To Be Able To Build A Wall Around That.

We Have Real Enemies In The World. These Enemies Must Be Found. They Must Be Pursued And They Must Be Defeated.

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

Hope -- Hope In The Face Of Difficulty. Hope In The Face Of Uncertainty. The Audacity Of Hope! In The End, That Is God’s Greatest Gift To Us...a Belief In Things Not Seen. A Belief That There Are Better Days Ahead.

I Think The Turks' Willingness To Take Seriously Action On The Borders To Stop The Flow Of Foreign Fighters Joining Isil Is Significant.

Absolutely. I Think, I Think The American People, At Their Core, Are A Decent People. I Think That We Still Have Prejudice In Our Midst, But I Think That The Vast Majority Of Americans Are Willing, Are Willing To Judge People On The Basis Of Their Ideas And Their Character. And In The Case Of The Presidency, I Think What's Most Important Is Whether The American People Think That You Understand Their Hopes And Dreams And Struggles And Whether They Think You Can Actually Help Them Achieve Those Hopes And Dreams.

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.

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

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

Higher Minimum Wages, Full-employment Programs, Early-childhood Education: Those Kinds Of Programs Are, By Design, Universal, But By Definition, Because They Are Helping Folks Who Are In The Worst Economic Situations, Are Most Likely To Disproportionately Impact And Benefit African Americans. They Also Have The Benefit Of Being Sellable To A Majority Of The Body Politic.

That's What The Leadership Was Teaching Me, Day By Day: That The Self-interest I Was Supposed To Be Looking For Extended Well Beyond The Immediacy Of Issues, That Beneath The Small Talk And Sketchy Biographies And Received Opinions, People Carried With Them Some Central Explanation Of Themselves. Stories Full Of Terror And Wonder, Studded With Events That Still Haunted Or Inspired Them. Sacred Stories.

Democracy Demands That The Religiously Motivated Translate Their Concerns Into Universal, Rather Than Religion-specific, Values.

The Cyber World Is Sort Of The Wild, Wild West, And To Some Degree, We're Asked To Be The Sheriff.

I'm Told There's A Saying From Those Ancient Times, Kalos Kai Agathos, When Someone Or Something Is Good And Beautiful On The Outside, But Is Also Good And Noble On The Inside In Terms Of Character And In Terms Of Purpose. And I Think That's A Fine Description Of The Friendship That Exists Between The Greek People And The American People.

We Must Act, Knowing That Our Work Will Be Imperfect.

You [as A President] Have To Have A Strong Team Around You. You Have To Have Respect For Institutions And The Process To Make Good Decisions Because You Are Inherently Reliant On Other Folks.

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.

America Is A Country Of Strong Families And Strong Values. My Life's Been Blessed By Both.

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

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

Iraq Is Sort Of A Situation Where You've Got A Guy Who Drove The Bus Into The Ditch. You Obviously Have To Get The Bus Out Of The Ditch, And That's Not Easy To Do, Although You Probably Should Fire The Driver.

The Good News Is That The Paris Agreement Is Not Just A Bilateral Agreement Between The United States And Some Other Country. You Have 200 Countries Who Came Together. It's An International Agreement.

I Think That People Are Concerned About The Breakdown Of The Family But They Also Don't Want To See Discrimination Against Gays And Lesbians Who They Work With And They Want To Be Able To Make Sure That Gays Can Visit Each Other In Hospitals And Be Able To Inherit Property.

There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around. I Think The Problem Here Is That In Our School Systems, And To Some Degree - And This Is Where It Is Relevant - With School Boards Around The Country That Are Mandating Curriculums And Textbooks, You Start Seeing This Weird Watering Down Of Scientific Fact So That Our Kids Are Growing Up In An Environment - And This Connects To What I Was Saying Earlier Abou The Media - Where Everything's Contested. Where Nothing Is True.

Over The Last Few Years A Lot Of People Have Become Aware Of The Inequities In The Criminal Justice System, Right Now, With Our Overall Crime Rate And Incarceration Rate Both Falling, We're At A Moment When Some Good People In Both Parties, Republicans And Democrats And Folks All Across The Country, Are Coming Up With Ideas To Make The System Work Smarter And Better.

For People Who Have Health Insurance, We Can Provide Health Insurance Reforms That Make The Insurance They Have More Secure. And We Can Do That Mostly By Using Money That Every Expert Agrees Is Being Wasted And Is Currently In The Existing Health Care System.

All Of These Different Strands In Me - The Black, The White, The African - All Of That Has Contributed Directly To My Success Because When I Meet People, I See A Piece Of Myself In Them. And Maybe They See A Piece Of Themselves In Me.

Estiven Rodriguez Couldn't Speak A Word Of English When He Moved To New York City At Age Nine. But Last Month, Thanks To The Support Of Great Teachers And An Innovative Tutoring Program, He Led A March Of His Classmates - Through A Crowd Of Cheering Parents And Neighbors - From Their High School To The Post Office, Where They Mailed Off Their College Applications. And This Son Of A Factory Worker Just Found Out He's Going To College This Fall.

This Notion That's Peddled By The Religious Right - That They Are Oppressed Is Not True. Sometimes It's A Cynical Ploy To Move Their Agenda Ahead. The Classic Example Being That Somehow Secularists Are Trying To Eliminate Christmas, Which Strikes Me As Some Kind Of Manufactured Controversy.

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

What We Can Do Is To Live Out Our Lives As Best We Can With Purpose, And Love, And Joy. We Can Use Each Day To Show Those Who Are Closest To Us How Much We Care About Them, And Treat Others With The Kindness And Respect That We Wish For Ourselves. We Can Learn From Our Mistakes And Grow From Our Failures. And We Can Strive At All Costs To Make A Better World.

Whatever Success I Have Achieved, Whatever Positions Of Leadership I Have Held Have Depended Less On Ivy League Degrees Or Sat Scores Or Gpas And Have Instead Been Due To That Sense Of Connection And Empathy, The Special Obligation I Felt As A Black Man Like You To Help Those Who Need It Most, People Who Didn't Have The Opportunities That I Had Because There, But For The Grace Of God Go I. I Might Have Been In Their Shoes. I Might Have Been In Prison. I Might Have Been Unemployed. I Might Not Have Been Able To Support A Family. And That Motivates Me.

Toughest Decision Was Early In My Presidency When I Ordered 30,000 More Troops Into Afghanistan. As Somebody Who Had Run To End A Large Troop Presence Overseas.

I Think Same Sex Couples Should Be Able To Get Married.

I'm A Big Football Fan, But I Have To Tell You If I Had A Son, I'd Have To Think Long And Hard Before I Let Him Play Football.

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

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

When It Comes To Our Military, What We Have To Think About Is Not, You Know Just Budgets, We've Got To Think About Capabilities.

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.

Jimmy Carter Will Go Down In American History As 'the President Who Lost Iran,'

American History

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.

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

If You Like Your Healthcare Plan, You'll Be Able To Keep Your Healthcare Plan, Period. No One Will Take It Away, No Matter What.

I Can't Even Get A Credit Card Without Three Credit Bureaus Saying I'm Good Enough.

Progressives Should Recognize Common Morality With Religion.

This Is Not Class Warfare. It’s Math.

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.

The Balkanization Of The Media Means That Nobody Is Having A Single Conversation With A Single Set Of Agreed-upon Facts And Assumptions The Way You Had As Recently As The 90s.

No Religion Is Responsible For Terrorism. People Are Responsible For Violence And Terrorism.

We Need To Teach Our Kids That It's Not Just The Winner Of The Super Bowl Who Deserves To Be Celebrated, But The Winner Of The Science Fair.

The Laws Of Our Land Are Catching Up To The Fundamental Truth That Millions Of Americans Hold In Our Hearts: When All Americans Are Treated As Equal, No Matter Who They Are Or Whom They Love, We Are All More Free.

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.

As I Said In My State Of The Union Address Ensuring The Security Of The United States And The Safety Of Our People Demands A Smart, Patient And Disciplined Approach To The World.

I Don't Think That Hedge Funds Are Bad Per Se. I Think They're Just One More Financial Tool. And In That Sense, They're Useful.

I Was Never Great, But I Was A Good [basketball] Player, And I Could Play Seriously. Now I'm Like One Of These Old Guys Who's Running Around, And The Guys I Play With, Who Are All A Lot Younger, They Sort Of Pity Me And Sympathize With Me. They Tolerate Me, But We All Know That I'm The Weak Link On The Court. And I Don't Like Being The Weak Link.

Yesterday, John Mccain Actually Said That If He's President That He'll Take On, And I Quote, 'the Old Boys Network In Washington.' Now I'm Not Making This Up. This Is Somebody Who's Been In Congress For Twenty-six Years, Who Put Seven Of The Most Powerful Washington Lobbyists In Charge Of His Campaign. And Now He Tells Us That He's The One Who's Gonna' To Take On The Old Boys Network. The Old Boys Network? In The Mccain Campaign That's Called A Staff Meeting. Come, On!

Look, First Of All, The Climate Is Changing. I Don't Think The Science Is Clear What Percentage Is Man-made And What Percentage Is Natural. It's Convoluted. And For The People To Say The Science Is Decided On, This Is Just Really Arrogant, To Be Honest With You, It's This Intellectual Arrogance That Now You Can't Even Have A Conversation About It. The Climate Is Changing, And We Need To Adapt To That Reality.

We Have Proved That The True Strength Of Our Nation Comes Not From The Scale Of Our Wealth But From The Power Of Our Ideals - Opportunity, Democracy, Liberty And Hope.

There Is No Excuse For Not Trying.

The Genius Of Our Founders Is That They Designed A System Of Government That Can Be Changed. And We Should Take Heart, Because We’ve Changed This Country Before.

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