Background Image

...

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.

-Barack Obama

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Rather Take That Moral

Barack Obama

...

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.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Barack Obama

That Applies, By The Way, Even To Some Of The Folks Who Are Now [donald] Trump Supporters. They're Responding To A Fictional Character Named Barack Obama Who They See On Fox News Or Who They Hear About Through Rush Limbaugh.

America Is Not - And Never Will Be - At War With Islam. We Will, However, Relentlessly Confront Violent Extremists.

If Everything Seems To Be The Same And No Distinctions Are Made, Then We Won't Know What To Protect. We Won't Know What To Fight For.

Those Are Values That Help Guide Not Just My Family's Christian Faith, But That Of Jewish Americans, And Muslim Americans; Nonbelievers And Americans Of All Backgrounds. And No One Better Embodies That Spirit Of Service Than The Men And Women Who Wear Our Country's Uniform And Their Families.

Those Of Us In Positions Of Responsibility, We'll Need To Be Less Concerned With The Judgment Of Special Interests And Well-connected Donors, And More Concerned With The Judgment Of Posterity.

Just Like I Described In Health Care, Yeah, Somebody Comes In, They Got New Ideas, Maybe Ideas That Are Completely Opposite Of My Ideas. Maybe Some Of It Goes, Maybe Some Of That Progress Goes Back. Maybe They Think Of Some Things We Didn't Think Of, And So In Some Other Areas - We Can Learn Something.

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools. We Must Make Sure That People Who Have The Grades, The Desire And The Will, But Not The Money, Can Still Get The Best Education Possible.

Let's Say I'm On The Policy Wonk End Of The Spectrum. As Much As I Can Dive Into A Briefing Book And Really Work To Master Various Subjects That Come Before My Desk, I'm Still Not An Expert On A Huge Amount Of The Stuff That We Work On.

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

And That, I Suppose, Is What I'd Been Trying To Tell My Mother That Day: That Her Faith In Justice And Rationality Was Misplaced, That We Couldn't Overcome After All, That All The Education And Good Intentions In The World Couldn't Help You Plug Up The Holes In The Universe Or Give You The Power To Change Its Blind, Mindless Course.

[young People] Are Showing Enormous And Entrepreneurship And Working With Each Other Across Borders.

Entrepreneurship

Tim Kaine Has A Message Of Fiscal Responsibility And Generosity Of Spirit. That Kind Of Message Can Sell Anywhere.

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.

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

That Support Has Been So Constant And Gracious And Loving. Michelle And I Have Never Felt As If, At Any Stage, Folks Didn't Have Our Backs. And As A Consequence, I Think That Just Spurred Us On That Much More To Make Us Want To Do The Right Thing, And Do Our Best In The Positions That We Have.

We Are Unique Among Advanced Countries That We Don't Have Universal Health Care. My Hope Was That I Was Able To Get A Hundred Percent Of People Health Care While I Was President. We Didn't Quite Achieve That, But We Were Able To Get 20 Million People Health Care Who Didn't Have It Before. And Obviously Some Of The Progress We Made Is Now Imperiled Because There's Still A Significant Debate Taking Place In The United States. For Those 20 Million People, Their Lives Have Been Better.

The Terms Of Peace May Be Negotiated By Political Leaders, But The Fate Of Peace Is Up To Each Of Us.

But Shouldn't We Also Quit Marketing Murder As A Game?

We Do Need To Make Sure That We Have An Orderly, Lawful Immigration Process.

The Most Important Thing We Can Do Is To Make Sure That We Are Creating Jobs In This Country. But Not Just Jobs, Good Paying Jobs. Ones That Can Support A Family.

I Have Nothing To Hide. I Enjoy Being Myself. I'm Not Going To Change Who I Am Just Because It's Halloween.

Iran Is The Latest Expression Of A Deep, Ancient, Powerful Culture That's Different Than Ours. And We Don't Know How It's Going To Play Itself Out.

To Everyone In This Congress Who Still Refuses To Raise The Minimum Wage, I Say This: If You Truly Believe You Could Work Full-time And Support A Family On Less Than $15,000 A Year, Go Try It. If Not, Vote To Give Millions Of The Hardest-working People In America A Raise.

I Believe That Marriage Is The Union Between A Man And A Woman. Now, For Me As A Christian - For Me - For Me As A Christian, It Is Also A Sacred Union. God's In The Mix.

To Me The Question Right Now Is: How Do I Close That First Three-quarters Of The Achievement Gap, Education Gap, Wealth Gap? What Gives Me The Best Chance To Do That? And I'm Pretty Darn Sure That If America Is A Just Society And Treating People Well Right Now, Irrespective Of Past Wrongs, That I'm Going To Close A Big Chunk Of That Gap. I've Seen It.

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

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.

You Work With What You Got.

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

We Will Remember That We Are Not As Divided As Our Politics Suggests; That We Are One People; We Are One Nation And Together, We Will Begin The Next Great Chapter In The American Story With Three Words That Will Ring From Coast To Coast, From Sea To Shining Sea:- Yes. We. Can.

For Top Executives To Award Themselves These Kinds Of Compensation Packages In The Midst Of This Economic Crisis Isn't Just Bad Taste, It's Bad Strategy, And I Will Not Tolerate It As President.

I Know Starting Careers In Troubled Times Is A Challenge, But It Is Also A Privilege. Because It's Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, Dig Deeper And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had. To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us. So Don't Ever Shy Away From That Endeavor. Don't Stop Adding To Your Body Of Work. I Can Promise That You Will Be The Better For That Continued Effort As Will Be This Nation That We All Love.

Today, The World Lost A Creative Icon. Michelle And I Join Millions Of Fans From Around The World In Mourning The Sudden Death Of Prince.

Whenever I Write A Letter To A Family Who Has Lost A Loved One In Iraq, Or Read An Email From A Constituent Who Has Dropped Out Of College Because Her Student Aid Has Been Cut, I'm Reminded That The Actions Of Those In Power Have Enormous Consequences--a Price That They Themselves Almost Never Have To Pay.

Unless We Are Holding Ourselves Accountable Day In, Day Out, Not Just When There's A Crisis For Folks Who Have Power And Influence And Can Hire Lobbyists, But For The Nurse, The Teacher, The Police Officer, Who, Frankly, At The End Of Each Month, They've Got A Little Financial Crisis Going On. They're Having To Take Out Extra Debt Just To Make Their Mortgage Payments. We Haven't Been Paying Attention To Them. And If You Look At Our Tax Policies In America, It's A Classic Example.

Legislatively, The Thing I'm Most Proud Of Is Healthcare, And I Will Continue To Be Most Proud Of It Because Not Only Do We Have 30 Million People Who Are Going To Get Healthcare, We've Got Six Million Young People Who Are Able To Stay On Their Parents' Plan Until They're 26.

We Can't Drive Our Suvs And Eat As Much As We Want And Keep Our Homes On 72 Degrees At All Times... And Then Just Expect That Other Countries Are Going To Say Ok. That's Not Leadership. That's Not Going To Happen.

Of All The Rocks Upon Which We Build Our Lives, We Are Reminded Today That Family Is The Most Important. And We Are Called To Recognize And Honor How Critical Every Father Is To That Foundation. They Are Teachers And Coaches. They Are Mentors And Role Models. They Are Examples Of Success And The Men Who Constantly Push Us Toward It.

Donald Trump Is Somebody Who I Think Likes To Mix It Up And To Have A Vigorous Debate.

I Think That The Risk To All The Progress We've Made Was At Stake In The Election Because Not Just The President-elect But A Lot Of Members Of Congress, Including Now The Speaker Of The House And The Senate Majority Leader, Have Said That Their Principal Agenda Was To Undo A Lot Of This Progress. But As I've Been Talking About Over The Last Several Days When It Comes To Health Care, The Gains That We've Made Are There. Twenty Million People Have Health Insurance That Didn't Have It Before. The Uninsured Rate Is The Lowest It's Ever Been.

Majority Leader

I See Tragedy And Comedy And Pain And Irony And All That Stuff. But In The End I Think Life Is Fascinating, And I Think People Are More Good Than Bad, And I Think That The Possibilities Of Progress Are Real.

We Were Very Effective, And I Was Very Effective, In Shaping Public Opinion Around My Campaigns. But There Were Big Stretches, While Governing, Where Even Though We Were Doing The Right Thing, We Weren't Able To Mobilize Public Opinion Firmly Enough Behind Us To Weaken The Resolve Of The Republicans To Stop Opposing Us Or To Cooperate With Us. And There Were Times During My Presidency Where I Lost The Pr Battle.

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

I Have To Make The Very Best Judgments I Can Make In Terms Of What's Gonna Keep The American People Safe. And Is What, What's Gonna Uphold Our Constitution And Our Traditions Of Due Process.

We Did Not Come To Fear The Future. We Came Here To Shape It.

We, The People, Still Believe That Our Obligations As Americans Are Not Just To Ourselves, But To All Posterity. We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change, Knowing That The Failure To Do So Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations. Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science, But None Can Avoid The Devastating Impact Of Raging Fires And Crippling Drought And More Powerful Storms.

A Better Politics Is One Where We Appeal To Each Other’s Basic Decency Instead Of Our Basest Fears.

I Think That [donald Trump] Clearly Was Able To Tap Into A Lot Of Grievances. And He Has A Talent For Making A Connection With His Supporters That Overrode Some Of The Traditional Benchmarks Of How You'd Run A Campaign Or Conduct Yourself As A Presidential Candidate. What Will Be Interesting To See Is How That Plays Out During The Course Of His Presidency.

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.

Writing Has Been An Important Exercise To Clarify What I Believe, What I See, What I Care About, What My Deepest Values Are. The Process Of Converting A Jumble Of Thoughts Into Coherent Sentences Makes You Ask Tougher Questions.

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

Hillary Clinton Possesses An Extraordinary Intelligence And A Remarkable Work Ethic. I Am Proud That She Will Be Our Next Secretary Of State.

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

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

The Theater Is Necessary. Dance Is Necessary. Song Is Necessary. The Arts Are Necessary- They Are A Necessary Part Of Our Lives

The United States Was Founded On The Idea That All People Are Endowed With Inalienable Rights, And That Principle Has Allowed Us To Work To Perfect Our Union At Home While Standing As A Beacon Of Hope To The World. Today, That Principle Is Embodied In Agreements Americans Helped Forge - The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, The Geneva Conventions, And Treaties Against Torture And Genocide - And It Unites Us With People From Every Country And Culture.

When You've Got A Economy In Which 40 Percent Of Economic Growth Is Happening In The Financial Sector, That Turns Out That Was All An Illusion, That It Wasn't Growth Based On Real Products And Services, But Just A Bunch Of Paper Shuffling And A House Of Cards, Then What's Gonna Emerge, At Some Point, Is A Sense Of Resentment, A Sense That The System's Rigged, And It's Not Working For Ordinary People. And It's Not Fulfilling The Basic American Dream.

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.

Donald Trump Is Temperamentally Unfit.

Buy Health Insurance, Or Go To Jail.

The Next Phase And This Is Part Of What I'm Interested In Doing After I Get Out Of The Presidency Is To Make Sure That I'm Working With That Next Generation So That They Understand You Can't Just Rely On Inspiration. There's A Little Perspiration Involved In Bringing About Change Too. That You Have To Be Organized, That You Have To Vote Even When It's Not Exciting.

I Think The American People Can Change Washington. But I Think That It Is Not Going To Change, Because Somebody From On High Directs That Change.

People Can Change

We Are Defined Not By Our Borders But By Our Bonds.

Look, Americans Will Go For Leadership That Makes Sense. Our Job, You Know, As Public Officials, Is Not To Put Our Finger In The Air. Our Job Is To Listen, And Then Lead.

I Believe We [americans] Are Strongest As A Nation, When The President And Congress Work Together.

Working Together

I Don't Think Marriage Is A Civil Right, But I Think That Being Able To Transfer Property Is A Civil Right.

I Want Every Math Teacher To Know Math. I Want Every Science Teacher To Have Expertise In Science. I Want Them To Know How To Inspire And Engage Young People.

We've Got To Be Able To Have A Conversation And Recognize We're All Americans; We All Want The Best For This Country. We May Have Some Disagreements In Terms Of How To Get There, But All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong, That Jobs Are Growing. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That People Aren't Bankrupt When They Get Sick. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Young People Can Afford An Education.

It's Time To Fundamentally Change The Way That We Do Business In Washington. To Help Build A New Foundation For The 21st Century, We Need To Reform Our Government So That It Is More Efficient, More Transparent, And More Creative. That Will Demand New Thinking And A New Sense Of Responsibility For Every Dollar That Is Spent.

The Second Thing We Have To Do Is To Make Sure That All Of Us Think About How We Approach Our Elections And Our Democracy Not Only To Secure Them From Vote Tampering, But Also To Make Sure That We Understand When Propaganda Is Being Churned Through The System.

We've Evolved A Lot Since 9/11 Also, In Terms Of Our Law Enforcement Capabilities, Our Intelligence Capabilities, Military, Counterterrorism.

We Do Want People To Know If In Fact We Learn Of An Incident That's Focused On A Particular City.if We Learn Of Long-term Planning, That's Focused On A Particular Industry Or Infrastructure. And So We Feel We Have An Obligation To Let People Know If We Have Information Of A Credible Threat Or Not.

What You Saw Was The People Of New York Having A Debate, Talking Through These Issues. It Was Contentious. It Was Emotional. But Ultimately, They Made A Decision To Recognize Civil Marriage. And I Think That's Exactly How Things Should Work.

[the Americans] Believe In The Idea That Jamal And Johnny Should Be Treated Equally.

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

California Is Our Biggest Economy. California Is Our Biggest Agricultural Producer. So What Happens Here Matters To Every Working American.

The Interests We Share As Human Beings Are Far More Powerful Than The Forces That Drive Us Apart.

The President [barack Obama] Understands That The Country's Very Concerned About [terrorism] Issue. And I Think What You're Going To Hear From Him Is A Discussion About What Government's Doing To Ensure All Of Our Highest Priority, The Protection Of The American People.

And What Would Help Minority Workers Are The Same Things That Would Help White Workers: The Opportunity To Earn A Living Wage, The Education And Training That Lead To Such Jobs, Labor Laws And Tax Laws That Restore Some Balance To The Distribution Of The Nation's Wealth.

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.

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

Corporations Aren’t People. People Are People.

My Fellow Americans, We Are And Always Will Be A Nation Of Immigrants. We Were Strangers Once, Too.

Undocumented Workers

We Have A Historic Opportunity To Prevent The Spread Of Nuclear Weapons In Iran, And To Do So Peacefully, With The International Community Firmly Behind Us. We Should Seize That Chance.

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

Domestic Violence

Robin Williams Was An Airman, A Doctor, A Genie, A Nanny, A President, A Professor, A Bangarang Peter Pan, And Everything In Between. But He Was One Of A Kind. He Arrived In Our Lives As An Alien - But He Ended Up Touching Every Element Of The Human Spirit. He Made Us Laugh. He Made Us Cry. He Gave His Immeasurable Talent Freely And Generously To Those Who Needed It Most - From Our Troops Stationed Abroad To The Marginalized On Our Own Streets. The Obama Family Offers Our Condolences To Robin’s Family, His Friends, And Everyone Who Found Their Voice And Their Verse Thanks To Robin Williams.

If All It Took Was Someone Proclaiming I Believe Jesus Christ And That He Died For My Sins, And That Was All There Was To It, People Wouldn't Have To Keep Coming To Church, Would They.

If We Are Truly Created Equal Then Surely The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well

[ William Ayers] Is An Example Of What I'm Talking About. This Is A Guy Who Lives In My Neighborhood, Who's A Professor Of English In Chicago Who I Know And Who I Have Not Received Some Official Endorsement From. He's Not Somebody Who I Exchange Ideas From On A Regular Basis.

I Think That Sometimes The Democrats Have To Run Upstream Or Swim Upstream Because We've Got The Republicans Making It Out As If We Don't Care About These Things, And We Should Be Able To Engage And Be Willing To Engage In The Discussion About Morality And Values.

Even When Our Heart Aches, We Summon The Strength That Maybe We Didn't Even Know We Had, And We Carry On; We Finish The Race.

I Think It's Useful To Keep In Mind I've Been Now President For Over Seven Years And Gun Sales Don't Seem To Have Suffered During That Time.

There Are Some Who Might Say That Somebody Named Barack Obama Can't Be Elected Senator In The State Of Illinois. They're Probably The Same Folks Who Said That A Guy Named Rod Blagojevich Couldn't Be Elected Governor Of The State Of Illinois.

I Hoped For Something Else. It's A Simple Dream, But It Speaks To Us So Powerfully Because It Is Our Dream - One That Exists At The Very Center Of The American Experience. One That Says If You're Willing To Work Hard And Take Responsibility, Then You'll Have The Chance To Reach For Something Else; For Something Better.

What Is Also True Is That Partly Because My Docket Was Really Full Here, So I Couldn't Be Both Chief Organizer Of The Democratic Party And Function As Commander-in-chief And President Of The United States. We Did Not Begin What I Think Needs To Happen Over The Long Haul, And That Is Rebuild The Democratic Party At The Ground Level.

We've Been Able To Build Up The Afghan Security Forces And Stabilize It.

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

Health Care Costs Generally Have Gone Up At A Significantly Slower Rate Since Obamacare Was Passed Than They Did Before, Which Has Saved The Federal Treasury Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars.

Military Surge In Afghanistan To Eliminate The Taliban.

The Recovery Act, Which Helped Saved The Economy And Prevented Us Going Into The Great Depression, Was The Largest Investment In Green Technology, The Largest Investment In Education. We Rebuilt Roads And Bridges.

This Week I've Travelled More Than 15,000 Miles From America To China To Burma To Australia. I Have No Idea What Time It Is Right Now.

Before I Even Came Into Office, I Said That Preventing Iran From Getting A Nuclear Weapon Was A Priority.

To All Those Watching Tonight From Beyond Our Shores, From Parliaments And Palaces, To Those Who Are Huddled Around Radios In The Forgotten Corners Of The World, Our Stories Are Singular, But Our Destiny Is Shared, And A New Dawn Of American Leadership Is At Hand.

Moammar Gadhafi Had More American Blood On His Hands Than Any Individual Other Than Osama Bin Laden.

Osama Bin Laden

We Have A Choice. We Can Shape Our Future, Or Let Events Shape It For Us. And If We Want To Succeed, We Can't Fall Back On The Stale Debates And Old Divides That Won't Move Us Forward.

More People Are Realising That Isil's Not A Caliphate. It's A Crime Ring.

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

Who Is Barack Obama? Contrary To The Rumors 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. Many Of You Know That I Got My Name, Barack, From My Father. What You May Not Know Is Barack Is Actually Swahili For 'that One.' And I Got My Middle Name From Somebody Who Obviously Didn't Think I'd Ever Run For President. If I Had To Name My Greatest Strength, I Guess It Would Be My Humility. Greatest Weakness, It's Possible That I'm A Little Too Awesome.

It Is Now Our Generation's Task To Carry On What Those Pioneers Began. For Our Journey Is Not Complete Until Our Wives, Our Mothers And Daughters Can Earn A Living Equal To Their Efforts. Our Journey Is Not Complete Until Our Gay Brothers And Sisters Are Treated Like Anyone Else Under The Law - For If We Are Truly Created Equal, Then Surely The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well.

Winston Churchill Used To Say That We, Americans, Try Every Other Option Before We Finally Do The Right Thing. After Everything Else Is Exhausted We Eventually Do The Right Thing And I Think That's True For Congress As Well. And It's Important For Americans To Remember That Politics Has Always Been Messy.

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.

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.

I Think The American People Recognize Is After A Decade Of War It's Time To Do Some Nation Building Here At Home. And What We Can Now Do Is Free Up Some Resources, To, For Example, Put Americans Back To Work, Especially Our Veterans, Rebuilding Our Roads, Our Bridges, Our Schools, Making Sure That, You Know, Our Veterans Are Getting The Care That They Need When It Comes To Post-traumatic Stress Disorder And Traumatic Brain Injury, Making Sure That The Certifications That They Need For Good Jobs Of The Future Are In Place.

I Can Make A Firm Pledge, Under My Plan, No Family Making Less Than $250,000 A Year Will See Any Form Of Tax Increase. Not Your Income Tax, Not Your Payroll Tax, Not Your Capital Gains Taxes, Not Any Of Your Taxes.

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.

I Am A Strong Believer In The Free Market. I Am A Strong Believer In Capitalism. But, I Am Also A Strong Believer That There Are Certain Common Goods - Our Air, Our Water, Making Sure That People Are Safe - That Require To Have Some Regulation.

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.

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

American Economy

[the White House Staff] Start Bringing In Their Kids, Who You Think Should Be Babies And Now Are In Second Grade Or Something, And You've Watched Them Grow Up. So I Think What Ends Up Happening Is You End Up Maintaining Those Networks And Those Contacts, But The Concentrated Interactions And Experience That You Have Here, I Don't Think, I Don't Expect You Can Duplicate Anyplace Else.

My Bible Tells Me That If We Train A Child In The Way He Should Go, When He Is Old He Will Not Turn From It. I Think Faith And Guidance Can Help Fortify A Young Woman's Sense Of Self, A Young Man's Sense Of Responsibility, And A Sense Of Reverence All Young People For The Act Of Sexual Intimacy.

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

I Think [ Unpopular Presidential Candidates ] Indicates, At Least On The Democratic Side, That We've Got More Work To Do To Strengthen Our Grassroots Networks.

There Is Not A Liberal America And A Conservative America - There Is The United States Of America. There Is Not A Black America And A White America And Latino America And Asian America - There's The United States Of America.

Even While We May At Times Disagree, As Friends Sometimes Will, The Bonds Between The United States And Israel Are Unbreakable And The Commitment Of The United States To The Security Of Israel Is Ironclad.

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.

The Most Important Thing We Can Do Is To Make Sure That We've Got Very High Standards, We Expect A Lot Out Of All Of Our Young People, And We Make Sure That We Have The Best Teachers Possible In Every Classroom.

If We Want To Really Reduce Foreign Influence On Our Elections, Then We Better Think About How To Make Sure That Our Political Process, Our Political Dialogue Is Stronger Than It's Been.

The Iranian People Are Getting Restive Because Of The Challenges That Sanctions Have Posed To Their Economy.

Which Passages Of Scripture Should Guide Our Public Policy? Should We Go With Leviticus, Which Suggests Slavery Is Ok And That Eating Shellfish Is An Abomination? Or We Could Go With Deuteronomy, Which Suggests Stoning Your Child If He Strays From The Faith?

It Is Time To Put In Place Tough, New Common-sense Rules Of The Road So That Our Financial Market Rewards Drive And Innovation, And Punishes Short-cuts And Abuse.

Even The Smallest Act Of Service, The Simplest Act Of Kindness, Is A Way To Honor Those We Lost, A Way To Reclaim That Spirit Of Unity That Followed 9/11.

That Is Why We Fight - In Hopes Of A Day When We No Longer Need To.

Perhaps I Possess A Certain Midwestern Sensibility That I Inherited From My Mother And Her Parents, A Sensibility That Warren Buffet Seems To Share: That At A Certain Point One Has Enough, That You Can Derive As Much Pleasure From A Picasso Hanging In A Museum As From One That's Hanging In Your Den, That You Can Get An Awfully Good Meal In A Restaurant For Less Than Twenty Dollars, And That Once Your Drapes Cost More Than The Average American's Yearly Salary, Then You Can Afford To Pay A Bit More In Taxes.

What The American People Understand Is That I Look At What We Need To Get Done To Keep The American People Safe And To Move Our Interests Forward, And I Make Those Decisions.

Health Care Got Done Because There Were A Lot Of People Out There Who Aren't Professional Politicians, But Are Citizens, Who Pushed For It Even When The Politics Was Hard.

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.

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.

You Can Put Lipstick On A Pig. It's Still A Pig.

That Bright Blue Ball Rising Over The Moon's Surface, Containing Everything We Hold Dear - The Laughter Of Children, A Quiet Sunset, All The Hopes And Dreams Of Posterity - That's What's At Stake. That's What We're Fighting For. And If We Remember That, I'm Absolutely Sure We'll Succeed.

I Think That I'll Always Remember The Bust Of Dr. [martin Luther] King. I Thought Having An American Here Who Represented Rhat Civic Spirit That Got Me Into This [president] Office Was Useful.

We, The People, Still Believe That Every Citizen Deserves A Basic Measure Of Security And Dignity.

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

Everybody Knows Politics Is A Contact Sport.

If You're Saying That Prime Minister [benjamin] Netanyahu Got Fired Up, He's Been Fired Up Repeatedly During The Course Of My Presidency, Around The Iran Deal And Around Our Consistent Objection To Settlements.

With Only 2 Percent Of The World's Oil Reserves, Oil Isn't Enough. This Country Needs An All-out, All-of-the-above Strategy That Develops Every Available Source Of American Energy. A Strategy That's Cleaner, Cheaper, And Full Of New Jobs.

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.

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.

After A Decade Of Profligacy, The American People Are Tired Of Politicians Who Talk The Talk But Don't Walk The Walk When It Comes To Fiscal Responsibility. It's Easy To Get Up In Front Of The Cameras And Rant Against Exploding Deficits. What's Hard Is Actually Getting Deficits Under Control. But That's What We Must Do. Like Families Across The Country, We Have To Take Responsibility For Every Dollar We Spend.

There Is Probably A Perverse Pride In My Administration... That We Were Going To Do The Right Thing, Even If Short-term It Was Unpopular. And I Think Anybody Who's Occupied This Office Has To Remember That Success Is Determined By An Intersection In Policy And Politics And That You Can't Be Neglecting Of Marketing And P.r. And Public Opinion.

I Don't Think There's A Lot Of Dispute For This. You Can Argue That We Didn't Get Everything Done That We Wanted To Get Done, But I Can Make A Really Strong Argument, And I Think Prove, That By Almost Every Measure The Country's Better Off Now Than When I Started.

No Two Countries Are Identical, And Obviously, There's A Difference Between A Referendum On A Very Complex Relationship Between Great Britain And The Rest Of Europe, And A Presidential Election In The United States.

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

That Is The True Genius Of America-a Faith In Simple Dreams, An Insistence On Small Miracles.

My Faith Reminds Me That We All Are Sinners.

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

You Don't Take It Personally. You Understand That If People Are Angry That Somehow The Government Is Failing, Then They Are Going To Look To The Guy Who Represents Government.

To Sustain A Governing Majority, That Requires An Ability For Republicans And Democrats To Find Some Common Ground. And Right Now, The Structure Of The System Is Such Where It Makes It Really Hard For People To Work Together.

Working Together

The Philippines Made A Lawful And Peaceful Effort To Resolve Their Maritime Claims With China Using The Tribunal Established Under The Law Of The Sea Convention (unclos). The Tribunal's Ruling Delivered A Clear And Legally Binding Decision On Maritime Claims In The South China Sea As They Relate To China And The Philippines - And That Ruling Should Be Respected. We Believe This Decision Can And Should Serve As An Opportunity To Renew Efforts To Address Maritime Claims Peacefully.

Reading Is The Gateway Skill That Makes All Other Learning Possible

I Put Forward A Budget Of What I Called "middle-class Economics" That Continues To Be Fiscally Prudent But Makes Necessary Investments For Us To Continue The Economic Momentum And Job Growth.

I Believe That The U.s. Can And Should Be A Global Leader In The Development Of Alternative Energy Sources.

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

My Staff Was Very Excited For Brisvegas. When I Arrived, They Advised I Needed Some Xxxx.

When Individuals Get Crowbars And Start Prying Open Doors To Loot, They're Not Protesting. They're Not Making A Statement. They're Stealing. When They Burn Down A Building, They're Committing Arson.

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

African American

No One Built This Country On Their Own. This Nation Is Great Because We Built It Together.

We Are Still The America That Does The Hard Things, That Does The Great Things. We're The Nation That Always Dared To Dream. We're The Nation That Dared To Take Risks.

If You’re Walking Down The Right Path And You’re Willing To Keep Walking, Eventually You’ll Make Progress.

The Future Rewards Those Who Press On. I Don't Have Time To Feel Sorry For Myself. I Don't Have Time To Complain. I'm Going To Press On.

Transparency And The Rule Of Law Will Be The Touchstones Of This Presidency.

I Don't Want To Pit Red America Against Blue America. I Want To Be President Of The United States Of America.

Broken Promises

America Is, Is No Longer, Uh, What It, Uh, Could Be, Uh, What It Was Once Was, Uh, And I Say To Myself, Uh, I Don't Want That Future, Uh, For My Children.

We've Got To Control Our Own Energy. Now, Not Only Oil And Natural Gas, Which We've Been Investing In; But Also, We've Got To Make Sure We're Building The Energy Source Of The Future, Not Just Thinking About Next Year, But Ten Years From Now, 20 Years From Now. That's Why We've Invested In Solar And Wind And Biofuels, Energy Efficient Cars.

I Think It's About Time! Who Cares Whether He Is Looking For Votes Or Not! At Least Your Country Is Moving Forward With The Times!

I Have Muslim Members Of My Family. I Have Lived In Muslim Countries.

I Have Always Believed That Hope Is That Stubborn Thing Inside Us That Insists, Despite All The Evidence To The Contrary, That Something Better Awaits Us So Long As We Have The Courage To Keep Reaching, To Keep Working, To Keep Fighting." (victory Speech, Nov. 7, 2012)

I Honor, We Honor The Service Of John Mccain, And I Respect His Many Accomplishments, Even If He Chooses To Deny Mine. My Differences With Him Are Not Personal; They Are With The Policies He Has Proposed In This Campaign.

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.

No One Is Pro-abortion.

Those Are The Ladies Sitting In Church. And In The Same Way That They Might Feel A Joy And Release On Sunday, They Are Still Going To Work On Monday. And That's Who I Was Listening To During This Process. And If At The End Of My Presidency They Feel Like I Did A Pretty Good Job, Then I'll Feel Pretty Good.

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.

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

I Didn't Have A Perfect Model, But I Wanted To Try To Blend My Own Personal Reflections And Experiences With This Broader Canvas To See How A Lot Of The Narratives We Have About Economy And Foreign Policy Got Stuck. Because We Have These Categories Of Liberal, Conservative, Free Marketer, Open Government - All These Stereotypes About Our Politics And The Categories We Try To Put Things In Are Inadequate To This Sort Of Complex, Ambiguous, Sometimes Contradictory Experience We Have As Ordinary People And That I Have As An Elected Official.

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."

If Mr. [donald] Trump Is Up 10 Or 15 Points On Election Day And Ends Up Losing, Then, You Know, Maybe He Can Raise Some Questions. That Doesn't Seem To Be The Case At That Moment.

My Job Is To Communicate To The American People That The Muslim World Is Filled With Extraordinary People Who Simply Want To Live Their Lives And See Their Children Live Better Lives. My Job To The Muslim World Is To Communicate That The Americans Are Not Your Enemy. We Sometimes Make Mistakes. But If You Look At The Track Record America Was Not Born As A Colonial Power, And That The Same Respect And Partnership That America Had With The Muslim World As Recently As 20 Or 30 Years Ago, There's No Reason Why We Can't Restore That. And That I Think Is Going To Be An Important Task.

Environmentalism Is Not An Upper-income Issue, It's Not A White Issue, It's Not A Black Issue, It's Not A South Or A North Or An East Or A West Issue. It's An Issue That All Of Us Have A Stake In. And If I Can Do Anything To Make Sure That Not Just My Daughter But Every Child In America Has Green Pastures To Run In And Clean Air To Breathe And Clean Water To Swim In, Then That Is Something I'm Going To Work My Hardest To Make Happen.

America Is The Greatest Country On Earth. But Because Of Some Of The Mistakes That Have Been Made, We, I Think, Are Going To Have A Lot Of Work To Do In The Next Administration To Restore That Sense That America Is That Shining Beacon On A Hill.

It Is Easy To Get To A Higher Number When You Are Not Asking Anything Difficult From Yourself.

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.

I'm Going To Tell The American People What I Believe Will Make This Country Great.

The Program Grew Out Of A Desire To Address A Gap Identified After 9/11 ... The Program Does Not Involve The Nsa Examining The Phone Records Of Ordinary Americans. Rather, It Consolidates These Records Into A Database That The Government Can Query If It Has A Specific Lead - Phone Records That The Companies Already Retain For Business Purposes.

This Kind Of Gaping Inequality Gives Lie To The Promise That’s At The Very Heart Of America: That This Is A Place Where You Can Make It If You Try. We Tell People - We Tell Our Kids - That In This Country, Even If You’re Born With Nothing, Work Hard And You Can Get Into The Middle Class. We Tell Them That Your Children Will Have A Chance To Do Even Better Than You Do. That’s Why Immigrants From Around The World Historically Have Flocked To Our Shores.

If [black] Nationalism Could Create A Strong And Effective Insularity, Deliver On Its Promise Of Self-respect, Then The Hurt It Might Cause Well-meaning Whites, Or The Inner Turmoil It Caused People Like Me, Would Be Of Little Consequence.

There's Something About The American Spirit - Inherent In The American Spirit -- We Don't Hang On To The Past. We Always Move Forward.... We Are Going To Leave Something Better For Our Children - Not Just Here In The United States, But All Around The World.

If You've Got A Business, You Didn't Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen.

Long Before Being Nerdy Was Cool, There Was Leonard Nimoy.

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

I Will Never Forget That The Only Reason I'm Standing Here Today Is Because Somebody, Somewhere Stood Up For Me When It Was Risky. Stood Up When It Was Hard. Stood Up When It Wasn't Popular. And Because That Somebody Stood Up, A Few More Stood Up. And Then A Few Thousand Stood Up. And Then A Few Million Stood Up. And Standing Up, With Courage And Clear Purpose, They Somehow Managed To Change The World.

By So Many Measures, Our Country Is Stronger And More Prosperous Than It Was When We First Got Here. And I'm Hopeful We'll Build On The Progress We've Made In The Years To Come.

Trending Author

Pope John XXIII

George Matthew Adams

George Bancroft

Harmon Killebrew

Category