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Secularists Are Wrong When They Ask Believers To Leave Their Religion At The Door Before Entering Into The Public Square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - Indeed, The Majority Of Great Reformers In American History - Were Not Only Motivated By Faith, But Repeatedly Used Religious Language To Argue For Their Cause. To Say That Men And Women Should Not Inject Their "personal Morality" Into Public Policy Debates Is A Practical Absurdity.

-Barack Obama

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Secularists Are Wrong When

Barack Obama

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Secularists Are Wrong When They Ask Believers To Leave Their Religion At The Door Before Entering Into The Public Square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - Indeed, The Majority Of Great Reformers In American History - Were Not Only Motivated By Faith, But Repeatedly Used Religious Language To Argue For Their Cause. To Say That Men And Women Should Not Inject Their "personal Morality" Into Public Policy Debates Is A Practical Absurdity.

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

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African American

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Even When Folks Are Hitting You Over The Head, You Can't Stop Marching. Even When They're Turning The Hoses On You, You Can't Stop.

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

We Continue To Stand United With Germany And Our Nato Allies In Our Ongoing Efforts To Build Peace And Stability In Afghanistan.

Reflecting On His Years In Prison, Nelson Mandela Wrote That There Were Dark Moments That Tested His Faith In Humanity, But He Refused To Give Up.

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.

If You Were President 50 Years Ago, The Tragedy In Syria Might Not Even Penetrate What The American People Were Thinking About On A Day To Day Basis. Today, They're Seeing Vivid Images Of A Child In The Aftermath Of A Bombing.

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The World Is Complicated And Full Of Grays, But There's Still Truth There To Be Found.

I Think Donald Trump Is Going To Try As Best He Can To Make Sure That He Delivers Not Only To The People Who Voted For Him But For The People At Large And The Good Thing Is That There Are Going To Be Elections Coming Up So There's A Built-in Incentive For Him To Try To Do That.

Mothers Are The Rocks Of Our Families And A Foundation In Our Communities. In Gratitude For Their Generous Love, Patient Counsel, And Lifelong Support, Let Us Pay Respect To The Women Who Carry Out The Hard Work Of Motherhood With Skill And Grace, And Let Us Remember Those Mothers Who, Though No Longer With Us, Inspire Us Still.

I Think Perhaps Education Doesn’t Do Us Much Good Unless It Is Mixed With Sweat.

I Think That Dealing With Guns Is One Way To Handle The Violent-crime Issues That We Have In This Country.

I Don't Think We Should Ever Accept The Idea That Someone Can Come Along And Take Away Our Safety And Our Freedom.

We Need To Eradicate The Slander That Says A Black Youth With A Book Is Acting White.

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

You Always Hear About Waste And Abuse In Washington. And Usually It Doesn't Mean Much, Because Nobody Ever Finds Where That Waste And Abuse Is.

I Found This National Debt Doubled, Wrapped In A Big Bow Waiting For Me As I Stepped Into The Oval Office.

Two-thirds Of Americans Believe That, After A Baby's Heart Is Beating And They Can Feel Pain, That They Need Some Protection.

Islamic Culture Has Given Us Majestic Arches And Soaring Spires; Timeless Poetry And Cherished Music; Elegant Calligraphy And Places Of Peaceful Contemplation.

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

I Consider It Part Of My Responsibility As President Of The United States To Fight Against Negative Stereotypes Of Islam Wherever They Appear.

Our Focus On The Investigation Is Really Wide-ranging. And We Can't Limit It To Just One Point In Time.

For The Sake Of Our Economy, Our Security, And The Future Of Our Planet, I Will Set A Clear Goal As President: In Ten Years, We Will Finally End Our Dependence On Oil From The Middle East.

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

Politics Has Become So Bitter And Partisan, So Gummed Up By Money And Influence, That We Can't Tackle The Big Problems That Demand Solutions. And That's What We Have To Change First. We Have To Change Our Politics, And Come Together Around Our Common Interests And Concerns As Americans.

The World Is Less Violent Than It Has Ever Been.

Specifically, The Part Where In The Early 19th Century America Reconstituted The U.s. Marine Corps To Battle The Islamic Barbary Pirates, Though I Don't Think That's What Obama Meant.

Filibuster Has Long Tradition, But Used To Harm Civil Rights.

Letting The Free Market Do Whatever It Wants. That's Not Been Historically How We Grow. We Have To Invest In Education, In Rebuilding Broadband Lines And Roads And Runways, And It's Important That We Bring Back American Manufacturing And Regulations To Prevent Consumers From Being Cheated.

I Don't Think [pot] Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol.

Foreign Assistance Is Not An End In Itself. The Purpose Of Aid Must Be To Create The Conditions Where It's No Longer Need.

What Drags Down Our Entire Economy Is When There's An Ever-widening Chasm Between The Ultra-rich And Everybody Else.

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

Entrepreneurship

Moral Values Includes The Immorality Of 45 Million Uninsured Or The Immorality Of Working People Who Are Having Trouble Raising A Family Despite Working Full-time. That Has To Be Part Of The Moral Equation. And If We Are Able To Frame Things In That Fashion, Then I Think We Can Be Successful.

The Study Of Geography Is About More Than Just Memorizing Places On A Map. It's About Understanding The Complexity Of Our World, Appreciating The Diversity Of Cultures That Exists Across Continents. And In The End, It's About Using All That Knowledge To Help Bridge Divides And Bring People Together.

I Strongly Agree With Vice President Gore That We Cannot Drill Our Way To Energy Independence, But Must Fast-track Investments In Renewable Sources Of Energy Like Solar Power, Wind Power And Advanced Biofuels...

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.

In The Unlikely Story That Is America, There Has Never Been Anything False About Hope.

Here At This Site, Solyndra Expects To Make Enough Solar Panels Each Year To Generate 500 Megawatts Of Electricity. And Over The Lifetime Of This Expanded Facility, That Could Be Like Replacing As Many As Eight Coal-fired Power Plants.

The Challenges Posed By Threats Like Terrorism, Proliferation, And Cyber Attacks Are Not Going Away Any Time Soon, And For Our Intelligence Community To Be Effective Over The Long Haul, We Must Maintain The Trust Of The American People And People Around The World.

My Sister Is A Teacher, So I Am A Strong Support Of Teachers, But I'm Not Going To Be Bound By Just A Certain Way Of Talking About These Things, In Order For Us To Move Forward On Behalf Of Our Kids.

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

The Answers To Our Problems Don't Lie Beyond Our Reach. They Exist In Our Laboratories And Universities; In Our Fields And Our Factories; In The Imaginations Of Our Entrepreneurs And The Pride Of The Hardest-working People On Earth. Those Qualities That Have Made America The Greatest Force Of Progress And Prosperity In Human History We Still Possess In Ample Measure.

It Would Be Good For The Workers In Vietnam Even As It Helps Make Sure That They're Not Undercutting Competition Here In The United States.

If You Look At How I've Tried To And How I'll Continue To Try To Govern, I'm Not Driven By Some Ideological Agenda. I'm A Pretty Practical Guy And I Just Want To Make Sure That Things Work.

The Rise In Health Care Costs Since Obamacare, The Affordable Care Act Was Passed, Have Been At Their Lowest Rate In 50 Years. Those Savings Have Extended The Medicare Trust Fund By 11 Years. So We've Got A Baseline Of Facts.so It Is True Theoretically That All That Progress Can Be Undone, And Suddenly 20 Million People Or More Don't Have Health Insurance.

There Are Enormous Resources In Greece.

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.

The Greatest Danger Of All Is To Allow New Walls To Divide Us From One Another

The Young Are Going To Be The Messengers Of This Continued Strengthening Of The Diversity In America.

Globalization Makes Our Economy, Our Health, And Our Security All Captive To Events On The Other Side Of The World. And No Other Nation On Earth Has A Greater Capacity To Shape That Global System, Or To Build Consensus Around A New Set Of International Rules That Expand The Zones Of Freedom, Personal Safety, And Economic Well-being. Like It Or Not, If We Want To Make America More Secure, We Are Going To Have To Help Make The World More Secure.

Jesus Lived A Life Of Peace, Love, Kindness And Forgiveness, During The Hustle And Bustle Of The Christmas Season, May We All Do Our Best To Follow His Example.

Let Us Reach For The World That Ought To Be -- That Spark Of The Divine That Still Stirs Within Each Of Our Souls.

Ironically, The Single Thing That Has Strengthened Iran Over The Last Several Years Has Been The War In Iraq. Iraq Was Iran's Mortal Enemy. That Was Cleared Away. And What We've Seen Over The Last Several Years Is Iran's Influence Grow. They Have Funded Hezbollah, They Have Funded Hamas, They Have Gone From Zero Centrifuges To 4,000 Centrifuges To Develop A Nuclear Weapon.

I Can Document This Past Week [of Presidency] We've Put Out Memos From Every Agency Showing What Did We Do. Try To Be As Honest As Possible. There's A Little Hype Involved Obviously. It's Spin Because It's Our Agencies. We Feel Some Pride About It. But Tried To Be Self-critical As Well.

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!

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."

It's Important To Recognize That You Can't Have 100 Percent Security And Also Then Have 100 Percent Privacy And Zero Inconvenience.

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.

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.

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.

We're Not Going To Have You Burdening The Health System.

I Will Sign A Universal Health-care Bill Into Law By The End Of My First Term As President That Will Cover Every American And Cut The Cost Of A Typical Family’s Premium By Up To $2,500 A Year.

Our Unalienable Right To Life And Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness, Those Rights Were Stripped From College Kids In Blackburg And Santa Barbara, And From High Schoolers At Columbine. And, And From First Graders In Newtown, First Graders.

Pursuit Of Happiness

Nobody Really Thinks That Bush Or Mccain Have A Real Answer For The Challenges We Face, So What They're Going To Try To Do Is Make You Scared Of Me. You Know, He's Not Patriotic Enough. He's Got A Funny Name. You Know, He Doesn't Look Like All Those Other Presidents On Those Dollar Bills, You Know. He's Risky.

When It Comes To The War In Iraq, The Time For Promises And Assurances For Waiting And For Patience Is Over. Too Many Lives Have Been Lost, Too Many Billions Of Dollars Have Been Spent For Us To Trust The President On Another Tired And Failed Policy That's Opposed By Generals And Experts, Democrats And Republicans, Americans And Many Of The Iraqis Themselves.

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.

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

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