Background Image

...

Shooting In Orlando Is A Sobering Reminder That Attacks On Any American, Regardless Of Race, Ethnicity, Religion Or Sexual Orientation, Is An Attack On All Of Us And On The Fundamental Values Of Equality And Dignity That Define Us As A Country. And No Act Of Hate Or Terror Will Ever Change Who We Are Or The Values That Make Us Americans.

-Barack Obama

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

Shooting In Orlando Is

Barack Obama

...

Shooting In Orlando Is A Sobering Reminder That Attacks On Any American, Regardless Of Race, Ethnicity, Religion Or Sexual Orientation, Is An Attack On All Of Us And On The Fundamental Values Of Equality And Dignity That Define Us As A Country. And No Act Of Hate Or Terror Will Ever Change Who We Are Or The Values That Make Us Americans.

Views: 6

Topic

More From Barack Obama

Try To Be As Honest As Possible.

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

I Think There Are Hard-liners Inside Of Iran That Think It Is The Right Thing To Do To Oppose Us, To Seek To Destroy Israel, To Cause Havoc In Places Like Syria Or Yemen Or Lebanon, If They Don't Change At All, We're Still Better Off Having The Deal.

I Actually Believe In Redistribution (of Wealth)

Redistribution Of Wealth

The Iranians May Simply Try To Run Out The Clock.

The Memoir Was A Very Personal Book. I Wrote It As A Personal Journey And Search About Who My Father Was And How My Family Had Come Together And Come Apart - Sorting All That Out, You Know, Issues Of Personal Identity.

I'm A Christian By Choice.

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

I Think There Is Nothing Wrong With Instituting Policies That Say That Harassment Of Any Form, Whether It Comes Through The Internet Or Whether It Happens To You Face To Face, Is Unacceptable; That We've Got Zero Tolerance When It Comes To Sexual Harassment, We Have Zero Tolerance When It Comes To Harassing People Because Of Their Sexual Orientation, Because Of Their Race, Because Of Their Ethnicity.

Throughout American History, There Have Been Moments That Call On Us To Meet The Challenges Of An Uncertain World, And Pay Whatever Price Is Required To Secure Our Freedom.

When All Americans Are Treated As Equal We Are All More Free.

Marriage Equality

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.

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

That Just Gives Sort Of The Democracy An Opportunity To Test Ideas, For Those Who Lost To Catch Their Breath, Regain Energy, Re-energize Themselves And Then Get Back In The Arena, And Then We'll Make Some More Progress In The Future.

If You Hear What People Had To Say About Abraham Lincoln Or What They Had To Say About Fdr, Or What They Had To Say About Ronald Reagan When He First Came In And Was Trying To Change Our Approach To Government, That Elicited Huge Responses.

America Is Not The Crude Stereotype Of A Self-interested Empire. The United States Has Been One Of The Greatest Sources Of Progress That The World Has Ever Known. We Were Born Out Of Revolution Against An Empire. We Were Founded Upon The Ideal That All Are Created Equal. And We Have Shed Blood And Struggled For Centuries To Give Meaning To Those Words, Within Our Borders And Around The World. We Are Shaped By Every Culture. Drawn From Every End Of The Earth, And Dedicated To A Simple Concept, E Pluribus Unum: Out Of Many, One.

Both President Kennedy And President Reagan Were Roundly Criticized By Parts Of The Foreign Policy Establishment That Felt They Were Being Weak By Engaging Our Adversaries. So Some Of It Is Built Into A Political Lexicon That Makes You Sound Tougher If You Don't Talk To Somebody, And Rather, Very Loudly, Wield A Big Stick.

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.

They Say I Need To Be Seasoned; They Say I Need To Be Stewed. They Say, 'we Need To Boil All The Hope Out Of Him -- Like Us -- And Then He'll Be Ready.'

This Is The Moment When We Must Come Together To Save This Planet.

The United States And Saudi Arabia Have An Extraordinary Relationship And Friendship That Dates Back To Franklin Roosevelt And King Faisal.

People Have To Recognize That It’s Going To Take Some Time For Trust To Be Built Not Only Between Democrats And Republicans, Between Congress And The White House, Between The House And The Senate. You Know, We’ve Had A Dysfunctional Political System For A While Now.

Andrew Cuomo Own Story Taught Andrew Cuomo That As Americans, We Are Bound Together As One People, And Our Country's Success Rests On The Success Of All Of Us, Not Just A Fortunate Few.

I've Been Struck By How Hungry We All Are For A Different Kind Of Politics. So I've Spent Some Time Thinking About How I Could Best Advance The Cause Of Change And Progress That We So Desperately Need.

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.

I Might Have Arguments With The Size Of Reagan's Military Buildup, But Given The Soviet Invasion Of Afghanistan, Staying Ahead Of The Soviets Militarily Seemed A Sensible Thing To Do. Pride In Our Country, Respect For Our Armed Services, A Healthy Appreciation For The Dangers Beyond Our Borders, An Insistence That There Was No Easy Equivalence Between East And West--in All This I Had No Quarrel With Reagan. And When The Berlin Wall Came Tumbling Down, I Had To Give The Old Man His Due, Even If I Never Gave Him My Vote.

If, Technologically, It Is Possible To Make An Impenetrable Device Or System Where The Encryption Is So Strong That There's No Key - There's No Door At All - Then How Do We Apprehend The Child Pornographer? How Do We Solve Or Disrupt A Terrorist Plot?

In America, We Started The Public School System Very Early In The Century, And As A Consequence We Had More Skilled Workers Than Any Nation On Earth, Which Meant That We Were More Productive Than Any Nation On Earth.

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.

I Can No More Disown (jeremiah Wright) Than I Can Disown The Black Community. I Can No More Disown Him Than I Can My White Grandmother - A Woman Who Helped Raise Me, A Woman Who Sacrificed Again And Again For Me, A Woman Who Loves Me As Much As She Loves Anything In This World, But A Woman Who Once Confessed Her Fear Of Black Men Who Passed By Her On The Street, And Who On More Than One Occasion Has Uttered Racial Or Ethnic Stereotypes That Made Me Cringe.

So I Have Known Islam On Three Continents Before Coming To The Region Where It Was First Revealed

[afghanistan And Iraq] Are Still Countries That Are Fragile Enough That We're Gonna Have To Partner With Them In Some Way.

Several Americans, Unjustly Detained By Iran, Are Finally Coming Home. In Some Cases, These Americans Faced Years Of Continued Detention, And I've Met With Some Of Their Families. I've Seen Their Anguish, How They Ache For Their Sons And Husbands. I Gave These Families My Word. I Made A Vow That We Would Do Everything In Our Power To Win The Release Of Their Loved Ones, And We Have Been Tireless.

I Think That What Is True Is That The Russians Intended To Meddle, And They Meddled. And It Could Be Another Country In The Future.

I Cannot Swallow Whole The View Of Lincoln As The Great Emancipator.

I Try Never To Get Too High When Things Are Going Well. I Try Never To Get Too Low When Things Are Going Poorly. I Try To Keep An Even Keel.

A Number Of Countries, Including Some Who Have Loudly Criticized The Nsa, Privately Acknowledge That America Has Special Responsibilities As The World's Only Superpower, That Our Intelligence Capabilities Are Critical To Meeting These Responsibilities, And That They Themselves Have Relied On The Information We Obtain To Protect Their Own People.

We Are Not At War With Islam. We Are At War With People Who Have Perverted Islam.

Black Churches Minister To Social Needs Out Of Necessity.

I Will Listen To You, Especially When We Disagree.

As The United States Begins A New Chapter In Our Relationship With Cuba, We Hope It Will Create An Environment That Improves The Lives Of The Cuban People, Not Because It Is Imposed By Us, The United States, But Through The Talent And Ingenuity And Aspirations, And The Conversations Among Cubans From All Walks Of Life So They Can Decide What The Best Course Is For Their Prosperity.

Climate Change Constitutes A Serious Threat To Global Security, An Immediate Risk To Our National Security, And, Make No Mistake, It Will Impact How Our Military Defends Our Country.

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

Too Often, We Have Failed To Enforce International Norms When It's Inconvenient To Do So.

This Is The Moment When We Must Build On The Wealth That Open Markets Have Created, And Share Its Benefits More Equitably. Trade Has Been A Cornerstone Of Our Growth And Global Development. But We Will Not Be Able To Sustain This Growth If It Favors The Few, And Not The Many.

There Are Values That Transcend Race Or Culture, That Move Us Forward, And There's An Obligation For All Of Us Individually As Well As Collectively To Take Responsibility To Make Those Values Lived.

I've Got Two Daughters And I Want To Make Sure That They Have The Same Opportunities That Anybody's Sons Have. That's Part Of What I'm Fighting For As President Of The United States.

As We Keep Up The Pressure, Our Air Campaign Will Continue To Hit Isil Harder Than Ever.

I Have Never Had To Travel More Than Thirty Seconds From Home To Office, And It's Because Of That That I've Been Able To Maintain, Really A Family Life That Has Nurtured And Sustained Me During This Time [of Presidency].

I Would Say This, I'll Go Back To Those Black Ladies I Was Talking About Who Love Them Some Barack And Love Michelle Even More - And By The Way, They Are Not Middle-aged Anymore, Because I'm Now Middle-aged. So They're A Little Bit Older. As Fervent As They Were, As Excited And Happy As They Were When I Was Elected, They Had To Go To Work The Next Morning. They Still Had Trouble Paying Those Bills. They Might Have Still Had A Son Who Was In Trouble With The Law Or Couldn't Get A Job Because Of A Felony Record. They Didn't Stop Being Grounded.

Don't Let Your Failures Define You.

Over The Past Eight Years, The United States Has Worked Hard To Deepen Partnerships Across The Region And Across South-east Asia In Particular. We're Now A Part Of The East Asia Summit And We Have A Strategic Partnership With Asean. At The Us-asean Leaders Summit I Hosted Earlier This Year In Sunnylands, California, We Agreed To A Set Of Principles That Will Shape The Future Peace And Prosperity Of The Region, From Promoting Innovation And Furthering Economic Integration To Addressing Transnational Challenges Like Global Health Security And Climate Change.

Libraries Have A Special Role To Play In Our Knowledge Economy. Your Institutions Have Been And Should Be A Place Where Parents And Children Come To Read Together And Learn Together. We Should Take Our Kids There More.

In The Wake Of 9/11, My Meetings With Arab And Pakistani Americans, For Example, Have A More Urgent Quality, For The Stories Of Detentions And Fbi Questioning And Hard Stares From Neighbors Have Shaken Their Sense Of Security And Belonging. They Have Been Reminded That The History Of Immigration In This Country Has A Dark Underbelly; They Need Specific Reassurances That Their Citizenship Really Means Something, That America Has Learned The Right Lessons From The Japanese Internments During World War Ii, And That I Will Stand With Them Should The Political Winds Shift In An Ugly Direction.

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

I Always Tell Young People In Particular: Do Not Say That Nothing's Changed When It Comes To Race In America, Unless You Lived Through Being A Black Man In The 1950s Or '60s Or '70s.

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

We Stand With Women By Fighting For Economic Security, Protecting Access To Health Care And Supporting Women's Leadership Across The Country

Africa Doesn't Need Strongmen, It Needs Strong Institutions.

If You Don't Have Any Fresh Ideas, Then You Use Stale Tactics To Scare The Voters. If You Don't Have A Record To Run On, Then You Paint Your Opponent As Someone People Should Run From. You Make A Big Election About Small Things.

My God, Donald Trump Is Unfit! He's Ill-tempered, He's Unsuited, He Is Not Qualified, He's Unsuited To Be President.

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 Had To Get Out Of Chicago So Quick. Election Night Happens, Suddenly I'm Talking To Ben Bernanke And Hank Paulson And Trying To Figure Out Whether The World's Going To Fly Apart, And Michelle Is Trying To Figure Out Where The Girls Are Going To Go To School. And We Pack Up And Leave And Basically Our House In Chicago Just Became Like A Time Capsule. My Desk In My Home Office Still Had Stacks Of Articles And Bills And Stuff From 2008.

I Want To Control Our Own Energy By Developing Oil And Natural Gas But Also The Energy Sources Of The Future.

In The Fight Against Isil, We Cannot Rely On An Assad Regime That Terrorizes Its People; A Regime That Will Never Regain The Legitimacy It Has Lost. Instead, We Must Strengthen The Opposition As The Best Counterweight To Extremists Like Isil, While Pursuing The Political Solution Necessary To Solve Syria's Crisis Once And For All.

Not Much Happens In Russia Without Vladimir Putin.

I Went Through Six Years Of Battles On Health Care Because I Didn't Have $100 Million Worth Of Advertising Saying How It Would Never Work.

That Window Is Closing. . . . Now, The Clock Is Ticking. . . . We're Not Going To Have These Talks Just Drag Out In A Stalling Process. . . . We Haven't Given Away Anything - Other Than The Opportunity For Us To Negotiate

Clock Is Ticking

The Uk Is An Extraordinary Partner For America And A Force For Good In An Unstable World. I Hope It Remains Strong, Robust And United.

Today, I Can Report That, As Promised, The Rest Of Our Troops In Iraq Will Come Home By The End Of The Year.

The Old Rules May Say We Can’t Protect Our Environment And Promote Economic Growth At The Same Time, But In America, We’ve Always Used New Technologies - We’ve Used Science; We’ve Used Research And Development And Discovery To Make The Old Rules Obsolete.

Research And Development

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.

One Of The Great Strengths Of The United States Is... We Have A Very Large Christian Population - We Do Not Consider Ourselves A Christian Nation Or A Jewish Nation Or A Muslim Nation. We Consider Ourselves A Nation Of Citizens Who Are Bound By Ideals And A Set Of Values.

We've Come To Be Consumed By A 24-hour, Slash-and-burn, Negative Ad, Bickering, Small-minded Politics That Doesn't Move Us Forward. Sometimes One Side Is Up And The Other Side Is Down. But There's No Sense That They Are Coming Together In A Common-sense, Practical, Nonideological Way To Solve The Problems That We Face.

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

Suppressing Ideas Never Succeeds In Making Them Go Away.

The Number Of Americans Killed Since 9/11 By Terrorism, It's Less Than 100. If You Look At The Number That Have Been Killed By Gun Violence, It's In The Tens Of Thousands. And For Us Not To Be Able To Resolve That Issue Has Been Something That Is Distressing.

If John Mccain Wants To Have A Debate About Who Has The Temperament, And Judgment, To Serve As The Next Commander-in-chief, That's A Debate I'm Ready To Have.

I Will Stand With Israel If They Are Attacked.

It’s Not That I Want To Punish Your Success. I Want To Make Sure That Everybody Who Is Behind You, That They’ve Got A Chance For Success, Too. My Attitude Is That If The Economy’s Good For Folks From The Bottom Up, It’s Gonna Be Good For Everybody. I Think When You Spread The Wealth Around, It’s Good For Everybody.

Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago.

Could Have Been

I've Just Concluded That For Me Personally It Is Important For Me To Go Ahead And Affirm That I Think Same-sex Couples Should Be Able To Get Married.

As A Product Of History And Faith, Jewish Americans Have Helped To Open Our Eyes To Injustice, To People In Need, And To The Simple Idea That We Ought To Recognize Ourselves In The Struggle Of Our Fellow Men And Women.

We Should Foster A Culture In Which People's Private Religious Beliefs, Including Atheists And Agnostics, Are Respected. And That's The Kind Of Culture That I Think Allows All Of Us, Then, To Believe What We Want. That's Freedom Of Conscience. That's What Our Constitution Guarantees.

We Have To Make Sure America Writes The Rules Of The Global Economy, And We Should Do It Today While Our Economy Is In The Position Of Global Strength, Because If We Don't Write The Rules For Trade Around The World, Guess What: China Will.

Don't Just Get Involved. Fight For Your Seat At The Table. Better Yet, Fight For A Seat At The Head Of The Table.

We All Remember Abraham Lincoln As The Leader Who Saved Our Union. Founder Of The Republican Party.

Part Of The Power Of The Internet Is That Information Flows Out There And It's Generally Not Censored And It's Generally Not Controlled By Any Single Authority.

Information Flow

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

If We Can't Meet With Our Friends, I Don't Know How We're Going To Lead The World In Terms Of Dealing With Critical Issues Like Terrorism.

We've Persevered Because Of A Belief We Share With The Iraqi People - A Belief That Out Of The Ashes Of War, A New Beginning Could Be Born In This Cradle Of Civilization. Through This Remarkable Chapter In The History Of The United States And Iraq, We Have Met Our Responsibility. Now, It's Time To Turn The Page.

How We Think About Terrorism Has To Be Defined And Specific Enough That It Doesn't Lead Us To Think That Any Horrible Actions That Take Place Around The World That Are Motivated In Part By An Extremist Islamic Ideology Is A Direct Threat To Us Or Something That We Have To Wade Into.

If We Don't Reform How Healthcare Is Delivered In This Country, Then We Are Not Going To Be Able To Get A Handle On That Escalating Healthcare Costs.

Nature Is Actually Resilient, If We Take Care To Just Stop Actively Destroying It.

You Bomb Isil. You're Not Trying To Bomb Innocent People. And That Requires Intelligence And Confidence In Our Military To Be Able To Develop The Kinds Of Targets That We Need. We're Already Doing Special Forces, Who Are Going To Help Us Gather That Intelligence And Help Advise And Assist And Train Local Forces So That They Can Go After Isil In Areas Like Raqqah And Mosul.

Angela [merkel] And I Also Agreed The Need For A Comprehensive And Humane Response To The Devastating Humanitarian Crisis In Syria And For The Influx Of Migrants And Refugees From Around The World. We Need To Build On The Progress Achieved At The U.n. Refugee Summit, Which Yielded New Commitments From Some 50 Nations And Organizations.

Isil Is A Terrorist Organization, Pure And Simple. And It Has No Vision Other Than The Slaughter Of All Who Stand In Its Way.

I Know Cnn Has Taken Some Knocks Lately But The Fact Is, I Admire Their Commitment To Covering All Sides Of The Story, Just In Case One Of Them Happens To Be Accurate.

Whatever We Think Of The Past, We Must Not Be Prisoners To It.

In America, We Want A Peaceful Planet. We Want People To Be Able To Enjoy Their Lives And Know They're Going To Have A Bright And Prosperous Future, Not Be At War. That's Our Purpose.

Prosperous Future

The Flame Of The Diya, Or Lamp, Reminds Us That Light Will Ultimately Triumph Over Darkness.

The Muslim Call To Prayer Is One Of The Prettiest Sounds On Earth At Sunset.

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...

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

Young People Recognize The Big Challenges That Are Coming Up.

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.

Both Our Nations [malasian And American] Are Committed To Building A Regional Order Where All Nations Play By The Same Rules And Disputes Are Resolved Peacefully And This Visit Will Be An Opportunity To Continue Deepening Our Cooperation On Behalf Of Regional Stability And Prosperity.

Based On Current Surveys Of Public Opinion In The United States, It Turns Out That The Majority Of Americans Think I've Done A Pretty Good Job.

That Is Another Theme In The Book [dreams From My Father]. How Do We Exercise More Empathy In Our Public Discourse? How Do We Get The Black To See Through The Eyes Of The White? Or The Citizen To See Through The Eyes Of The Immigrant? Or The Straight To See Through The Eyes Of The Gay? That Has Always Been A Struggle In Our Politics.

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.

I Will Work Every Single Day To Make Sure That America Continues To Be The Greatest Nation On Earth.

It Would Be Naive Of Me To Suggest That With Russia Committed Militarily, As It Is, To Supporting What In Many Cases Are Barbarous Tactics By The Assad Regime To Crush The Opposition.

For The Sake Of Our Security, Our Economy And Our Planet, We Must Have The Courage And Commitment To Change.

Our Tears Are Not Enough. Our Words And Our Prayers Are Not Enough. If We Really Want To Honor These Twelve Men And Women, If We Really Want To Be A Country Where We Can Go To Work And Go To School And Walk Our Streets Free From Senseless Violence, Without So Many Lives Being Stolen By A Bullet From A Gun, Then We're Gonna Have To Change. We're Gonna Have To Change.

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

A Low-carbon, Clean Energy Economy Can Be An Engine Of Growth For Decades To Come.

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.

We Can't Change The Way Washington Works Unless We First Change How Congress Works.

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

Weapons Of War Have No Place On Our Streets.

I'm Not Sure That The American People Are Looking For A Lot Of Speeches. I Think What They're Looking For Is Action. But One Of The Things That I Do Think Is Important Is To Be Able To Explain To The American People What You're Doing, And Why You're Doing It. That Is Something That I Think Every Great President Has Been Able To Do. From Fdr To Lincoln To John Kennedy To Eisenhower.

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

Issues Are Never Simple. One Thing I'm Proud Of Is That Very Rarely Will You Hear Me Simplify The Issues.

But I Also Want To Give Them A Pathway So That They Can Earn Citizenship, Earn A Legal Status, Start Learning English, Pay A Significant Fine, Go To The Back Of The Line, But They Can Then Stay Here And They Can Have The Ability To Enforce A Minimum Wage That They're Paid, Make Sure The Worker Safety Laws Are Available, Make Sure That They Can Join A Union.

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

Public School System Status Quo Is Indefensible.

I Believe In Term Limits For Presidents Because I Think That There Is No Doubt I'm A Better President Now Than I Was When I Start.

It Was As If He Had Come To Mistrust Words Somehow. Words, And The Sentiments Words Carried.

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

... The Country Deserves Us To Be Willing To Compromise On Behalf Of The Greater Good.

It's Important To Make Sure That Governments Have Some Checks On What They Do, That People Can Oversee What's Being Done So The Government Doesn't Abuse It.

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.

My Goal Is To Maintain The International Norm On Banning Chemical Weapons. I Want That Enforcement To Be Real. I Want It To Be Serious. I Want People To Understand That Gassing Innocent People, Delivering Chemical Weapons Against Children Is Not Something We Do. It's Prohibited In Active Wars Between Countries. We Certainly Don't Do It Against Kids. And We've Got To Stand Up For That Principle.

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

So I'm Not Proposing Anything Radical. I Just Believe That Anybody Making Over $250,000 A Year Should Go Back To The Income Tax Rates We Were Paying Under Bill Clinton. Back When Our Economy Created Nearly 23 Million New Jobs, The Biggest Budget Surplus In History, And Plenty Of Millionaires To Boot. ... At The Same Time, Most People Agree That We Should Not Raise Taxes On Middle-class Families Or Small Businesses -- Not When So Many Folks Are Just Trying To Get By.

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.

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

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

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

We Can't Afford To Stand Pat While The World Races By. The United States Of America Did Not Become The Most Prosperous Nation On Earth By Sheer Luck Or Happenstance. We Got Here Because Each Time A Generation Of Americans Has Faced A Changing World, We Have Changed With It. We Have Not Feared Our Future; We Have Shaped It.

It Is Possible For Leaders Or Regimes To Be Cruel, Bigoted, Twisted In Their World Views And Still Make Rational Calculations With Respect To Their Limits And Their Self-preservation.

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.

How Do We In The African American Community Build A Culture In Which We Are Saying To Our Kids, "here's What It Takes To Succeed. Here's The Sacrifices You Need To Make To Be Able To Get Ahead. Here's How We Support Each Other. Here's How We Look Out For Each Other."

We Need More Responsibility, But We Need It Not Just When There's A Crisis. I Mean, We've Had Years In Which The Reigning Economic Ideology Has Been What's Good For Wall Street, But Not What's Good For Main Street.

Isis Is Not An Organization That Can Destroy The United States. This Is Not A Huge Industrial Power That Can Pose Great Risks To Us, Institutionally Or In A Systematic Way. But They Can Hurt Us. And They Can Hurt Our People And Our Families.

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

Stamina. There Is A Greater Physical Element To This Job Than You Would Think, Just Being Able To Grind It Out. And I Think Your Ability To Not Just Mentally And Emotionally, But Physically Be Able To Say, "we Got This. We're Going To Be Ok."

I'm Always Suspicious Of Politics Dividing People Instead Of Bringing Them Together.

The Amount Of Information, The Amount Of Incoming That Any Administration Has To Deal With Today And Respond To Much More Rapidly Than Ever Before, That Makes It Different.

Life Takes Its Own Turns, Makes Its Own Demands, Writes Its Own Story, And Along The Way, We Start To Realize We Are Not The Author.

Inspirational Life

If You Want Some Additional Money For Your School, We'll Give It To You. But You've Got To Compete, Show Us That You're Going To Reform Your Education System So That Our Children Are Performing Better.

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.

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.

The Same Would Be True For Something Like Social Security, Where Historically, If You Just Read The Law And The Fact That It Excluded Domestic Workers Or Agricultural Workers, You Might Not See Race In It, Unless You Knew That That Covered A Huge Chunk Of African Americans, Particularly In The South.

African American

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 Believe Moderates Will Need To Be Driven Out In Order To Usher In The Progressive Era.

Usually, I'm Pretty Good About Sorting Through The Options And Then Making Decisions That I'm Confident Are The Best Decisions In That Moment, Given The Information We Have. But There Are Times Where I Think I Wish I Could Have Imagined A Different Level Of Insight.

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

I Think That We've Had An Economy That's Been Out Of Balance For Too Long. So The General Principle Of Raising Taxes On Higher Income Americans, Like Myself, And Providing Relief To Those Who Haven't Benefited As Much From This New Global Economy, I Think Is A Sound One.

You And I, As Citizens, Have The Obligation To Shape The Debates Of Our Time, Not Only With The Votes We Cast, But The Voices We Lift In Defense Of Our Most Ancient Values And Enduring Ideas.

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

Best Is Yet To Come

Get Informed, Not By Reading The Huffington Post.

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

We Are An American Family And We Rise And Fall Together As One Nation.

American Family

So Long As I'm Commander-in-chief, We Will Sustain The Strongest Military The World Has Ever Known. When You Take Off The Uniform, We Will Serve You As Well As You've Served Us - Because No One Who Fights For This Country Should Have To Fight For A Job, Or A Roof Over Their Head, Or The Care That They Need When They Come Home.

If You're Really Concerned About Deficits, You Cannot Take Seriously A Budget That Would Give $30 Billion A Year Worth Of Tax Cuts To Not Just The Top 1 Percent But The Top 0.1 Percent.

You Could See A Man Talking To Himself As Just Plain Crazy, Or Read About The Criminal On The Front Page Of The Daily Paper And Ponder The Corruption Of The Human Heart, Without Having To Think About Whether The Criminal Or Lunatic Said Something About Your Own Fate.

For More Than 60 Years, The United States Has Stood By Our Allies And Partners In The Asia Pacific. That Includes Our Defence Partnership With Singapore, Which Stretches Back More Than Two Decades.

We Cannot Simply Look To Austerity As A Strategy And It Is Incredibly Important That The Greek People See Improvements In Their Daily Lives So That They Can Carry With Them The Hope That Their Lives Will Get Better.

The Success Of Our Economy Has Always Depended Not Just On The Size Of Our Gross Domestic Product, But On The Reach Of Our Prosperity; On The Ability To Extend Opportunity To Every Willing Heart - Not Out Of Charity, But Because It Is The Surest Route To Our Common Good.

Having A Tax Code That Rewards Companies That Are Shipping Jobs Overseas Instead Of Companies That Are Investing Here In The United States, That Will Not Make Us More Competitive.

Today, On This Day Of Possibility, We Stand In The Shadow Of A Lanky, Raw-boned Man With Little Formal Education Who Once Took The Stage At Old Main And Told The Nation That If Anyone Did Not Believe The American Principles Of Freedom And Equality, That Those Principles Were Timeless And All-inclusive, They Should Go Rip That Page Out Of The Declaration Of Independence.

In The Unlikely Story That Is America, There Has Never Been Anything False About Hope. For When We Have Faced Down Impossible Odds; When We've Been Told That We're Not Ready, Or That We Shouldn't Try, Or That We Can't, Generations Of Americans Have Responded With A Simple Creed That Sums Up The Spirit Of A People: Yes We Can.

I Was Watching A Documentary That During The Bay Of Pigs Crisis Jfk Had About Two Weeks Before Anybody Reported On It. Imagine That. I Think It's Fair To Say That If Something Like That Happens Under A Current President, They've Got To Figure Out In About An Hour What Their Response Is.

I Think Part Of The Reason That I Have Been Successful, Though, Despite Maybe Not Always Fitting My Message Into The Pre-packaged Formulas, Is There Is This Whole Other Media Ecology Out There Of The Internet And Instagram And Memes And Talk Shows And Comedy, And I'm Pretty Good At That.

Let's Be Grateful For What We Have. Let's Be Mindful Of Those Who Have Less. Let's Appreciate Those Who Hold A Special Place In Our Lives, And Make Sure They Know It. And Let's Think About Those Who Can't Spend The Holiday With Their Loved Ones - Especially The Members Of Our Military Serving Overseas.

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

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.

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.

Iran Was Nearing Completion Of A New Reactor Capable Of Producing Plutonium For A Bomb.

I Think Since The Systematic Emergence Of Terrorism And The Assassination Attempts, Everything Has Tightened. My Hope Is That It Loosens Back Up Once I Leave.

We've Got To Be Able To Distinguish Between Dangerous Individuals Who Need To Be Incapacitated And Incarcerated Versus Young People Who Are In An Environment In Which They Are Adapting, But If Given Different Opportunities, A Different Vision Of Life, Could Be Thriving The Way We Are. That's What Strikes Me. There But For The Grace Of God. And That, I Think, Is Something That We All Have To Think About.

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.

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.

I Can Think About What [mahatma] Gandhi Said Or [martin Luther] King Said About Violence Begetting Violence, And Still Be True To My Job By Asking Myself The Question Whenever We're Confronted With A Situation Where Some May Be Arguing For Military Action: Will This Actually Result In America Being Safer, Or The Most Lives Being Saved?

Basically, I Am A Night Owl. My Wife Is An Early Bird, So She Goes To Bed Around 9:30, And My Kids Are In Bed About 8. So, If I Am Home, I Will Usually Start Writing About 9:30 And Go Till About 12:30 Or 1:30, Depending On What My Energy Level Is.

And To Those Nations Like Ours That Enjoy Relative Plenty, We Say We Can No Longer Afford Indifference To The Suffering Outside Our Borders; Nor Can We Consume The World's Resources Without Regard To Effect. For The World Has Changed, And We Must Change With It.

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

The Democrats Are As Concerned About Raising Our Kids And Making Sure That The Values Of Empathy And Hard Work And Discipline And Self-respect Are Instilled In Our Children, And I've Got A Six-year-old Daughter And A Three-year-old Daughter, And I'm Not Afraid To Talk About How I Want To Provide Them With The Sort Of Cultural Framework That's Going To Allow Them To Be Successful, Happy People.

99.9% Of Plumbers Make Less Than A Quarter Million Dollars A Year, And I'm Going To Give Joe A Break Whether He Wants It Or Not.

What Makes You A Man Is Not The Ability To Make A Child, It's The Courage To Raise One.

If You Want To Know Who We Are, Who America Is, How We Respond To Evil-that's It: Selflessly, Compassionately, Unafraid.

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.

We [americans] Are A Nation Of Immigrants. We All Understand What This Country Has Become Because Talent From All Around The World Wants To Come Here, People Who Are Willing To Take Risks, People Who Want To Build On Their Dreams And Make Sure Their Kids Have An - Even Bigger Dreams Than They Have.

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.

I'll Be The First Us President To Not Only Visit Kenya And Ethiopia, But Also To Address The Continent As A Whole, Building Off The African Summit That We Did Here Which Was Historic And Has, I Think, Deepened The Kinds Of Already Strong Relationships That We Have Across The Continent.

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.

If We Think That We Can Secure Our Country By Just Talking Tough Without Acting Tough And Smart, Then We Will Misunderstand This Moment And Miss Its Opportunities. If We Think That We Can Use The Same Partisan Playbook Where We Just Challenge Our Opponent's Patriotism To Win An Election, Then The American People Will Lose. The Times Are Too Serious For This Kind Of Politics.

I Don't Know The Facts Of When Joe Soptic's Wife Got Sick Or When She Died.

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

Trending Author

Pedro Almodovar

Jessica Hagedorn

Chester Bennington

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Category