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Simple Exchanges Can Break Down Walls Between Us, For When People Come Together And Speak To One Another And Share A Common Experience, Then Their Common Humanity Is Revealed. We Are Reminded That We're Joined Together By Our Pursuit Of A Life That's Productive And Purposeful, And When That Happens Mistrust Begins To Fade And Our Smaller Differences No Longer Overshadow The Things That We Share. And That's Where Progress Begins.

-Barack Obama

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Simple Exchanges Can Break

Barack Obama

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Simple Exchanges Can Break Down Walls Between Us, For When People Come Together And Speak To One Another And Share A Common Experience, Then Their Common Humanity Is Revealed. We Are Reminded That We're Joined Together By Our Pursuit Of A Life That's Productive And Purposeful, And When That Happens Mistrust Begins To Fade And Our Smaller Differences No Longer Overshadow The Things That We Share. And That's Where Progress Begins.

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Common Humanity

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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.

... The Fact Is It Didn't Happen In The First Month, The First Six Weeks, In A Way That Was At All Acceptable. And Since I'm In Charge, Obviously, We Screwed It Up.

When It Comes To The Budget, We Know That We Shouldn't Be Cutting More On Core Investments, Like Education, That Are Going To Help Us Grow In The Future. And We've Already Seen The Deficit Cut In Half. It's Going Down Faster Than Any Time In The Last 60 Years. So Why Would We Make More Cuts In Education, More Cuts In Basic Research? Nobody Thinks That's A Good Idea.

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

I Think That The Issues We Have With Science These Days Are Not Restricted To What's Happening With Respect To Religion. There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around.

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.

Hillary Clinton Has Been In Politics For The Same Reason I Am - Because We Can Improve Other People's Lives By Doing This Work.

When We Send Our Young Men And Women Into Harm's Way, We Have A Solemn Obligation Not To Fudge The Numbers Or Shade The Truth About Why They're Going, To Care For Their Families While They're Gone, To Tend To The Soldiers Upon Their Return, And To Never Ever Go To War Without Enough Troops To Win The War, Secure The Peace, And Earn The Respect Of The World.

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

Nothing In Life That’s Worth Anything Is Easy.

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.

Non-islamic, Non-foreign-motivated Terrorist Actions Have Killed At Least As Many Americans On American Soil As Those Who Were Promoted By Jihadists. But What We Have Also Seen Is Isil Evolve, Because Of The Sophistication Of Their Social Media, To A Point Where They May Be Inspiring More Attacks - Even If They're Self-initiated, Even If They Don't Involve Complex Planning - Than We Would Have Seen Some Time Ago.

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.

As Opposed To Getting Into Arguments About, Well, These Folks Have Been Treated Fairly So Now We're Going To Be Doing Things That, Very Easily In The Minds Of A Lot Americans Feel Like, "now I'm Being Treated Unfairly."

My Central Focus Is What Are We Doing To Protect The American People And The American Homeland? Afghanistan And Pakistan Are Critical Elements In That Process.

Year After Year, An Ideological And Economic Barrier Hardened Between Our Two Countries, Meanwhile, The Cuban Exile Community In The United States Made Enormous Contributions To Our Country, In Politics, In Business, Culture And Sports.

The Emotions Between The Races Could Never Be Pure; Even Love Was Tarnished By The Desire To Find In The Other Some Element That Was Missing In Ourselves. Whether We Sought Out Our Demons Or Salvation, The Other Race Would Always Remain Just That: Menacing, Alien, And Apart.

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.

I Think That Whenever You Have Got An Incoming President Of The Other Side It Takes A While For People To Reconcile Themselves With That New Reality.

Our Intelligence Communities Spend A Lot Of Time And Effort Gathering A Lot Of Strands And A Lot Of Data [on Russian Hacking]. There Are Times Where They're Very Cautious And They Say, "we Think This Is What Happened, But We're Not Certain."

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One Of The Things That You Come Pretty Early On To Understand In This Job, And You Start Figuring Out Even During The Course Of The Campaign, Is That There's Barack Obama The Person And There's Barack Obama The Symbol, Or The Office Holder, Or What People Are Seeing On Television, Or Just A Representative Of Power. And So When People Criticize Or Respond Negatively To Me, Usually They're Responding To This Character That They're Seeing On Tv Called Barack Obama, Or To The Office Of The Presidency And The White House And What That Represents.

In The Course Of A Healthy Debate, We Prioritize Different Goals, And The Different Means Of Reaching Them. But Without Some Common Baseline Of Facts, Without A Willingness To Admit New Information And Concede That Your Opponent Might Be Making A Fair Point, And That Science And Reason Matter - Then We're Going To Keep Talking Past Each Other, And We'll Make Common Ground And Compromise Impossible.

Who You Are And Who You Love Should Never Be A Fireable Offense

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

Here At Home, We Will Strengthen Our Defenses But Not Succumb To A Siege Mentality That Sacrifices The Open Society And Liberties And Values That We Cherish As Americans, Because Great And Proud Nations Don't Hunker Down And Hide Behind Walls Of Suspicion And Mistrust.

The Elevation Of Appearance Over Substance, Of Celebrity Over Character, Of Short Term Gains Over Lasting Achievement Displays A Poverty Of Ambition. It Distracts You From What's Truly Important.

Undocumented Workers Can't Report If They're Not Being Paid Overtime, Or If Their Health And Safety Laws Are Being Violated, Of If They're Not Getting The Minimum Wage. And So A Lot Of Times Companies Prefer To Hire Them In Order To Take Advantage Of Them. We've Got To Crack Down On Those Employers.

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 Didn't Become A Christian Until Many Years Later, When I Moved To The South Side Of Chicago After College. It Happened Not Because Of Indoctrination Or A Sudden Revelation, But Because I Spent Month After Month Working With Church Folks Who Simply Wanted To Help Neighbors Who Were Down On Their Luck No Matter What They Looked Like, Or Where They Came From, Or Who They Prayed To. It Was On Those Streets, In Those Neighborhoods, That I First Heard God's Spirit Beckon Me. It Was There That I Felt Called To A Higher Purpose - His Purpose.

Although Israel Was Founded Based On The Historic Jewish Homeland And The Need To Have A Jewish Homeland, Israeli Democracy Has Been Premised On Everybody In The Country Being Treated Equally And Fairly. And I Think That That Is What's Best About Israeli Democracy.

Democracies Have

I Do Believe, Separate And Apart From Any Particular Election Or Movement, That We Are Going To Have To Guard Against A Rise In A Crude Sort Of Nationalism Or Ethnic Identity Or Tribalism That Is Built Around An Us And A Them.

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

There Is No Doubt That Thanks To The Steps That We Took Early On To Rescue Our Economy And To Rebuild It On A New Foundation, We Are Entering Into The New Year With New Confidence That America Is Coming Back.

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

Please Proceed, Governor.

[young People] Are Much Less Likely To Express Attitudes That Defied Us Between Us And Them. They See Themselves As Part Of A Global Economy That They Can Navigate Successfully.

The Globe Is Shrinking, The Information Age Is Bringing A Lot Of Changes. People Are Anxious About Their Future And Their Children's Futures.

Our Job As Americans Is To Restore That Basic Bargain That Says, If You Work Hard, If You're Willing To Meet Your Responsibilities, You Can Get Ahead. You Can Get Ahead. Doesn't Matter What You Look Like, Doesn't Matter Where You Come From. Our Middle Class, When It's Growing, When It's Thriving, When There Are Ladders Of Opportunity For People To Do A Little Bit Better Each Year And Then Make Sure That Their Kids Are Doing Even Better Than Them, That's The American Dream. That's What We Got To Fight For. That Has To Be The North Star That Guides Everything We Do.

We Believe That No Matter Where You Live - Whether A Village In Punjab Or The Bylanes Of Chandni Chowk, An Old Section Of Kolkata Or A New High-rise In Bangalore - Every Person Deserves The Same Chance To Live In Security And Dignity, To Get An Education, To Find Work, And To Give Their Children A Better Future.

I Believe That This Country Succeeds When Everyone Gets A Fair Shot, When Everyone Does Their Fair Share, When Everyone Plays By The Same Rules.

My Wife Has Been My Closest Friend, My Closest Advisor. And ... She's Not Somebody Who Looks To The Limelight, Or Even Is Wild About Me Being In Politics. And That's A Good Reality Check On Me. When I Go Home, She Wants Me To Be A Good Father And A Good Husband. And Everything Else Is Secondary To That.

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.

The President Does Not Have Power Under The Constitution To Unilaterally Authorize A Military Attack In A Situation That Does Not Involve Stopping An Actual Or Imminent Threat To The Nation.

Only A Handful Of Men And Women Leave An Imprint On The Conscience Of A Nation And On The History That They Helped Shape.

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

Freedom Of Speech

So My Biggest Fun Has Been Watching My Daughters Grow Up. Now, Unfortunately They're Hitting The Age Where They Still Love Me, But They Think I'm Completely Boring. And So They'll Come In, Pat Me On The Head, Talk To Me For 10 Minutes, And Then They're Gone All Weekend. Right? They Break My Heart! So Now I've Got To Start Thinking, Well What's Going To Replace That Fun?

With Effort We Can Protect The Foundation Of Our Democracy, For Which So Many Marched Across This Bridge, The Right To Vote.

Now Let's Make Two Things Clear: Isil Is Not 'islamic.' No Religion Condones The Killing Of Innocents, And The Vast Majority Of Isil's Victims Have Been Muslim. And Isil Is Certainly Not A State. It Was Formerly Al Qaeda's Affiliate In Iraq, And Has Taken Advantage Of Sectarian Strife And Syria's Civil War To Gain Territory On Both Sides Of The Iraq-syrian Border. It Is Recognized By No Government, Nor The People It Subjugates. Isil Is A Terrorist Organization, Pure And Simple. And It Has No Vision Other Than The Slaughter Of All Who Stand In Its Way.

We Need Earmark Reform, And When I'm President, I Will Go Line By Line To Make Sure That We Are Not Spending Money Unwisely.

What I Think Is Fair To Say Is That, Coming Out Of The Republican Camp, There Have Been Efforts To Suggest That Perhaps I'm Not Who I Say I Am When It Comes To My Faith - Something Which I Find Deeply Offensive, And That Has Been Going On For A Pretty Long Time.

I Will Stand With Israel If They Are Attacked.

There's One Issue That Will Define The Contours Of This Century More Dramatically Than Any Other, And That Is The Urgent And Growing Threat Of A Changing Climate.

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

I Always Enjoy Watching Republicans Compliment Bill Clinton Now, Because At The Time, I'm Sure He Didn't Feel A Lot Of The Love.

Muslim Leaders Around The Globe Have To Continue Working With Us To Decisively And Unequivocally Reject The Hateful Ideology That Groups Like Isil And Al Qaeda Promote. To Speak Out Against Not Just Acts Of Violence, But Also Those Interpretations Of Islam That Are Incompatible With The Values Of Religious Tolerance, Mutual Respect, And Human Dignity.

Climate Change Is One Of The Issues I Worry Most About Because Its Impacts Are Enormous. But They're Gradual, They're Not Immediate.

It's Time To Put Country Ahead Of Party. It's Time To Put The Next Generation Ahead Of The Next Election.

I Think That When It Comes To Social Security, All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Senior Citizens Can Retire With Dignity And Respect. And Everybody Has To Be Open-minded In Thinking How Do We Firm Up A System That, In Fact, Is Going To Be In Difficulty In The Coming Years.

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The Notion That Somehow As A Consequence Of Me Knowing Somebody Who Engaged In Detestable Acts 40 Years Ago, When I Was 8 Years Old, Somehow Reflects On Me And My Values Doesn't Make Much Sense.

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.

We Are A People Of Improbable Hope.

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.

I Have Made It A Top Priority For My Administration To Deepen Cooperation With Israel Across The Whole Spectrum Of Security Issues - Intelligence, Military, Technology.

I Have Said Repeatedly That I Intend To Close Guantanamo, And I Will Follow Through On That. I Have Said Repeatedly That America Doesn't Torture. And I'm Gonna Make Sure That We Don't Torture. Those Are Part And Parcel Of An Effort To Regain America's Moral Stature In The World.

You Might Be Locked In A World Not Of Your Own Making, Her Eyes Said, But You Still Have A Claim On How It Is Shaped. You Still Have Responsibilities.

You Can't Just Listen To Rush Limbaugh And Get Things Done.

I Haven't Been Sorting Through Each And Every Aspect Of This. Here's What I Know: Hillary Clinton Was An Outstanding Secretary Of State. She Would Never Intentionally Put America In Any Kind Of Jeopardy.' Mr. Wallace Pressed Further On The Jeopardy Angle, And Mr. Obama Responded Again: 'i Continue To Believe That She Has Not Jeopardized America's National Security. Now What I've Also Said Is That - And She Has Acknowledged - That There's A Carelessness, In Terms Of Managing Emails...'"

I Believe In American Exceptionalism, Just As I Suspect That The Brits Believe In British Exceptionalism And The Greeks Believe In Greek Exceptionalism.

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

The Promotion Of Human Rights Cannot Be About Exhortation Alone. At Times, It Must Be Coupled With Painstaking Diplomacy. I Know That Engagement With Repressive Regimes Lacks The Satisfying Purity Of Indignation. But I Also Know That Sanctions Without Outreach -- Condemnation Without Discussion -- Can Carry Forward Only A Crippling Status Quo. No Repressive Regime Can Move Down A New Path Unless It Has The Choice Of An Open Door.

If You're Willing To Put In The Work, The Idea Is That You Should Be Able To Raise A Family And Own A Home, Not Go Bankrupt Because You Got Sick, 'cause You've Got Some Health Insurance That Helps You Deal With Those Difficult Times; That You Can Send Your Kids To College; That You Can Put Some Money Away For Retirement. That's All Most People Want. Folks Don't Have Unrealistic Ambitions. They Do Believe That If They Work Hard, They Should Be Able To Achieve That Small Measure Of An American Dream.

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

I Think Our Basic Principle That This Is A Free Market System And That That Has Worked For Us, That It Creates Innovation And Risk Taking, I Think That's A Principle That We've Gotta Hold To As Well. But What I Don't Wanna Do Is Get Bottled Up In A Lot Of Ideology And Is This Conservative Or Liberal. My Interest Is Finding Something That Works.

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.

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.

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

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

We Can Lose So Much Of What We've Gained In Terms Of The Kind Of Democratic Freedoms And Market-based Economies And Prosperity That We've Come To Take For Granted.

It's No Wonder That America's Engagement In The Region Has Strong, Sustained, Bipartisan Support. So I'll Be Handing My Successor A Strong Foundation - Including Closer Ties With Singapore - On Which To Continue Building, And I'm Optimistic That Will Happen.

Peace Is Not Merely The Absence Of Visible Conflict. Only A Just Peace Based On The Inherent Rights And Dignity Of Every Individual Can Truly Be Lasting.

If You Like Your Doctor Or Health Care Provider, You Can Keep Them. If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can Keep That, Too.

To Ensure Prosperity Here At Home And Peace Abroad, We All Share The Belief We Have To Maintain The Strongest Military On The Planet.

We All Know A Lot Of People Who Died In 9/11, The World Trade Center. A Lot Of Money Funding That Mission Is Directly Tied - From The 9/11 Commission, Directly Tied To Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas.

I've Said Repeatedly That Where We See Terrorist Organizations Like Al-qaeda Or Isil, They Have Perverted And Distorted And Tried To Claim The Mantle Of Islam For An Excuse, For Basically Barbarism And Death. These Are People Who Kill Children, Kill Muslims, Take Sex Slaves - There's No Religious Rationale That Would Justify In Any Way Any Of The Things That They Do.

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

We Know What Happens When Europeans Start Dividing Themselves Up And Emphasizing Their Differences And Seeing A Competition Between Various Countries In A Zero Sum Way.

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

The Fact Is Every Single Day In The Ordinary American People, America's Families Have To Make Decisions About Their Families And That Should Be Made By Them, Not By The Texas Or United States.

My Presidency Is Not Over. I've Got Another Five Years Coming Up.

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

The Terrorists Do Not Speak For Over A Billion Muslims Who Reject Their Hateful Ideology.

I Think We All Know That World Owes An Enormous Debt To Greece And The Greek People.

I Think The Prime Minister Is The First To Acknowledge That Malaysia's Still Got Some Work To Do. Just Like The United States, By The Way, Has Some Work To Do On These Issues. Human Rights Watch Probably Has A List Of Things They Think We Should Be Doing As A Government.

I Need You To Go Out And Talk To Your Friends And Talk To Your Neighbors. I Want You To Talk To Them Whether They Are Independent Or Whether They Are Republican. I Want You To Argue With Them And Get In Their Face.

For History Tells Us That While These Truths May Be Self-evident, They've Never Been Self-executing. That While Freedom Is A Gift From God, It Must Be Secured By His People Here On Earth.

Essentially, Iran Was Sanctioned Because Of What Had Happened At Fordow, Its Unwillingness To Comply With Previous U.n. Security Resolutions About Their Nuclear Program, And As Part Of The Package Of Sanctions That Was Slapped On Them, The Issue Of Arms And Ballistic Missiles Were Included.

People Are Discouraged From Voting And Part Of What Is Important For Latino Citizens Is To Make Your Voice Heard, Because You're Not Just Speaking For Yourself. You're Speaking For Family Members, Friends, Classmates Of Yours In School.

We Stand With Israel As A Jewish Democratic State Because We Know That Israel Is Born Of Firmly Held Values That We, As Americans, Share: A Culture Committed To Justice, A Land That Welcomes The Weary, A People Devoted To Tikkun Olam. ... So America's Commitment ... And My Commitment To Israel And Israel's Security Is Unshakeable. It Is Unshakeable. ... I Am Proud To Say That No U.s. Administration Has Done More In Support Of Israel's Security Than Ours. None. Don't Let Anybody Else Tell You Otherwise. It Is A Fact.

Let's Not Play Games. I Was Suggesting - You're Absolutely Right That John Mccain Has Not Talked About My Muslim Faith.

There's A Utility In The Democracy Refreshing Itself On An Ongoing Basis.

What Americans Expect From Washington Is Action That Matches The Urgency They Feel In Their Daily Lives.

N Case You Missed It, This Week, There Was A Tragedy In Kansas. Ten Thousand People Died - An Entire Town Destroyed.

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.

When The Economy Is Still Struggling, Putting People Back To Work, Finding Ways To Spur Economic Activity, Ultimately Can Help To Reduce The Structural Deficits And Debts That Countries Experience.

We Need Scientists To Design New Fuels. We Need Farmers To Help Grow Them. We Need Engineers To Invent New Technologies. We Need Entrepreneurs To Sell Those Technologies. We Need Workers To Operate Assembly Lines That Hum With High-tech, Zero-carbon Components. We Need Builders To Hammer Into Place The Foundations For A Clean Energy Age. We Need Diplomats And Businessmen And Women, And Peace Corps Volunteers To Help Developing Nations Skip Past The Dirty Phase Of Development And Transition To Sustainable Sources Of Energy. In Other Words, We Need You.

Let Us Remember That We Can Do These Things Not Just Because Of Wealth Or Power, But Because Of Who We Are: One Nation Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.

Justice For All

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.

It's A Generational Project Just To Get America To Live Up Fully To Its Ideals And To Have The Kind Of Society Where Everybody Has A Shot, And Every Kid Is Getting A Good Education, And People Are Getting Living Wages, And They Have Decent Retirement.

I Have To Say That My Kids, Like Every Child In America, Is Completely Absorbed With Harry Potter. And So, I Have Gotten Sucked Into It, Too; I Can't Wait For The Next One To Come Out. I Am Trying To Figure Out What Happens With Harry And Voldemort. So We Have Been Reading That.

No Deal Means A Greater Chance Of More War In The Middle East.

America Is An Unlikely Place - A Country Built On Defiance Of The Odds; On A Belief In The Impossible. And I Remind You Of This Because As You Set Out To Live Your Own Stories Of Success And Achievement, It's Now Your Turn To Help Keep It This Way.

For Now, Decisions Are Upon Us And We Cannot Afford Delay. We Cannot Mistake Absolutism For Principle Or Substitute Spectacle For Politics, Or Treat Name-calling As Reasoned Debate.

Obviously I'm Grayer, A Few More Wrinkles. One Of The Things I'm Proud About Is That I Think My Basic Character And Outlook Actually Have Not Changed Much. And People Who Are Closest To Me Will Tell You That The Guy Who Came Here Is The Same Guy Who's Leaving.

We Are The Change We Have Been Waiting For.

I Do Think That When You Go Into Red States, They're - So-called Red States - I Think They're Troubled With Certain Excesses With Respect To The Patriot Act, But They're Also Concerned With Making Sure We're Secure Against Terrorism.

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.

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

We Shouldn’t Have A Bunch Of Politicians, A Majority Of Whom Are Men, Making Health Care Decisions On Behalf Of Women.

I'm About To Embark On What May Be As Important As An Initiative As Anything I Do As President, Trying To Nudge The World In The Direction Of Doing Something Serious About Climate Change.

Sometimes Slow, Steady Effort Is Rewarded With Justice That Arrives Like A Thunderbolt.

You're Going To Face A Choice In November. This Is A Choice Between The Policies That Got Us Into This Mess In The First Place And The Policies That Got Us Out Of This Mess - And What The Other Side Is Counting On Is People Not Having A Good Memory.

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.

The Senators Know It's Important To Win Statewide To Have Hispanics And Other Immigrant Populations Supporting Them.

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

The Goal Of This Office Will Not Be To Favor One Religious Group Over Another - Or Even Religious Groups Over Secular Groups. It Will Simply Be To Work On Behalf Of Those Organizations That Want To Work On Behalf Of Our Communities, And To Do So Without Blurring The Line That Our Founders Wisely Drew Between Church And State.

Most People Who Meet My Wife Quickly Conclude That She Is Remarkable. They Are Right About This. She Is Smart, Funny And Thoroughly Charming... Often, After Hearing Her Speak At Some Function Or Working With Her On A Project, People Will Approach Me And Say Something To The Effect Of "you Know, I Think The World Of You, Barack, But Your Wife... Wow!"

I Think That We Are In A Position To Continue To Make Progress, But It's Gonna Require Us To Both Recognize What The Problems Are, Also Recognize The Progress We've Made. Last Point I'd Make On This, Since We're On Criminal Justice: During The Course Of My Presidency Crime Has Been The Lowest It's Been Probably Since The '60s.

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

American Economy

I Use A Different Style If I'm Speaking To A Big Crowd; I Can Gin Up Folks Pretty Well. But When I'm In These Town Hall Settings, My Job Is Not To Throw Them A Lot Of Red Meat. I Want To Give Them A Sense Of My Thought Process.

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

Over The Last 15 Months, We've Traveled To Every Corner Of The United States. I've Now Been In 57 States? I Think One Left To Go.

America, This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time. Our Time To Turn The Page On The Policies Of The Past. Our Time To Bring New Energy And New Ideas To The Challenges We Face. Our Time To Offer A New Direction For The Country We Love.

I'm Consistently On Record And Will Continue To Be On Record As Opposing Concealed Carry.

Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago.

Could Have Been

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

We Are One Nation Under God, And We May Call That God Different Names But We Remain One Nation.

Scripture Tells Us That We Shall Not Oppress A Stranger, For We Know The Heart Of A Stranger. We Were Strangers Once, Too.

The Trick Is Figuring Out How Do We Structure Government Systems That Pool Resources, And Hence Facilitate Some [wealth] Redistribution, Because I Actually Believe In Redistribution, At Least At A Certain Level, To Make Sure That Everybody's Got A Shot.

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

Senator Mccain Likes To Talk About Judgment, But Really, What Does It Say About Your Judgment When You Think George Bush Has Been Right More Than Ninety Percent Of The Time? I Don't Know About You, But I'm Not Ready To Take A Ten Percent Chance On Change.

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

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.

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

The Good News Is I Think There Are A Lot Of Young People Certainly Who Were Involved In My Campaigns, And I Think Continue To Be Involved In Work Not Just Politically, But Through Nonprofits And Other Organizations, That Can Carry This Hard Work Of Democracy Forward.

The Key Is Whether Or Not We Have Got Priorities That Are Working For You, As Opposed To Those Who Have Been Dictating The Policy In Washington Lately. And That's Mostly Lobbyists And Special Interests. We Have Got To Put An End To That.

I Would Say Of All The Things That Have Happened During The Course Of My Presidency The Knowledge That You Have Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Who Have Been Killed, Millions Who Have Been Displaced, [makes Me] Ask Myself What Might I Have Done Differently Along The Course Of The Last Five, Six Years.

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

Our Founders Made It Extraordinarily Difficult To Amend The Constitution.

I'm Proud Of The Fact That I Stood Up Early And Unequivocally In Opposition To Bush's Foreign Policy. [...] That Opposition Hasn't Changed.

You Can't Rest On Your Laurels. Your Own Body Of Work Is Yet To Come.

Suppressing Ideas Never Succeeds In Making Them Go Away.

The Cold War Has Been Over For A Long Time. I'm Not Interested In Having Battles That, Frankly, Started Before I Was Born.

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

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.

Money Is The Original Sin In Politics And I Am Not Sinless.

We Know The Battle Ahead Will Be Long. But Always Remember That, No Matter What Obstacles Stand In Our Way, Nothing Can Stand In The Way Of The Power Of Millions Of Voices Calling For Change.

Men Have To Take More Responsibility. Men Have To Intervene

I Believe That For All Our Imperfections, We Are Full Of Decency And Goodness, And That The Forces That Divide Us Are Not As Strong As Those That Unite Us.

So We Have A Choice To Make. We Can Once Again Let Washington's Bad Habits Stand In The Way Of Progress. Or We Can Pull Together And Say That In America, Our Destiny Isn't Written For Us But By Us. We Can Place Good Ideas Ahead Of Old Ideological Battles, And A Sense Of Purpose Above The Same Narrow Partisanship. We Can Act Boldly To Turn Crisis Into Opportunity And, Together, Write The Next Great Chapter In Our History And Meet The Test Of Our Time.

We've Now Got A Group Of Young People In This Country Who For All Practical Purposes Are American. They Grew Up Here. They've Gone To School Here. They Don't Know Anything Other Than Being American Kids. But Their Parents May Have Brought Them Here Without All The Proper Paperwork - Might Have Brought Them Here When They Were Three, Might Have Brought Them Here When They Were Five. And So, Lo And Behold, By The Time They Finish School, And They're Ready To Go To College, They Find Out They Can't Go To College And, In Fact, Their Status As Americans Are Threatened.

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.

We've Got An Extraordinarily Complex Tax System That's Full Of Loopholes That Are Exploited By Special Interests. I'd Like To See Those Loopholes Closed.

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

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.

Weapons That Were Designed For Soldiers In War Theaters Don’t Belong On Our Streets.

There Are Certain Things We Can Only Do Together. There Are Certain Things Only A Union Can Do. Only A Union Could Harness The Courage Of Our Pioneers To Settle The American West, Which Is Why President Abraham Lincoln Passed A Homestead Act Giving A Tract Of Land To Anyone Seeking A Stake In Our Growing Economy.

Arne Duncan Is Done More To Bring Our Educational System, Sometimes Kicking And Screaming, Into The 21st Century Than Anyone Else.

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

What We've Said To The Girls Is: 'if You Guys Ever Decide That You're Going To Get A Tattoo, Then Mommy And Me Will Get The Exact Same Tattoo, In The Same Place.' And We'll Go On Youtube And Show It Off As A Family Tattoo.

I Think What Is True Is That There's Been An Underlying Division In The United States. Some Of It Has To Do With The Fact That Economic Growth And Recovery Tends To Be Stronger In The Cities And In Urban Areas. In Some Rural Areas, Particularly Those That Were Reliant On Manufacturing, There Has Been Weaker Growth, Stagnation, People Feeling As If Their Children Won't Do As Well As They Will.

We, The People, Recognize That We Have Responsibilities As Well As Rights; That Our Destinies Are Bound Together; That A Freedom Which Only Asks What's In It For Me, A Freedom Without A Commitment To Others, A Freedom Without Love Or Charity Or Duty Or Patriotism, Is Unworthy Of Our Founding Ideals, And Those Who Died In Their Defense.

We Will Send An Additional 475 Service Members To Iraq. As I Have Said Before, These American Forces Will Not Have A Combat Mission - We Will Not Get Dragged Into Another Ground War In Iraq. But They Are Needed To Support Iraqi And Kurdish Forces With Training, Intelligence And Equipment.

I Don't Care Whether You're Driving A Hybrid Or An Suv. If You're Headed For A Cliff, You Have To Change Direction. That's What The American People Called For In November, And That's What We Intend To Deliver.

Today I Am Pledging To Cut The Deficit We Inherited In Half By The End Of My First Term In Office.

Broken Promises

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

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

We Are The Party Of Roosevelt. We Are The Party Of Kennedy. So Don't Tell Me That Democrats Won't Defend This Country. Don't Tell Me That Democrats Won't Keep Us Safe.

When I Talked To [donald Trump] About - Our Intelligence Agencies, What I've Said To Him Is - Is That There Are Gonna Be Times Where You've Got Raw Intelligence That Comes In And In My Experience, Over Eight Years, The Intelligence Community Is Pretty Good About Saying, "look, We Can't Say For Certain What This Means." But There Are Gonna Be Times Where The Only Way You Can Make A Good Decision Is If You Have Confidence That The Process Is Working, And The People That You Put In Charge Are Giving You Their Very Best Assessments.

Now Is Not The Time To Gut These Job-creating Investments In Science And Innovation. Now Is The Time To Reach A Level Of Research And Development Not Seen Since The Height Of The Space Race.

Well, Governor, We Also Have Fewer Horses And Bayonets.

Aircraft Carriers

I Think When You Spread The Wealth Around It's Good For Everybody.

I've Been Fighting With Acorn, Alongside Acorn, On Issues You Care About, My Entire Career.

Those Opportunity Gaps Begin Early, Often At Birth. And They Compound Over Time, Becoming Harder And Harder To Bridge, Making Too Many Young Men And Women Feel Like, No Matter How Hard They Try, They May Never Achieve Their Dreams.

America's Strong Bonds With Israel Are Well Known - This Bond Is Unbreakable.

We're Breaking Protocol Here. That's The Good Thing About Being President - I Can Do Whatever I Want.

Even As Ramadan Holds Profound Meaning For The World’s 1.5 Billion Muslims, It Is Also A Reminder To People Of All Faiths Of Our Common Humanity And The Commitment To Justice, Equality, And Compassion Shared By All Great Faiths. In That Spirit, I Wish Muslims Across America And Around The World A Blessed Month, And I Look Forward To Again Hosting An Iftar Dinner Here At The White House. Ramadan Kareem.

The Russians Can't Change Us Or Significantly Weaken Us. They Are A Smaller Country. They Are A Weaker Country. Their Economy Doesn't Produce Anything That Anybody Wants To Buy, Except Oil And Gas And Arms. They Don't Innovate. But They Can Impact Us If We Lose Track Of Who We Are.

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.

I Get A Thick Book Full Of Death, Destruction, Strife, And Chaos. That's What I Take With My Morning Tea.

Campaigning Is Different From Governing.

The Thing About Hip-hop Today Is It's Smart, It's Insightful. The Way They Can Communicate A Complex Message In A Very Short Space Is Remarkable.

I Will Never Apologize For Saying That The Future Of Humanity And The Future Of The World Is Going To Be Defined By What We Have In Common As Opposed To Those Things That Separate Us And Ultimately Lead Us Into Conflict.

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

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

Political Gerrymandering Makes The Incentive For Most Members Of Congress To Play To The Extremes Of Their Base Rather Than To The Center.

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

My Question Would Be Whether There Is Active Persecution Of Atheists.

Mandela's Commitment To Democracy Was Ratified Not Only By His Election, But By His Willingness To Step Down From Power

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