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The Bottom Line Is That It's Hard To Find A Model In Which You Can Practically Administer And Sustain Political Support For Those Kinds Of Efforts. And What Makes America Complicated As Well Is The Degree To Which This Is Not Just A Black/white Society, And It Is Becoming Less So Every Year.

-Barack Obama

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The Bottom Line Is

Barack Obama

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The Bottom Line Is That It's Hard To Find A Model In Which You Can Practically Administer And Sustain Political Support For Those Kinds Of Efforts. And What Makes America Complicated As Well Is The Degree To Which This Is Not Just A Black/white Society, And It Is Becoming Less So Every Year.

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[a] Family With Two Kids That Earns The Minimum Wage Still Lives Below The Poverty Line. That's Wrong. That's Why, Since The Last Time This Congress Raised The Minimum Wage, 19 States Have Chosen To Bump Theirs Even Higher. Tonight, Let's Declare That In The Wealthiest Nation On Earth, No One Who Works Full-time Should Have To Live In Poverty, And Raise The Federal Minimum Wage To $9 An Hour.

I Want To Make Sure That As President Of The United States That I'm Not Asserting In Some Way That My Decisions Overrule The Decisions Of Prosecutors Who Are There To Uphold The Law.

One Of The Things That I've Urged The President-elect To Do Is To Develop A Strong Working Relationship With The Intelligence Community And I Think It's Important That Congress, On A Bipartisan Basis.

Members Of Congress On Both Sides Of The Aisle, Are Motivated By All Kinds Of Issues. They're Sincerely Interested In The Economy, In Terrorism, In Social Issues. But The One Overriding Thing They're Interested In Is Getting Reelected. And If They Think That It's Harder For Them To Get Reelected By Cooperating With Each Other, Then They Won't Cooperate.

Why Hang Out With Celebrities When I Can Hang Out With The People Who Made Me One?

On Issues Like Ukraine, On Issues Like Syria, We've Had Very Significant Differences [with Russia].

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.

Every Woman Should Be In Control Of The Decisions That Affect Her Own Health.

Under My Plan Of A Cap And Trade System, Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket… Because I’m Capping Greenhouse Gasses, Coal Power Plants, Natural Gas…you Name It…whatever The Plants Were, Whatever The Industry Was, They Would Have To Retro-fit Their Operations. That Will Cost Money…they Will Pass That Money On To The Consumers.

I Will Tell You, When 20 6-year-olds Are Gunned Down And Congress Literally Does Nothing, Yeah That's The Closest I Came To Feeling Disgusted.

America Can't Provide Health Care To People Who Need It. We Can't Invest In Science And Technology, Which Will Determine Whether Or Not We Are Going To Be Competitive In The Long Term. There Has Never Been A Country On Earth That Saw Its Economy Decline And Yet Maintained Its Military Superiority.

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

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.

On Syria, It's Clear That The Indiscriminate Attacks On Civilians By The [bashar] Assad Regime And Russia Will Only Worsen The Humanitarian Catastrophe And That A Negotiated End To The Conflict Is The Only Way To Achieve Lasting Peace In Syria.

My Administration Is Committed To Creating An Unprecedented Level Of Openness In Government.

Broken Promises

Those Jeans Are Comfortable, And For Those Of You Who Want Your President To Look Great In His Tight Jeans, I'm Sorry I'm Not The Guy. It Just Doesn't Fit Me. I'm Not 20.

He [barack Obama] Might Have A Pen, And He Might Have A Phone, But What He Does Not Have Is The Constitutional Power To Run This Country Like A Dictator.

Let's Also Make Sure That A High School Diploma Puts Our Kids On A Path To A Good Job. Right Now, Countries Like Germany Focus On Graduating Their High School Students With The Equivalent Of A Technical Degree From One Of Our Community Colleges, So That They're Ready For A Job. At Schools Like P-tech In Brooklyn ... Students Will Graduate With A High School Diploma And An Associate Degree In Computers Or Engineering. We Need To Give Every American Student Opportunities Like This.

I Will Stand With Israel If They Are Attacked.

We Need Fathers To Step Up, To Realize That Their Job Does Not End At Conception; That What Makes You A Man Is Not The Ability To Have A Child But The Courage To Raise One.

They Will Tell You That The Americans Who Sleep In The Streets And Beg For Food Got There Because They’re All Lazy Or Weak Of Spirit. That The Inner-city Children Who Are Trapped In Dilapidated Schools Can’t Learn And Won’t Learn And So We Should Just Give Up On Them Entirely. That The Innocent People Being Slaughtered And Expelled From Their Homes Half A World Away Are Somebody Else’s Problem To Take Care Of.

I Kept Finding The Same Anguish, The Same Doubt; A Self-contempt That Neither Irony Nor Intellect Seemed Able To Deflect. Even Dubois’s Learning And Baldwin’s Love And Langston’s Humor Eventually Succumbed To Its Corrosive Force, Each Man Finally Forced To Doubt Art’s Redemptive Power, Each Man Finally Forced To Withdraw, One To Africa, One To Europe, One Deeper Into The Bowels Of Harlem, But All Of Them In The Same Weary Flight, All Of Them Exhausted, Bitter Men, The Devil At Their Heels.

Even As We Implement The Nuclear Deal And Welcome Our Americans Home, We Recognize That There Remain About Differences Between The United States And Iran. We Remain Steadfast In Opposing Iran's Destabilizing Behavior Elsewhere, Including Its Against Israel And Our Gulf Partners And Its Support For Violent Proxies In Places Like Syria And Yemen.

To Look At The Issue Of Life And Abortion, Actually We're Moving In That Direction Where Most Americans Oppose Most Abortions.

I Don't Want To Make Decisions About What I'm Eating Or Wearing. Because I Have Too Many Other Decisions To Make.

When You Start Just Focusing Exclusively On Trying To Tear The Other Person Down Instead Of What You Are Going To Do On Behalf Of The American People To Deal With This Economy, Then That's Not Serving Democrats, That's Not Serving Republicans, That's Not Serving Anybody.

The Notion That We Would Condition Iran Not Getting Nuclear Weapons In A Verifiable Deal On Iran Recognizing Israel Is Really Akin To Saying That We Won't Sign A Deal Unless The Nature Of The Iranian Regime Completely Transforms. And That Is, I Think, A Fundamental Misjudgment.

Lieutenant Al-kaseasbeh's Dedication, Courage And Service To His Country And Family Represent Universal Human Values That Stand In Opposition To The Cowardice And Depravity Of Isil, Which Has Been So Broadly Rejected Around The Globe.

Let's Take Our Clothes Off And Party

We Are Going Through Historic Times, And My Vision Is A World, First Of All, In Which America Continues To Be That One Indispensable Nation. Because We're Taking Care Of Our Own People, Because Our Economy Is Strong And Our Middle Class Is Growing, And People Feel Like Hard Work Is Rewarded, And We Are Continuing To Expand Opportunity And Diversity And Tolerance And Respect.

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

Do Something, Congress. Do Anything.

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.

Women Deserve Equal Pay For Equal Work.

Their [the Evangelicals'] Success Also Points To A Hunger For The Product They Are Selling, A Hunger That Goes Beyond Any Particular Issue Or Cause... They Need An Assurance That Somebody Out There Cares About Them, Is Listening To Them.

I Think We've Done A Pretty Good Job Staying In Touch With The American People. But At A Certain Point You Can't Help But Lose Some Feel For What's On The Ground Because You're Not On The Ground.

Marco Rubio Is One Of Those People. How Does That Work? How Can You Call Him A Con Artist And Dangerous, And Object To All The Controversial Things He Says, And Then Say, But I`m Still Going To Vote For Him? Come On, Man.

If We Are Truly Created Equal Than Truly The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well, This Ruling Will Strengthen All Of Our Communities By Offering To All Same Sex Couples The Dignity Of Marriage Across This Great Land.

The Democrats Should Not Waiver On Our Core Beliefs And Principles.

At The Constitutional Level, What We Of Course Have Assured Is That Women Have The Ability To Make These Reproductive Decisions Up To The Point Of Viability.

What Is True In The South Is True For America.

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

When, You Know, I'm Busy And Nancy Pelosi Is Busy With Our Mop Cleaning Up Somebody Else's Mess - We Don't Want Somebody Sitting Back Saying, You're Not Holding The Mop The Right Way. Why Don't You Grab A Mop, Why Don't You Help Clean Up. You're Not Mopping Fast Enough. That's A Socialist Mop. Grab A Mop - Let's Get To Work.

For The Palestinians' Efforts To Delegitimize Israel Will End In Failure. Palestinian Leaders Will Not Achieve Peace Or Prosperity If Hamas Insists On A Path Of Terror And Rejection. And Palestinians Will Never Realize Their Independence By Denying The Right Of Israel To Exist.

We're Going To Achieve Our Goal. We Are Going To Degrade And Ultimately Defeat Isil.

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

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

There's Something About These Steps [in Oval Office] And Thinking About Everybody Who's Walked Here And All The Business That's Been Done Here.

In The Midst Of Economic Recovery And Global Upheaval, Disasters Like This Remind Us Of The Common Humanity That We Share.

Common Humanity

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.

The American People Intuitively Understand This, Which Is Why The Majority Of Catholics Practice Birth Control And Some Of Those Opposed To Gay Marriage Nevertheless Are Opposed To A Constitutional Amendment To Ban It. Religious Leadership Need Not Accept Such Wisdom In Counseling Their Flocks, But They Should Recognize This Wisdom In Their Politics.

I Didn't Set A Red Line, The World Set A Red Line

Now, Today, Some Children Are Enrolled In Excellent Programs. Some Children Are Enrolled In Mediocre Programs. And Some Are Wasting Away Their Most Formative Years In Bad Programs....that's Why I'm Issuing A Challenge To Our States: Develop A Cutting-edge Plan To Raise The Quality Of Your Early Learning Programs; Show Us How You'll Work To Ensure That Children Are Better Prepared For Success By The Time They Enter Kindergarten. If You Do, We Will Support You With An Early Learning Challenge Grant That I Call On Congress To Enact.

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

We [usa] Don't Have Diplomatic Leverage To Eliminate Every Vestige Of A Peaceful Nuclear Program In Iran. What We Do Have The Leverage To Do Is To Make Sure That They Don't Have A Weapon.

A Budget Is More Than Just A Series Of Numbers On A Page; It Is An Embodiment Of Our Values.

It's Important To Listen To What Scientists Have To Say, Even When It's Inconvenient, Especially When It's Inconvenient

What I Consistently Say To Young People - I Say It In The United States, But I'll Say It Here In Germany And Across Europe: Do Not Take For Granted Our Systems Of Government And Our Way Of Life. I Think There Is A Tendency, Because We Have Lived In An Era That Has Been Largely Stable And Peaceful, At Least In Advanced Countries, Where Living Standards Have Generally Gone Up, There Is A Tendency I Think To Assume That That's Always The Case.

I Want To Reduce America's Deficit By Cutting Spending That We Don't Need But Also By Asking The Wealthy To Do A Little Bit More So That We Can Invest In Things Like Research And Technology That Are The Key To A 21st Century Economy.

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

I Just Want To Say That The Only Thing Less Popular Than Putting Money Into Banks Is Putting Money Into The Auto Industry.

It's Not Enough To Celebrate The Ideals That We're Built On, Liberty And Justice And Equality For All. Those Just Can't Be Words On Paper, The Work Of Every Generation Is To Make Those Words Mean Something, Concrete In The Lives Of Our Children. And We Won't Get There As Long As Kids In Baltimore Or Ferguson Or New York Or Appalachia Or The Mississippi Delta Or The Pine Ridge Reservation Believe That Their Lives Are Somehow Worthless.

The Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure. America Has A Debt Problem And A Failure Of Leadership. Americans Deserve Better. I, Therefore, Intend To Oppose The Effort To Increase America's Debt.

The Only Resolution Is For The Aspirations Of Both Sides To Be Met Through Two States, Where Israelis And Palestinians Each Live In Peace And Security. ... Israelis Must Acknowledge That Just As Israel's Right To Exist Cannot Be Denied, Neither Can Palestine's. The United States Does Not Accept The Legitimacy Of Continued Israeli Settlements.

The More We Can Encourage Participation, I Think The Better Off We Are.

The One Thing I've Said To [donald Trump] Directly, And I Would Advise My Republican Friends In Congress And Supporters Around The Country, Is Just Make Sure That, As We Go Forward Certain Norms, Certain Institutional Traditions Don't Get Eroded, Because There's A Reason They're In Place.

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

Here In Europe, I Think That There Are A Lot Of Young People Who Forget The Issues That Were At Stake During The Cold War.

You Know, It's Fashionable Right Now For People To Be Cynical. We Go In Cycles Like This And Right Now A Lot Of People Are Saying, 'oh, America Is Doing Terribly' And 'what Are We Going To Do?'

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.

America Remains The One Indispensable Nation. And The World Needs A Strong America.

One Thing You Learn In This Job [being Us President] Is That Even If Something's Not Your Fault, You're Still Responsible. And That's How It Should Be.

I Think There Are A Lot Of People Who Are Involved In The Tea Party Who Have Very Real And Sincere Concerns About Spending That's Out Of Control Or Generally Philosophically Believe That The Government Should Be Less Involved In Certain Aspects Of American Life Rather Than More Involved. And They Have Every Right And Obligation As Citizens To Be Involved And Engaged In This Process.

There Will Be Setbacks And False Starts. There Are Many Who Won't Agree With Every Decision Or Policy I Make As President. And We Know The Government Can't Solve Every Problem. But I Will Always Be Honest With You About The Challenges We Face. I Will Listen To You, Especially When We Disagree. And, Above All, I Will Ask You To Join In The Work Of Remaking This Nation, The Only Way It's Been Done In America For 221 Years -- Block By Block, Brick By Brick, Calloused Hand By Calloused Hand.

Iran Is Biggest Strategic Beneficiary Of Invasion Of Iraq.

Keep Guns Out Of Inner Cities-but Also Problem Of Morality.

When Any Kind Of Military Action Is Popular It's Because Either There's Been A Very Clear, Direct Threat To Us - 9/11 - Or An Administration Uses Various Hooks To Suggest That American Interests Were Directly Threatened - Like In Panama Or Grenada. And Sometimes, Those Hooks Are More Persuasive Than Others, But Typically, They're Not Put Before Congress.

In Africa, You Often See That The Difference Between A Village Where Everybody Eats And A Village Where People Starve Is Government. One Has A Functioning Government, And The Other Does Not. Which Is Why It Bothers Me When I Hear People Say That Government Is The Enemy. They Don't Understand Its Fundamental Role.

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!"

We Forget Now, But During His Life, Dr. King Wasn't Always Considered A Unifying Figure. Even After Rising To Prominence, Even After Winning The Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King Was Vilified By Many, Denounced As A Rabble Rouser And An Agitator, A Communist And A Radical. He Was Even Attacked By His Own People, By Those Who Felt He Was Going Too Fast Or Those Who Felt He Was Going Too Slow; By Those Who Felt He Shouldn't Meddle In Issues Like The Vietnam War Or The Rights Of Union Workers.

I Am A Christian. So, I Have A Deep Faith. So I Draw From The Christian Faith...so, I'm Rooted In The Christian Tradition. I Believe That There Are Many Paths To The Same Place.

I've Been Keeping My Own Naughty And Nice List For Washington.

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

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.

Lincoln, They Used To Talk About Him Almost As Bad As They Talk About Me. So Democracy Has Never Been For The Faint Of Heart.

Democracies Have

Imagine If You Had Genuine, High-quality Early-childhood Education For Every Child, And Suddenly Every Black Child In America - But Also Every Poor White Child Or Latino [child], But Just Stick With Every Black Child In America - Is Getting A Really Good Education. And They're Graduating From High School At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Going To College At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Able To Afford College At The Same Rates Because The Government Has Universal Programs. So Now They're All Graduating.

Michelle Will Tell You That When We Get Together For Christmas Or Thanksgiving, It's Like A Little Mini-united Nations... I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Bernie Mac, And I've Got Relatives Who Look Like Margaret Thatcher... We've Got It All.

In The United States, If 43 Percent Of Eligible Voters Do Not Vote, Then Democracy Is Weakened.

Beside The Two Wars He Inherited In Iraq And Afghanistan, And Promised To End, A Financial Crisis At Home Had Pushed The United States To The Brink Of Another Great Depression. When We Spoke With The New President In March Of 2009, The Economy Was Losing 800,000 Jobs A Month, The Government Was Throwing Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars At Failing Banks, And The Auto Industry Was On The Verge Of Collapse. Politically Pummeled From All Sides, Obama Did His Best To Keep A Sense Of Humor.

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

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.

Clem (clementa Pinckney) Understood That Justice Grows Out Of Recognition Of Ourselves, In Each Other.

I Believe, In The Words Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., That There Is Such A Thing As Being Too Late, And When It Comes To Climate Change, That Hour Is Almost Upon Us.

I'm Not Denouncing The Church, And I'm Not Interested In People Who Want Me To Denounce The Church. It's Not A Church Worthy Of Denouncing.

We Can Get This Done! Take A Vote, And Send Me That Bill.

One Of The Hardest Things In Politics Is To Convince People To Do Things Now That Will Have A Good Effect 20 Or 30 Years From Now Because Politicians Tend To Have A Short-term View. They Are More Attentive To Things That People Care About Today.

We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change

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.

The Day I'm Inaugurated, This Country Looks At Itself Differently And The World Looks At America Differently. If You Believe That We've Got To Heal America And We've Got To Repair Our Standing In The World, Then I Think My Supporters Believe That I Am A Messenger Who Can Deliver That Message Around The World In A Way That No Other Candidate Can Do.

There Are Patriots Who Opposed The War In Iraq And There Are Patriots Who Supported The War In Iraq. We Are One People, All Of Us Pledging Allegiance To The Stars And Stripes, All Of Us Defending The United States Of America.

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.

If We Have The Kinds Of Confirmation That We Need, We Will Once Again Work With The International Community And The Organization Charged With Monitoring Compliance By The Syrian Government, And We Will Reach Out To Patrons Of Assad Like Russia To Put A Stop To It.

All Across The World, ...increasingly Dangerous Weather Patterns And Devastating Storms Are Abruptly Putting An End To The Long-running Debate Over Whether Or Not Climate Change Is Real. Not Only Is It Real, It's Here, And Its Effects Are Giving Rise To A Frighteningly New Global Phenomenon: The Man-made Natural Disaster.

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.

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.

Change Will Not Come If We Wait For Some Other Person Or Some Other Time. We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For. We Are The Change That We Seek.

We Can Seize This Future Together Because We Are Not As Divided As Our Politics Suggests.

Futures Together

In Indonesia, I Had Spent Two Years At A Muslim School, Two Years At A Catholic School. In The Muslim School, The Teacher Wrote To Tell My Mother That I Made Faces During Koranic Studies.

In Addition To Giving Our Children The Science And Math Skills They Need To Compete In The New Global Context, We Should Also Encourage The Ability To Think Creatively That Comes From A Meaningful Arts Education.

There Are War-torn Countries, People Full Of Poverty, Who Still Voted, 60, 70 Percent. If Here In The United States Of America, We Voted At 60 Percent, 70 Percent, It Would Transform Our Politics.

This Idea That America Is Somehow On The Verge Of Collapse, This Vision Of Violence And Chaos Everywhere, Doesn't Really Jibe With The Experience Of Most People.

Get Informed, Not By Reading The Huffington Post.

I Think It Is Possible For The World To See A Palestinian State - I'm Not Going To Put A Time Frame On It - That Is Contiguous, That Allows Freedom Of Movement For Its People, That Allows For Trade With Other Countries, That Allows The Creation Of Businesses And Commerce So That People Have A Better Life.

There's No Doubt That When It Comes To Our Treatment Of Native Americans As Well As Other Persons Of Color In This Country, We've Got Some Very Sad And Difficult Things To Account For. I Personally Would Want To See Our Tragic History, Or The Tragic Elements Of Our History, Acknowledged. I Consistently Believe That When It Comes To Whether It's Native Americans Or African-american Issues Or Reparations, The Most Important Thing For The U.s. Government To Do Is Not Just Offer Words, But Offer Deeds.

Native American

I Know The American People. I've Met A Lot Of Them. I've Met A Lot More Of Them Than Any Columnist Has, Or Any Talking Head On Tv Has. And They're Pretty Sophisticated.

People In Every Country Should Be Free To Choose And Live Their Faith Based Upon The Persuasion Of The Mind, And The Heart, And The Soul. This Tolerance Is Essential For Religion To Thrive.

Singapore Was The Very First South-east Asian Nation To Join The Global Coalition Against Isil (isis) Coalition, And We'll Work To Sustain Our Momentum In Destroying That Terrorist Organisation.

I Think It Is Important First Of All That The President Of The United States Underscores Our Commitment To Partnering With Countries Around The World, Even Though We're Not Intimidated By Terrorist Organisations.

America Is Not The Crude Stereotype Of A Self-interested Empire. Given Our Interdependence, Any World Order That Elevates One Nation Or Group Of People Over Another Will Inevitably Fail.

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

And If We Walk Away Now, If We Simply Retreat Into Our Respective Corners, We Will Never Be Able To Come Together And Solve Challenges Like Health Care, Or Education, Or The Need To Find Good Jobs For Every American.

He Described To Me How Crocodiles Kill More People Than Sharks. There Are Just A Lot Of Things In Australia That Can Kill You.

Those Aren't The Kinds Of Folks Who Represent Our Core American Values.

American Values

The Point I Was Making Was Not That Grandmother Harbors Any Racial Animosity. She Doesn't. But She Is A Typical White Person.

Cutting The Deficit By Gutting Our Investments In Innovation And Education Is Like Lightening An Overloaded Airplane By Removing Its Engine. It May Make You Feel Like You're Flying High At First, But It Won't Take Long Before You Feel The Impact.

Angela Merkel Has Been An Extraordinary Partner For Me And For The United States Throughout My Presidency.

Each And Every Time, A New Generation Has Risen Up And Done What’s Needed To Be Done. Today We Are Called Once More — And It Is Time For Our Generation To Answer That Call. For That Is Our Unyielding Faith — That In The Face Of Impossible Odds, People Who Love Their Country Can Change It.

I Am Somebody Who Usually Writes Out The Rough Draft In Longhand. Then I Type It Into The Computer, And That Is Where I Do My Editing. I Find That If I Write It On The Computer, I Go Too Quick. So I Like Getting That First Draft Out And Then Typing It In; You Are Less Self-conscious About It.

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

We'll Build New Ties Of Trade And Of Commerce, Culture And Education That Unleash The Potential Of The Iraqi People.

Internationally, I Have Obviously Been Deeply Concerned About How We Fight The Terrorist Threat.

I've Made It Clear For Years That The Threat From Iran Is Grave.

We've Seen How Militarized Gear Can Sometimes Give People A Feeling Like There's An Occupying Force, As Opposed To A Force That's Part Of The Community That's Protecting Them And Serving Them.

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.

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

I Think We Should All Hope For A Russia That Is Successful, Where Its People Are Employed And The Economy Is Growing And They Are Having Good Relationships With Their Neighbors.

We Need Somebody Who's Got The Heart, The Empathy, To Recognize What It's Like To Be A Young Teenage Mom, The Empathy To Understand What It's Like To Be Poor Or African-american Or Gay Or Disabled Or Old - And That's The Criterion By Which I'll Be Selecting My Judges.

We May Have Different Backgrounds, But We Believe In The Same Dream That Says This Is A Country Where Anything's Possible. No Matter Who You Are. No Matter Where You Come From.

What We Want Is For People To Know That You Can Get Affordable Health Care And Most Young Americans, They're Not Covered And The Truth Is They Can Get Coverage All For What It Costs To Pay Your Cell Phone Bill.

The World Doesn't Just Revolve Around You. There's A Lot Of Talk In This Country About The Federal Deficit. But I Think We Should Talk More About Our Empathy Deficit.

When We Succeed, We Succeed Because Of Our Individual Initiative, But Also Because We Do Things Together.

We've Got To Make Sure That We Rebuild The Infrastructure In America, Because We Used To Be - Have The Best Bridges, The Best Roads, The Best Airports. And Now, When You Go To China Or You Go To Europe, You See That They Are Outstripping Us In Terms Of Infrastructure. And If We Put People Back To Work, That Would Be Good Not Only In The Short Term, But It Would Also Lay The Foundation, The Framework For Long-term Economic And Job Growth.

I Am A Little Jet Lagged From My Trip To Malaysia...the Lengths We Have To Go To To Get Cnn Coverage These Days.

What I Want To Communicate Is The Fact That In All My Travels Throughout The Muslim World, What I've Come To Understand Is That Regardless Of Your Faith - And America Is A Country Of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Non-believers - Regardless Of Your Faith, People All Have Certain Common Hopes And Common Dreams.

I Don't Regret At All Saying That If I Saw Bashar Al-assad Using Chemical Weapons On His People That That Would Change My Assessments In Terms Of What We Were Or Were Not Willing To Do In Syria.

Our Nation Owes A Debt To Its Fallen Heroes That We Can Never Fully Repay, But We Can Honor Their Sacrifice.

I Think That The Fda Has Not Been Able To Catch Some Of These Things As Quickly As I Expect Them To Catch And So We’re Going To Be Doing A Complete Review Of Fda Operations. At Bare Minimum, We Should Be Able To Count On Our Government Keeping Our Kids Safe When They Eat Peanut Butter. That’s What Sasha Eats For Lunch. Probably Three Times A Week...

In Order For Us To Compete With China, We've Also Got To Make Sure, Though, That We're Taking - Taking Care Of Business Here At Home. If We Don't Have The Best Education System In The World, If We Don't Continue To Put Money Into Research And Technology That Will Allow Us To Create Great Businesses Here In The United States, That's How We Lose The Competition.

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.

We Remain A Young Nation, But In The Words Of Scripture, The Time Has Come To Set Aside Childish Things. The Time Has Come To Reaffirm Our Enduring Spirit; To Choose Our Better History; To Carry Forward That Precious Gift, That Noble Idea, Passed On From Generation To Generation: The God-given Promise That All Are Equal, All Are Free, And All Deserve A Chance To Pursue Their Full Measure Of Happiness.

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

In Texas, We Hold Very Dear To Intrusions Against Our Personal Liberty. We Fight Very Hard Against That.

Ultimately, Only Diplomacy Can Bring About A Durable Solution To The Challenge Posed By Iran's Nuclear Program. As President And Commander In Chief, I Will Do What Is Necessary To Prevent Iran From Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon. However, I Have A Profound Responsibility To Try To Resolve Our Differences Peacefully, Rather Than Rush Towards Conflict.

No Other Country In The World Does What We Do. On Every Issue, The World Turns To Us, Not Simply Because Of The Size Of Our Economy Or Our Military Might - But Because Of The Ideals We Stand For, And The Burdens We Bear To Advance Them.

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

The Problem Is That, Over Time, Big Pieces Of Business That Have To Get Done Without Leadership From Washington, Don't Get Done.

American Values And Legal Traditions Do Not Permit The Indefinite Detention Of People Beyond Our Borders.

Peace Is Far More Preferable To War. [...] I Believe That Peace Is The Only Path To True Security. [...] And There Is No Question That The Only Path To Peace Is Through Negotiations .

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.

True Leadership Will Not Be Measured By The Ability To Muzzle Dissent, Or To Intimidate And Harass Political Opponents At Home. The People Of The World Want Change. They Will Not Long Tolerate Those Who Are On The Wrong Side Of History.

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.

Iran Has Agreed To Deepen Our Coordination As We Work To Locate Robert Levinson, Missing From Iran For More Than Eight Years. Even As We Rejoice In The Safe Return Of Others, We Will Never Forget About Bob. Each And Every Day Our Hearts Are With The Levinson Family, And We Will Not Rest Until Their Family Is Whole Again.

Above All, Our Freedom Endures Because Of The Men And Women In Uniform Who Defend It.

I Was Raised By A Single Mom Who Had To Put Herself Through School While Looking After Two Kids. And She Worked Hard Every Day And Made A Lot Of Sacrifices To Make Sure We Got Everything We Needed. My Grandmother, She Started Off As A Secretary In A Bank. She Never Got A College Education, Even Though She Was Smart As A Whip. And She Worked Her Way Up To Become A Vice President Of A Local Bank, But She Hit The Glass Ceiling. She Trained People Who Would End Up Becoming Her Bosses During The Course Of Her Career.

We Have To Have Better Intelligence. We Have To Have Better Interdiction Capabilities. And So The Issue Is Not How Much We Spend Or How Hard We Try; The Issue Is Are We Doing It The Right Way? Are We Being Smart About It?

One Of The Things I Think We Have To Do Is Make Sure That College Is Affordable For Every Young Person In America. And I Also Think That We're Going To Have To Rebuild Our Infrastructure, Which Is Falling Behind, Our Roads, Our Bridges, But Also Broadband Lines That Reach Into Rural Communities. So There Are Some Things That We've Got To Do Structurally To Make Sure That We Can Compete In This Global Economy. We Can't Shortchange Those Things. We've Got To Eliminate Programs That Don't Work, And We've Got To Make Sure That The Programs That We Do Have Are More Efficient And Cost Less.

So Americans Understand The Costs Of War. Yet As A Country, We Will Never Tolerate Our Security Being Threatened, Nor Stand Idly By When Our People Have Been Killed. We Will Be Relentless In Defense Of Our Citizens And Our Friends And Allies. We Will Be True To The Values That Make Us Who We Are.

If We're Going To Prevent People From Being Susceptible To The False Promises Of Extremism, Then The International Community Has To Offer Something Better And The United States Intends To Do Its Part.

These Are Young People Who Made Mistakes That Aren't That Different Than The Mistakes I Made And The Mistakes That A Lot Of You Guys Made, We Have A Tendency Sometimes To Almost Take For Granted Or Think It's Normal That So Many Young People End Up In Our Criminal Justice System. It's Not Normal. ... What Is Normal Is Teenagers Doing Stupid Things.

Obviously, We've All Had Disagreements And Differences In The Past. I Suspect We'll Have Them Again In The Future. But Last Night As Americans Learned That The United States Had Carried Out An Operation That Resulted In The Capture And Death Of Osama Bin Laden. I Think We Experienced The Same Sense Of Unity That Prevailed On 9/11. We Were Reminded Again That There Is A Pride In What This Nation Stands For. And What We Can Achieve That Runs Far Deeper Than Party, Far Deeper Than Politics.

Does That Mean That All Vestiges Of Past Discrimination Would Be Eliminated, That The Income Gap Or The Wealth Gap Or The Education Gap [between Afro-americans And White] Would Be Erased In Five Years Or 10 Years? Probably Not, And So This Is Obviously A Discussion We've Had Before When You Talk About Something Like Reparations.

Rather Than Double-down On The Top-down Economics That Let A Fortunate Few Play By Their Own Rules, Let’s Embrace An Economic Patriotism That Says We Rise Or Fall Together, As One Nation, And As One People.

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.

My Little Girls Can Break My Heart. They Can Make Me Cry Just Looking At Them Eating Their String Beans.

The Hard Truth Is Carbon Pollution Has Built Up In Our Atmosphere For Decades Now. And Even If We Americans Do Our Part, The Planet Will Slowly Keep Warming For Some Time To Come.

Look At Chancellor [angela] Merkel, Her Personal Story Helps To Tell A Story Of Incredible Achievement That The German People Have Embarked On And I Think Is Something That You Should Be Very Proud Of.

Cutting Benefits Is Not The Right Answer. Raising The Retirement Age Is Not The Best Option.

The Role Of Government Has Never Been To Plan Every Detail Or Dictate Every Outcome. At Its Best, Government Has Simply Knocked Away Barriers To Opportunity And Laid The Foundation For A Better Future. Our People -- With All Their Drive And Ingenuity -- Always End Up Building The Rest. And If We Can Do That Again -- If We Can Continue Building That Foundation And Making Those Hard Decisions On Behalf Of The Next Generation -- I Have No Doubt That We Will Leave Our Children The America That We All Hope For.

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."

If You Looked At Their Cable Bill, Their Telephone, Their Cell Phone Bill, Other Things They're Spending Money On, It May Turn Out That, It's Just That They Haven't Prioritized Health Care.

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

There Are Certain People In Our Popular Culture That Just Capture People's Imaginations. And In Death, They Become Even Larger. Now, I Have To Admit That It's Also Fed By A 24/7 Media That Is Insatiable.

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.

Our Job Is Not To Ask That God Respond To Our Notion Of Truth. Our Job Is To Be True To Him, Hi-his Word And His Commandments, And We Should Assume Humbly That We're Confused And Don't Always Know What We're Doin' And We're Staggerin' And Stumblin' Towards Him And Have Some Humility In That Process.

For The Sake Of Our Children And Our Future, We Must Do More To Combat Climate Change.

The Shadow Of Crisis Has Passed, And The State Of The Union Is Strong.

All I Care About Is Making Sure That I Leave Behind An America That Is Stronger, More Prosperous, More Stable, More Secure Than It Was When I Came Into Office And That's Going To Continue To Drive Me.

I Believe That The Starting Point Of Faith Is Some Doubt, Not Bein' So Full Of Yourself And So Confident That You Are Right And That God Speaks Only To Us And Doesn't Speak To Others, That God Only Cares About Us And Doesn't Care About Others.

The Map Isn't Always The Territory, And You Have To Kind Of Walk Through It To Get A Feel For It.

We Are On Alert 24/7. And Everything That You Report Will Be Investigated. We Do It In Private. We Do It Covertly. This Could Be A Problem, It Could Simply Be Your Neighbor Having A Bad Day. But Better Be Safe Than Sorry.

That's What Building A Body Of Work Is All About. It's About The Daily Labor, The Many Individual Acts, The Choices Large And Small That Add Up Over Time, Over A Lifetime To A Lasting Legacy. It's About Not Being Satisfied With The Latest Achievement, The Latest Gold Star, Because The One Thing I Know About A Body Of Work Is That It's Never Finished. It's Cumulative. It Deepens And Expands With Each Day You Give Your Best. You May Have Setbacks And You May Have Failures, But You're Not Done.

I Became A Lightning Rod For Some Partisan Battles. I Could Not Be Prouder Of The Track Record We've Put Together. By Almost Every Measure, The Country Is Significantly Better Off Than When I Came In.

We're Leaving Behind A Sovereign, Stable And Self-reliant Iraq With A Representative Government That Was Elected By Its People. We're Building A New Partnership Between Our Nations And We Are Ending A War Not With A Final Battle But With A Final March Toward Home. This Is An Extraordinary Achievement

I Am Going To Be Able To Present To The Incoming Administration A Country That Is Stronger. A Federal Government That Is Working Better And More Efficiently. A National Security Apparatus That Is Both More Effective And Truer To Our Values. Energy Policies That Are Resulting In Not Just Less Pollution, But Also More Jobs.

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

I Attend Trinity United Church Of Christ, And My Pastor [was] Jeremiah Wright.

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

If You Were Successful, Somebody Along The Line Gave You Some Help... Somebody Helped To Create This Unbelievable American System That We Have That Allowed You To Thrive. Somebody Invested In Roads And Bridges. If You’ve Got A Business - You Didn’t Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen.

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

The Quicker You Resolve The Problems With Banks And There's Transparency In That Process, The Faster They Recapitalize And Are Able To Make Investments.

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