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The Campaign Was A More Significant Training Ground Than I Think People Give It Credit For. By The Time I Got Here, I Think I Had A Pretty Good Sense Of What Was Required. But The Circumstances In Which I Came In Were Different Than Most Executives, Right? The Enterprise Was In The Midst Of A Major Crisis.

-Barack Obama

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The Campaign Was A

Barack Obama

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The Campaign Was A More Significant Training Ground Than I Think People Give It Credit For. By The Time I Got Here, I Think I Had A Pretty Good Sense Of What Was Required. But The Circumstances In Which I Came In Were Different Than Most Executives, Right? The Enterprise Was In The Midst Of A Major Crisis.

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You Know, I Have More Than Enough To Do Without Having To Worry About The Financial System.

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.

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

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

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.

Common Humanity

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

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

No Country Can Hide From The Dangers Of Carbon Pollution

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

Although We May Come From Vastly Different Stories And Very Different Walks Of Life, We Are One People Who Possess Common Values And Common Ideals; Who Celebrate Individual Excellence But Also Share A Recognition That Together, We Can Accomplish Great And Wonderful Things We Can't Accomplish Alone.

Together We Can

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.

Guaranteed, Full Stop, Nobody Gets Treated Differently When It Comes To The Justice Department, Because Nobody Is Above The Law.

Independent Economists Say Immigration Reform Will Grow Our Economy And Shrink Our Deficits By Almost $1 Trillion In The Next Two Decades. And For Good Reason: When People Come Here To Fulfill Their Dreams - To Study, Invent, And Contribute To Our Culture - They Make Our Country A More Attractive Place For Businesses To Locate And Create Jobs For Everyone. So Let's Get Immigration Reform Done This Year.

[t]hese Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans Are Also The Tax Cuts That Are Least Likely To Promote Growth.

If We're Not There Making The Argument Then The Cultural Gulf That Republicans Try To Exploit Saying, "ah, These City Slickers: They're All Looking Down On You, They Don't Care About You. They're Just Trying To Help Out Their Various Special Interest Constituencies," That Argument Ends Up Being Successful.

I Think What You're Seeing Is A Profound Recognition On The Part Of The American People That Gays And Lesbians And Transgender Persons Are Our Brothers, Our Sisters, Our Children, Our Cousins, Our Friends, Our Co-workers, And That They've Got To Be Treated Like Every Other American. And I Think That Principle Will Win Out.

I Think A Lot Of Teachers Want To Talk About How To Continually Improve Performance.

We've Got To Make Sure That Teachers Are Respected, That They Are Rewarded, That Young People Like Yourself Who Have Talent And Want To Work With People, That You're Able To Support Yourself And Live Out A Great Life Being A Teacher.

As The Wealthiest Nation On Earth, I Believe The United States Has A Moral Obligation To Lead The Fight Against Hunger And Malnutrition, And To Partner With Others.

Hunger And Poverty

I Think The American People Recognize That The World Has Shrunk. That It's Interconnected. That You're Not Going To Put That Genie Back In The Bottle.

My Goal Is Not To Resolve Conflicts And Tensions In The Region Through More War. My Goal Is To Make Sure That, You Know, We Are Able To Negotiate A Deal That We Can Verify.

Leaving The Broken System The Way It Is, That`s Not A Solution.

I Believe Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman. I Am Not In Favor Of Gay Marriage. But When You Start Playing Around With Constitutions, Just To Prohibit Somebody Who Cares About Another Person, It Just Seems To Me That's Not What America's About. Usually, Our Constitutions Expand Liberties, They Don't Contract Them.

Our Intelligence Agencies Will Continue To Gather Information About The Intentions Of Governments - As Opposed To Ordinary Citizens - Around The World, In The Same Way That The Intelligence Services Of Every Other Nation Does. We Will Not Apologize Simply Because Our Services May Be More Effective.

Part Of What We Have To Do A Better Job Of, If Our Democracy Is To Function In A Complicated Diverse Society Like This, Is To Teach Our Kids Enough Critical Thinking To Be Able To Sort Out What Is True And What Is False, What Is Contestable And What Is Incontestable. And We Seem To Have Trouble With That. And Our Political System Doesn't Help.

I Have 90 Percent Or 95 Percent Support In The African American Community And It's Not Sort Of "well, He's Black, So It's Okay. We're Not Going To Say Anything Even Though We're Seething." And I Hang Out With A Lot Of Middle-aged Black Women, And They're Not Casual In Their Support Of Me. There's A Lot Of Love Forthcoming. Partly Because They Understand The Constraints Of This Society. They Know That This Is Hard.

African American

We Should Raise The Minimum Wage So That No One Who Works Full Time Has To Live In Poverty

I've Said Consistently That I Always Reserve The Right, In Conjunction With A Broader International Effort, To Prevent Genocide Or Any Wholesale Slaughter Than Might Happen Inside Of Iraq Or Anyplace Else.

There's No Straight Line To Progress.

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

I Don't Believe That The American People Want Us To Focus On Our Job Security. They Want Us To Focus On Their Job Security. I Don't Think They Want More Gridlock. I Don't Think They Want More Partisanship. I Don't Think They Want More Obstruction. They Didn't Send Us To Washington To Fight Each Other In Some Sort Of Political Steel-cage Match To See Who Comes Out Alive. That's Not What They Want. They Sent Us To Washington To Work Together, To Get Things Done, And To Solve The Problems That They're Grappling With Every Single Day.

We Are Convinced, As Some Of You May Be Convinced, That Changing The Way We Produce And Use Energy Is Essential To America's Economic Future, That It Will Create Millions Of New Jobs, Power New Industries, Keep Us Competitive, And Spark New Innovation.

For Me, Personally, The Most Difficult Moments Had To Do With Not Just Terrorist Attacks, But Also Shootings.

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.

I Don't Have Time To Complain. I'm Going To Press On.

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.

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

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.

The President Of The United States Is Supposed To Lead The Free World And Not Follow It. Other Nations Have Been More Outspoken. So, I Hope That We'll Hear More Of This Because Young Men And Women Taking To The Streets In Tehran Need Our Support. The Signs Are In English. They're Basically Asking For Us To Speak Up On Their Behalf.

As An Elected Official Who Comes From The African-american Community, There Are Some Similarities. You Are Always Trying To Reconcile Your Own Personal Biography And Affiliations With The Demands Of The Broader Democracy. And You Need To Make Sure You Are Representing Everybody.

African American

The Public School System Is Not About Educating Black Children. Never Has Been. Inner-city Schools Are About Social Control. Period. They’re Operated As Holding Pens—miniature Jails, Really. It’s Only When Black Children Start Breaking Out Of Their Pens And Bothering White People That Society Even Pays Any Attention To The Issue Of Whether These Children Are Being Educated.

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'm Very Consistent About Spending Time With Family. And When You Have Dinner With Your Daughters - They'll Keep You In Your Place And They'll Teach You Something About Perspective.

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

Our Campaign Was Not Hatched In The Halls Of Washington -- It Began In The Backyards Of Des Moines And The Living Rooms Of Concord And The Front Porches Of Charleston. ...this Is Your Victory.

We Will Encourage More Americans To Study In Muslim Communities

Rather Than Pointing Fingers Or Assigning Blame, Let’s Use This Occasion To Expand Our Moral Imaginations, To Listen To Each Other More Carefully, To Sharpen Our Instincts For Empathy And Remind Ourselves Of All The Ways That Our Hopes And Dreams Are Bound Together.

A Child's Course In Life Should Be Determined Not By The Zip Code She's Born In, But By The Strength Of Her Work Ethic And The Scope Of Her Dreams.

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.

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

I Am Designating A New Director Of Recovery For Auto Communities And Workers To Cut Through Red Tape And Ensure That The Full Resources Of Our Federal Government Are Leveraged To Assist The Workers, Communities, And Regions That Rely On Our Auto Industry.

At Some Fundamental Level, Religion Does Not Allow For Compromise. It Insists On The Impossible. If God Has Spoken, Then Followers Are Expected To Live Up To God's Edicts, Regardless Of The Consequences. To Base One's Life On Such Uncompromising Commitment May Be Sublime; To Base Our Policy Making On Such Commitments Would Be A Dangerous Thing.

There's A Little Perspiration Involved In Bringing About Change Too.

On Memorial Day We Come Together As Americans To Let These Families And Veterans Know That They Are Not Alone. We Give Thanks For Those Who Sacrificed Everything So That We Could Be Free. And We Commit Ourselves To Upholding The Ideals For Which So Many Patriots Have Fought And Died.

Sustaining The Energy And Focus Involved In Doing A Good Job I Think Starts To - Starts To Gets Tougher The Longer You Do It.

I Do Not Believe Being Gay Or Lesbian Is A Choice.

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

It Is That Promise That Has Always Set This Country Apart-that Through Hard Work And Sacrifice, Each Of Us Can Pursue Our Individual Dreams But Still Come Together As One American Family, To Ensure That The Next Generation Can Pursue Their Dreams As Well.

I Love Listening To These Guys Give Us Lectures About Debt And Deficits. I Inherited A Trillion-dollar Deficit. ... This Notion That Somehow We Caused The Deficits Is Just Wrong. It's Just Not True. ... If They Start Trying To Give You A Bunch Of Facts And Figures Suggesting That It's True, What They're Not Telling You Is They Baked All This Stuff Into The Cake With Those Tax Cuts And A Prescription Drug Plan That They Didn't Pay For And The Wars.

We Consume About 25 Percent Of The World's Oil. We Only Have 2 Percent Of The Reserves.

It Could Be Another Election Where The Alignments Between Republicans And Democrats Are Different Than They Were This Time And Who A Foreign Country Prefers.

We Don't Have Time For A Meeting Of The Flat Earth Society.

You Know, The Truth Is That Right After 9/11, I Had A (flag) Pin. Shortly After 9/11, Particularly Because As We're Talking About The Iraq War, That Became A Substitute For, I Think, True Patriotism, Which Is Speaking Out On Issues That Are Of Importance To Our National Security, I Decided I Won't Wear That Pin On My Chest.

The Alternative, No Limits On Iran's Nuclear Program, No Inspections, An Iran That's Closer To A Nuclear Weapon, The Risk Of Regional Nuclear Arms Race, And The Greater Risk Of War - All That Would Endanger Our [american] Security.

I Am Living Testimony To The Moral Force Of Non-violence. I Know There's Nothing Weak - Nothing Passive - Nothing Naïve - In The Creed And Lives Of Gandhi And King.

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.

In The Face Of Impossible Odds, People Who Love This Country Can Change It.

You Not Only Do You Appreciate The Sacrifices People Have Made And The Hours They've Kept And The Soccer Games They Missed And The Birthday Parties, But I Also Had A Lot Of Young People Who Came In Here [to White House], And This Probably, You Know, Echoes With You, In Your Own Experience, You Were Young When You Got Here.

A Free Market Was Never Meant To Be A Free Licence To Take Whatever You Can Get, However You Can Get It.

The Problem Is That Young People Are Less Likely To Vote Than Older People. What Results Is A Situation In Which Sometimes The Elections Don't Fully Reflect The Views Of The American Population.

People Who Have Health Insurance Are Benefiting In All Sorts Of Ways That They May Not Be Aware Of, Everything From No Longer Having Lifetime Limits On The Claims That They Can Make To Seniors Getting Prescription Drug Discounts Under Medicare To Free Mammograms.

Hunger, Disease And Poverty Can Lead To Global Instability And Leave A Vacuum For Extremism To Fill. So Instead Of Just Managing Poverty, We Must Offer Nations And People A Pathway Out Of Poverty. And As President I've Made Development A Pillar Of Our Foreign Policy, Alongside Diplomacy And Defense.

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

There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around. I Think The Problem Here Is That In Our School Systems, And To Some Degree - And This Is Where It Is Relevant - With School Boards Around The Country That Are Mandating Curriculums And Textbooks, You Start Seeing This Weird Watering Down Of Scientific Fact So That Our Kids Are Growing Up In An Environment - And This Connects To What I Was Saying Earlier Abou The Media - Where Everything's Contested. Where Nothing Is True.

No Matter How Much You've Done, Or How Successful You've Been, There's Always More To Do, Always More To Learn, And Always More To Achieve.

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.

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.

As I Travel Around The World, It's Fascinating; European Leaders, Asian Leaders, They All Say To Me, America Is Actually Poised To Be The World Leader For Another Century - If We Can Fix Some Of This Political Dysfunction. ... We've Got A Lot Of National Security Challenges, But If We Get Our Economy Together, And If We Can Get Our Political System To Work Well, I Am Really Confident About Our Future.

Black Churches Minister To Social Needs Out Of Necessity.

A Lot Of Shelter Dogs Are Mutts Like Me.

I Don't Want To Make Promises, Not Knowing What The Situation's Going To Be Three Or Four Years Out.

America, This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time. Our Time To Turn The Page Of The Policies Of The Past.

Senator Joe Biden Is Pretty Clean And Articulate For A White Guy.

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

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

This Victory Alone Is Not The Change We Seek; It Is Only The Chance For Us To Make That Change.

We Will Outstretch The Hand If You Unclench Your Fist.

Across The Globe There Are Girls Who Will One Day Lead Nations, If Only We Afford Them The Chance To Choose Their Own Destinies.

The Window Is Closing.

On Behalf Of The American People, Just Let Me Say That We Are Proud To Count Greece As One Of Our Closest Allies And One Of Our Greatest Friends.

This Is Our First Task-caring For Our Children. It's Our First Job. If We Don't Get That Right, We Don't Get Anything Right. That's How, As A Society, We Will Be Judged.

It's One Of The Biggest Benefits Of Being President That You Really Don't Think About Until You Get Here.

So, Let Us Summon A New Spirit Of Patriotism, Of Responsibility, Where Each Of Us Resolves To Pitch In And Work Harder And Look Over Not Only Ourselves, But Each Other.

Occasionally I Would Like The German People To Give Us The Benefit Of The Doubt, Given Our History, As Opposed To Assuming The Worst -- Assuming That We Have Been Consistently Your Strong Partners And That We Share A Common Set Of Values.

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.

But While They're Adding Teachers In Places Like South Korea, We're Laying Them Off In Droves. It's Unfair To Our Kids. It Undermines Their Future And Ours. And It Has To Stop. Pass This Bill, And Put Our Teachers Back In The Classroom Where They Belong.

Iraq Will Require Us Occupation Of Undetermined Length.

Our Enemies Are Also Seeking The Abilities To Sabotage Our Power Grid, Our Financial Institutions, Our Air Traffic Control Systems.

I Know My Country Has Not Perfected Itself. At Times, We've Struggled To Keep The Promise Of Liberty And Equality For All Of Our People. We've Made Our Share Of Mistakes, And There Are Times When Our Actions Around The World Have Not Lived Up To Our Best Intentions.

Certainly I've Appreciated Angela Merkel As A Partner.

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

We Have Greater Awareness Of Where We're Falling Short Than We Used To. Just Take The Example Of Community Police Relations.

Most Americans Believe That Escalation Will Not Bring The War In Iraq To A Responsible End, And That's Why I've Proposed Not Just A Troop Cap, But A Phased Redeployment That Will Start Bringing Our Troops Home.

We Should Never Hesitate To Use Military Force, And I Will Not, As President, In Order To Keep The American People Safe. But We Have To Use Our Military Wisely. And We Did Not Use Our Military Wisely In Iraq.

The Idea Of America Endures. Our Destiny Remains Our Choice. And Tonight, More Than Two Centuries Later, It Is Because Of Our People That Our Future Is Hopeful, Our Journey Goes Forward, And The State Of Our Union Is Strong.

Both Of Our Nations [america And Germany] Were Proud To Join The Paris Climate Agreement Which The World Should Work To Implement Quickly. Continued Global Leadership On Climate In Addition To Increasing Private Investment And Clean Energy Is Gonna Be Critical To Meeting This Growing Threat.

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.

In The Wealthiest Nation On Earth – No Illness Or Accident Should Lead To Any Family’s Financial Ruin.

Our Government Shouldn't Make Promises We Cannot Keep, But We Must Keep The Promises We've Already Made.

Find Somebody To Be Successful For. Raise Their Hopes. Rise To Their Needs.

Americans Have Always Pursued Our Dreams Within A Free Market That Has Been The Engine Of Our Progress. It's A Market That Has Created A Prosperity That Is The Envy Of The World, And Rewarded The Innovators And Risk-takers Who Have Made America A Beacon Of Science, And Technology, And Discovery. But The American Economy Has Worked In Large Part Because We Have Guided The Market's Invisible Hand With A Higher Principle - That America Prospers When All Americans Can Prosper. That Is Why We Have Put In Place Rules Of The Road To Make Competition Fair, And Open, And Honest.

There Are Dangers That Globalization Increases Inequality. There Are Dangers That Because Capital Is Mobile And Workers Are Not, If We Are Not Providing Them Sufficient Protection, That They Can Be Left Behind In This Process. And That's What We Have To Focus On.

Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others To Live By Your Own Beliefs

I Said That America’s Role Would Be Limited; That We Would Not Put Ground Troops Into Libya; That We Would Focus Our Unique Capabilities On The Front End Of The Operation And That We Would Transfer Responsibility To Our Allies And Partners.

In A World Of Complex Threats, Our Security And Leadership Depends On All Elements Of Our Power - Including Strong And Principled Diplomacy.

We Cannot Have A Society In Which Some Dictator Some Place Can Start Imposing Censorship Here In The United States. If Somebody Is Able To Intimidate Folks Out Of Releasing A Satirical Movie, Imagine What's Going To Happen When They See A Documentary They Don't Like Or News Reports They Don't Like."

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

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

Since I'm The President And Democrats Have Controlled The House And The Senate, It's Understandable That People Are Saying, You Know, 'what Have You Done?'

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.

If We Aren't Willing To Pay A Price For Our Values, Then We Should Ask Ourselves Whether We Truly Believe In Them At All.

It's True That I Have Not Been Able To Completely Close Guantanamo, But We've Drastically Reduced The Population From 700 Or So To Around 60 Now.

Insurance Companies, Drug Companies Are Going To Have To Be Ponying Up, Partly Because Right Now They're Receiving Huge Subsidies.

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.

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

These Kinds Of Tragedies [like Shooting In Fort Lauderdale] Have Happened Too Often During The Eight Years That I've Been President. The Pain, The Grief, The Shock That They Must Be Going Through Is Enormous. I've Asked Me Staff To Reach Out To The Mayor Down There And Make Sure That Coordination Between The State And Local Officials Is What It Should Be. But I Think We'll Find Out Over The Next 24 Hours Exactly How This Happened And What Motivated This Individual.

Our Challenges May Be New. The Instruments With Which We Meet Them May Be New. But Those Values Upon Which Our Success Depends -- Honesty And Hard Work, Courage And Fair Play, Tolerance And Curiosity, Loyalty And Patriotism -- These Things Are Old. These Things Are True. They Have Been The Quiet Force Of Progress Throughout Our History. What Is Demanded, Then, Is A Return To These Truths.

At The Moment That We Persuade A Child, Any Child, To Cross That Threshold, That Magic Threshold Into A Library, We Change Their Lives Forever, For The Better

For We Know That Our Patchwork Heritage Is A Strength, Not A Weakness.

Jesus Is An Historical Figure For Me, And He's Also A Bridge Between God And Man, In The Christian Faith, And One That I Think Is Powerful Precisely Because He Serves As That Means Of Us Reaching Something Higher.

I Want Every Young Man Who Sees Me To Know That I'm Not That Different From Them. I Wasn't Born Into Wealth. I Wasn't Born Into Fame. I Made A Lot Of Mistakes - But I Kept At It.

We Also Recommit To Supporting Tribal Self-determination, Security, And Prosperity For All Native Americans. While We Cannot Erase The Scourges Or Broken Promises Of Our Past, We Will Move Ahead Together In Writing A New, Brighter Chapter In Our Joint History.

Native American

Sometimes They're Nothing, Sometimes They're Something, Sometimes There's A Connection That Years Later May Show Up. All Of This Information Is Useful.

I Think If You Worked At The Community Level In Chicago And Then A Politician On The South Side Of Chicago, And Worked At The State Level, Then You're Pretty Familiar With All The Variations Of Politics In The African American Community And Criticisms You May Get. If You're Not Familiar With Those Or You Don't Have A Thick Enough Skin To Take It, Then You Probably Wouldn't Have Gotten Here.

African American

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.

There Are Places I Want To Visit Where If I'm Wearing A Baseball Cap And Some Sunglasses I Think I Can Get Away With And Mingle In A Crowd.

We Have The Power To Make The World We Seek, But Only If We Have The Courage To Make A New Beginning.

If The Critics Are Right That I've Made All My Decisions Based On Polls, Then I Must Not Be Very Good At Reading Them.

[michelle Obama] Used To Say To Our Friends, "barack's Exactly The Kind Of Guy I Want To Be President. I Just Wish He Didn't Want To Do It When I Was Married To Him."

If American Workers Are Being Denied Their Right To Organize And Collectively Bargain When I'm In The White House, I'll Put On A Comfortable Pair Of Shoes Myself. I'll Walk On That Picket Line With You As President Of The United States Of America, Because Workers Deserve To Know That Somebody Is Standing In Their Corner.

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

From Obama's Book, "the Audacity Of Hope:" "i Am Not Willing To Have The State Deny American Citizens A Civil Union That Confers Equivalent Rights On Such Basic Matters As Hospital Visitation Or Health Insurance Coverage Simply Because The People They Love Are Of The Same Sex - Nor Am I Willing To Accept A Reading Of The Bible That Considers An Obscure Line In Romans To Be More Defining Of Christianity Than The Sermon On The Mount."

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 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.

And I Agree That The Democratic Legislators In Massachusetts Might Have Given Some Advice To Republicans In Congress About How To Cooperate, But The Fact Of The Matter Is We Used The Same Advisers And They Say It's The Same Plan.

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.

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.

Insist That The First Question Each Of Us Asks Isn't "what's Good For Me?" But "what's Good For The Country My Children Will Inherit?

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.

You Can Be Stylish, And Powerful Too.

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

Those Who Adhere To The Ideology Of Rejecting Israel’s Right To Exist, They Might As Well Reject The Earth Beneath Them Or The Sky Above, Because Israel Is Not Going Anywhere.

The President And The Executive Branch Are Always Going To Have Greater Latitude And Greater Authority When It Comes To Protecting America Because Sometimes You Just Have To Respond Quickly And Not Everything That Is A Danger Can Be Publicized And Be Subject To Open Debate, But There Have To Be Some Guardrails.

I Believe That There Are Many Paths To The Same Place, And That Is A Belief That There Is A Higher Power, A Belief That We Are Connected As A People.

In A Moment When The Outcome Of Our Revolution Was Most In Doubt The Father Of Our Nation Ordered These Words Be Read To The People. Let It Be Told To The Future World That In The Depth Of Winter, When Nothing But Hope And Virtue Could Survive, That The City And The Country Alarmed At One Common Danger Came Forth To Meet It.

Nations Are More Successful When Their Women Are Successful.

You Want To Be Commander-in-chief? You Can Start By Standing Up For The Men And Women Who Wear The Uniform Of The United States, Even When It's Not Politically Convenient.

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

African American

What Is Certainly True Is That The United States Has To Have A Presence To Promote The Values That We Care About.

I Think That America Has To Stand With Democracy.

I Actually Believe That Some Residue Of Discrimination Would Lessen, Because It's My View That There Is A Certain Percentage Of The White Population That Stereotypes And Makes Assumptions About African Americans Because They Don't Inject The History Of Slavery And Jim Crow Into Current Incarceration Rates, Or Crime Rates, Or Poverty Rates, Or What Have You.

Nobody's Cooler Than My Two Girls. They Just Seem To Take Whatever Comes With, You Know - Happiness And - Steadiness. And They're Loving School. They're Making Friends... And - They've Already Joined Some Clubs. And Sasha, You Know - I Think Maybe To Endear - Myself To Her, She - She Decided She Wanted To Join A Basketball Team. So - What More Could I Want?

I've Now Been In 57 States. I Think One Left To Go.

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.

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

I'm A Warrior For The Middle Class.

Don't Shortchange The Future, Because Of Fear In The Present.

If I Did Not Love America, I Wouldn't Have Moved Here From Kenya.

What I've Seen In My Own Life Is That When I Get Something Important Done It's Because Of A Lot Of Other People - Some Who Get Credit, Some Who Don't.

The Fact Is That I'm Also Friendly With Tom Coburn, One Of The Most Conservative Republicans In The United States Senate, Who, During His Campaign, Once Said That It Might Be Appropriate To Apply The Death Penalty To Those Who Carried Out Abortions.

You Look At Something Like Health Care, The Affordable Care Act. And For All The Controversy, We Now Have 20 Million People Who Have Health Insurance Who Didn't Have It. It's Actually Proven To Be More Effective, Cheaper Than Even Advocates Like Me Expected.

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

We Have Real Enemies In The World. These Enemies Must Be Found. They Must Be Pursued And They Must Be Defeated.

Generally The Constitution Is A Charter Of Negative Liberties, Says What The States Can't Do To You, Says What The Federal Government Can't Do To You. But It Doesn't Say What The State Or Federal Government Must Do On Your Behalf.

There Are Institutional Obligations I Have To Carry Out That Are Important For A President Of The United States To Carry Out, But May Not Always Align With What I Think Would Move The Ball Down The Field On The Issues That I Care Most Deeply About.

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

People Can Change

My Job Is Not To Represent Washington To You, But To Represent You To Washington.

And If That Child Should Ever Get The Chance To Travel The World And Someone Should Ask Her Where Is She From, We Believe That She Should Always Be Able To Hold Her Head High With Pride In Her Voice When She Answers, "i Am An American." That Is The Course We Seek. That Is The Change We Are Calling For.

If You're A Progressive, You've Got To Be Worried About How The Federal Government Is Spending Its Revenue, Because We Don't Have Enough Money To Spend On Things Like Early Childhood Education That Are So Important.

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

Of Course, Violence Will Not End With Our Combat Mission. Extremists Will Continue To Set Off Bombs, Attack Iraqi Civilians And Try To Spark Sectarian Strife. But Ultimately, These Terrorists Will Fail To Achieve Their Goals.

The Changes In Thinking About Same-sex Marriage Have Come Slowly At First And Then In Rapid Course. If Such Change Is Possible In This Area, Is It Also Possible In The Vexed And Sordid Realm Of Race Relations?

Progress Does Not Compel Us To Settle Centuries-long Debates About The Role Of Government For All Time, But It Does Require Us To Act In Our Time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I Will Call Not Just On Israel, But On The Palestinians, On The Arab States, And The International Community To Join Us In This Effort, Because The Burden Of Making Hard Choices Must Not Be Israel’s Alone.

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.

I Look Forward To Hosting An Iftar Dinner Celebrating Ramadan Here At The White House Later This Week, And Wish You A Blessed Month.

When I Came Into Office, The World Was Divided. Iran Was Resurgent. Iran Is At Its Weakest Point, Economically, Strategically, Militarily, Then Since - Then In Many Years. And We Are Going To Continue To Keep The Pressure On To Make Sure That They Do Not Get A Nuclear Weapon. That's In America's National Interest And That Will Be The Case So Long As I'm President.

If We Have Osama Bin Laden In Our Sights And The Pakistani Government Is Unable Or Unwilling To Take Them Out, Then, I Think That We Have To Act And We Will Take Them Out. We Will Kill Bin Laden. We Will Crush Al Qaeda. That Has To Be Our Biggest National Security Priority.

Nobody's Changing What You've Got. You Get To Keep It.

Thank You, Planned Parenthood. God Bless You.

We Need To Internalize This Idea Of Excellence. Not Many Folks Spend A Lot Of Time Trying To Be Excellent.

In The Past, There Have Been A Range Of Treaties That Divided Congress And Every Administration Was Able To Get Them Through.

We're Going To Make Sure, Regardless Of Disagreements We Have On Policy, That Our Military And Intelligence Cooperation To Keep The Israeli People Safe Continues And That Cooperation Also Helps The American People Stay Safe.

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

The Best Education I Received Was Working With People In The Community On A Grassroots Basis. Because What It Taught Me Was That Ordinary People, When They Are Working Together Can Do Extraordinary Things.

Working Together

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