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The Fear Among Economists Across The Political Spectrum That Was - Was That We Were Rapidly Plummeting Towards A Second Great Depression. So, In The Weeks And Months That Followed, We Undertook A Series Of Difficult Steps To Prevent That Outcome. And We Were Forced To Take Those Steps Largely Without The Help Of An Opposition Party, Which, Unfortunately, After Having Presided Over The Decision-making That Had Led To The Crisis, Decided To Hand It Over To Others To Solve.

-Barack Obama

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The Fear Among Economists

Barack Obama

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The Fear Among Economists Across The Political Spectrum That Was - Was That We Were Rapidly Plummeting Towards A Second Great Depression. So, In The Weeks And Months That Followed, We Undertook A Series Of Difficult Steps To Prevent That Outcome. And We Were Forced To Take Those Steps Largely Without The Help Of An Opposition Party, Which, Unfortunately, After Having Presided Over The Decision-making That Had Led To The Crisis, Decided To Hand It Over To Others To Solve.

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And I Do Not Want, And I Will Not Accept, A Deal In Which I Am Asked To Do Nothing, In Fact, I'm Able To Keep Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars In Additional Income That I Don't Need, While A Parent Out There Who Is Struggling To Figure Out How To Send Their Kid To College Suddenly Finds That They've Got A Couple Thousand Dollars Less In Grants Or Student Loans.

No Discrimination, That's What We're About As A Country.

If We're Going To Prevent Large Parts Of This Earth From Becoming Not Only Inhospitable But Uninhabitable In Our Lifetimes, We're Going To Have To Keep Some Fossil Fuels In The Ground Rather Than Burn Them And Release More Dangerous Pollution Into The Sky.

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

Some Of The Same Politicians And Pundits That Are So Quick To Reject The Possibility Of A Diplomatic Solution To Iran's Nuclear Program Are The Same Folks Who Were So Quick To Go To War In Iraq And Said It Would Take A Few Months.

Now, In Practice, In Daily Social Interactions, Etc., There May Be All Kinds Of Biases And Prejudices That Are Unspoken, That People Aren't Aware Of, That Affect Who's Hired, And Who Gets Loans, And How Kids Are Treated In School. But It's A Powerful Thing If You Have On Your Side An Idea That The Overwhelming Majority Of People Believe In Because That's How You Can Build A Consensus That's Lasting.

I Think I'm Able To Reach A Lot Of Folks, Despite The Fact That The Conventional News Media Sometimes Says, "you Know, This Speech Is Too Long," Or "it's Too Complicated," Or "he Needs To Have Better Sound Bites," Or What Have You.

No, You Can't Deny Women Their Basic Rights And Pretend It's About Your 'religious Freedom'. If You Don't Like Birth Control, Don't Use It. Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others To Live By Your Own Beliefs.

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.

No One Is Pro-abortion.

Young People Recognize The Big Challenges That Are Coming Up.

I Have Been Blessed By Having, And I Admittedly Am Biased, Some Of The Smartest, Hardest-working, And Good People In My Administration That I Think Any President Has Ever Had.

I Think We Need Missile Defense. But I Want To Make Sure It Works, That It's Cost Effective, That The Technologies Are Operable, That It's Our Best Possible Strategy, And That Hasn't Been Shown.

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

I'm No Longer Just A Candidate. I'm The President. I Know What It Means To Send Young Americans Into Battle, For I Have Held In My Arms The Mothers And Fathers Of Those Who Didn't Return. I've Shared The Pain Of Families Who've Lost Their Homes, And The Frustration Of Workers Who've Lost Their Jobs.

The Biggest Challenge, I Think, Is Always Maintaining Your Moral Compass.

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

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

Don't Just Consume Things, Create Things

There’s No Black Male My Age, Who’s A Professional, Who Hasn’t Come Out Of A Restaurant And Is Waiting For Their Car And Somebody Didn’t Hand Them Their Car Keys.

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.

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

Those Who Are Already Feeling The Effects Of Climate Change Don't Have Time To Deny It - They're Busy Dealing With It.

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.

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.

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

No Single Nation Should Pick And Choose Which Nations Holds Nuclear Weapons. And That's Why I Strongly Reaffirmed America's Commitment To Seek A World In Which No Nations Hold Nuclear Weapons.

Nuclear Weapons

For Decades, This Great Leader, Often At Dr. King’s Side, Was Denied His Rightful Place In History Because He Was Openly Gay. No Medal Can Change That, But Today, We Honor Bayard Rustin’s Memory By Taking Our Place In His March Towards True Equality, No Matter Who We Are Or Who We Love.

It Is Very Rare I Come To An Event Where I’m Like The Fifth Or Sixth Most Interesting Person.

Don't Just Buy A New Video Game. Make One.

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

We Have To Ensure Free And Open Exchange Of Information. That Starts With An Open Internet. I Will Take A Backseat To No One In My Commitment To Network Neutrality. Because Once Providers Start To Privilege Some Applications Or Websites Over Others Then The Smaller Voices Get Squeezed Out And We All Lose. The Internet Is Perhaps The Most Open Network In History, And We Have To Keep It That Way.

People Need To Remember We Are The Governing Party Because We Have Diversity Of Opinion In Our Party. We're Not Pure. We Have Moderates And We Have More Progressives.

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.

If Any Individual Who Objects To Government Policy Can Take It In Their Own Hands To Publicly Disclose Classified Information, Then We Will Never Be Able To Keep Our People Safe Or Conduct Foreign Policy.

That We Are In The Midst Of Crisis Is Now Well Understood. Our Nation Is At War, Against A Far-reaching Network Of Violence And Hatred. Our Economy Is Badly Weakened, A Consequence Of Greed And Irresponsibility On The Part Of Some, But Also Our Collective Failure To Make Hard Choices And Prepare The Nation For A New Age. Homes Have Been Lost; Jobs Shed; Businesses Shuttered. Our Health Care Is Too Costly; Our Schools Fail Too Many; And Each Day Brings Further Evidence That The Ways We Use Energy Strengthen Our Adversaries And Threaten Our Planet.

The First Thing I'd Do As President Is Sign The Freedom Of Choice Act.

America Is Much Less Violent Than It Was 20, 30 Years Ago, And Immigration Is Much Less A Problem Than It Was Not Just 20, 30 Years Ago, But When I Came In As President.

What We Can Be Scientifically Certain Of Is That Our Continued Use Of Fossil Fuels Is Pushing Us To A Point Of No Return

We Will Not Engage In An Endless Process Of Negotiations.

When We Helped Prevent The Massacre Of Civilians Trapped On A Distant Mountain, Here's What One Of Them Said: "we Owe Our American Friends Our Lives. Our Children Will Always Remember That There Was Someone Who Felt Our Struggle And Made A Long Journey To Protect Innocent People." That Is The Difference We Make In The World.

The World Must Come Together To Confront Climate Change. There Is Little Scientific Dispute That If We Do Nothing, We Will Face More Drought, Famine And Mass Displacement That Will Fuel More Conflict For Decades.

Tonight, We Gather To Affirm The Greatness Of Our Nation - Not Because Of The Height Of Our Skyscrapers, Or The Power Of Our Military, Or The Size Of Our Economy. Our Pride Is Based On A Very Simple Premise, Summed Up In A Declaration Made Over Two Hundred Years Ago.

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

Faith Doesn't Mean That You Don't Have Doubts.

We Have To Recognize We've Got Some Big Problems On Race, Just Like We Got Still Big Problems On Crime, Just Like We Got Big Problems On Just About Everything. But We Also Have To Make Sure That We've - Draw Confidence From The Progress That We Have Made, 'cause Otherwise, You Get Into This Cycle Of Cynicism.

We Also Think This Is A Reminder Of The Long Tradition Of Bipartisan Foreign Policy That Has Been The Hallmark Of America At Moments Of Greatest Need, And That's The Kind Of Spirit That We Hope Will Be Reflected In Our Administration.

If You're 54 Or 55, You Might Want To Listen Because This Will Affect You. The Idea, Which Was Originally Presented By Congressman Ryan, Your Running Mate, Is That We Would Give A Voucher To Seniors And They Could Go Out In The Private Marketplace And Buy Their Own Health Insurance.

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World. Instead Of Celebrating Your Dynamic Union And Seeking To Partner With You To Meet Common Challenges, There Have Been Times Where America Has Shown Arrogance And Been Dismissive, Even Derisive.

I Know That There Are Millions Of Americans Who Are Content With Their Health Care Coverage - They Like Their Plan And, Most Importantly, They Value Their Relationship With Their Doctor.

If We Have Actionable Intelligence About High Value Terrorist Targets And President [pervez] Musharraf Will Not Act, We Will.

No One In America Should Ever Be Afraid To Walk Down The Street Holding The Hand Of The Person They Love.

That's Just How White Folks Will Do You. It Wasn't Merely The Cruelty Involved; I Was Learning That Black People Could Be Mean And Then Some. It Was A Particular Brand Of Arrogance, An Obtuseness In Otherwise Sane People That Brought Forth Our Bitter Laughter. It Was As If Whites Didn't Know They Were Being Cruel In The First Place. Or At Least Thought You Deserved Of Their Scorn.

If Everybody Who Voted In 2008 Shows Up In 2010, We Will Win This Election. We Will Win This Election.

My Conviction Is That Those Fights Need To Be Fought Right Now And Can Be Won. And If In Fact We Have Finite Political Capital, Energy, Resources, We Need To Win Those Fights.

Unlike My Opponent, I Will Not Let Oil Companies Write This Country's Energy Plan, Or Endanger Our Coastlines, Or Collect Another $4 Billion In Corporate Welfare From Our Taxpayers.

And As Husbands And Fathers And Brothers, We Have To Step Up - Because Every Girl’s Life Matters. Every Daughter Deserves The Same Chance As Our Sons. Every Woman Should Be Able To Go About Her Day - To Walk The Streets Or Ride The Bus - And Be Safe, And Be Treated With Respect And Dignity. She Deserves That.

But The Basic Principle That We’re Going To Have To See Some Of This Debt Written Down, That The Government Is Going To Have To Support Some Banks, That Others That Are Not Viable, Essentially That We’re Going To Have To Do Something With Those Assets.

We Could Come Together, Democrats And Republicans, To Find Practical, Commonsense Solutions To Health Care, To Education, To Energy Issues, Because Although I'm A Proud Democrat, I'm A Prouder American. And I Think All Of Us Believe, Regardless Of Our Party Affiliations, That This Is A Critical Time, Where We've Got To Solve Big Problems.

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 Iranian People Are Getting Restive Because Of The Challenges That Sanctions Have Posed To Their Economy.

I'm Skeptical That [the Republicans] Can Do [something Better With Healthcare] Mainly Because For Seven Years Now, Including When We First Tried To Pass Health Care, I Said To 'em, "okay, If [obamacare] Doesn't Work Tell Me What Does."

No Two Countries Are Identical, And Obviously, There's A Difference Between A Referendum On A Very Complex Relationship Between Great Britain And The Rest Of Europe, And A Presidential Election In The United States.

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.

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

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

During The Course Of My Presidency, It Feels As If A Couple Times A Year, I End Up Having To Speak To The Country And To Speak To A Particular Community About A Devastating Loss. The Grieving That The Country Feels Is Real, The Sympathy, The Prioritizing, The Comforting Of The Families, All That’s Important. But I Think Part Of The Point That I Wanted To Make Was That It’s Not Enough Just To Feel Bad.

The Pyramids Are One Of Those Things That Live Up To The Hype. They're Elemental In Ways That Are Hard To Describe.

If In Fact The Republicans Make Some Modifications [of Obamacare], Some Of Which I May Have Been Seeking Previously, But They Wouldn't Cooperate Because They Didn't Wanna Make The System Work, And Re-label It As Trumpcare, I'm Fine With That.

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

I Reject Discrimination Against Muslim Americans - Who Are Just As Patriotic As We Are.

I Want To Be Very Clear: I Will Not Sign On To Any Health Plan That Adds To Our Deficits Over The Next Decade.

Nations Are More Successful When Their Women Are Successful.

If You Were Successful, Somebody Along The Line Gave You Some Help. There Was A Great Teacher Somewhere In Your Life.

I've Consistently Said, We Need To Support Charter Schools. I Think It Is Important To Experiment, By Looking At How We Can Reward Excellence In The Classroom.

If You Actually Took The Number Of Muslims Americans, We'd Be One Of The Largest Muslim Countries In The World.

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

So We Don't Need More Top-down Economics. We've Tried That Theory. We've Seen What Happens. We Can't Afford To Go Back To It.

One Of The Things I Think I Can Bring To The Presidency Is To Make Government And Public Service Cool Again.

As Progressives We Believe In Affordable Health Care For All Americans.

If You Don't Have A Record To Run On, You Paint Your Opponent As Someone To Run From.

I Don't Think There's Anybody Who's Run A Campaign Like [donald Trump] Successfully In Modern History, Not That I Can Think Of. And, As A Consequence Because He Didn't Have The Supports Of Many Of The Establishment In His Own Party, Because He Ran Sort Of An Improvisational Campaign.

Those Are The Ladies Sitting In Church. And In The Same Way That They Might Feel A Joy And Release On Sunday, They Are Still Going To Work On Monday. And That's Who I Was Listening To During This Process. And If At The End Of My Presidency They Feel Like I Did A Pretty Good Job, Then I'll Feel Pretty Good.

I Think Where I Get Frustrated At Times Was The Belief That The President Can Do Anything If He Just Decides He Wants To Do It.

I Do Not Want Two Classes Of Citizens In This Country. I Want Everybody To Prosper. That's Going To Be A Top Priority.

If You Look At Libya, I Was Deeply Concerned About What Would Happen After Qaddafi Was Gone.

A Change Is Brought About Because Ordinary People Do Extraordinary Things.

We Do Not Consider Ourselves A Christian Nation.

America Is A Strong And Resilient Country. And I Know We Will Succeed, If We Put Aside Partisanship And Politics And Work Together As One Nation.

And Whether I Earned Your Vote Or Not, I Have Listened To You. I Have Learned From You. And You’ve Made Me A Better President. And With Your Stories And Your Struggles, I Return To The White House More Determined And More Inspired Than Ever About The Work There Is To Do And The Future That Lies Ahead.

Which Passages Of Scripture Should Guide Our Public Policy? Should We Go With Leviticus, Which Suggests Slavery Is Ok And That Eating Shellfish Is An Abomination? Or We Could Go With Deuteronomy, Which Suggests Stoning Your Child If He Strays From The Faith?

Lobbyist Influence Comes From Access, Not Money.

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.

I Mentioned Charter Schools, And Experimenting With Our School System, To Make It Work. I Think That's Something We Really Have To Pay Attention To.

Later, I Would Realize That The Position Of Most Black Students In Predominantly White Colleges Was Already Too Tenuous, Our Identities Too Scrambled, To Admit To Ourselves That Our Black Pride Remained Incomplete. And To Admit Our Doubt And Confusion To Whites, To Open Up Our Psyches To General Examination By Those Who Had Caused So Much Of The Damage In The First Place, Seemed Ludicrous, Itself An Expression Of Self-hatred - For There Seemed No Reason To Expect That Whites Would Look At Our Private Struggles As A Mirror Into Their Own Souls, Rather Than Yet More Evidence Of Black Pathology.

There Are Gonna Be Elections Coming Up Among Our Nato Allies That We Have To Pay Attention To. I Anticipate That This Kind Of Thing Can Happen Again Here. And So In Addition To The Report Assessing What Exactly Happened, What We Have Also Done Is To Make Sure That The Department Of Homeland Security And Our Intelligence Teams Are Working With The Various Folks Who Run Our Elections.

I'd Say, Probably, Intellectually I've Drawn As Much From Judaism As Any Other Faith.

The Study Of Law Can Be Disappointing At Times, A Matter Of Applying Narrow Rules And Arcane Procedure To An Uncooperative Reality; A Sort Of Glorified Accounting That Serves To Regulate The Affairs Of Those Who Have Power--and That All Too Often Seeks To Explain, To Those Who Do Not, The Ultimate Wisdom And Justness Of Their Condition. But That's Not All The Law Is. The Law Is Also Memory; The Law Also Records A Long-running Conversation, A Nation Arguing With Its Conscience.

I've Got Two Daughters. 9 Years Old And 6 Years Old. I Am Going To Teach Them First Of All About Values And Morals. But If They Make A Mistake, I Don't Want Them Punished With A Baby.

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.

The Banks, Because Of Mismanagement, Because Of Huge Risk Taking, Are Now In Very Vulnerable Positions. We Can Expect That We're Gonna Have To Do More To Shore Up The Financial System. We Also Are Gonna Have To Make Sure That We Set Up Financial Regulations So That Not Only Does This Never Happen Again, But You Start Having Some Sort Of - Trust In How The Credit Markets Work Again.

I Just Want To Go Through Central Park And Watch Folks Passing By. Spend The Whole Day Watching People. I Miss That.

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

My First Job Is To Say Thank You To Those Who Voted Me. Those Who Didn't, I'm Going To Get Your Vote Next Time.

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

I Think That [having Not A Lot Of Time Sweating The Details] Can Be Both A Strength And A Weakness. I Think It Depends On How [donald Trump] Approaches It. If It Gives Him Fresh Eyes, Then That Can Be Valuable. But It Also Requires You Knowing What You Don't Know And Putting In Place People Who Do Have The Kinds Of Experience And Background And Knowledge That Can Inform Good Decision Making.

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.

That Applies, By The Way, Even To Some Of The Folks Who Are Now [donald] Trump Supporters. They're Responding To A Fictional Character Named Barack Obama Who They See On Fox News Or Who They Hear About Through Rush Limbaugh.

If You Think You Got A Better Idea In Terms Of How To Approach This That's Not Gonna Result In More Pollution, And More Asthma, And More Illness Then Put Your Ideas Out There. But Don't Just Oppose Things Because, "this Was Obama's Agenda."

When I Turn Over The Keys To The President-elect, America Will Be Much Stronger Than It Was When I Came Into Office.

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

I Know There Are Problems That I Say To Myself, If Maybe I Was A Little More Gifted I Might Have Been Able To Solve. But That's Not Because I Believe What I Did Was A Mistake. It's That Maybe It Required The Talents Of A Lincoln.

The Greek People Have Gone Through Some Very Difficult Times And There's Still A Hard Road Ahead, But Despite Those Hardships, Greece Has Continued To Be A Reliable Ally, Has Shown True Compassion To Fellow Human Beings In Need. It's An Example Of The Greek Character.

The Politics Around Trade Has Always Been Tough, Particularly In The Democratic Party, Because People Have Memories Of Outsourcing And Job Loss.

Where The Stakes Are The Highest, In The War On Terror, We Cannot Possibly Succeed Without Extraordinary International Cooperation. Effective International Police Actions Require The Highest Degree Of Intelligence Sharing, Planning And Collaborative Enforcement.

When We Think Of The Major Threats To Our National Security, The First To Come To Mind Are Nuclear Proliferation, Rogue States And Global Terrorism. But Another Kind Of Threat Lurks Beyond Our Shores, One From Nature, Not Humans - An Avian Flu Pandemic.

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.

We Will Stand Against Violence And Intimidation. We Will Stand For The Rights And Dignity Of All Human Beings.

Against Violence

If You Look At Sort Of How Politics Has Divided Itself Here In This Country, The Big Divide Right Now Is Between Urban Areas, Which Have Become Increasingly Democratic, And Rural Or Exurban Areas That Feel As If They're Being Ignored.

Everybody Deserves Fair Treatment, Equal Treatment In The Eyes Of The Law And The State. And That Includes Gays, Lesbians, Transgender Persons. I Am Not A Fan Of Discrimination And Bullying Of Anybody On The Basis Of Race, On The Basis Of Religion, On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation Or Gender. This Is Actually Part And Parcel Of The Agenda That's Also Going To Be Front And Centre, And That Is How Are We Treating Women And Girls.

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

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

We Invest In Early Childhood Education. We Invest Additional Job Training Dollars. We Make Sure That We've Got A Strong Research And Development Strategy So That We Continue To Innovate. Rebuilding Our Infrastructure, Which We Know Will Attract Businesses.

Research And Development

If The People Cannot Trust Their Government To Do The Job For Which It Exists - To Protect Them And To Promote Their Common Welfare - All Else Is Lost.

Some People In D.c. Talk About Me Like A Dog.

Ten Thousand People Died, An Entire Town Destroyed.

We Reject The Use Of National Security Letters To Spy On Citizens Who Are Not Suspected Of A Crime.

I Think I'm The Best President I've Ever Been Right Now. And I Think The Team That Is Operating Right Now Functions As Well As Any Team That I've Had. And So, You Know, There Is A Part Of You That Thinks, "man, We're Pretty Good At This Stuff Right Now." And You Hate To See That Talent Disperse.

I Think That [donald Trump] Clearly Was Able To Tap Into A Lot Of Grievances. And He Has A Talent For Making A Connection With His Supporters That Overrode Some Of The Traditional Benchmarks Of How You'd Run A Campaign Or Conduct Yourself As A Presidential Candidate. What Will Be Interesting To See Is How That Plays Out During The Course Of His Presidency.

When You Look At What [new Generation] Believe In, How They Value Diversity, How They Believe In Science, How They Care About The Environment, How They Believe In, You Know, Everybody Getting A Fair Shot, How They Believe In Not Discriminating Against People For Sexual Orientation And You Know, Their Belief That We Have To Work With Other Countries To Create A More Peaceful World And To Alleviate Poverty, That's The Majority An Entire Generation That's Coming Up Behind Us.

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

You Could Analyze Me And Say That My Father Leaving And Being Absent Was A Motivator For Early Ambition, Trying To Prove Myself To This Apparition Who Had Vanished. You Could Argue That Me Being A Mixed Kid In A Place Where There Weren't A Lot Of Black Kids Around Might Have Spurred On My Ambitions. You Could Go Through A Whole Litany Of Things That Sparked Me Wanting To Do Something Important.

If [black] Nationalism Could Create A Strong And Effective Insularity, Deliver On Its Promise Of Self-respect, Then The Hurt It Might Cause Well-meaning Whites, Or The Inner Turmoil It Caused People Like Me, Would Be Of Little Consequence.

America Will Rise Again. And Hope Will Rise Again.

We're Not Going To Deputize A Whole Bunch Of American Citizens To Start Grabbing People Or Turning Them In, In Part Because The Ordinary American Citizen May Not Know Whether Or Not This Person Is Illegal Or Not. But, You Know, The Notion That We're Going To Criminalize Priests, For Example, Or Doctors Who Are Providing Services To Individuals, And Throw Them In Jail For Doing What Their Calling Asks Them To Do, Which Is To Provide Help And Service To People In Need, I Think That Is A Mistake. I Think That's Out Of America's Character.

A Brighter Future Is Ours To Write. Let’s Begin This New Chapter — together — and Let’s Start The Work Right Now.

There Isn't Anyone Who Can't Serve ... Nobody Who Can't Help Somebody Else.

If There Is Anyone Out There Who Still Doubts That America Is A Place Where All Things Are Possible; Who Still Wonders If The Dream Of Our Founders Is Alive In Our Time; Who Still Questions The Power Of Our Democracy; Tonight Is Your Answer.

After All, There Were Thousands Of So-called Campus Radicals, Most Of Them White And Tenured And Happily Tolerated. No, It Remained Necessary To Prove Which Side You Were On, To Show Your Loyalty To The Black Masses, To Strike Out And Name Names.

Leather Jackets

The Only Reason I Send A Single Young Man Or Woman In Uniform Anywhere In The World Is Because I Think It's Necessary To Keep Us Safe.

I Have Seen, The Desperation And Disorder Of The Powerless: How It Twists The Lives Of Children On The Streets Of Jakarta Or Nairobi In Much The Same Way As It Does The Lives Of Children On Chicago 's South Side.

One Of The Great Things About The United States Is That When It Comes To World Affairs, The President Obviously Is The Leader Of The Executive Branch, The Commander-in-chief, The Spokesperson For The Nation, But The Influence And The Work That We Have Is The Result Not Just Of The President, It Is The Result Of Countless Interactions And Arrangements And Relationships Between Our Military And Other Militaries, And Our Diplomats And Other Diplomats, The Intelligence Officers And Development Workers.

Increasing America’s Debt Weakens Us Domestically And Internationally. Leadership Means That 'the Buck Stops Here.' Instead, Washington Is Shifting The Burden Of Bad Choices Today Onto The Backs Of Our Children And Grandchildren. America Has A Debt Problem And A Failure Of Leadership.

As Commander In Chief, I Will Maintain The Strongest Military In The World, Keep Faith With Our Troops And Go After Those Who Would Do Us Harm. But After A Decade Of War, I Think We All Recognize We've Got To Do Some Nation Building Here At Home, Rebuilding Our Roads, Our Bridges And Especially Caring For Our Veterans Who Sacrificed So Much For Our Freedom.

The Degree Of Polarization That Currently Exists In Washington Is Such Where I Think It's Fair To Say If I Presented A Cure For Cancer, Getting Legislation Passed To Move That Forward Would Be A Nail-biter.

There's No One Who I Believe Has Ever Captured The Soul Of America More Profoundly Than Abraham Lincoln Has.

We Cannot Help But Believe That The Old Hatreds Shall Someday Pass; That The Lines Of Tribe Shall Soon Dissolve; That As The World Grows Smaller, Our Common Humanity Shall Reveal Itself.

Common Humanity

One Of The Things That I Am Concerned About Is The Degree To Which We've Seen A Lot Of Commentary Lately Where There Were, There Are Republicans Or Pundits Or Cable Commentators Who Seemed To Have More Confidence In Vladimir Putin Than Fellow Americans Because Those Fellow Americans Were Democrats. That Cannot Be.

Scripture Tells Us To "run With Endurance The Race That Is Set Before Us." As We Do, May God Hold Close Those Who’ve Been Taken From Us Too Soon.

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.

No Party Has A Monopoly On Wisdom. No Democracy Works Without Compromise.

You Don't Like Dealing With Somebody Who Denies Horrible Things Happening To Your People Or Threatens Future Horrible Things To Your People.

America At Its Best Is Inclusive And Not Exclusive.

I Do Have Confidence That We're Gonna Be Able To Get It Right. But It's Not Gonna Be Overnight. And There's No Silver Bullets To This. The Fact Of The Matter Is, Is That We Are Suffering From A Massive Hangover From A Binge Of Risk Taking.

[ William Ayers] Is An Example Of What I'm Talking About. This Is A Guy Who Lives In My Neighborhood, Who's A Professor Of English In Chicago Who I Know And Who I Have Not Received Some Official Endorsement From. He's Not Somebody Who I Exchange Ideas From On A Regular Basis.

Even While We May At Times Disagree, As Friends Sometimes Will, The Bonds Between The United States And Israel Are Unbreakable And The Commitment Of The United States To The Security Of Israel Is Ironclad.

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.

It Is Easy To Get To A Higher Number When You Are Not Asking Anything Difficult From Yourself.

First Of All, I Think Everybody Has To Acknowledge Don't Underestimate The Guy [donald Trump], Because He's Going To Be 45th President Of The United States.

Entrepreneurs Embody The Promise Of America: The Idea That If You Have A Good Idea And Are Willing To Work Hard And See It Through, You Can Succeed In This Country. And In Fulfilling This Promise, Entrepreneurs Also Play A Critical Role In Expanding Our Economy And Creating Jobs.

No Challenge Poses A Greater Threat To Future Generations Than Climate Change.

If You Look At Countries Like South Africa, Where You Had A Black Majority, There Have Been Efforts To Tax And Help That Black Majority, But It Hasn't Come In The Form Of A Formal Reparations Program.

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.

In A Global Economy Where The Most Valuable Skill You Can Sell Is Your Knowledge, A Good Education Is No Longer Just A Pathway To Opportunity - It Is A Prerequisite.

My Hope Is That's Something [donald Trump] Is Thinking About, Because Not Only Is The President Of The United States Somebody That The Entire Country Looks To For Direction But Sets The Agenda Internationally In A Lot Of Ways.

By Hook Or By Crook, We're Going To Make Sure That When I Leave This Office, That The Country Is More Prosperous, More People Have Opportunity, Kids Have A Better Education, We're More Competitive, Climate Change Is Being Taken More Seriously Than It Was.those Are Going To Be The Measures By Which I Look Back And Say Whether I've Been Successful As President.

The 20th Century Was A Bloodbath, And For All The Frustrations And Failures Of The Project To Unify Europe, The Last Five Decades Have Been Periods Of Unprecedented Peace, Growth, And Prosperity In Europe.

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

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

It's Very Important That We Have A President Who Is Mindful Of The Cruelty That Is Perpetrated On Animals.

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.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until We Find A Better Way To Welcome The Striving, Hopeful Immigrants Who Still See America As A Land Of Opportunity, Until Bright Young Students And Engineers Are Enlisted In Our Workforce Rather Than Expelled From Our Country.

If We Win All Those Fights, And Now Let's Say The Income Gap, And The Wealth Gap, And The Education Gap Have For The Most Part Been Closed - Let's Say Hypothetically, , First Of All, America As A Whole Would Be A Lot Richer.

At The Dawn Of The 21st Century, Where Knowledge Is Literally Power, Where It Unlocks The Gates Of Opportunity And Success, We All Have Responsibilities As Parents, As Librarians, As Educators, As Politicians, And As Citizens To Instill In Our Children A Love Of Reading So That We Can Give Them A Chance To Fulfill Their Dreams.

In America, We Then Made A Commitment, Particularly After World War Ii With The Gi Bill, To Massively Expand Our Commitment To College Education, And That Meant We Had More Engineers And We Had More Scientists And That Meant We Had Better Technology, Which Meant That We Were More Productive And We Could Succeed In The Global Marketplace.

I Believe We [americans] Are Strongest As A Nation, When The President And Congress Work Together.

Working Together

So While An Incredible Amount Of Progress Has Been Made, On This Fifth Anniversary, I Wanted To Come Here And Tell The People Of This City Directly: My Administration Is Going To Stand With You - And Fight Alongside You - Until The Job Is Done. Until New Orleans Is All The Way Back, All The Way.

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

And When It Comes To Developing The High Standards We Need, It's Time To Stop Working Against Our Teachers And Start Working With Them. Teachers Don't Go In To Education To Get Rich. They Don't Go In To Education Because They Don't Believe In Their Children. They Want Their Children To Succeed, But We've Got To Give Them The Tools. Invest In Early Childhood Education. Invest In Our Teachers And Our Children Will Succeed.

Israel Is Our Friend, That We Will Assist In Their Security.

What Do You Think A Stimulus Is? It’s Spending - That's The Whole Point! Seriously.

I've Always Wanted To Come To Greece.

I'm Told There's A Saying From Those Ancient Times, Kalos Kai Agathos, When Someone Or Something Is Good And Beautiful On The Outside, But Is Also Good And Noble On The Inside In Terms Of Character And In Terms Of Purpose. And I Think That's A Fine Description Of The Friendship That Exists Between The Greek People And The American People.

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

In America, We've Set Up A System Whereby When You Take On College Debt, You Will Never Have To Pay More Than 10 Percent Of Your Income In Repayments. And What That Will Do Is Make Sure That You Will Never Be Prevented From Going To School Just Because Of Money. We Want To Make Sure That You And Others Like You Can Succeed.

I Think Raising Wages, Investing In Infrastructure, Making Sure That People Have Access To Good Educations That Equip Them For The Jobs Of The Future. Those Are All Agenda Items That Would Help Alleviate Some Of Those Economic Pressures And Dislocations That People Are Experiencing. The Problem Was I Couldn't Convince The Republican Congress To Pass A Lot Of Them.

We Honor Those Who Walked So We Could Run. We Must Run So Our Children Soar. And We Will Not Grow Weary.

It Is Very Important For I Think Those Of Us Who Desperately Want Peace, Who See War As, At Some Level, A Break-down, A Manifestation Of Human Weakness, To Understand That Sometimes It’s Also Necessary – And You Know, To – To Be Able To Balance Two Ideas At The Same Time; That We Are Constantly Striving For Peace, We Are Doubling Up On Our Diplomacy, We Are Going To Actively Engage, We Are Going To Try To See The World Through Other People’s Eyes And Not Just Our Own.

All Americans Should Be Deeply Troubled By The Fatal Shootings Of Alton Sterling In Baton Rouge, Louisiana And Philando Castile In Falcon Heights, Minnesota. We've Seen Such Tragedies Far Too Many Times, And Our Hearts Go Out To The Families And Communities Who've Suffered Such A Painful Loss.

It Will Be Up To Each Of You To Make Sure That Young People, African Americans, Latinos And Women Who Powered Our Victory In 2008 Stand Together Once Again.

African American

I Also Believe That If We're Serious About Change, We Need To Have A Real Discussion About Public Financing For Congressional Elections.

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

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

Many Of Our Ideas Of Democracy, So Much Of Our Literature And Philosophy And Science Can Be Traced Back To Roots Right Here In Athens.

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

We've Come To Be Consumed By A 24-hour, Slash-and-burn, Negative Ad, Bickering, Small-minded Politics That Doesn't Move Us Forward.

I Have Been A Strong Proponent Of Pay-as-you-go. Every Dollar That I've Proposed, I've Proposed An Additional Cut So That It Matches.

One Of The Things You Discover About Being President Is That There Are All These Rules And Norms And Laws And You Got To Pay Attention To Them.

Generally Speaking In America, A Lot Of Environmentally Problematic Facilities Tend To Be Located In Places Where Poor Folks Live Because Wealthier Folks Have The Ability To Say, "not In My Backyard."

Here`s A Guy Who Says He`s A Great Businessman. But It Seems Like A Lot Of Trump's Business Is Built Around Stiffing Small Businesses And Workers Out Of What He Owes Them, Work They`ve Done. He Thinks That`s Cute Or Smart Or Funny To Basically Not Pay Somebody Who`s Done Work For Him And Say Go Ahead And Sue Me Because I`ve Got More Money Than You And You Can`t Do Anything About It.

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