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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.

-Barack Obama

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The Program Grew Out

Barack Obama

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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.

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More From Barack Obama

That Is Why We Fight - In Hopes Of A Day When We No Longer Need To.

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

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.

As A Nuclear Power - As The Only Nuclear Power To Have Used A Nuclear Weapon - The United States Has A Moral Responsibility To Act.

Nuclear Terrorism

There Are Problems That Just End Up Being Really Hard And By Definition The Only Problems That Come To My Desk Are The Ones That Nobody Else Can Solve.

The Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Slander The Prophet Of Islam

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.

There Are Enormous Resources In Greece.

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.

We Don't Quit. I Don't Quit. Let's Seize This Moment.

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.

It’s Important To Make Sure That We’re Talking With Each Other In A Way That Heals, Not In A Way That Wounds." - Barack Obama, 44th U.s. President

By 2025 We Expect New Spacecraft Designed For Long Journeys To Allow Us To Begin The First Ever Crewed Missions Beyond The Moon Into Deep Space. So We'll Start By Sending Astronauts To An Asteroid For The First Time In History. By The Mid-2030s I Believe We Can Send Humans To Orbit Mars And Return Them Safely To Earth. And A Landing On Mars Will Follow And I Expect To Be Around In See It.

So Don't Get Cynical. Cynicism Didn't Put A Man On The Moon. Cynicism Has Never Won A War, Or Cured A Disease, Or Built A Business, Or Fed A Young Mind. Cynicism Is A Choice. And Hope Will Always Be A Better Choice.

I Think That Today, Faith Drives So Much Of Our Politics, That I Thought, "if You Don't Talk About It, You Are Missing A Whole Big Part Of What Is Going On Politically."

I Have To Make The Very Best Judgments I Can Make In Terms Of What's Gonna Keep The American People Safe. And Is What, What's Gonna Uphold Our Constitution And Our Traditions Of Due Process.

I'm Blown Away. I'm Flabbergasted The President [barack Obama] Made The Phone Call To Rouhani After 30-plus, `79, 33 Years Or So. And There's A Reason We Haven't Negotiated With Iran, Because They're State-sponsored Terrorists. They're The Central Bank For Terrorism Around The World.

Ten Thousand People Died, An Entire Town Destroyed.

If We [american Nation] Are Only Thinking About Tomorrow Or The Next Day And Not Thinking About 10 Years From Now, We're Not Going To Control Our Own Economic Future, Because China, Germany - They're Making These [clean Energy] Investments. And I'm Not Going To Cede Those Jobs Of The Future To Those Countries. I Expect Those New Energy Sources To Be Built Right Here In The United States.

On This Day, We Gather Because We Have Chosen Hope Over Fear, Unity Of Purpose Over Conflict And Discord.

I Think That There Have Been A Number Of Public Figures Where You Start Hearing Commentary That Is Dangerous Because What It Starts Doing Is It Starts Dividing Us Up As Americans.

We Long For Unity, But Are Unwilling To Pay The Price. But Of Course, True Unity Cannot Be So Easily Won. It Starts With A Change In Attitudes - A Broadening Of Our Minds, And A Broadening Of Our Hearts.

This Doesn't Mean Abandoning Our Values And Ideals; Wherever We Can, It's In Our Interest To Help Foster Democracy Through The Diplomatic And Economic Resources At Our Disposal.

The President [barack Obama] Understands That The Country's Very Concerned About [terrorism] Issue. And I Think What You're Going To Hear From Him Is A Discussion About What Government's Doing To Ensure All Of Our Highest Priority, The Protection Of The American People.

You Know, My Faith Is One That Admits Some Doubt.

[j]ust Because You Have An Individual Right Does Not Mean That The State Or Local Government Can't Constrain The Exercise Of That Right.

Well, I Think That When You Think About The Challenges We Face, These Are Challenges That Require Us To Look Forward And Not Backwards. When It Comes To The Economy I Think We Have To Recognize That We Are Now In A Global Economy. And That The Measure Of Our Success Is: How Well Are We Training Our Workers? How Well Are We Investing In The New Energy Economy?

The President Is Eager To Get To Work And Looks Forward To Working With The New Congress On Policies That Will Make Sure Middle-class Americans Are Sharing In The Economic Recovery, But The President Is Clear That He Will Not Let This Congress Undo Important Protections Gained -- Particularly In Areas Of Health Care, Wall Street Reform And The Environment.

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

America Is, Is No Longer, Uh, What It, Uh, Could Be, Uh, What It Was Once Was, Uh, And I Say To Myself, Uh, I Don't Want That Future, Uh, For My Children.

And What Would Help Minority Workers Are The Same Things That Would Help White Workers: The Opportunity To Earn A Living Wage, The Education And Training That Lead To Such Jobs, Labor Laws And Tax Laws That Restore Some Balance To The Distribution Of The Nation's Wealth.

Every Major World Religion Has Identified Marriage As Between A Man And A Woman.

World Religions

The Importance Of Making Sure That The Sense Of Accountability When, In Fact, Law Enforcement Is Involved In A Deadly Shooting Is Something That I Think Communities Across The Board Are Going To Need To Consider, We Have A Great Opportunity, Coming Out Of Some Great Conflict And Tragedy, To Really Transform How We Think About Community Law Enforcement Relations So That Everybody Feels Safer And Our Law Enforcement Officers Feel, Rather Than Being Embattled, Feel Fully Supported.

I Promised To Bring Change To Washington. The Underlying Reason For The Economic Mess We're In Has Been Building For Years. It's A Fundamental Imbalance In Which The Top 1 Percent Now Gets Almost A Quarter Of All National Income. We Haven't Seen Income And Wealth This Concentrated Since The Late Nineteen Twenties, And We All Know What Happened Then - The Great Depression. We'll Never Really Get Out Of The Gravitational Pull Of The Great Recession Until We Fix This Basic Problem.

Great Depression

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

Race Remains A Potent And Often Divisive Force In Our Society.

I'm Not Talking About Blind Optimism, The Kind Of Hope That Just Ignores The Enormity Of The Tasks Ahead Or The Road Blocks That Stand In Our Path. I'm Not Talking About The Wishful Idealism That Allows Us To Just Sit On The Sidelines Or Shirk From A Fight. I Have Always Believed That Hope Is That Stubborn Thing Inside Us That Insists, Despite All The Evidence To The Contrary, That Something Better Awaits Us So Long As We Have The Courage To Keep Reaching, To Keep Working, To Keep Fighting.

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

My Hope Is Donald Trump Makes Things Better. And If He Does, We'll All Benefit From It.

My Mother Was The One Constant In My Life. When I Think About My Mom Raising Me Alone When She Was 20, And Working And Paying The Bills, And, You Know, Trying To Pursue Your Own Dreams, I Think Is A Feat That Is Unmatched.

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.

I Will Continue To Urge Creditors To Take The Steps Needed To Put Greece On A Path Towards A Durable Economic Recovery Because It's In All Of Our Interests That Greece Succeeds.

I Don't Have Much Patience For Anyone Who Denies That This Challenge Is Real.

The Philippines Made A Lawful And Peaceful Effort To Resolve Their Maritime Claims With China Using The Tribunal Established Under The Law Of The Sea Convention (unclos). The Tribunal's Ruling Delivered A Clear And Legally Binding Decision On Maritime Claims In The South China Sea As They Relate To China And The Philippines - And That Ruling Should Be Respected. We Believe This Decision Can And Should Serve As An Opportunity To Renew Efforts To Address Maritime Claims Peacefully.

That's What The Leadership Was Teaching Me, Day By Day: That The Self-interest I Was Supposed To Be Looking For Extended Well Beyond The Immediacy Of Issues, That Beneath The Small Talk And Sketchy Biographies And Received Opinions, People Carried With Them Some Central Explanation Of Themselves. Stories Full Of Terror And Wonder, Studded With Events That Still Haunted Or Inspired Them. Sacred Stories.

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.

I Think It's Fair To Say That My Temperament Is Steady - And On The Buoyant Side.

What Is Portrayed As High-minded Positions On Issues Sometimes Is Just Designed To Carve Out Some Of Their Commercial Interests.

I Believe That If We Stop Talking At One Another And Start Talking With One Another, We Can Get A Lot Done.

I Have A Deep Appreciation For The Wisdom Of This Guy , George Washington.

Working Full-time Should Mean Enough To Support A Family.

As Tough As Things Have Been, I Am Convinced You Are Tougher. I've Seen Your Passion And I've Seen Your Service. I've Seen You Engage And I've Seen You Turn Out In Record Numbers. I've Heard Your Voices Amplified By Creativity And A Digital Fluency That Those Of Us In Older Generations Can Barely Comprehend. I've Seen A Generation Eager, Impatient Even, To Step Into The Rushing Waters Of History And Change Its Course.

I've Said Very Clearly, Including In A State Of The Union Address, That I'm Against 'don't Ask, Don't Tell' And That We're Going To End This Policy.

Unemployment Is Low, Incomes Are Up, Poverty Is Down - And That's Going To Be A Lasting Change.

We Live In A Culture That Discourages Empathy. A Culture That Too Often Tells Us Our Principle Goal In Life Is To Be Rich, Thin, Young, Famous, Safe, And Entertained.

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

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.

I Think There Are A Whole Host Of Things That Are Civil Rights, And Then There Are Other Things - Such As Traditional Marriage - That, I Think, Express A Community's Concern And Regard For A Particular Institution.

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

But You See, A Rich Country Like America Can Perhaps Afford To Be Stupid.

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.

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 Vulnerability To Russia Or Any Other Foreign Power Is Directly Related To How Divided, Partisan, Dysfunctional Our Political Process Is. That's The Thing That Makes Us Vulnerable.

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

When I Was In Washington, I Would Usually Get Home From The Capitol At About 7:30 Or 8, And I Would Try To Write As Much As Possible. It Was Almost All In The Wee Hours.

The Belief That Peace Is Desirable Is Rarely Enough To Achieve It. Peace Requires Responsibility. Peace Entails Sacrifice.

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.

We Cannot Meet 21st Century Challenges With A 20th Century Bureaucracy.

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

Assault Weapons Ban Reintroduced.

Assault Weapons

We Are Committed To A World In Which We Keep America Safe, But We Recognize That Our Power Doesn't Just Flow From Our Extraordinary Military But Also Flows From The Strength In Our Ideals And Our Principles And Our Values.

I Think I Will Still Feel That Same Appreciation For What [winston] Churchill And Others Have Said Is The Worst Form Of Government Except All The Alternatives.

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

Instead Of Having A Set Of Policies That Are Equipping People For The Globalization Of The Economy, We Have Policies That Are Accelerating The Most Destructive Trends Of The Global Economy.

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

If You Want A Model For What Is Possible, If You Want To See How To Build A Peaceful And Prosperous And Dynamic Society, Then Look At Berlin And Look At Germany.

As You Might Imagine, If You're A Teenager Having A Couple Of People With Microphones And Guns Always Following You Around, That Could Grate On Them. But You Know, They've Handled It With Grace And I Give Michelle [obama] Most Of The Credit For How Well They've Done, But I Also Just Think They Are Graceful, Good Young, Young Women.

I Do Want To Once Again Speak Directly To The Iranian People. Yours Is A Great Civilization With A Vibrant Culture That Has So Much To Contribute To The World - In Commerce And In Science And In Arts. For Decades, Your Government's Threats And Actions To Destabilize Your Region Have Isolated Iran From Much Of The World, And Now Our Governments Are Talking With One Another. Following The Nuclear Deal, You, Especially Young Iranians, Have The Opportunity To Begin Building New Ties With The World.

We Know Hackers Steal People's Identities And Infiltrate Private E-mails. We Know Foreign Countries And Companies Swipe Our Corporate Secrets.

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

Unfortunately, You've Grown Up Hearing Voices That Incessantly Warn Of Government As Nothing More Than Some Separate, Sinister Entity That's At The Root Of All Our Problems. Some Of These Same Voices Also Do Their Best To Gum Up The Works. They'll Warn That Tyranny Is Always Lurking Just Around The Corner. You Should Reject These Voices.

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

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.

What Reagan Ushered In Was A Skepticism Toward Government Solutions To Every Problem. I Don't Think That Has Changed

If There's Even One Thing We Can Do - Even One Life We Can Save - We Have An Obligation To Try

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.

To Keep Nigeria One, Is A Task That Must Be Done.

We Don't Really Have Any Kind Of Regulatory Structure At All.

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

The Journey Will Be Difficult. The Road Will Be Long. I Face This Challenge With Profound Humility, And Knowledge Of My Own Limitations. But I Also Face It With Limitless Faith In The Capacity Of The American People.

For Half Of The World's Population, Roughly Three Billion People Around The World Living On Less Than Two Dollars A Day, An Election Is At Best A Means, Not An End; A Starting Point, Not Deliverance. These People Are Looking Less For An "electocracy" Than For The Basic Elements That For Most Of Us Define A Decent Life--food, Shelter, Electricity, Basic Health Care, Education For Their Children, And The Ability To Make Their Way Through Life Without Having To Endure Corruption, Violence, Or Arbitrary Power.

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

Broken Promises

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

My Tax Plan Will Cut Taxes For 95 Percent Of Workers, Because We Need To Put Money Back Into The Pockets Of Struggling Middle-class Families And Close The Egregious Tax Loopholes That Have Exploded Over The Last Eight Years. My Plan Eliminates Capital Gains Taxes Entirely For The Small Businesses And Start-ups That Are The Backbone Of Our Economy, As Opposed To John Mccain's Plan, Which Would Tax These Businesses. John Mccain Is Running To Serve Out A Third Bush Term. But The Truth Is, When It Comes To Taxes, That's Not Being Fair To George Bush.

One Of The Great Things About Being Commander In Chief Is Getting To Know Our Men And Women In Uniform In A Very Intimate Way, Whether It's Visiting Walter Reed And Seeing Our Wounded Soldiers, Or Being On A Base And Talking To Families, Or Interacting With Them On Missions. They're The Best Of The Best: Always Thinking About The Mission, Not Thinking About Credit, Not Thinking About Who's Up Front.

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

If We Don’t Uphold Our Constitution And Our Values, That Over Time, That Will Make Us Less Safe And That Will Be A Recruitment Tool For Organizations Like Al Qaeda. That’s What I Have To Keep My Eye On.

It Still Puts Burden On Some Troops Of Ours Who Are There [in Afghanistan And Iraq] As Advisors And Facilitators.

If You Look At How I've Tried To And How I'll Continue To Try To Govern, I'm Not Driven By Some Ideological Agenda. I'm A Pretty Practical Guy And I Just Want To Make Sure That Things Work.

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

Their Foreign Policy Is So Disjointed, Confusing, And Chaotic That, Really, People Need To Reexamine Those Who Want To Be Involved In Every War.

The Interests Of All Cypriots Would Be Advanced With A Bizonal Bicommunal Federation.

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.

When People Are Oppressed, And Human Rights Are Denied - Particularly Along Sectarian Lines Or Ethnic Lines - When Dissent Is Silenced, It Feeds Violent Extremism, It Creates An Environment That Is Ripe For Terrorists To Exploit. When Peaceful, Democratic Change Is Impossible, It Feeds Into The Terrorist Propaganda That Violence Is The Only Answer Available.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer Just A Christian Nation; We Are Also A Jewish Nation, A Muslim Nation, A Buddhist Nation, A Hindu Nation, And A Nation Of Nonbelievers.

Every President Who Has Tried To Bring About Big Changes I Think Elicits The Most Passionate Responses.

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

It's Hard To Anticipate. I Can Tell You What I'm Feeling Right Now Is That I'm Busier Than I Expected These Last Two Weeks. A Great Deal Of Emotion Around The People That I've Worked With And The Gratitude I Feel For The Sacrifices They've Made On Behalf Of The American People, But Also On Behalf Of Me Personally.

Palestinians Will Never Realize Their Independence By Denying The Right Of Israel To Exist.

I Guarantee That There Is No Political Influence In Any Investigation Conducted By The Justice Department Or The Fbi, Not Just In This Case, But In Any Case, Full Stop, Period.

Guarantees That

I Have Much More Confidence In My Ability, Or Any President Or Any Leader's Ability, To Mobilize The American People Around A Multiyear, Multibillion-dollar Investment To Help Every Child In Poverty In This Country Than I Am In Being Able To Mobilize The Country Around Providing A Benefit Specific To African Americans As A Consequence Of Slavery And Jim Crow.

I Think We've Set The Bar With Respect To The Notion That It Is Possible To Provide Health Care For People. Now I Know That The Incoming Congress And Administration Talks About Repealing It. But We've Set A Bar That Shows That This Can Be Done. And That Core Principle Is One That The Majority Of Americans, Including Supporters Of Donald Trump Believe In.

Throughout History, The Arts And Humanities Have Helped Men And Women Around The Globe Grapple With The Most Challenging Questions And Come To Know The Most Basic Truths. In Our Increasingly Interconnected World, The Arts Play An Important Role In Both Shaping The Character That Defines Us And Reminding Us Of Our Shared Humanity. This Month, We Celebrate Our Nation's Arts And Humanities, And We Recommit To Ensuring All Americans Can Access And Experience Them.

It Is Time To Leave Behind The Divisive Battles Of The Past. It Is Time To Move Forward As One Nation.

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

Against Violence

With Respect To Russia, My Principal Approach To Russia Has Been Constant Since I First Came Into Office. Russia Is An Important Country. It Is A Military Superpower. It Has Influence In The Region And It Has Influence Around The World.

If You Give Up On The Idea That Your Voice Can Make A Difference, Then Other Voices Will Fill The Void

The United States, Therefore, Works To Ensure That Any Actions We Take Are Consistent With International Laws And Norms - Including Those Reflected In The Law Of The Sea Convention. It's Worth Remembering That Our Presence In The Region Is Nothing New.

I Would Meet Directly With The Leadership In Iran.

California Is Our Biggest Economy. California Is Our Biggest Agricultural Producer. So What Happens Here Matters To Every Working American.

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

These People Are A Part Of Me. And They Are A Part Of America, This Country That I Love.

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

I Didn't Have A Perfect Model, But I Wanted To Try To Blend My Own Personal Reflections And Experiences With This Broader Canvas To See How A Lot Of The Narratives We Have About Economy And Foreign Policy Got Stuck. Because We Have These Categories Of Liberal, Conservative, Free Marketer, Open Government - All These Stereotypes About Our Politics And The Categories We Try To Put Things In Are Inadequate To This Sort Of Complex, Ambiguous, Sometimes Contradictory Experience We Have As Ordinary People And That I Have As An Elected Official.

We Live In A Complex World And At A Challenging Time.

Challenging Times

There Is Not A Black America And A White America; A Latino America, An Asian America. There Is The United States Of America.

I Think That There's A Power In That [information Through Tweets And Sound Bites ]. There's Also A Danger, What Generates A Headline Or Stirs Up A Controversy And Gets Attention Isn't The Same As The Process Required To Actually Solve The Problem.

When I've Sent Young Men And Women Into Harm's Way, I Always Understand That That Is The Last Resort, Not The First Resort.

Americans... Still Believe In An America Where Anything's Possible - They Just Don't Think Their Leaders Do.

There Have Been Times Where, Let's Say On Lgbt Issues, When We Were Trying To End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, And I Got The Pentagon And Bob Gates, A Republican Holdover From The [george W.] Bush Administration, To Authorize A Study Of How You Might End Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Headed Up By Jeh Johnson, Who At That Time Was A Council To The Justice Department. And It Was Going To Take A Year To Conduct That Study, Issue A Report, And Figure Out How It Might Be Implemented, What Effect It Would Have On Unit Cohesion And Military Effectiveness.

The Authorization I Propose Would Provide The Flexibility To Conduct Ground Combat Operations In Other More Limited Circumstances, Such As Rescue Operations Involving U.s. Or Coalition Personnel Or The Use Of Special Operations Forces To Take Military Action Against Isil Leadership, It Would Also Authorize The Use Of U.s. Forces In Situations Where Ground Combat Operations Are Not Expected Or Intended, Such As Intelligence Collection And Sharing, Missions To Enable Kinetic Strikes Or The Provision Of Operational Planning And Other Forms Of Advice And Assistance To Partner Forces.

We Didn't Become The Most Prosperous Country In The World Just By Rewarding Greed And Recklessness. We Didn't Come This Far By Letting The Special Interests Run Wild. We Didn't Do It Just By Gambling And Chasing Paper Profits On Wall Street. We Built This Country By Making Things, By Producing Goods We Could Sell.

Hope -- Hope In The Face Of Difficulty. Hope In The Face Of Uncertainty. The Audacity Of Hope! In The End, That Is God’s Greatest Gift To Us...a Belief In Things Not Seen. A Belief That There Are Better Days Ahead.

Around The World, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela -- What They Did Was Hard. It Takes Time. It Takes More Than A Single Term. It Takes More Than A Single President. It Takes More Than A Single Individual.

Peace Is Not Merely The Absence Of Visible Conflict.

I Don't Expect To Get 100 Percent Of What I Want, But What We Can't Do Is Go Back To The Kind Of Top-down Economics That Doesn't Work.

We've Evolved A Lot Since 9/11 Also, In Terms Of Our Law Enforcement Capabilities, Our Intelligence Capabilities, Military, Counterterrorism.

I Think We Can Provide Common-sense Approaches To The Issue Of Illegal Guns That Are Ending Up On The Streets. We Can Make Sure That Criminals Don't Have Guns In Their Hands. We Can Make Certain That Those Who Are Mentally Deranged Are Not Getting A Hold Of Handguns. We Can Trace Guns That Have Been Used In Crimes To Unscrupulous Gun Dealers That May Be Selling To Straw Purchasers And Dumping Them On The Streets.

I Think, The Argument Sometimes That I've Had With Folks Who Are Much More Interested In Sort Of Race-specific Programs Is Less An Argument About What Is Practically Achievable And Sometimes Maybe More An Argument Of "we Want Society To See What's Happened, And Internalize It, And Answer It In Demonstrable Ways." And Those Impulses I Very Much Understand.

I've Got Certain Responsibilities That I Have To Carry Out In A Very Specific Institution And In A Specific Moment In Time.

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

My Identity Might Begin With The Fact Of My Race, But It Didn't, Couldn't End There. At Least That's What I Would Choose To Believe.

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

American Economy

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

Keeping Our Military Strong Means Keepin' Our Families Strong.

I Believe That We Have Better Ideas. But I Also Believe That Good Ideas Don't Matter If People Don't Hear Them.

I Look At Some Of The Kids That I Interact With, And They Were Born With So Many Disadvantages. And You Could Start Off In Your First Interaction With Them Saying, "unless They Get A Lot Of Compensatory Help, They're Not Going To Be Able To Compete; They're Just So Far Behind, And They're Wounded And They're Hurt."

And That, I Suppose, Is What I'd Been Trying To Tell My Mother That Day: That Her Faith In Justice And Rationality Was Misplaced, That We Couldn't Overcome After All, That All The Education And Good Intentions In The World Couldn't Help You Plug Up The Holes In The Universe Or Give You The Power To Change Its Blind, Mindless Course.

I Hoped For Something Else. It's A Simple Dream, But It Speaks To Us So Powerfully Because It Is Our Dream - One That Exists At The Very Center Of The American Experience. One That Says If You're Willing To Work Hard And Take Responsibility, Then You'll Have The Chance To Reach For Something Else; For Something Better.

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

The Young Are Going To Be The Messengers Of This Continued Strengthening Of The Diversity In America.

We Run Everything To Ground. If You See Something, Say Something. Report Your Concerns To Law Enforcement. They Will Be Looked At, They Will Be Reviewed.

You Have To Be Involved In Terms Of What's Happening In Your Local Neighborhood And What Issues Are There.

As Long As Countries Like China Keep Going All In On Clean Energy, So Must We.

I'm Really Excited About The Prospect Of A Woman President Of The United States.

We Are God's Partners In Matters Of Life And Death.

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

It Should Be The Power Of Our Vote, Not The Size Of Our Bank Accounts, That Drives Our Democracy

In That Kind Of Environment, Where There's So Much Skepticism About Information That's Coming In, We're Gonna Have To Spend A Lot More Time Thinking About How Do We Protect Our Democratic Process.

Even If The Criticism Is Not Always Perfectly Informed And In Some Cases I Would Deem Unfair, Just The Noise, Attention, Fuss Probably Keeps Powerful Officials Or Agencies On Their Toes. And They Should Be On Their Toes When It Comes To The Use Of Deadly Force.

We Need To Spend A Trillion Dollars Rebuilding Our Schools, Our Roads, Our Basic Science And Research Here In The United States.

The World Is Complicated And Full Of Grays, But There's Still Truth There To Be Found.

I've Been To 57 States.

There's No Question That A Lot Of Americans On Both The Right And The Left Are Expressing Some Fears And Frustrations About The Dislocations Brought On By Globalisation. Many Of Those Frustrations Are Legitimate And They Need To Be Addressed.

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

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.

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.

The Values That We Share - Freedom Of Speech, Freedom Of Religious Practice, Freedom For Civil Society, Free And Fair Elections, All The Innovation That's Been Created Through A Market-based Economy - Those Things Are Ultimately Going To Be The Path For Us To Continue Into A Better Future. I Hope That, Despite Some Of The Challenges We Have, That People Appreciate That.

In Reaffirming The Greatness Of Our Nation, We Understand That Greatness Is Never A Given. It Must Be Earned. Our Journey Has Never Been One Of Shortcuts Or Settling For Less. It Has Not Been The Path For The Faint-hearted, For Those Who Prefer Leisure Over Work, Or Seek Only The Pleasures Of Riches And Fame. Rather, It Has Been The Risk-takers, The Doers, The Makers Of Things -- Some Celebrated, But More Often Men And Women Obscure In Their Labor -- Who Have Carried Us Up The Long, Rugged Path Towards Prosperity And Freedom.

The United States Was Proud To Stand With The People Of Germany As This Nation And This Continent Reunited And Rebuilt And Reached For A Better Future.

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

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.

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.

Number One, It Is Absolutely Critical That We Tone Down The Rhetoric When It Comes To The Immigration Debate, Because There Has Been An Undertone That Has Been Ugly. Oftentimes, It Has Been Directed At The Hispanic Community. We Have Seen Hate Crimes Skyrocket In The Wake Of The Immigration Debate As It Has Been Conducted In Washington, And That Is Unacceptable.

This Is A Time Of Great Change In The World But America's Always Been A Pillar Of Strength And A Beacon Of Hope To Peoples Around The Globe And That's What It Must Continue To Be.

She Is Running Around Talking About How This Is An Insult To Sportsmen, How She Values The Second Amendment. She's Talking Like She's Annie Oakley.

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.

I Would Say To People Is, That Investigation, As It Has Already Been Stated, Is A Marathon And Not A Sprint. But It Is One Of Great Concern To The American People. And So We're Committed To Keeping People Informed.

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

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

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.

Americans Coming Home, An Iran That Has Rolled Back Its Nuclear Program And Accepted Unprecedented Monitoring Of The Program -these Things Are A Reminder Of What We Can Achieve When We Lead With Strength And With Wisdom, With Courage And Resolve And Patience. America Can Do And Has Done Big Things When We Work Together.

We've Got Some Fundamental Choices To Make About The Kind Of Country We Want To Be. Will We Accept An Economy Where Only A Few Of Us Do Spectacularly Well, Or Are We Going To Build An Economy Where Everyone Who Works Hard Has A Chance To Get Ahead?

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

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

Islam Has Always Been Part Of America

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

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.

Focusing Your Life Solely On Making A Buck Shows A Poverty Of Ambition. It Asks Too Little Of Yourself. And It Will Leave You Unfulfilled.

The Future Rewards Those Who Press On. I Don't Have Time To Feel Sorry For Myself. I Don't Have Time To Complain. I'm Going To Press On.

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.

Anybody Gone Into Whole Foods Lately And See What They Charge For Arugula? I Mean, They're Charging A Lot Of Money For This Stuff.

We Do Not Believe That In This Country, Freedom Is Reserved For The Lucky, Or Happiness For The Few.

All The Good Things That Are Happening In America Don't Get Reported On A Lot.

There Is Enormous Continuity Beneath The Day-to-day News That Makes America That Indispensable Nation When It Comes To Maintaining Order And Promoting Prosperity Around The World.

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

There’s Only One Thing We Can Be Sure Of, And That Is The Love That We Have -- For Our Children, For Our Families, For Each Other. The Warmth Of A Small Child’s Embrace -- That Is True. The Memories We Have Of Them, The Joy That They Bring, The Wonder We See Through Their Eyes, That Fierce And Boundless Love We Feel For Them, A Love That Takes Us Out Of Ourselves, And Binds Us To Something Larger -- We Know That’s What Matters. We Know We’re Always Doing Right When We’re Taking Care Of Them, When We’re Teaching Them Well, When We’re Showing Acts Of Kindness. We Don’t Go Wrong When We Do That.

Despite All The Noise And Hullabaloo - Military Cooperation, Intelligence Cooperation, All Of That Has Continued. We Have Defended Them Consistently In Every Imaginable Way. But I Also Believe That Both For Our National Interests And Israel's National Interests That Allowing An Ongoing Conflict Between Israelis And Palestinians That Could Get Worse And Worse Over Time Is A Problem. And That Settlements Contribute.

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.

To Those Of You Mourn The Loss Of A Loved One Today, My Heart Goes Out To You. We Remember That The Blessings That We Enjoy As Americans Came At A Dear Cost. Our Nation Owes A Debt To Its Fallen Heroes That We Cannot Ever Fully Repay. But We Can Honor Their Sacrifice, And We Must. We Must Honor It In Our Own Lives By Holding Their Memories Close To Our Hearts, And Heeding The Example They Set.

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

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz

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