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

-Barack Obama

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There Will Be Setbacks

Barack Obama

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

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African American

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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.

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This Pleased Onyango, For To Him Knowledge Was The Source Of All The White Man's Power, And He Wanted To Make Sure That His Son Was As Educated As Any White Man.

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Guarantees That

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One Faction Of One Party, In One House Of Congress, In One Branch Of Government, Doesn't Get To Shut Down The Entire Government Just To Refight The Results Of An Election.

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My Fellow Americans, We Are And Always Will Be A Nation Of Immigrants. We Were Strangers Once, Too.

Undocumented Workers

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I Invigorated The Grassroots In The Republican Party As Well As The Democratic Party.

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.

The Presidency Has A Funny Way Of Making A Person Feel The Need To Pray.

Elections Matter And Voting Counts.

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

If The Court Finds That There Is Not A State Interest In Discriminating And Showing Moral Disapproval Of Homosexuality Then We Can't Stop Equal Marriage Rights.

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

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 Buy Our Own Toilet Paper Even Here In The White House.

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I Have Made It Clear That We Will Hunt Down Terrorists Who Threaten Our Country, Wherever They Are. That Means I Will Not Hesitate To Take Action Against Isil In Syria, As Well As Iraq. This Is A Core Principle Of My Presidency: If You Threaten America, You Will Find No Safe Haven.

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

We Can't Discount How Scary And Shaken Not Just The Turkish Government Is, But Turkish Society Is. Imagine If You Had Some Rump Group Of Military Officials Here In The United States Who Started Flying Off With F-16s Or Other Artillery And Were Taking Shots At Government Buildings, And People Were Killed And Injured. People Would Be Scared And Rightfully So.

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.

Health Care Got Done Because There Were A Lot Of People Out There Who Aren't Professional Politicians, But Are Citizens, Who Pushed For It Even When The Politics Was Hard.

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

I Strongly Agree With Vice President Gore That We Cannot Drill Our Way To Energy Independence, But Must Fast-track Investments In Renewable Sources Of Energy Like Solar Power, Wind Power And Advanced Biofuels...

I Don't Regret The Fervor, Because I Do Believe, In The African American Community But Also For Other Communities, And I Know From Talking To People, For Communities Around The World, The Election Of An African American To The Most Powerful Office On Earth Meant Things Had Changed, And Not Just In Superficial Ways. That In Some Irreversible Way The World Was Different.

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.

We As A Country Have To Do Some Soul-searching.

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

I Confess To Wincing Every So Often At A Poorly Chosen Word, A Mangled Sentence, An Expression Of Emotion That Seems Indulgent Or Overly Practiced. I Have The Urge To Cut The Book By Fifty Pages Or So, Possessed As I Am With A Keener Appreciation For Brevity.

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.

I Say That Is Because Those Are The Times Where Sometimes You Feel Actually A Little Bit Hurt. Because You Feel Like Saying To These Folks, "[don't] You Think If I Could Do It, I [would] Have Just Done It. Do You Think That The Only Problem Is That I Don't Care Enough About The Plight Of Poor People, Or Gay People, Or Immigrants, Or ...?"

Politics In This Country [usa] Is Always Tough. It's Always Contentious, Because This Is A Big Country And A Diverse Country, And People Have Strong Points Of View, And We've Got A Great Diversity Of Interests.

It Ought To Concern Every Person, Because It Is A Debasement Of Our Common Humanity. It Ought To Concern Every Community, Because It Tears At Our Social Fabric. It Ought To Concern Every Business, Because It Distorts Markets. It Ought To Concern Every Nation, Because It Endangers Public Health And Fuels Violence And Organized Crime. I’m Talking About The Injustice, The Outrage, Of Human Trafficking, Which Must Be Called By Its True Name - Modern Slavery.

Common Humanity

And, As A Consequence Of The Pressure That We've Applied Over The Last Couple Of Weeks, We Have Syria -- For The First Time -- Acknowledging That It Has Chemical Weapons, Agreeing To Join The Convention That Prohibits The Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The Russians -- Their Primary Sponsors -- Saying That They Will Push Syria To Get All Of Their Chemical Weapons Out. The Distance That We've Traveled Over These Couple Of Weeks Is Remarkable.

Did I Recognize That There Was Anger Or Frustration In The American Population? Of Course I Did. First Of All, We Had To Fight Back From The Worst Recession Since The Great Depression, And I Can Guarantee You If Your Housing Values Have Crashed And You've Lost Most Of Your Pension And You've Lost Your Job, You're Going To Be Pretty Angry.

This Counter-terrorism Campaign Will Be Waged Through A Steady, Relentless Effort To Take Out Isil Wherever They Exist, Using Our Air Power And Our Support For Partner Forces On The Ground. This Strategy Of Taking Out Terrorists Who Threaten Us, While Supporting Partners On The Front Lines, Is One That We Have Successfully Pursued In Yemen And Somalia For Years.

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

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?

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

Congress Has Become So Dysfunctional That More And More Of A Burden Is Placed On The Agencies To Fill In The Gaps. And The Gaps Get Bigger And Bigger Because They're Not Constantly Refreshed And Tweaked.

We Have Concerns Whenever We See People Who Have Large Stockpiles Of Weapons, Or Appear To Be In The Process Of Accumulating Weapons And Ammunition.

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.

Consistent With Section 202(d) Of The National Emergencies Act, 50 U.s.c. 1622(d), I Am Continuing For 1 Year The National Emergency Previously Declared On September 14, 2001, In Proclamation 7463, With Respect To The Terrorist Attacks Of September 11, 2001, And The Continuing And Immediate Threat Of Further Attacks On The United States. Because The Terrorist Threat Continues, The National Emergency Declared On September 14, 2001, And The Powers And Authorities Adopted To Deal With That Emergency Must Continue In Effect Beyond September 14, 2010.

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

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

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.

[young People] Are Showing Enormous And Entrepreneurship And Working With Each Other Across Borders.

Entrepreneurship

At Various Periods In American History, People Get Pretty Rambunctious When It Comes To Our Democratic Debate.

American History

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.

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

The Sweetest Sound I Know Is The Muslim Call To Prayer.

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.

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.

I'm Named Barack Hussein Obama. I'm African-american.

African American

I Always Tell My Staff, "better Is Good." I'll Take Better Every Time, Because Better Is Hard.

I Think Ronald Reagan Changed The Trajectory Of America In A Way That Richard Nixon Did Not And In A Way That Bill Clinton Did Not. He Put Us On A Fundamentally Different Path Because The Country Was Ready For It.

We Have Seen Violence And Terror Perpetrated By Those Who Profess To Stand Up For Faith, Their Faith. Professed To Stand Up For Islam, But In Fact Are Betraying It. Humanity Has Been Grappling With These Questions Throughout Human History. And Lest We Get On Our High Horse And Think This Is Unique To Some Other Place, Remember That During The Crusades And The Inquisition People Committed Terrible Deeds In The Name Of Christ.

Throughout History, Islam Has Demonstrated Through Words And Deeds The Possibilities Of Religious Tolerance And Racial Equality.

Unless We Are Holding Ourselves Accountable Day In, Day Out, Not Just When There's A Crisis For Folks Who Have Power And Influence And Can Hire Lobbyists, But For The Nurse, The Teacher, The Police Officer, Who, Frankly, At The End Of Each Month, They've Got A Little Financial Crisis Going On. They're Having To Take Out Extra Debt Just To Make Their Mortgage Payments. We Haven't Been Paying Attention To Them. And If You Look At Our Tax Policies In America, It's A Classic Example.

I Think The Big Challenge That We've Got On Education Is Making Sure That From Kindergarten Or Prekindergarten Through Your 14th Or 15th Year Of School, Or 16th Year Of School, Or 20th Year Of School, That You Are Actually Learning The Kinds Of Skills That Make You Competitive And Productive In A Modern, Technological Economy.

I Actually Believe In Redistribution (of Wealth)

Redistribution Of Wealth

What The American People Hope - What They Deserve - Is For All Of Us, Democrats And Republicans, To Work Through Our Differences; To Overcome The Numbing Weight Of Our Politics. For While The People Who Sent Us Here Have Different Backgrounds, Different Stories, Different Beliefs, The Anxieties They Face Are The Same. The Aspirations They Hold Are Shared: A Job That Pays The Bills; A Chance To Get Ahead; Most Of All, The Ability To Give Their Children A Better Life.

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

A Mother Deserves A Day Off To Care For A Sick Child Or Sick Parent Without Running Into Hardship - And You Know What, A Father Does, Too. It's Time To Do Away With Workplace Policies That Belong In A 'mad Men' Episode.

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.

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

We Have To Stand Up For These Issues When It's Tough, And That's What I've Done. I Did It When I Was In The State Legislature, Sponsoring The Illinois Version Of The Dream Act, So That Children Who Were Brought Here Through No Fault Of Their Own Are Able To Go To College, Because We Actually Want Well-educated Kids In Our Country Who Are Able To Succeed And Become Part Of This Economy And Part Of The American Dream.

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

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.

In America, We Started The Public School System Very Early In The Century, And As A Consequence We Had More Skilled Workers Than Any Nation On Earth, Which Meant That We Were More Productive Than Any Nation On Earth.

What We Have Done, I Think, Is Build A Model From A Lot Of Hard Lessons In Afghanistan And Iraq But In Other Places Around The World, Where We Are Working With Them In An Advisory Capacity.

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 Would Not Be Running For President If I Didn't Believe With All My Heart That This Is What The Vast Majority Of Americans Want For This Country. This Union May Never Be Perfect, But Generation After Generation Has Shown That It Can Always Be Perfected. And Today, Whenever I Find Myself Feeling Doubtful Or Cynical About This Possibility, What Gives Me The Most Hope Is The Next Generation - The Young People Whose Attitudes And Beliefs And Openness To Change Have Already Made History In This Election.

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

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