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They Say I Need To Be Seasoned; They Say I Need To Be Stewed. They Say, 'we Need To Boil All The Hope Out Of Him -- Like Us -- And Then He'll Be Ready.'

-Barack Obama

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They Say I Need

Barack Obama

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They Say I Need To Be Seasoned; They Say I Need To Be Stewed. They Say, 'we Need To Boil All The Hope Out Of Him -- Like Us -- And Then He'll Be Ready.'

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We Know The Battle Ahead Will Be Long, But Always Remember That No Matter What Obstacles Stand In Our Way, Nothing Can Stand In The Way Of The Power Of Millions Of Voices Calling For Change. We Have Been Told We Cannot Do This By A Chorus Of Cynics. They Will Only Grow Louder And More Dissonant. We've Been Asked To Pause For A Reality Check. We've Been Warned Against Offering The People Of This Nation False Hope. But In The Unlikely Story That Is America, There Has Never Been Anything False About Hope.

I Decided To Become A Community Organizer ... Change Won't Come From The Top, I Would Say. Change Will Come From A Mobilized Grass Roots.

Here At Home, We Will Strengthen Our Defenses But Not Succumb To A Siege Mentality That Sacrifices The Open Society And Liberties And Values That We Cherish As Americans, Because Great And Proud Nations Don't Hunker Down And Hide Behind Walls Of Suspicion And Mistrust.

We Will Harness The Sun And The Winds And The Soil To Fuel Our Cars And Run Our Factories.

For The Sake Of Our Security, Our Economy And Our Planet, We Must Have The Courage And Commitment To Change.

It's Not A Nice-to-have - It's A Must-have. It's Time We Stop Treating Child Care As A Side Issue, Or A Women's Issue, And Treat It Like The National Economic Priority That It Is For All Of Us.

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

The Freedom Of Information Act Should Be Administered With A Clear Presumption: In The Face Of Doubt, Openness Prevails.

Our Kids Grew Up Here [in The White House]. Some Of Our Best Friends Have Been Made Here In This Place. There Have Been Moments That Were Highlights For Us - That - You Know, Are Going To Be Hard To Duplicate.

Being A Father Is Sometimes My Hardest But Always My Most Rewarding Job. Happy Father's Day To All The Dads Out There.

The Study Of Geography Is About More Than Just Memorizing Places On A Map. It's About Understanding The Complexity Of Our World, Appreciating The Diversity Of Cultures That Exists Across Continents. And In The End, It's About Using All That Knowledge To Help Bridge Divides And Bring People Together.

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

Let's Also Say That The Justice Department And The Courts Are Making Sure, As I've Said In A Speech Before, That When Jamal Sends His Résumé In, He's Getting Treated The Same As When Johnny Sends His Résumé In.now, Are We Going To Have Suddenly The Same Number Of Ceos, Billionaires, Etc., As The White Community? In 10 Years? Probably Not, Maybe Not Even In 20 Years. But I Guarantee You That We Would Be Thriving, We Would Be Succeeding. We Wouldn't Have Huge Numbers Of Young African American Men In Jail.

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

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.

I Am Absolutely Certain That Generations From Now, We Will Be Able To Look Back And Tell Our Children That This Was The Moment When We Began To Provide Care For The Sick And Good Jobs To The Jobless; This Was The Moment When The Rise Of The Oceans Began To Slow And Our Planet Began To Heal; This Was The Moment When We Ended A War And Secured Our Nation And Restored Our Image As The Last, Best Hope On Earth. This Was The Moment - This Was The Time - When We Came Together To Remake This Great Nation So That It May Always Reflect Our Very Best Selves And Our Highest Ideals.

Reversing Structural Problems In Our Economy That Have Been Building Up For Two Decades, That Was Gonna Take Time. It Was Gonna Take More Than A Year. It Was Gonna Take More Than Two Years. It Was Gonna Take More Than One Term. Probably Takes More Than One President.

We've Got To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong At Home So That We Can Project Military Power Overseas.

We Know What Happens When Europeans Start Dividing Themselves Up And Emphasizing Their Differences And Seeing A Competition Between Various Countries In A Zero Sum Way.

I Think That Canada Is One Of The Most Impressive Countries In The World, The Way It Has Managed A Diverse Population, A Migrant Economy. The Natural Beauty Of Canada Is Extraordinary. Obviously There Is Enormous Kinship Between The United States And Canada, And The Ties That Bind Our Two Countries Together Are Things That Are Very Important To Us.

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

Maybe You Could Be A Great Writer - Maybe Even Good Enough To Write A Book Or Articles In A Newspaper - But You Might Not Know It Until You Write That English Paper - That English Class Paper That's Assigned To You.

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.

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

The Most Important Thing We Can Do Is To Make Sure That We've Got Very High Standards, We Expect A Lot Out Of All Of Our Young People, And We Make Sure That We Have The Best Teachers Possible In Every Classroom.

You Can’t Let Your Failures Define You. You Have To Let Your Failures Teach You.

I Was A Constitutional Law Professor, Which Means Unlike The Current President I Actually Respect The Constitution.

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.

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

Part Of America's Genius Has Always Been Its Ability To Absorb Newcomers, To Forge A National Identity Out Of The Disparate Lot That Arrived On Our Shores.

When We Send Our Young Men And Women Into Harm's Way, We Have A Solemn Obligation Not To Fudge The Numbers Or Shade The Truth About Why They're Going, To Care For Their Families While They're Gone, To Tend To The Soldiers Upon Their Return, And To Never Ever Go To War Without Enough Troops To Win The War, Secure The Peace, And Earn The Respect Of The World.

We Believe That No Matter Where You Live - Whether A Village In Punjab Or The Bylanes Of Chandni Chowk, An Old Section Of Kolkata Or A New High-rise In Bangalore - Every Person Deserves The Same Chance To Live In Security And Dignity, To Get An Education, To Find Work, And To Give Their Children A Better Future.

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 Think It's Very Important To Remember That So Much Of The Work That Gets Done Between Countries Is Not Done At The Level Of Presidents, But Is Done Within Various Agencies, Whether It's Law Enforcement Or Economic Ministries. And When They Establish Relationships And Systems Of Communications And Shared Projects And Shared Visions, Those Structures Continue Even After Any Particular President Is Gone. It Builds Trust And Understanding Between Countries That Are Critically Important.

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.

What I Value Most About Pastor Wright Is Not His Day-to-day Political Advice. He's Much More Of A Sounding Board For Me To Make Sure That I Am Speaking As Truthfully About What I Believe As Possible And That I'm Not Losing Myself In Some Of The Hype And Hoopla And Stress That's Involved In National Politics.

Yes To Trade, But Trade That Ensures That These Other Countries That Trade With Us Aren't Engaging In Child Labor.

I Think [ Chief Organizer Of The Democratic Party ] It's Something That I Have An Interest In.

We Have To Have A President Who Is Clear That You Don't Deal With Russia Based On Staring Into His Eyes And Seeing His Soul. You Deal With Russia Based On, What Are Your - What Are The National Security Interests Of The United States Of America? And We Have To Recognize That The Way They've Been Behaving Lately Demands A Sharp Response From The International Community And Our Allies.

Societies In Which We Are Able To Unify Ourselves Around Values And Ideals And Character And How We Treat Each Other And Cooperation And Innovation, Ultimately Are Gonna Be More Successful Than Societies That Don't.

The Soldier 's Courage And Sacrifice Is Full Of Glory , Expressing Devotion To Country , To Cause, To Comrades In Arms. But War Itself Is Never Glorious , And We Must Never Trumpet It As Such.

America Is A Land Of Big Dreamers And Big Hopes. It Is This Hope That Has Sustained Us Through Revolution And Civil War, Depression And World War, A Struggle For Civil And Social Rights And The Brink Of Nuclear Crisis. And It Is Because Our Dreamers Dreamed That We Have Emerged From Each Challenge More United, More Prosperous, And More Admired Than Before.

That Is The American Story. People, Just Like You, Following Their Passions, Determined To Meet The Times On Their Own Terms. They Weren't Doing It For The Money. Their Titles Weren't Fancy. But They Changed The Course Of History And So Can You.

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The Ability Of Republican Leaders To Rile Up Their Base - Helped Along By Folks Like Rush Limbaugh, Some Commentators On Fox News - I Think Created An Environment In Which Republican Voters Would Punish Republicans For Cooperating With Me. That Hothouse Of Back-and-forth Argument And - And Really Sharp Partisanship I Think Has Been Harmful To America.

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In The Unlikely Story That Is America, There Has Never Been Anything False About Hope.

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[my Grandmother] Is A Typical White Person.

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I, More Than Anything, Obviously The Presidency Is The People, And It's Been Interesting The Emotions In The Last Few Months. What You Realize Is That You May Never Have The Team That Is Together In The Same Way, Under The Same Pressures, And The Attachments That You Make To Folks From Your Chief Of Staff Down To.

I'm A Warrior For The Middle Class.

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

I Have Always Had Extraordinarily Good Relations With Very Conservative Colleagues. And That's Not Because I Agree With Any Of Them Or Fudge On My Positions, But People Feel I Listen To Them And Give Them The Benefit Of The Doubt. I Assume The Best Of People. And That, I Think, Is An Attitude That Is Maybe Rare In Politics.

The Kind Of Violence, Looting, Destruction That We Saw From A Handful Of Individuals In Baltimore, There's No Excuse For That. That's Not A Statement. That's Not Politics. That's Not Activism. That's Just Criminal Behavior.

One Of The Things That You Learn, Having Been In This [president's] Office For Four Years, Is The Old Adage Of Abraham Lincoln's. That With Public Opinion There's Nothing You Can't Do And Without Public Opinion There's Very Little You Can Get Done.

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

For Decades, Our Differences With Iran Meant That Our Governments Almost Never Spoke To Each Other. Ultimately, That Did Not Advance America's Interests.

Our Resources May Be Finite, But Our Will Is Infinite, And I Am Confident That If We Come Together And Summon That Great American Spirit Once Again, We Will Meet The Challenges Of Our Time And Write The Next Great Chapter In Our American Story.

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

Entrepreneurship

What Is True Is [bashar] Assad Got Rid Of His Chemical Weapons.

Chemical Weapons

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I Believe In The Redemptive Death And Resurrection Of Jesus Christ.

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

You Bomb Isil. You're Not Trying To Bomb Innocent People. And That Requires Intelligence And Confidence In Our Military To Be Able To Develop The Kinds Of Targets That We Need. We're Already Doing Special Forces, Who Are Going To Help Us Gather That Intelligence And Help Advise And Assist And Train Local Forces So That They Can Go After Isil In Areas Like Raqqah And Mosul.

I Don't Look At My Pension. It's Not As Big As Yours So It Doesn't Take As Long.

It's Not Appealing To Deal With Countries That Express Hatred Towards Us.

The Countries Who Out-educate Us Today Will Out-compete Us Tomorrow.

You Might Be Locked In A World Not Of Your Own Making, Her Eyes Said, But You Still Have A Claim On How It Is Shaped. You Still Have Responsibilities.

We May Disagree About Gay Marriage, But Surely We Can Agree That It Is Unconscionable To Target Gays And Lesbians For Who They Are - Whether It's Here In The United States Or, As Hillary (clinton) Mentioned, More Extremely In Odious Laws That Are Being Proposed Most Recently In Uganda.

We've Had Every Official In Hawaii, Democrat And Republican, Every News Outlet That Has Investigated This, Confirm That, Yes, In Fact, I Was Born In Hawaii, Aug. 4, 1961, In Kapiolani Hospital.

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

That Just Gives Sort Of The Democracy An Opportunity To Test Ideas, For Those Who Lost To Catch Their Breath, Regain Energy, Re-energize Themselves And Then Get Back In The Arena, And Then We'll Make Some More Progress In The Future.

What Makes [cyber Security] Difficult Is Because It's Not Just A Government Problem. It Is A Private Sector And Government Problem. And There's Gotta Be A Lot More Cooperation.

But The Question Is, Do We Care Enough? Do We Care Enough To Keep Standing Up For The Country That We Know Is Possible, Even If It's Hard, And Even If It's Politically Uncomfortable? Do We Care Enough To Sustain The Passion And The Pressure To Make Our Communities Safer And Our Country Safer? Do We Care Enough To Do Everything We Can To Spare Other Families The Pain That Is Felt Here Today?

But At The End Of The Day, The Circumstances Of Your Life What You Look Like, Where You Come From, How Much Money You Have, What You've Got Going On At Home That's No Excuse ... Where You Are Right Now Doesn't Have To Determine Where You'll End Up. No One's Written Your Destiny For You. Here In America, You Write Your Own Destiny. You Make Your Own Future.

I Think Ultimately Is, Donald Trump Is Pragmatic.

I Don't Want To Pit Red America Against Blue America. I Want To Be President Of The United States Of America.

Broken Promises

We Built This Country By Making Things, By Producing Goods We Could Sell.

Us Intelligence Agencies Will Only Use Such Data To Meet Specific Security Requirements: Counterintelligence, Counterterrorism, Counterproliferation, Cybersecurity, Force Protection For Our Troops And Allies, And Combating Transnational Crime, Including Sanctions Evasion.

Now, Because He Knows That His Economic Theories Don't Work, He's Been Spending These Last Few Days Calling Me Every Name In The Book. Lately He's Called Me A Socialist For Wanting To Roll-back The Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans So We Can Finally Give Tax Relief To The Middle Class. I Don't Know What's Next. By The End Of The Week He'll Be Accusing Me Of Being A Secret Communist Because I Shared My Toys In Kindergarten. I Shared My Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich.

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

Theoretically, You Can Make, Obviously, A Powerful Argument That Centuries Of Slavery, Jim Crow, Discrimination Are The Primary Cause For All Those Gaps. That Those Were Wrongs Done To The Black Community As A Whole, And Black Families Specifically, And That In Order To Close That Gap, A Society Has A Moral Obligation To Make A Large, Aggressive Investment, Even If It's Not In The Form Of Individual Reparations Checks, But In The Form Of A Marshall Plan, In Order To Close Those Gaps. It Is Easy To Make That Theoretical Argument.

One Of The Things That I've Learned, And I Think We've All Learned, Is That We Are Not Going To Get The Kind Of Decisive, Permanent Victories In This Fight Against Terrorism That We Would Get From Fighting Another Country. We're Not Going To Get That Macarthur/emperor Moment, Because By Definition, Even After Decimating Al Qaeda In The Fata, Even After Taking Out [osama] Bin Laden There's Still People There Who Have Both The Interest And The Capacity If We Don't Maintain Vigilance To Strike Against The United States.

[a]lthough The Principle Of Equality Has Always Been Self-evident, It Has Never Been Self-executing.

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

Americans Should Tremble Before Suggesting That Any Fellow Citizen Lacks Patriotism.

The United States Will Do What We Must To Prevent Iran From Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon.

I Try Never To Get Too High When Things Are Going Well. I Try Never To Get Too Low When Things Are Going Poorly. I Try To Keep An Even Keel.

I'm Proud Of The Fact That I Stood Up Early And Unequivocally In Opposition To Bush's Foreign Policy. [...] That Opposition Hasn't Changed.

The Problem With All These Tired Excuses For Inaction Is That It Suggests A Fundamental Lack Of Faith In American Business And American Ingenuity.

I See Donald Trump As A Phenomenon Of An Expression Of Certain Fears, Certain Resentments, That Have Been A Running Thread In American History.

If You Only Think About Yourself - How Much Money Can I Make, What Can I Buy, How Nice Is My House, What Kind Of Fancy Car Do I Have? - Over The Long Term, I Think, You Get Bored. I Think Your Life Becomes Diminished. The Way To Live A Full Life Is To Think: What Can I Do For Others?

I Don't Wanna Preempt An Announcement Next Week. And There's A Lot Of Technical Aspects To It. And If I - Say - That We're Doing One Thing. Then The Markets Might Interpret It Differently From What It Ends Up Being.

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.

I Might Have Arguments With The Size Of Reagan's Military Buildup, But Given The Soviet Invasion Of Afghanistan, Staying Ahead Of The Soviets Militarily Seemed A Sensible Thing To Do. Pride In Our Country, Respect For Our Armed Services, A Healthy Appreciation For The Dangers Beyond Our Borders, An Insistence That There Was No Easy Equivalence Between East And West--in All This I Had No Quarrel With Reagan. And When The Berlin Wall Came Tumbling Down, I Had To Give The Old Man His Due, Even If I Never Gave Him My Vote.

Keep Exploring. Keep Dreaming. Keep Asking Why. Don’t Settle For What You Already Know. Never Stop Believing In The Power Of Your Ideas, Your Imagination, Your Hard Work To Change The World.

I Think It's A Healthy Thing For The Democratic Party To Go Through Some Reflection.

If We Can’t Puncture Some Of The Mythology Around Austerity, Politics Or Tax Cuts Or The Mythology That’s Been Built Up Around The Reagan Revolution, Where Somehow People Genuinely Think That He Slashed Government And Slashed The Deficit And That The Recovery Was Because Of All These Massive Tax Cuts, As Opposed To A Shift In Interest-rate Policy - If We Can’t Describe That Effectively, Then We’re Doomed To Keep On Making More And More Mistakes.

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.

The United States Is Committed To A Regional Order Rooted In International Rules And Norms, Including Freedom Of Navigation, And The Peaceful Resolution Of Disputes. That's The Only Way To Ensure Our Common Security.

Islam Is Not Part Of The Problem In Combating Violent Extremism - It Is An Important Part Of Promoting Peace.

The Best Judge Of Whether Or Not A Country Is Going To Develop Is How It Treats Its Women. If It's Educating Its Girls, If Women Have Equal Rights, That Country Is Going To Move Forward. But If Women Are Oppressed And Abused And Illiterate, Then They're Going To Fall Behind.

Each Side Has Legitimate Aspirations - And That's Part Of What Makes Peace So Hard. And The Deadlock Will Only Be Broken When Each Side Learns To Stand In The Other's Shoes; Each Side Can See The World Through The Other's Eyes. That's What We Should Be Encouraging. That's What We Should Be Promoting.

We Should Never Forget That God Granted Us The Power To Reason So That We Would Do His Work Here On Earth - So That We Would Use Science To Cure Disease, And Heal The Sick, And Save Lives.

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.

Peace Depends Upon Compromise Among Peoples Who Must Live Together Long After Our Speeches Are Over, Long After Our Votes Have Been Tallied.

You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of Other Kids Or Neighbors Who Were Wealthier Than You And Teased You. You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of High Expectations. But I Do Think That There Is A Youthful Ambition That Very Much Has To Do With Making Your Mark In The World. And I Think That Cuts Across The Experiences Of A Lot Of People Who End Up Achieving Something Significant In Their Field.

The Promotion Of Human Rights Cannot Be About Exhortation Alone. At Times, It Must Be Coupled With Painstaking Diplomacy. I Know That Engagement With Repressive Regimes Lacks The Satisfying Purity Of Indignation. But I Also Know That Sanctions Without Outreach -- Condemnation Without Discussion -- Can Carry Forward Only A Crippling Status Quo. No Repressive Regime Can Move Down A New Path Unless It Has The Choice Of An Open Door.

It's Not Surprising Then They Get Bitter, They Cling To Guns Or Religion Or Antipathy To People Who Aren't Like Them, Or Anti-immigrant Sentiment, Or Anti-trade Sentiment, As A Way To Explain Their Frustrations.

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.

My Strong Preference Has Always Been To Legislate When I Can Get Legislation Done.

Oftentimes, Misunderstandings And Antagonism Surfaces Most Strongly When Economic Times Are Tough. And That's Not Surprising. If Everybody Is Working And Feeling Good And Making Money And Buying A New House And A Big Screen Tv, You're Less Worried About What Other Folks Are Doing.

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.

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

Military Surge In Afghanistan To Eliminate The Taliban.

The Iranian Regime Supports Violent Extremists And Challenges Us Across The Region. It Pursues A Nuclear Capability That Could Spark A Dangerous Arms Race And Raise The Prospect Of A Transfer Of Nuclear Know-how To Terrorists. Its President Denies The Holocaust And Threatens To Wipe Israel Off The Map. The Danger From Iran Is Grave, It Is Real.

Without Investments In Research And Science That Will Create The Next Apple, Create The Next New Innovation That Will Sell Products Around The World, We Will Lose. If We're Not Training Engineers To Make Sure That They Are Equipped Here In This Country, Then Companies Won't Come Here. Those Investments Are What's Going To Help To Make Sure That We Continue To Lead This World Economy Not Just Next Year, But 10 Years From Now, 50 Years From Now, A Hundred Years From Now.

I Believe In Term Limits For Presidents Because I Think That There Is No Doubt I'm A Better President Now Than I Was When I Start. I Would Argue That I Am The Best President I've Ever Been Over The Last Year Or Two. My Team Is More Effective Than It's Ever Been.but What Is Also True Is That Number One, This Is Grueling.

Ultimately There Is No Dividing Line Between Main Street And Wall Street. We Will Rise Or We Will Fall Together As One Nation.

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.

I Have Made It A Top Priority For My Administration To Deepen Cooperation With Israel Across The Whole Spectrum Of Security Issues - Intelligence, Military, Technology.

[the Generation Engaged, Inspired, Worked For Change] That Generation, It's Coming. They're Not The Majority Yet But They're Gonna Be The Majority Soon.

We Think Of Faith As A Source Of Comfort And Understanding But Find Our Expressions Of Faith Sowing Division; We Believe Ourselves To Be A Tolerant People Even As Racial, Religious, And Cultural Tensions Roil The Landscape. And Instead Of Resolving These Tensions Or Mediating These Conflicts, Our Politics Fans Them, Exploits Them,and Drives Us Further Apart.

Thanksgiving Reminds Us That No Matter Our Differences, We're Still One People, Part Of Something Bigger Than Ourselves.

It Is Our Generation's Task, Then, To Reignite The True Engine Of America's Economic Growth - A Rising, Thriving Middle Class.

But Let Me Perfectly Clear, Because I Know You'll Hear The Same Old Claims That Rolling Back These Tax Breaks Means A Massive Tax Increase On The American People: If Your Family Earns Less Than $250,000 A Year, You Will Not See Your Taxes Increased A Single Dime. I Repeat: Not One Single Dime.

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

The Market Alone Can't Solve Our Health-care Woes.

If John Mccain Wants To Have A Debate About Who Has The Temperament, And Judgment, To Serve As The Next Commander-in-chief, That's A Debate I'm Ready To Have.

My Job To The Muslim World Is To Communicate That The Americans Are Not Your Enemy. We Sometimes Make Mistakes. We Have Not Been Perfect.

A Number Of Countries, Including Some Who Have Loudly Criticized The Nsa, Privately Acknowledge That America Has Special Responsibilities As The World's Only Superpower, That Our Intelligence Capabilities Are Critical To Meeting These Responsibilities, And That They Themselves Have Relied On The Information We Obtain To Protect Their Own People.

Nobody Wants To Put The Creditworthiness Of The United States In Jeopardy. Nobody Wants To See The United States Default. So We've Got To Seize This Moment, And We Have To Seize It Soon.

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.

In Sectors Like Energy, I Haven't Been Arguing For More Spending Per Se; I've Been Arguing That It Doesn't Make Sense For Us To Spend $4 Billion Subsidizing An Oil Industry That's Mature And Very Profitable. We Should Be Using That Money To Finance Clean Energy Of The Future.

I Found During The Course Of My Political Career On The National Scene There's A Point Where The Vanity Burns Away And You've Had Your Fill Of Your Name In The Papers, Or Big Adoring Crowds, Or The Exercise Of Power. And For Me That Happened Fairly Quickly. And Then You Are Really Focused On: What Am I Going To Get Done With This Strange Privilege That's Been Granted To Me? How Do I Make Myself Worthy Of It?

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.

It Is Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, And Dig Deeper, And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had - To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us.

Contrary To The Claims Of Some Of My Critics And Some Of The Editorial Pages, I Am An Ardent Believer In The Free Market.

I Had Said From The Start That I Thought Iraq Was A Mistake, That We Should Have Stayed Focused On Afghanistan. I Think It Was The Right Decision Because The Taliban At That Point Had Gotten A Lot Of Momentum Before I'd Gotten Into Office, Partly Because We Hadn't Been Paying Attention As Much As We Needed To To Afghanistan.

There Are Certain Things We Can Only Do Together. There Are Certain Things Only A Union Can Do. Only A Union Could Harness The Courage Of Our Pioneers To Settle The American West, Which Is Why President Abraham Lincoln Passed A Homestead Act Giving A Tract Of Land To Anyone Seeking A Stake In Our Growing Economy.

Nobody Really Thinks That Bush Or Mccain Have A Real Answer For The Challenges We Face, So What They're Going To Try To Do Is Make You Scared Of Me. You Know, He's Not Patriotic Enough. He's Got A Funny Name. You Know, He Doesn't Look Like All Those Other Presidents On Those Dollar Bills, You Know. He's Risky.

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

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

I Will Never Forget Who This Victory Truly Belongs To. It Belongs To You.

And We Can See The Positive Impacts Right Here At Solyndra. Less Than A Year Ago, We Were Standing On What Was An Empty Lot. But Through The Recovery Act, This Company Received A Loan To Expand Its Operations. This New Factory Is The Result Of Those Loans.

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

What We Saw Was That The Ferguson Police Department In Conjunction With The Municipality Saw Traffic Stops, Arrests, Tickets As A Revenue Generator, As Opposed To Serving The Community, And That It Systematically Was Biased Against African-americans In That City Who Were Stopped, Harassed, Mistreated, Abused, Called Names, Fined.

Here In Europe Some Of The Challenges Have To Do With Structures That Are So Complicated. You've Got Brussels, And You've Got Parliament, You've Got Councils And Then You've Got National Governments. So People Sometimes Don't Feel As If They Know Who's Making Decisions, And The More That We Can Bring People In And Engage Them, The Better. Some Of It Is Also Cultural And Social, People's Sense Of Identity.

I Have Never Had To Travel More Than Thirty Seconds From Home To Office, And It's Because Of That That I've Been Able To Maintain, Really A Family Life That Has Nurtured And Sustained Me During This Time [of Presidency].

America's Nurses Are The Beating Heart Of Our Medical System.

Over More Than A Decade, Iran Had Moved Ahead With Its Nuclear Program. And Before The Deal, It Had Installed Nearly 20,000 Centrifuges That Could Enrich Uranium For A Nuclear Bomb.

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

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

There Is A Wide Range Of Views Within The Jewish Community, So It's Not Monolithic.

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

Whatever Decisions I Make Are Going To Be Based First On A Strategy To Keep Us Safe And Then We'll Figure Out How To Resource It.

When The Economy's Shrinking, Providing Jobs, Spending On Things Like Infrastructure Can Actually Increase Revenue And Drive Down Debt. And Then, There's Going To Be A Time At Which Point Debt Has To Be Taken Care Of.

It May Be Something That Future Generations Are More Open To, But I Am Pretty Confident That For The Foreseeable Future, Using The Argument Of Nondiscrimination, And "let's Get It Right For The Kids Who Are Here Right Now," And Giving Them The Best Chance Possible, Is Going To Be A More Persuasive Argument.

If You Think That Running Your Economy Into The Ground And Having To Send Troops In In Order To Prop Up Your Only Ally Is Leadership, Then We've Got A Different Definition Of Leadership.

So On This Human Rights Day, Let Us Rededicate Ourselves To The Advancement Of Human Rights And Freedoms For All, And Pledge Always To Live By The Ideals We Promote To The World.

What I Worry About Would Be That You Essentially Have Two Chambers, The House And The Senate, But You Have Simply, Majoritarian, Absolute Power On Either Side. And That's Just Not What The Founders Intended.

Shaykh Bin Bayyah Described His Purpose. We Must Declare War On War So The Outcome Will Be Peace Upon Peace.

We Don't Believe In A Small America. We Believe In A Big America - A Tolerant America, A Just America, An Equal America - That Values The Service Of Every Patriot.

The Fact That There Is A Robust Debate In Congress Is Good. The Fact That The Debate Sometimes Seems Unanchored To Facts Is Not So Good.

This Is Where I Think Policies Do Need To Be Somewhat Race-specific, Is Making Sure That Institutions Are Not Discriminatory. So You've Got Something Like The Fha [federal Housing Administration], Which Was On Its Face A Universal Program That Involved A Huge Mechanism For Wealth Accumulation And People Entering Into The Middle Class.

The Number Of Americans Killed Since 9/11 By Terrorism, It's Less Than 100. If You Look At The Number That Have Been Killed By Gun Violence, It's In The Tens Of Thousands. And For Us Not To Be Able To Resolve That Issue Has Been Something That Is Distressing.

Since 2010, America Has Put More People Back To Work Than Europe, Japan, And All Advanced Economies Combined.

You Know, I Think That We Are Going To Be Ok. Look, Malia Is 10, So Three Years From Now She Is 13. Who Knows What Happens To Teenagers?

Our Intelligence Communities Spend A Lot Of Time And Effort Gathering A Lot Of Strands And A Lot Of Data [on Russian Hacking]. There Are Times Where They're Very Cautious And They Say, "we Think This Is What Happened, But We're Not Certain."

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

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

In America, One Of Our Challenges, Historically, Is That We Have Very Low Voting Rates, Even During Presidential Elections.

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

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

Common Humanity

I Know Cnn Has Taken Some Knocks Lately But The Fact Is, I Admire Their Commitment To Covering All Sides Of The Story, Just In Case One Of Them Happens To Be Accurate.

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

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

American Politics Is Always Somewhat Fluid. In This Age Of Social Media, It Means That Voters Can Swing Back And Forth.

I Would Have I Think Made A Bigger Mistake If I Had Said, "eh, Chemical Weapons. That Doesn't Really Change My Calculus." I Think It Was Important For Me As President Of The United States To Send A Message That In Fact There Is Something Different About Chemical Weapons [in Syria].

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.

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

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.

As President, I'll Invest In Renewable Energies Like Wind Power, Solar Power, And The Next Generation Of Homegrown Biofuels. That's How America Is Going To Free Itself From Our Dependence On Foreign Oil Not Through Short-term Gimmicks, But Through A Real, Long-term Commitment To Transform Our Energy Sector.

I'm Less Interested In How We Label Ourselves. I'm More Interested In How We Treat Each Other. And If We're Treating Each Other Right, Then I Can Be African-american, I Can Be Multi-racial, I Can Be You Name It, What Matters Is, Am I Showing People Respect, Am I Caring For One, For Other People.

Now You Have A Choice: We Can Give More Tax Breaks To Corporations That Ship Jobs Overseas, Or We Can Start Rewarding Companies That Open New Plants And Train New Workers And Create New Jobs Here, In The United States Of America.

He [barack Obama] Talked About Deficit Reduction. This Got Me He Was Talking About How The Deficit's Being Reduced Faster In The Last 60 Years. That's Because He's Collected More Taxes. That's Like Bragging That You Paid Your Rent After You Robbed A Bank. It Makes No Sense.

Through Words He Gave Voice To The Voiceless. Through Deeds He Gave Courage To The Faint Of Heart.

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.

America Is Number One In Wind Power.

I Refuse To Accept Any Approach That Isn't Balanced. I'm Not Going To Ask Students And Seniors And Middle-class Families To Pay Down The Entire Deficit While People Like Me, Making Over $250,000, Aren't Asked To Pay A Dime More In Taxes.

What We Have To Do Is Make Sure That Here In America, If You Work Hard, You Can Get Ahead. If You Worked Hard, Not Only Did You Have A Good Job, But You Also Had Decent Benefits, Decent Health Care. We've Got To Make Sure That We're Doing Everything We Can To Expand The Middle Class And People Who Are Working Hard Can Get Into The Middle Class.

If We Are Enforcing What Should Be The Rules Around Medicare And Making Sure The People Are Getting The Bang For The Buck, It's Not Going To Be Possible For Insurance Companies To Simply Pass On Those Costs To Medicare Recipients, Because Ultimately It's Uncle Sam That's Paying For Those Services Anyway.

In This New, Hyper Competitive Age, None Of Us, None Of Us Can Afford To Be Complacent.

What Is Required Of Us Now Is A New Era Of Responsibility - A Recognition, On The Part Of Every American, That We Have Duties To Ourselves, Our Nation, And The World, Duties That We Do Not Grudgingly Accept But Rather Seize Gladly, Firm In The Knowledge That There Is Nothing So Satisfying To The Spirit, So Defining Of Our Character, Than Giving Our All To A Difficult Task. This Is The Price And The Promise Of Citizenship.

There Is A Wonderful Book Called "gandhi's Truth," By Erik Erikson, The Psychologist. It Is A Great Book. And I Remember Reading That And Thinking About This Connection Between What We Think In Our Personal Lives And How That Manifests Itself In Our Politics. Those Are Two Books, Just Off The Top, That I Think Are Sort Of Representative Of Reading That I Did At That Time. I Never Get A Chance To Read Anymore.

[white House] Feels Even More Like Home Now Because You Have All These Memories That Were Formed Watching Your Kids Grow Up.

We Have To Focus On How Do We Ensure The Economy Works For Everybody, And Not Just A Few.

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

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