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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.

-Barack Obama

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This Pleased Onyango, For

Barack Obama

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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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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.

Al Qaeda Is Still A Threat. We Cannot Pretend Somehow That Because Barack Hussein Obama Got Elected As President, Suddenly Everything Is Going To Be Ok.

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

The Law Is A Powerful Thing But The Law Doesn't Always Change What's In People's Hearts. And So All Of Us Have An Obligation To Think About How We're Treating Other People.

[my Kids] Complained About Secret Service As They Became Teenagers, And Secret Service Has Done The Very Best Job They Could Accommodating Them, So It Hasn't Restricted Any Of Their Activities.

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.

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

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.

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

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

We Can't, You Know, Use Our Military To Make Sure The Planet Doesn't Get Warmer. And So That Kind Of Leadership, Of Being Able To Bring People Together, To Apply Practical Commonsense Solutions Based On Facts, Based On Science, Based On What Works You Know, That's Been The Approach I Have Taken Consistently As A Public Servant. That's The Kind Of Style That I Think We Need In The Presidency Right Now.

Michelle [obama] Never Fully Took To The Scrutiny. I Mean, She's Thrived As A First Lady, But It's Not Her Preference.

By So Many Measures, Our Country Is Stronger And More Prosperous Than It Was When We First Got Here. And I'm Hopeful We'll Build On The Progress We've Made In The Years To Come.

How We Think About Terrorism Has To Be Defined And Specific Enough That It Doesn't Lead Us To Think That Any Horrible Actions That Take Place Around The World That Are Motivated In Part By An Extremist Islamic Ideology Is A Direct Threat To Us Or Something That We Have To Wade Into.

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.

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

I Will Never Forget Who This Victory Truly Belongs To. It Belongs To You. It Belongs To You. I Was Never The Likeliest Candidate For This Office. We Didn't Start With Much Money Or Many Endorsements. Our Campaign Was Not Hatched In The Halls Of Washington. It Began In The Backyards Of Des Moines And The Living Rooms Of Concord And The Front Porches Of Charleston. It Was Built By Working Men And Women Who Dug Into What Little Savings They Had To Give $5 And $10 And $20 To The Cause.

We Have Proved That The True Strength Of Our Nation Comes Not From The Scale Of Our Wealth But From The Power Of Our Ideals - Opportunity, Democracy, Liberty And Hope.

It's Good To Get Fresh Legs In [the White House]. I Think That It Refreshes Our Democracy.

I Think That The Risk To All The Progress We've Made Was At Stake In The Election Because Not Just The President-elect But A Lot Of Members Of Congress, Including Now The Speaker Of The House And The Senate Majority Leader, Have Said That Their Principal Agenda Was To Undo A Lot Of This Progress. But As I've Been Talking About Over The Last Several Days When It Comes To Health Care, The Gains That We've Made Are There. Twenty Million People Have Health Insurance That Didn't Have It Before. The Uninsured Rate Is The Lowest It's Ever Been.

Majority Leader

Nobody Likes Taxes. I Would Prefer That None Of Us Had To Pay Taxes, Including Myself.

I Am Absolutely Convinced That Race Relations On The Whole Are Actually Better Now Than They Were 20 Years [ago].

The Arts Are What Makes Life Worth Living. You've Got Food, You've Got Shelter, Yeah. But The Things That Make You Laugh, Make You Cry, Make You Connect - Make You Love Are Communicated Through The Arts. They Aren't Extras.

That's Silly Talk... Talk To My Wife. She'll Tell Me I Need To Learn To Just Put My Socks On The Hamper.

I Think When You're Governing, It Will Become Increasingly Apparent That If You Were To Just Eliminate Trade Deals With Mexico, For Example, Well, You've Got A Global Supply Chain. The Parts That Are Allowing Auto Plants That Were About To Shut Down To Now Employ Double Shifts Is Because They're Bringing In Some Of Those Parts To Assemble Out Of Mexico. And So It's Not As Simple As It Might Have Seemed.

I Think That Mr. Snowden Raised Some Legitimate Concerns. How He Did It Was Something That Did Not Follow The Procedures And Practices Of Our Intelligence Community. If Everybody Took The Approach That I Make My Own Decisions About These Issues, Then It Would Be Very Hard To Have An Organized Government Or Any Kind Of National Security System.

Security Systems

I Will Support Iraqis And Syrians Fighting To Reclaim Their Communities.

No Religion Is Responsible For Terrorism. People Are Responsible For Violence And Terrorism.

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

It Was Not A Religion That Attacked Us That September Day. It Was Al-qaeda. We Will Not Sacrifice The Liberties We Cherish Or Hunker Down Behind Walls Of Suspicion And Mistrust.

I Think It Was Not A Bad Idea To Wrap Barack Obama In The Mantle Of Teddy Roosevelt. He`s Been Assuming A Sort Of Progressive Mantle, And He Ticked Off Some Large And Systemic Problems That This Country Faces.

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 Believe In Evolution, Scientific Inquiry, And Global Warming; I Believe In Free Speech, Whether Politically Correct Or Politically Incorrect, And I Am Suspicious Of Using Government To Impose Anybody's Religious Beliefs -including My Own- On Nonbelievers.

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

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

As You Get Older, Your Mind Gets A Little More Set. And It Needs The Poking And Prodding And Breaking Through Of Stereotypes That I Think Young People Provide.

I Think A Basic Principle Of Our Constitution Is Nobody Above The Law

Today, I Can Report That, As Promised, The Rest Of Our Troops In Iraq Will Come Home By The End Of The Year.

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

If You Don't Have Good People, And You Don't Have A Good Process And You Don't Have, At Some Level, The Basic Reverence For [presidential] Office, And An Understanding Of The Incredible Responsibilities And Obligations, Then, I Think You Can Get Into Trouble.

Let's Make Two Things Clear: Isil Is Not "islamic." No Religion Condones The Killing Of Innocents, And The Vast Majority Of Isil's Victims Have Been Muslim. And Isil Is Certainly Not A State.

On The One Hand Information Is Moving Quick Or The Way In Which People Consume Information Is Changing So Fast. Clearly This Worked For [donald Trump], And It Gives Him A Direct Connection To A Lot Of The People That Voted For Him.

The Reason I Take Pride For That Is One Of The Things You Worry About When You're In The Bubble, And There's All This Pomp And Circumstance And Hail To The Chief Is, Do You Lose Touch With What You Thought Was Important And What Brought You Here? And I'm Proud That I Don't Think I Have Lost Touch.

Contrary To The Rumours You Have Heard, I Was Not Born In A Manger. I Was Actually Born On Krypton And Sent Here By My Father, Jor-el, To Save The Planet Earth.

I Am Not In Favor Of Concealed Weapons. I Think That Creates A Potential Atmosphere Where More Innocent People Could (get Shot During) Altercations.

My Job Is Exhilarating. It's Challenging. I Find That The Governance Part Of It, The Decision Making Part Of It - Actually Comes - Comes Pretty Naturally. I Think I've Got A Great Team. I Think We're Making Good Decisions. The The Hardest Thing About The Job Is Staying Focused. Because There's So Many Demands And Decisions That Are Pressed Upon You.

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

I'm Measuring My Actions Against That Inner Voice That For Me At Least Is Audible, Is Active, It Tells Me Where I Think I'm On Track And Where I Think I'm Off Track.

What Has Made America The Wealthiest, Most Successful Country On Earth Historically Has Been Our Commitment To Education.

We Need More Responsibility, But We Need It Not Just When There's A Crisis. I Mean, We've Had Years In Which The Reigning Economic Ideology Has Been What's Good For Wall Street, But Not What's Good For Main Street.

I Didn't Become A Christian Until Many Years Later, When I Moved To The South Side Of Chicago After College. It Happened Not Because Of Indoctrination Or A Sudden Revelation, But Because I Spent Month After Month Working With Church Folks Who Simply Wanted To Help Neighbors Who Were Down On Their Luck No Matter What They Looked Like, Or Where They Came From, Or Who They Prayed To. It Was On Those Streets, In Those Neighborhoods, That I First Heard God's Spirit Beckon Me. It Was There That I Felt Called To A Higher Purpose - His Purpose.

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

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'll Go Anywhere And I'll Do Whatever It Takes To Get This Done. It's Too Important For Washington To Screw This Up. Now's The Time For Us To Work On What We All Agree To, Which Is Let's Keep Middle-class Taxes Low. That's What Our Economy Needs. That's What The American People Deserve.

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.

African American Boys Oftentimes Fall Behind In School Early, Start Feeling Discouraged, Check Out, Drop Out, End Up On The Streets And Then Get Into Trouble.

All I Want To Do, If You've Already Got Health Care, Is Lower Your Costs.

We've Achieved This Historic Progress Through Diplomacy, Without Resorting To Another War In The Middle East. I Want To Also Point Out That By Working With Iran On This Nuclear Deal, We Were Better Able To Address Other Issues.

When You've Got A Economy In Which 40 Percent Of Economic Growth Is Happening In The Financial Sector, That Turns Out That Was All An Illusion, That It Wasn't Growth Based On Real Products And Services, But Just A Bunch Of Paper Shuffling And A House Of Cards, Then What's Gonna Emerge, At Some Point, Is A Sense Of Resentment, A Sense That The System's Rigged, And It's Not Working For Ordinary People. And It's Not Fulfilling The Basic American Dream.

I Do Believe, Separate And Apart From Any Particular Election Or Movement, That We Are Going To Have To Guard Against A Rise In A Crude Sort Of Nationalism Or Ethnic Identity Or Tribalism That Is Built Around An Us And A Them.

As Has Been Well Documented, I Smoked Pot As A Kid, And I View It As A Bad Habit And A Vice, Not Very Different From The Cigarettes That I Smoked As A Young Person Up Through A Big Chunk Of My Adult Life. I Don't Think It Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol.

Teddy Roosevelt Supported A Progressive Income Tax. If I Am Sitting Pretty And You've Got A Waitress Who Is Making Minimum Wage Plus Tips, And I Can Afford It And She Can't, What's The Big Deal For Me To Say, 'i'm Going To Pay A Little Bit More'? That Is Neighborliness.

The More We Are Using Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Sources, The Less Environmentally Problematic Facilities End Up Being A Problem For Everybody, But Particularly For Folks Who Have To Suffer The Consequences Of Some Of These Facilities.

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

Companies In Mexico Are Not Going To Do Well If They Don't Have Some Connection To Not Just Markets, But Also Suppliers And Technology From The United States.

People Don't Expect Government To Solve All Their Problems. But They Sense, Deep In Their Bones, That With Just A Slight Change In Priorities, We Can Make Sure That Every Child In America Has A Decent Shot At Life, And That The Doors Of Opportunity Remain Open To All. They Know We Can Do Better.

Weapons That Were Designed For Soldiers In War Theaters Don’t Belong On Our Streets.

If You're Saying That Prime Minister [benjamin] Netanyahu Got Fired Up, He's Been Fired Up Repeatedly During The Course Of My Presidency, Around The Iran Deal And Around Our Consistent Objection To Settlements.

We Will Not Hesitate To Speak Out When We See Actions That Contradict Those Values.

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.

It's Not Just Enough To Change The Players. We've Gotta Change The Game.

I Believe It`s Important To Be Open And Honest, Especially With Your Friends.

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

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

As A Product Of History And Faith, Jewish Americans Have Helped To Open Our Eyes To Injustice, To People In Need, And To The Simple Idea That We Ought To Recognize Ourselves In The Struggle Of Our Fellow Men And Women.

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.

Building On Our Young South-east Asian Leaders Initiative, I'm Hopeful That We Can Continue Expand The Ties And Cooperation Between Our Young People And Students.

I Think The Most Important Thing For The Public And The Press Is To Just Listen To What Donald Trump Says And Follow Up And Ask Questions About What Appear To Be Either Contradictory Or Uninformed Or Outright Wacky Ideas.

There Is No Excuse For Not Trying.

Reflecting On His Years In Prison, Nelson Mandela Wrote That There Were Dark Moments That Tested His Faith In Humanity, But He Refused To Give Up.

Get Informed, Not By Reading The Huffington Post.

What Is Important Is That We Make Sure To Work Together, That We Understand Our Strength Comes From Unity And Not Division.

Working Together

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

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

[about His Marijuana Use] I Did. It's Not Something That I'm Proud Of. It Was A Mistake As A Young Man, But You Know? I Mean Not Going To -- I Never Understood That Line. The Point Was To Inhale. That Was The Point.

Today We're Seeing That Climate Change Is About More Than A Few Unseasonably Mild Winters Or Hot Summers. It's About The Chain Of Natural Catastrophes And Devastating Weather Patterns That Global Warming Is Beginning To Set Off Around The World.. The Frequency And Intensity Of Which Are Breaking Records Thousands Of Years Old.

I Believe There Are Too Many Children Who Need Loving Parents To Deny One Group Of People Adoption Rights. A Child Will Benefit From A Healthy, Loving Home, Whether The Parents Are Gay Or Not.

I'd Like To Think That "president Obama Believed Deeply In This Democracy And The American People."

It's Up To [angela Merkel] Whether She Wants To Stand Again And Then Ultimately, It'll Be Up To The German People To Decide What The Future Holds. If I Were Here And I Were German And I Had A Vote, I Might Support Her.

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

I Don't Regret At All Saying That If I Saw Bashar Al-assad Using Chemical Weapons On His People That That Would Change My Assessments In Terms Of What We Were Or Were Not Willing To Do In Syria.

Every Woman Should Have Access To The Healthcare That She Needs.

It Requires Enormous Energy For Us To Cut The African American Uninsured Rate By A Third. A Lot Of Scars.

African American

Many Of Us Were Kind Of Irritated With Obama For Larding It With Tax Cut, Which We Didn't Think Was Going To Be Stimulative.

We're Breaking Protocol Here. That's The Good Thing About Being President - I Can Do Whatever I Want.

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.

Assault Weapons Ban Reintroduced.

Assault Weapons

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.

If You Run You Stand A Chance Of Losing, But If You Don't Run You've Already Lost.

With Patient And Firm Determination, I Am Going To Press On For Jobs. I'm Going To Press On For Equality. I'm Going To Press On For The Sake Of Our Children. I'm Going To Press On For The Sake Of All Those Families Who Are Struggling Right Now. I Don't Have Time To Feel Sorry For Myself. I Don't Have Time To Complain. I Am Going To Press On.

Whenever I Look At The History Of Presidents I Deeply Admire - The One Thing That I'm Always Struck By Is Persistence. It's A Quality That's Underrated. Being Able To Plough Through, Being Able To Stay Buoyant In The Face Of Challenges.

Angela [merkel] And I Also Agreed The Need For A Comprehensive And Humane Response To The Devastating Humanitarian Crisis In Syria And For The Influx Of Migrants And Refugees From Around The World. We Need To Build On The Progress Achieved At The U.n. Refugee Summit, Which Yielded New Commitments From Some 50 Nations And Organizations.

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

The Underlying Struggle - Between Worlds Of Plenty And Worlds Of Want; Between The Modern And The Ancient; Between Those Who Embrace Our Teeming, Colliding, Irksome Diversity, While Still Insisting On A Set Of Values That Binds Us Together, And Those Who Would Seek, Under Whatever Flag Or Slogan Or Sacred Text, A Certainty And Simplification That Justifies Cruelty Toward Those Not Like Us.

We Reward People A Lot For Being Rich, For Being Famous, For Being Cute, For Being Thin... One Of The Values I Think We Need To Instill In Our Country, In Our Children, Is A Sense Of 'usefulness', In Other Words, Are We Useful, Are We Making Other Peoples' Lives A Little Bit Better?

America Is Governed By Rules Of Law, And Those Are Not Ones That The President Of The United States Or Anybody Else Can Just Set Aside For The Sake Of Expediency Even When We Are Deeply Supportive Of Turkish Democracy, And Even When We Care Deeply About Any Attempts To Overthrow Their Government Or Any Other Illegal Actions, We've Got To Go Through A Legal Process.

For Now, Whether You Are Young Or Whether You're Young At Heart, I Do Have One Final Ask Of You As Your President, The Same Thing I Asked When You Took A Chance On Me Eight Years Ago. I Am Asking You To Believe Not In My Ability To Bring About Change, But In Yours.

I Wouldn't Be The Man I Am Today Without The Woman Who Agreed To Marry Me 20 Years Ago

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

Just Listen To What Mr. [donald] Trump Has To Say And Make Your Own Judgment With Respect To How Confident You Feel About His Ability To Manage Things Like Our Nuclear Triad.

I'm Here With The Girardo Family Here In St. Louis.

Health Care Costs Generally Have Gone Up At A Significantly Slower Rate Since Obamacare Was Passed Than They Did Before, Which Has Saved The Federal Treasury Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars.

You Have People Around The Country Who Are Benefitting From The Steps That We've Taken [with Obamacare] And As Long As They Continue To Get Helped, Then At Least I'll Know In My Own Mind That The Work We Did Here Had A Lasting Impact.

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

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.

What We Should Be Asking Is Not Whether We Need A Big Government Or Small Government, But How We Can Create A Smarter And Better Government.

Government Without A Tough And Vibrant Media Is Not An Option For The United States Of America.

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools. We Must Make Sure That People Who Have The Grades, The Desire And The Will, But Not The Money, Can Still Get The Best Education Possible.

There Was A Time When If You Had A Financial Crisis In Southeast Asia Somewhere, It Had No Impact On Our Markets. Today It Does.

In November [2016], Americans Are Gonna Have To Make A Decision About What We Care About And Who We Are. We Get These Spasms Of Politics Around Immigration And Fearmongering And Then Our Traditions And Our History And Our Better Impulses Kick In. That's How We All Ended Up Here. 'cause I Guarantee You At Some Point Every One Of Us Has Somebody In Our Background Who People Didn't Want Coming Here. And Yet Here We Are.

First And Foremost, It's Important To Remember That, From My Perspective At Least, My Most Important Legacy Was Making Sure That The World Didn't Go Into A Great Depression.

I Believe The United States Of America Must Remain A Standard Bearer In The Conduct Of War. That Is What Makes Us Different From Those Whom We Fight. That Is A Source Of Our Strength. That Is Why I Prohibited Torture. That Is Why I Ordered The Prison At Guantanamo Bay Closed. And That Is Why I Have Reaffirmed America's Commitment To Abide By The Geneva Conventions. We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend.

If Iran Does Not Take Steps In The Near Future To Live Up To Its Obligations, Then The United States Will Not Continue To Negotiate Indefinitely... Our Patience Is Not Unlimited.

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.

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.

I'm Always Suspicious Of Politics Dividing People Instead Of Bringing Them Together.

For More Than 60 Years, The United States Has Stood By Our Allies And Partners In The Asia Pacific. That Includes Our Defence Partnership With Singapore, Which Stretches Back More Than Two Decades.

After A Century Of Striving, After A Year Of Debate, After A Historic Vote, Health Care Reform Is No Longer An Unmet Promise. It Is The Law Of The Land.

We're Not Going To Put The Cart Before The Horse And Just Think By Sending More Troops, We're Automatically Going To Make Americans Safe.

I've Said To [donald Trump], And I Think Others Have Said To Him That The Day That He Is The President Of The United States, There Are World Capitals And Financial Markets And People All Around The World Who Take Really Seriously What He Says, And In A Way That's Just Not True Before You're Actually Sworn In As President.

Rather Than Me Sort Of Characterize The Appropriateness Or Inappropriateness Of What Donald Trump Is Doing At The Moment, I Think What We Have To See Is How Will The President-elect Operate, And How Will His Team Operate, When They've Been Fully Briefed On All These Issues, They Have Their Hands On All The Levers Of Government, And They've Got To Start Making Decisions.

The Truth Is, Some Of These Comments, When You Actually Ask 'well, This Is Based On What? This Notion That Obama's A Socialist, For Example?' Nobody Can Really Give You A Good Answer.

You Know, When I Made A Series Of Overtures To The Republicans, Going Over To Meet With Both Republican Caucuses, You Know, Putting Three Republicans In My Cabinet -- Something That Is Unprecedented -- Making Sure That They Were Invited Here To The White House To Talk About The Economic Recovery Plan, All Those Were Not Designed Simply To Get Some Short-term Votes. They Were Designed To Try To Build Up Some Trust Over Time. And I Think That, As I Continue To Make These Overtures, Over Time, Hopefully That Will Be Reciprocated.

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

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

We've Protected Thousands Of People In Libya; We Have Not Seen A Single U.s. Casualty; There's No Risks Of Additional Escalation. This Operation Is Limited In Time And In Scope.

[american Citizenship] Captures The Enduring Idea That This Country Only Works When We Accept Certain Obligations To One Another And To Future Generations

Look, Americans Will Go For Leadership That Makes Sense. Our Job, You Know, As Public Officials, Is Not To Put Our Finger In The Air. Our Job Is To Listen, And Then Lead.

There Are Some Who Question The Scale Of Our Ambitions, Who Suggest That Our System Cannot Tolerate Too Many Big Plans. Their Memories Are Short, For They Have Forgotten What This Country Has Already Done, What Free Men And Women Can Achieve When Imagination Is Joined To Common Purpose, And Necessity To Courage.

One Of The Best Parts Of The Holiday Season Is Spending Time With The Special People In Your Life.

People In Your Life

If We Think That We Can Secure Our Country By Just Talking Tough Without Acting Tough And Smart, Then We Will Misunderstand This Moment And Miss Its Opportunities. If We Think That We Can Use The Same Partisan Playbook Where We Just Challenge Our Opponent's Patriotism To Win An Election, Then The American People Will Lose. The Times Are Too Serious For This Kind Of Politics.

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

I Think It's Useful To Keep In Mind I've Been Now President For Over Seven Years And Gun Sales Don't Seem To Have Suffered During That Time.

The Bottom Line Is That It's Hard To Find A Model In Which You Can Practically Administer And Sustain Political Support For Those Kinds Of Efforts. And What Makes America Complicated As Well Is The Degree To Which This Is Not Just A Black/white Society, And It Is Becoming Less So Every Year.

The Peaceful Transition Of Power Is One Of The Hallmarks Of Our Democracy.

Those Aren't The Kinds Of Folks Who Represent Our Core American Values.

American Values

I Want To Make Sure America Has Got The Best Education System In The World. And We're Retaining Our Workers For The Jobs Of Tomorrow.

Not Much Happens In Russian Federation Without Vladimir Putin.

Part Of What Makes Me Most Optimistic Is If You Look At The Attitudes Of Young People. Across The Board, Young People Are Much More Comfortable With Respecting Differences. They Are Much More Comfortable With Diversity.

Jason Rezaian Is Coming Home. A Courageous Journalist For The Washington Post Who Wrote About The Daily Lives And Hopes Of The Iranian People, He's Been Held For A Year And A Half. He Embodies The Brave Spirit That Gives Life To The Freedom Of The Press. Jason Has Already Been Reunited With His Wife And Mom.

If The Global Economy Is Unresponsive To People Who Feel Left Behind, If Inequality Continues To Grow, Then We Could End Up Seeing More And More Of These Divisions Arise Throughout Advanced Economies Around The World.

America Is Not The Crude Stereotype Of A Self-interested Empire. Given Our Interdependence, Any World Order That Elevates One Nation Or Group Of People Over Another Will Inevitably Fail.

I Know That The Politics Around Trade Can Be Very Difficult - Especially In An Election Year.

I Think There Are A Lot Of Factors Going Into An Election. I Think The Bottom Line Is - Is That Donald Trump Is Gonna Be Sworn In As The 45th President Of The United States Of America. And It's Not Necessarily Profitable To Sort Of Try To Untangle All The Different Factors That Went Into It.

Any Time Bombs Are Used To Target Civilians It Is An Act Of Terror.

Together, We Could Open Up Government And Invite Citizens In, While Connecting All Of America To 21st Century Broadband. We Could Use Technology To Help Achieve Universal Health Care, To Reach For A Clean Energy Future, And To Ensure That Young Americans Can Compete - And Win - In The Global Economy.

Now, Anybody Who Thinks That We Can Move This Economy Forward With Just A Few Folks At The Top Doing Well, Hoping That It's Going To Trickle Down To Working People Who Are Running Faster And Faster Just To Keep Up, You'll Never See It.

By Some Estimates, The Oil You Recently Discovered Off The Shores Of Brazil Could Amount To Twice The Reserves We Have In The United States. We Want To Work With You. We Want To Help With Technology And Support To Develop These Oil Reserves Safely, And When You're Ready To Start Selling, We Want To Be One Of Your Best Customers.

Stock Market Risk Is Ok, But Not For Social Security.

Libraries Remind Us That Truth Isn't About Who Yells The Loudest But Who Has The Right Information.

Politics, Differences Of Religion Or Race, All That Fades Away When We Are Confronted With The Awesome Power Of Nature, And We're Reminded That All We Have Is Each Other.

This Is America, And Our Commitment To Religious Freedom Must Be Unshakeable. The Principle That People Of All Faiths Are Welcome In This Country, And Will Not Be Treated Differently By Their Government, Is Essential To Who We Are.

If A Jayvee Team Puts On Lakers Uniforms, That Doesn't Make Them Kobe Bryant.

When It Comes To Immigration, I Think Americans Expect That Our Immigration Process Is Orderly And It Is Legal.

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

No Country Should Deny People Their Rights Because Of Who They Love, Which Is Why We Must Stand Up For The Rights Of Gays And Lesbians Everywhere.

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.

If You’re Walking Down The Right Path And You’re Willing To Keep Walking, Eventually You’ll Make Progress.

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

The Wort Terrorist Attack In American History Also Brought Out The Best In Our Country...we Are United As Americans.

American History

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

I Will Cut Taxes - Cut Taxes - For 95 Percent Of All Working Families, Because, In An Economy Like This, The Last Thing We Should Do Is Raise Taxes On The Middle Class.

We Made America More Respected Around The World, Took On The Mantle Of Leadership In The Fight To Protect This Planet For Our Kids, And Much, Much More.

The American People Are Going To Have A Good Choice.

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

If, In [federal Housing Administration] Application, Black Folks Were Excluded From It, Then You Have To Override That By Going After Those Discriminatory Practices.

I'm Suspicious Of Too Much Certainty In The Pursuit Of Understanding Just Because I Think People Are Limited In Their Understanding.

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.

The Key Is Whether Or Not We Have Got Priorities That Are Working For You, As Opposed To Those Who Have Been Dictating The Policy In Washington Lately. And That's Mostly Lobbyists And Special Interests. We Have Got To Put An End To That.

My Biggest Frustration So Far Is The Fact That This Society Has Not Been Willing To Take Some Basic Steps To Keep Guns Out Of The Hands Of People Who Can Do Just Unbelievable Damage. We're The Only Developed Country On Earth Where This Happens. ... And It Happens Once A Week. And It's A One-day Story. ... The Country Has To Do Some Soul-searching On This.

How You Staff, Particularly The Chief Of Staff, The National Security Adviser, Your White House Counsel, How You Set Up A Process In The System To Surface Information And Generate Options For A President, Understanding That Ultimately The President Is Going To Be The Final Decision-maker. That's Something That Has To Be Attended To Right Away.

Democracy Is Hard Work.

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 Russians Sought To Interfere With The Election Process - That The Cyber Hacking That Took Place By The Russians Was Part Of That Campaign, And That They Had A Clear Preference In Terms Of Outcomes.

Election Process

And Let Me Say This As A Politician I Can Promise You This, Political Leaders Will Never Take Risks If The People Do Not Push Them To Take Some Risks. You Must Create The Change That You Want To See.

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

Yes, Our Greatness As A Nation Has Depended On Individual Initiative, On A Belief In The Free Market. But It Has Also Depended On Our Sense Of Mutual Regard For Each Other, Of Mutual Responsibility. The Idea That Everybody Has A Stake In The Country, That We're All In It Together And Everybody's Got A Shot At Opportunity. Americans Know This. We Know That Government Can't Solve All Our Problems - And We Don't Want It To. But We Also Know That There Are Some Things We Can't Do On Our Own. We Know That There Are Some Things We Do Better Together.

You [as A President] Have To Have A Strong Team Around You. You Have To Have Respect For Institutions And The Process To Make Good Decisions Because You Are Inherently Reliant On Other Folks.

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.

I'm Convinced We're Going To Rebuild Not Only The Auto Industry, But The Economy Better And Stronger Than Before. And At Its Heart Is Going To Be Three Powerful Words: Made In America. Made In America.

A Central Notion In The Affordable Care Act Was We Had An Inefficient System With A Lot Of Waste That Didn't Also Deliver The Kind Of Quality That Was Needed That Often Put Health Care Providers In A Box Where They Wanted To Do Better For Their Patients, But Financial Incentives Were Skewed The Other Way... We Don't Need To Reinvent The Wheel; You're Already Figuring Out What Works To Reduce Infections In Hospitals Or Help Patients With Complicated Needs.

We Will Convey Our Deep Appreciation For The Islamic Faith, Which Has Done So Much Over The Centuries To Shape The World - Including In My Own Country.

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.

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

So Americans Understand The Costs Of War. Yet As A Country, We Will Never Tolerate Our Security Being Threatened, Nor Stand Idly By When Our People Have Been Killed. We Will Be Relentless In Defense Of Our Citizens And Our Friends And Allies. We Will Be True To The Values That Make Us Who We Are.

We Will Send An Additional 475 Service Members To Iraq. As I Have Said Before, These American Forces Will Not Have A Combat Mission - We Will Not Get Dragged Into Another Ground War In Iraq. But They Are Needed To Support Iraqi And Kurdish Forces With Training, Intelligence And Equipment.

We Remember The Specter Of Sectarian Violence -- Al Qaeda's Attacks On Mosques And Pilgrims, Militias That Carried Out Campaigns Of Intimidation And Campaigns Of Assassination. And In The Face Of Ancient Divisions, You Stood Firm To Help Those Iraqis Who Put Their Faith In The Future.

It Is Legitimate For The Turks To Try To Defend Themselves.

I Am Who I Am. You Sort Of Get What You See With Me.

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.

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Theodore Dalrymple

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