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[two Of The Most Unpopular Presidential Candidates Selected By The Two Parties In History] Indicates That There Is A Lot Of Cynicism Out There. It Indicates That The Corrosive Nature Of Everything From Talk Radio To Fake News To Negative Advertising Has Made People Lack Confidence In A Lot Of Our Existing Institutions.

-Barack Obama

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[two Of The Most

Barack Obama

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[two Of The Most Unpopular Presidential Candidates Selected By The Two Parties In History] Indicates That There Is A Lot Of Cynicism Out There. It Indicates That The Corrosive Nature Of Everything From Talk Radio To Fake News To Negative Advertising Has Made People Lack Confidence In A Lot Of Our Existing Institutions.

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More From Barack Obama

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

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 Would Not Have The Justice Department Prosecuting And Raiding Medical Marijuana Users. It's Not A Good Use Of Our Resources.

Nobody's Madder Than Me About The Website Not Working As Well As It Should, Which Means It's Going To Get Fixed.

Let's Not Only Provide A Jumpstart To The Economy And Immediately Or Save 3 Million Jobs, But Let's Also Put A Down Payment On Some Of The Structural Problems That We Have In Our Economy.

Germany, South Korea - These Are All Countries That Are Investing Massively In Education. We've Got To Do The Same Thing In America.

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

We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change, Knowing That The Failure To Do So Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations

When We Succeed, We Succeed Because Of Our Individual Initiative, But Also Because We Do Things Together.

We Cannot Stop Every Act Of Senseless Violence. We Cannot Know Every Evil That Lurks In Troubled Minds. But If We Can Prevent Even One Tragedy Like This, Save Even One Life, Spare Other Families What These Families Are Going Through, Surely We've Got An Obligation To Try.

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

We Wouldn't Even Be Where We Are Had It Not Been That 70% Of Hispanics Voted For President Obama, Voted Democratic In The Last Election. That Caused An Epiphany In The Senate, That's For Sure. So All Of A Sudden We Have Already Passed Comprehensive Immigration Reform In The Senate. That's A Big Victory.

And Yes, My Plan Will Continue To Reduce The Carbon Pollution That Is Heating Our Planet - Because Climate Change Is Not A Hoax. More Droughts And Floods And Wildfires Are Not A Joke. They're A Threat To Our Children's Future. And In This Election, You Can Do Something About It.

We Can Lose So Much Of What We've Gained In Terms Of The Kind Of Democratic Freedoms And Market-based Economies And Prosperity That We've Come To Take For Granted.

Our Country Was Born Out Of A Desire To Be Free. And Every Day Since, It's Been Protected By Our Men And Women In Uniform - People Who Believed So Deeply In America, They Were Willing To Give Their Lives For It.

Jesus Is An Historical Figure For Me, And He's Also A Bridge Between God And Man, In The Christian Faith, And One That I Think Is Powerful Precisely Because He Serves As That Means Of Us Reaching Something Higher.

Write Anything You Want Because We'll Never Be Heard From Again.

Islam Has Always Been Part Of America

If Somebody Was Sending Rockets Into My House, Where My Two Daughters Sleep At Night, I’m Going To Do Everything In My Power To Stop That, And I Would Expect Israelis To Do The Same Thing.

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

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.

In The Wake Of 9/11, My Meetings With Arab And Pakistani Americans, For Example, Have A More Urgent Quality, For The Stories Of Detentions And Fbi Questioning And Hard Stares From Neighbors Have Shaken Their Sense Of Security And Belonging. They Have Been Reminded That The History Of Immigration In This Country Has A Dark Underbelly; They Need Specific Reassurances That Their Citizenship Really Means Something, That America Has Learned The Right Lessons From The Japanese Internments During World War Ii, And That I Will Stand With Them Should The Political Winds Shift In An Ugly Direction.

Presidential Elections Always Turn On Personalities, They Turn On How Campaigns Are Run, They Turn On Natural Desires For Change.

Even The Smallest Act Of Service, The Simplest Act Of Kindness, Is A Way To Honor Those We Lost, A Way To Reclaim That Spirit Of Unity That Followed 9/11.

I Mean, I Do Think At A Certain Point You've Made Enough Money.

Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others To Live By Your Own Beliefs

So If Somebody Wants To Build A Coal-powered Plant, They Can; It's Just That It Will Bankrupt Them Because They're Going To Be Charged A Huge Sum For All That Greenhouse Gas That's Being Emitted.

It Is The Kindness To Take In A Stranger When The Levees Break; The Selflessness Of Workers Who Would Rather Cut Their Hours Than See A Friend Lose Their Job Which Sees Us Through Our Darkest Hours. It Is The Firefighter's Courage To Storm A Stairway Filled With Smoke, But Also A Parent's Willingness To Nurture A Child, That Finally Decides Our Fate.

I Think [ Unpopular Presidential Candidates ] Indicates, At Least On The Democratic Side, That We've Got More Work To Do To Strengthen Our Grassroots Networks.

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

Broken Promises

I Think The American People Have A Generous Instinct. They Understand That We're A Nation Of Immigrants. But If Those Folks Are Going To Live In This Country, They Have To Be Put On A Pathway To Citizenship That Involves Them Paying A Fine, Making Sure That They Are At The Back Of The Line And Not Cutting In Front Of People Who Applied Legally To Come Into The Country.

I'll Turn The Page On A Growing Empire Of Classified Information. We'll Protect Sources And Methods, But We Won't Use Sources And Methods To Hide The Truth.

I Think It Is Important First Of All That The President Of The United States Underscores Our Commitment To Partnering With Countries Around The World, Even Though We're Not Intimidated By Terrorist Organisations.

It Is Absolutely Important That We Have A Unified Alliance And That We Explain To The Russians That You Cannot Be A 21st-century Superpower, Or Power, And Act Like A 20th-century Dictatorship.

The Conversations Have Been Cordial. [donald Trump] Has Been Open To Suggestions, And The Main Thing That I've Tried To Transmit Is That There's A Different Between Governing And Campaigning, So That What He Has To Appreciate Is As Soon As You Walk Into This Office After You've Been Sworn In, You're Now In Charge Of The Largest Organization On Earth.

I'll Be Honest, There Have Been Times When I've Listened To The Rhetoric In Europe Where An Easy Equivalent Somehow Between The United States And Russia And Between How Our Governments Operate Versus Other Governments Operate, Where Those Distinctions Aren't Made.

I Consider It Part Of My Responsibility As President Of The United States To Fight Against Negative Stereotypes Of Islam Wherever They Appear.

It Was Unknowable Then, But So Much Of The Progress That Would Define The 20th Century, On Both Sides Of The Atlantic, Came Down To The Battle For A Slice Of Beach Only Six Miles Long And Two Miles Wide.

But Do I Think That Our Actions In Anyway Violate The War Powers Resolution, The Answer Is No.

I'm Inspired By The People I Meet In My Travels--hearing Their Stories, Seeing The Hardships They Overcome, Their Fundamental Optimism And Decency. I'm Inspired By The Love People Have For Their Children. And I'm Inspired By My Own Children, How Full They Make My Heart. They Make Me Want To Work To Make The World A Little Bit Better. And They Make Me Want To Be A Better Man.

My Presidency Is Not Over. I've Got Another Five Years Coming Up.

I Will Continue To Believe That Israel's Security Is Paramount.

The Absence Of Hope Can Rot A Society From Within.

The Quicker You Resolve The Problems With Banks And There's Transparency In That Process, The Faster They Recapitalize And Are Able To Make Investments.

On The Spectrum Of Successful Politicians, I'm Not Introverted The Way Some Have Been.

Now, I Swore An Oath To Uphold The Laws On The Books... Now, I Know Some People Want Me To Bypass Congress And Change The Laws On My Own... Believe Me, The Idea Of Doing Things On My Own Is Very Tempting. I Promise You. Not Just On Immigration Reform. But That's Not How - That's Not How Our System Works. That's Not How Our Democracy Functions. Thats Not How Our Constitution Is Written.

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

Most People Who Meet My Wife Quickly Conclude That She Is Remarkable. They Are Right About This. She Is Smart, Funny And Thoroughly Charming... Often, After Hearing Her Speak At Some Function Or Working With Her On A Project, People Will Approach Me And Say Something To The Effect Of "you Know, I Think The World Of You, Barack, But Your Wife... Wow!"

It's Harder To End A War Than Begin One. Indeed, Everything That American Troops Have Done In Iraq -- All The Fighting And All The Dying, The Bleeding And The Building, And The Training And The Partnering -- All Of It Has Led To This Moment Of Success. Now, Iraq Is Not A Perfect Place. It Has Many Challenges Ahead. But We're Leaving Behind A Sovereign, Stable And Self-reliant Iraq, With A Representative Government That Was Elected By Its People. We're Building A New Partnership Between Our Nations.

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 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 More Than Four Decades, The Libyan People Have Been Ruled By A Tyrant - Moammar Gaddafi. He Has Denied His People Freedom, Exploited Their Wealth, Murdered Opponents At Home And Abroad, And Terrorized Innocent People Around The World - Including Americans Who Were Killed By Libyan Agents.

One Of The Things I Think The Next President Has To Do Is To Stop Fanning People's Fears. If We Spend All Our Time Feeding The American People Fear And Conflict And Division, Then They Become Fearful And Conflicted And Divided. And If We Feed Them Hope And We Feed Them Reason And Tolerance, Then They Will Become Tolerant And Reasonable And Hopeful.

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.

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

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.

I Have Great Respect For Both President Obama And The Office That He Holds

Any Discuss About Taxes Ends Up Being, Are You Raising Them Or Lowering Them, As The Opposed To The Question I Ask - Are We Raising Them For High Income Individuals That Can Afford It, And Lowering Them For Lower Income People Who Really Need Help. Those Old Categories Don't Work, And They're Preventing Us From Solving Them Problems.

E.u. Need To Be Nurtured And Cultivated And Protected And Fought For Because The Achievements That We've Seen On This Continent, In Contrast To A Divided Europe Of The Previous Century, Are Ones That Remind Us Of How Important It Is That We Work Together.

Working Together

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.

Markets Will Rise And Fall, But This Is The United States Of America. No Matter What Some Agency May Say, We've Always Been And Always Will Be A Triple A Country.

The Last Thing You Want To Do Is Raise Taxes In The Middle Of The Recession Because That Would Just Suck Up And Take More Demand Out Of The Economy And Put Businesses In A Further Hole.

You're Not Going To Be Able To Make Good Decisions Without Building Some Relationship Of Trust Between Yourself And Community.

When You Take On The Position Of President, You Are Committing Yourself To, First And Foremost, Protecting The American People. You Are Accepting An Institutional Role That Requires You To Make Hard Decisions And Hard Choices, And As A Consequence You Have To Take Your Moral Sense And Not Put It Aside.

Every Single Thing I`ve Done, From The Affordable Care Act To Pushing To Raise The Minimum Wage, To Making Sure That Young People Are Able To Go To College And Get Good Job Training, To What We`re Pushing Now In Terms Of Sick Paid Leave,everything I Do Has Been Focused On How Do We Make Sure The Middle Class Is Getting A Fair Deal.

The Reason We're Governing Right Now Is Because We Defeated Moderate Republicans With Moderate Democrats. And People Need To Be Patient About That And Realize That Compromise Is Not Evil.

Whatever We Think Of The Past, We Must Not Be Prisoners To It.

We Cannot Solve The Problems Of America If Every Time Somebody Somewhere Says Something Stupid, That Everybody Gets Up In Arms And We Forget About The War In Iraq Or We Forget About The Economy.

It's Important To Make Sure That Governments Have Some Checks On What They Do, That People Can Oversee What's Being Done So The Government Doesn't Abuse It.

There's No Doubt That When It Comes To Our Treatment Of Native Americans As Well As Other Persons Of Color In This Country, We've Got Some Very Sad And Difficult Things To Account For. I Personally Would Want To See Our Tragic History, Or The Tragic Elements Of Our History, Acknowledged. I Consistently Believe That When It Comes To Whether It's Native Americans Or African-american Issues Or Reparations, The Most Important Thing For The U.s. Government To Do Is Not Just Offer Words, But Offer Deeds.

Native American

I'm A Strong Believer In Strong Encryption.

I Do Think That There Is A Big Difference Between Family Farms And Agri-business, And One Of The Distressing Things That I Think Has Occurred Is With Consolidation Of Farm Lands. You've Seen Large Agri-businesses Benefit From Enormous Profits From Existing Farm Programs, And I Think We Should Be Focusing Most Of Those Programs On Those Family Farmers.

I Actually Believe In Redistribution (of Wealth)

Redistribution Of Wealth

What We Also Have To Recognize Is That The Deficit Levels That I'm Inheriting, Over A Trillion Dollars, Coming Out Of Last Year, That That Is Unsustainable. At A Certain Point, Other Countries Stop Buying Our Debt, At A Certain Point, We'd End Up Having To Raise Interest Rates, And It Would End Up Creating More Economic Chaos And Potentially Inflation.

As President Of The United States, I Don't Bluff.

My Faith Reminds Me That We All Are Sinners.

Our Founding Fathers, Faced With Perils We Can Scarcely Imagine, Drafted A Charter To Assure The Rule Of Law And The Rights Of Man, A Charter Expanded By The Blood Of Generations. Those Ideals Still Light The World, And We Will Not Give Them Up For Expedience's Sake.

Evil Does Exist In The World. A Non-violent Movement Could Not Have Halted Hitler's Armies. Negotiations Cannot Convince Al Qaeda's Leaders To Lay Down Their Arms. To Say That Force May Sometimes Be Necessary Is Not A Call To Cynicism - It Is A Recognition Of History; The Imperfections Of Man And The Limits Of Reason.

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

Common Humanity

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up. We Draw Strength From Our Victories, And We Learn From Our Mistakes, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, Knowing That Providence Is With Us, And That We Are Surely Blessed To Be Citizens Of The Greatest Nation On Earth.

I Changed Those Things That Were In Direct - My Direct Control. I Mean, I - Look, I'm Proud Of The Fact That, With Two Weeks To Go, We're Probably The First Administration In Modern History That Hasn't Had A Major Scandal In The White House.

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

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

If We’re Going To Have Arguments, Let’s Have Arguments — but Let’s Make Them Debates Worthy Of This Body And Worthy Of This Country.

Every Life Must Be Given The Chance To Realize Its Full Potential - That Every Life Matters.

Too Many Americans Who Struggle With Mental Health Illnesses Are Suffering In Silence Rather Than Seeking Help, And We Need To See To It That Men And Women Who Would Never Hesitate To Go See A Doctor If They Had A Broken Arm Or Came Down With The Flu, That They Have That Same Attitude When It Comes To Their Mental Health.

By The End Of This Decade, A Majority Of Our Navy And Air Force Fleets Will Be Based Out Of The Pacific, Because The United States Is And Always Will Be A Pacific Power.

Any Strategy To Reduce Intergenerational Poverty Has To Be Centered On Work, Not Welfare--not Only Because Work Provides Independence And Income But Also Because Work Provides Order, Structure, Dignity, And Opportunities For Growth In People's Lives.

From The First Moment A Woman Dared To Speak That Hope - Dared To Believe That The American Dream Was Meant For Her Too - Ordinary Women Have Taken On Extraordinary Odds To Give Their Daughters The Chance For Something Else; For A Life More Equal, More Free, And Filled With More Opportunity Than They Ever Had. In So Many Ways We Have Succeeded, But In So Many Areas We Have Much Work Left To Do.

There Is No Doubt That The Actions Of Isis Are Designed To Amplify Their Power And The Threat That They Pose. That Helps Them Recruit. That Adds In The Twisted Thoughts Of Some Young Person That They Might Want To Have Carry Out An Action That Somehow They're Part Of A Larger Movement.

Abraham Lincoln And Millard Fillmore Had The Same Title. They Were Both Presidents Of The United States, But Their Tenure In Office And Their Legacy Could Not Be More Different.

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

I Will Stand With Israel If They Are Attacked.

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

This Notion That's Peddled By The Religious Right - That They Are Oppressed Is Not True. Sometimes It's A Cynical Ploy To Move Their Agenda Ahead. The Classic Example Being That Somehow Secularists Are Trying To Eliminate Christmas, Which Strikes Me As Some Kind Of Manufactured Controversy.

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.

Those Are Values That Help Guide Not Just My Family's Christian Faith, But That Of Jewish Americans, And Muslim Americans; Nonbelievers And Americans Of All Backgrounds. And No One Better Embodies That Spirit Of Service Than The Men And Women Who Wear Our Country's Uniform And Their Families.

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.

We Have A Historic Opportunity To Prevent The Spread Of Nuclear Weapons In Iran, And To Do So Peacefully, With The International Community Firmly Behind Us. We Should Seize That Chance.

Undocumented Workers Can't Report If They're Not Being Paid Overtime, Or If Their Health And Safety Laws Are Being Violated, Of If They're Not Getting The Minimum Wage. And So A Lot Of Times Companies Prefer To Hire Them In Order To Take Advantage Of Them. We've Got To Crack Down On Those Employers.

That's Where Peace Begins - Not Just In The Plans Of Leaders, But In The Hearts Of People. Not Just In Some Carefully Designed Process, But In The Daily Connections - That Sense Of Empathy That Takes Place Among Those Who Live Together In This Land And In This Sacred City Of Jerusalem.

"undecided," While Running For Re-election To State Senate In 1998, In Response To An Outlines Questionnaire Asking, "do You Favor Legalizing Same-sex Marriage?"

We Are A Nation Of Laws.

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.

Alongside My Own Deep Personal Faith, I Am A Follower, As Well, Of Our Civic Religion. I Am A Big Believer In The Separation Of Church And State.

... The Fact Is It Didn't Happen In The First Month, The First Six Weeks, In A Way That Was At All Acceptable. And Since I'm In Charge, Obviously, We Screwed It Up.

When The United States Stands Up For Human Rights, By Example At Home And By Effort Abroad, We Align Ourselves With Men And Women Around The World Who Struggle For The Right To Speak Their Minds, To Choose Their Leaders, And To Be Treated With Dignity And Respect. We Also Strengthen Our Security And Well Being, Because The Abuse Of Human Rights Can Feed Many Of The Global Dangers That We Confront - From Armed Conflict And Humanitarian Crises, To Corruption And The Spread Of Ideologies That Promote Hatred And Violence.

I Will Listen To You, Especially When We Disagree.

I Began Feeling The Way I Imagine An Actor Or Athlete Must Feel When, After Years Of Commitment To A Particular Dream...he Realizes That He's Gone Just About As Far As Talent Or Fortune Will Take Him. The Dream Will Not Happen, And He Now Faces The Choice Of Accepting This Fact Like A Grownup And Moving On To More Sensible Pursuits, Or Refusing The Truth And Ending Up Bitter, Quarrelsome, And Slightly Pathetic.

What We Shouldn't Be Doing Is Trying To Take Away Your Rights To Bargain For Better Wages Or Working Conditions... These So-called "right To Work" Laws, They Don't Have To Do With Economics; They Have Everything To Do With Politics. What They're Really Talking About Is Giving You The Right To Work For Less Money.

I Was Pretty Realistic To People About What We Could Get Done, And The Situation We Were In, And Trying To Tamp Down Expectations. If You Listen To My Stump Speeches, If You Listen To What I Said At Grant Park, I Kept On Saying, "look, This Is Not Just About Me, This Is Not Going To Happen In One Year, Or One Term, Or Even One Presidency." And We Tried To Layer Into Everything We Were Saying A Sense Of Hope, But Also Realism.

People In Every Country Should Be Free To Choose And Live Their Faith Based Upon The Persuasion Of The Mind, And The Heart, And The Soul. This Tolerance Is Essential For Religion To Thrive.

We Need Fathers To Step Up, To Realize That Their Job Does Not End At Conception; That What Makes You A Man Is Not The Ability To Have A Child But The Courage To Raise One.

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

Four Years Ago, I Promised To End The War In Iraq. We Did. I Promised To Refocus On The Terrorists Who Actually Attacked Us On 9/11. We Have. We've Blunted The Taliban's Momentum In Afghanistan, And In 2014, Our Longest War Will Be Over. A New Tower Rises Above The New York Skyline, Al Qaeda Is On The Path To Defeat, And Osama Bin Laden Is Dead.

Tonight, More Americans Are Out Of Work And More Are Working Harder For Less. More Of You Have Lost Your Homes And Even More Are Watching Your Home Values Plummet. More Of You Have Cars You Can't Afford To Drive, Credit Card Bills You Can't Afford To Pay, And Tuition That's Beyond Your Reach.

I Don't Think We Should Ever Accept The Idea That Someone Can Come Along And Take Away Our Safety And Our Freedom.

Singapore Was The Very First South-east Asian Nation To Join The Global Coalition Against Isil (isis) Coalition, And We'll Work To Sustain Our Momentum In Destroying That Terrorist Organisation.

I Will Not Stand By While The Special Interests Use The Same Old Tactics To Keep Things Exactly The Way They Are ... Not This Time. Not Now.

Those Of Us In Positions Of Responsibility, We'll Need To Be Less Concerned With The Judgment Of Special Interests And Well-connected Donors, And More Concerned With The Judgment Of Posterity.

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.

I've Called Chicago Home For Nearly 25 Years. It's A City Of Broad Shoulders And Big Hearts And Bold Dreams; A City Of Legendary Sports Figures, Legendary Sports Venues, And Legendary Sports Fans.

I Delivered A Clear And Forceful Message That Although We Recognize Russia's Intelligence Gathering Will Sometimes Take Place Even If We Don't Like It, There's A Difference Between That Than Either Meddling With Elections Or Going After Private Organizations Or Commercial Entities, And That We're Monitoring It Carefully, And We Will Respond Appropriately If And When We See This Happening.

My Second Piece Of Advice Is To Stay Global. As The World Continues To Change And We Become More Connected To Each Other, Globalization Will Bring Both Benefits And Disruptions To Our Lives. But Either Way, It's Here, And It's Not Going Away.

The Time To Fix Our Broken Immigration System Is Now... We Need Stronger Enforcement On The Border And At The Workplace... But For Reform To Work, We Also Must Respond To What Pulls People To America... Where We Can Reunite Families, We Should. Where We Can Bring In More Foreign-born Workers With The Skills Our Economy Needs, We Should.

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

African American

We're All In This Together. That's How We Campaigned, And That's Who We Are. This Happened Because Of You. Thank You.

The Day I'm Inaugurated, This Country Looks At Itself Differently And The World Looks At America Differently. If You Believe That We've Got To Heal America And We've Got To Repair Our Standing In The World, Then I Think My Supporters Believe That I Am A Messenger Who Can Deliver That Message Around The World In A Way That No Other Candidate Can Do.

I Could Say, As A Member Of Congress, We Usually Get An Alert If Something Is Going To Happen At The Capitol.

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.

Women Can't Wait For Equal Pay. And I Won't Stop Fighting To Address This Inequality.

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.

I Think That People Are Concerned About The Breakdown Of The Family But They Also Don't Want To See Discrimination Against Gays And Lesbians Who They Work With And They Want To Be Able To Make Sure That Gays Can Visit Each Other In Hospitals And Be Able To Inherit Property.

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

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

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.

You Like Pie? I Like Pie.

We Believed We Could Prepare Our Kids For A More Competitive World. And Today, Our Younger Students Have Earned The Highest Math And Reading Scores On Record. Our High School Graduation Rate Has Hit An All-time High. And More Americans Finish College Than Ever Before.

We Will Not Apologise For Our Way Of Life.

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

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

I Actually Believe That We Need Missile Defense, Because Of Iran And North Korea And The Potential For Them To Obtain Or To Launch Nuclear Weapons, But I Also Believe That, When We Are Only Spending A Few Hundred Million Dollars On Nuclear Proliferation, Then We're Making A Mistake.

Not Much Happens In Russia Without Vladimir Putin.

Even As We Implement The Nuclear Deal And Welcome Our Americans Home, We Recognize That There Remain About Differences Between The United States And Iran. We Remain Steadfast In Opposing Iran's Destabilizing Behavior Elsewhere, Including Its Against Israel And Our Gulf Partners And Its Support For Violent Proxies In Places Like Syria And Yemen.

He Described To Me How Crocodiles Kill More People Than Sharks. There Are Just A Lot Of Things In Australia That Can Kill You.

We Must Build A World Free Of Unnecessary Barriers, Stereotypes, And Discrimination. ... Policies Must Be Developed, Attitudes Must Be Shaped, And Buildings And Organizations Must Be Designed To Ensure That Everyone Has A Chance To Get The Education They Need And Live Independently As Full Citizens In Their Communities.

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

Chemical Weapons

[when I Ordered 30,000 More Troops Into Afghanistan] That Was The First Time In Which I Looked Out At A Crowd Of West Point Graduates And Knew That Some Of Those Might Not Come Back Because Of That Decision.

One Thing I Think We Have To Do Is To Make Sure That The Undocumented Workers Who Are Living In America Today, That They Have To Take Responsibility. They've Got To Register, Pay A Fine, Pay Their Back Taxes, Learn English And Then Get On A Pathway In Which They Could Have The Prospect Of Being Here Legally.

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

The Incredible Story Of Progress That Is America Has Always Been Built By Those Who Ask Why, What If, And Why Not. Our Schools Must Begin Instilling That Wonder In Our Children Again So That Their Generation Will Unite Around The Next Great Project Of Our Time, Whether It Be Declaring America Energy Independent Or Launching The Next Great Technological Revolution.

We Do Not Benefit From A Relationship With China Or Any Other Country In Which We Put Our Values And Our Ideals Aside.

There Are Some Exceptions: Chicago, My Hometown, In Particular. But Overall In The Country This Is A Much Safer Place Than It Used To Be.

Whether Our Forebears Were Strangers Who Crossed The Atlantic Or The Pacific Or The Rio Grande, We Are Here Only Because This Country Welcomed Them In And Taught Them That To Be An American Is About Something More Than What We Look Like, Or What Our Last Names Are, Or How We Worship.

My First Job As Commander In Chief Is To Keep The American People Safe.

With Effort We Can Protect The Foundation Of Our Democracy, For Which So Many Marched Across This Bridge, The Right To Vote.

Now, Some Have Said I Blame Too Many Problems On My Predecessor, But Let's Not Forget That's A Practice That Was Initiated By George W. Bush.

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

The Notion That We Can Control The Flow Of Information Is Obsolete.

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.

I Would Say That I Have Been Consistent In My Broad View Of How American Power Should Be Deployed, And The View That We Underestimate Our Power When We Restrict It To Just Our Military Power. We Shortchange Our Influence And Our Ability To Shape Events When That's The Only Tool We Think We Have In The Toolbox.

What I Want To Try To Do Is Unify The Two Wings Of The Democratic Party. What's Considered The More Progressive Wing Of The Democratic Party - The More Centrist Wing Of The Party. I Think We Can Craft An Approach That Is More American, Pro-worker, Pro-business, Pro-growth.

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

I Think That I'll Always Remember The Bust Of Dr. [martin Luther] King. I Thought Having An American Here Who Represented Rhat Civic Spirit That Got Me Into This [president] Office Was Useful.

Obviously [my Daughters] - And Michelle - Have Made A Lot Of Sacrifices On Behalf Of My Cockamamie Ideas, The Running For Office And Things.

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

Working Together

Citizenship Means Standing Up For The Lives That Gun Violence Steals From Us Each Day. I Have Seen The Courage Of Parents, Students, Pastors, And Police Officers All Over This Country Who Say 'we Are Not Afraid,' And I Intend To Keep Trying, With Or Without Congress, To Help Stop More Tragedies From Visiting Innocent Americans In Our Movie Theaters, Shopping Malls, Or Schools Like Sandy Hook.

As Americans, We Can Take Enormous Pride In The Fact That Courage Has Been Inspired By Our Own Struggle For Freedom, By The Tradition Of Democratic Law Secured By Our Forefathers And Enshrined In Our Constitution. It Is A Tradition That Says All Men Are Created Equal Under The Law And That No One Is Above It.

The United States Has Been Enriched By Muslim Americans. Many Other Americans Have Muslims In Their Families Or Have Lived In A Muslim-majority Country - I Know, Because I Am One Of Them.

In Order For Us To Compete With China, We've Also Got To Make Sure, Though, That We're Taking - Taking Care Of Business Here At Home. If We Don't Have The Best Education System In The World, If We Don't Continue To Put Money Into Research And Technology That Will Allow Us To Create Great Businesses Here In The United States, That's How We Lose The Competition.

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.

If I Were German And I Had A Vote, I Might Support Angela Merkel.

Let Me Tell You Another Place To Look For Some Savings. We Are Currently Spending $10 Billion A Month In Iraq When They Have A $79 Billion Surplus. It Seems To Me That If We're Going To Be Strong At Home As Well As Strong Abroad, That We Have To Look At Bringing That War To A Close.

[donald Trump] Ran An Extraordinarily Unconventional Campaign And It Resulted In The Biggest Political Upset In Perhaps Modern Political History. American History.

If All It Took Was Someone Proclaiming I Believe Jesus Christ And That He Died For My Sins, And That Was All There Was To It, People Wouldn't Have To Keep Coming To Church, Would They.

The Role Of Government Has Never Been To Plan Every Detail Or Dictate Every Outcome. At Its Best, Government Has Simply Knocked Away Barriers To Opportunity And Laid The Foundation For A Better Future. Our People -- With All Their Drive And Ingenuity -- Always End Up Building The Rest. And If We Can Do That Again -- If We Can Continue Building That Foundation And Making Those Hard Decisions On Behalf Of The Next Generation -- I Have No Doubt That We Will Leave Our Children The America That We All Hope For.

I Will Begin To Remove Our Troops From Iraq Immediately.

I Have Got To Figure Out A System Because I Have Bad Filing, Sorting, And Organizing Habits.

Islamic Culture Has Given Us Majestic Arches And Soaring Spires; Timeless Poetry And Cherished Music; Elegant Calligraphy And Places Of Peaceful Contemplation.

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

Constitution Is A Living Document; No Strict Constructionism.

The Sort Of Seeing Cruelty And Callousness Of That Sort From Young People Is Heartbreaking.

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

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?

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

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

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

What Makes America Exceptional Are The Bonds That Hold Together The Most Diverse Nation On Earth.

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.

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

Nobody Said Democracies Supposed To Be Easy. It's Hard. And In A Big Country Like America, It Probably Should Be Hard.

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.

Making Your Mark On The World Is Hard. If It Were Easy, Everybody Would Do It. But It's Not. It Takes Patience, It Takes Commitment, And It Comes With Plenty Of Failure Along The Way. The Real Test Is Not Whether You Avoid This Failure, Because You Won't. It's Whether You Let It Harden Or Shame You Into Inaction, Or Whether You Learn From It; Whether You Choose To Persevere.

One Of The Things I Advised Donald Trump To Do Was To Make Sure That, Before He Commits To Certain Courses Of Action, He Has Really Dug In And Thought Through How Various Issues Play Themselves Out.

Part Of People's Concern Is Just The Sense That Around The World The Old Order Isn't Holding And We're Not Quite Yet To Where We Need To Be In Terms Of A New Order That's Based On A Different Set Of Principles, That's Based On A Sense Of Common Humanity, That's Based On Economies That Work For All People.

Common Humanity

I Am A Strong Believer In The Free Market. I Am A Strong Believer In Capitalism. But, I Am Also A Strong Believer That There Are Certain Common Goods - Our Air, Our Water, Making Sure That People Are Safe - That Require To Have Some Regulation.

I Went Through Six Years Of Battles On Health Care Because I Didn't Have $100 Million Worth Of Advertising Saying How It Would Never Work.

Never Read Who Moved My Cheese In The Workplace When You Can Read The Joy Of Not Working.

I Think There Are Hard-liners Inside Of Iran That Think It Is The Right Thing To Do To Oppose Us, To Seek To Destroy Israel, To Cause Havoc In Places Like Syria Or Yemen Or Lebanon, If They Don't Change At All, We're Still Better Off Having The Deal.

It's Time To Put Country Ahead Of Party. It's Time To Put The Next Generation Ahead Of The Next Election.

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