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We Are Convinced, As Some Of You May Be Convinced, That Changing The Way We Produce And Use Energy Is Essential To America's Economic Future, That It Will Create Millions Of New Jobs, Power New Industries, Keep Us Competitive, And Spark New Innovation.

-Barack Obama

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We Are Convinced, As

Barack Obama

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We Are Convinced, As Some Of You May Be Convinced, That Changing The Way We Produce And Use Energy Is Essential To America's Economic Future, That It Will Create Millions Of New Jobs, Power New Industries, Keep Us Competitive, And Spark New Innovation.

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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.

Gas Tax Holiday Is A Classic Washington Gimmick.

He [barack Obama] Talked About A Crisises And He Was Blaming The Republicans On This Crisises. It's Like Me Blaming My Wife For My Drinking. I Don't Se How This Is The Republicans Fault.

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

I Opposed The Defense Of Marriage Act In 1996. It Should Be Repealed And I Will Vote For Its Repeal On The Senate Floor. I Will Also Oppose Any Proposal To Amend The U.s. Constitution To Ban Gays And Lesbians From Marrying.

The Same Would Be True For Something Like Social Security, Where Historically, If You Just Read The Law And The Fact That It Excluded Domestic Workers Or Agricultural Workers, You Might Not See Race In It, Unless You Knew That That Covered A Huge Chunk Of African Americans, Particularly In The South.

African American

The Consequences Of War Are Dire, The Sacrifices Immeasurable. We May Have Occasion In Our Lifetime To Once Again Rise Up In Defense Of Our Freedom, And Pay The Wages Of War. But We Ought Not we Will Not travel Down That Hellish Path Blindly.

I Think That I'm A Better Speechwriter Than My Speechwriters. I Know More About Policies On Any Particular Issue Than My Policy Directors. And I'll Tell You Right Now That I'm Gonna Think I'm A Better Political Director Than My Political Director.

I've Been Fighting With Acorn, Alongside Acorn, On Issues You Care About, My Entire Career.

Beside The Two Wars He Inherited In Iraq And Afghanistan, And Promised To End, A Financial Crisis At Home Had Pushed The United States To The Brink Of Another Great Depression. When We Spoke With The New President In March Of 2009, The Economy Was Losing 800,000 Jobs A Month, The Government Was Throwing Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars At Failing Banks, And The Auto Industry Was On The Verge Of Collapse. Politically Pummeled From All Sides, Obama Did His Best To Keep A Sense Of Humor.

The Only Reason I Send A Single Young Man Or Woman In Uniform Anywhere In The World Is Because I Think It's Necessary To Keep Us Safe.

But To Truly Transform Our Economy, Protect Our Security, And Save Our Planet From The Ravages Of Climate Change, We Need To Ultimately Make Clean, Renewable Energy The Profitable Kind Of Energy. So I Ask This Congress To Send Me Legislation That Places A Market-based Cap On Carbon Pollution And Drives The Production Of More Renewable Energy In America.

I Am Not Opposed To All Wars. I'm Opposed To Dumb Wars.

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 Can Have Reasonable, Thoughtful Gun Control Measure That I Think Respect The Second Amendment And People's Traditions.

What We Have To Do Moving Forward Is To Make Sure That Small Businesses That Account For Most Of The Job Growth In Our Economy Are Getting The Kind Of Financing That They Need.

Your Voice Can Change The World.

You Will Not See Any Of Your Taxes Increase One Single Dime.

We Won't Apologise For Our Way Of Life, Nor Will We Weaver In Its Defence, And For Those Who Seek To Advance Their Aims By Inducing Terror And Slaughtering Innocents, We Say To You Now That Our Spirit Is Stronger And Cannot Be Broken, You Cannot Outlast Us, And We Will Defeat You.

If You Look At The Current Mosul Campaign Against Isil, For Example The Few Thousand Troops That We Have There To Support That Effort Allows The Iraqi Military To Move Forward In An Effective Way.

Foreign Assistance Is Not An End In Itself. The Purpose Of Aid Must Be To Create The Conditions Where It's No Longer Need.

Your Ability To Let Go Is Part Of The Duty That You Have.

Scripture Tells Us To "run With Endurance The Race That Is Set Before Us." As We Do, May God Hold Close Those Who’ve Been Taken From Us Too Soon.

No One Is Pro-abortion.

We Can Give Our Intelligence And Law Enforcement Community The Powers They Need To Track Down And Take Out Terrorists Without Undermining Our Commitment To The Rule Of Law, Or Our Basic Rights And Liberties.

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

America's Strong Bonds With Israel Are Well Known - This Bond Is Unbreakable.

What We May Think Is Funny Or Cute May End Up Being Powerfully Hurtful.

Our Objective Is Clear: We Will Degrade, And Ultimately Destroy, Isil Through A Comprehensive And Sustained Counter-terrorism Strategy.

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 Fact That We Are Here Today To Debate Raising America's Debt Limit Is A Sign Of Leadership Failure... It Is A Sign That We Now Depend On Ongoing Financial Assistance From Foreign Countries To Finance Our Government's Reckless Fiscal Policies.

Sometimes When These Kinds Of Things Happen, It Can Seem A Little Bit Too Much To Bear. But What I Want The People Of Louisiana Know Is That You're Not Alone On This. Even After The Tv Cameras Leave, The Whole Country Is Going To Continue To Support You And Help You Until We Get Folks Back In Their Homes And Lives Are Rebuilt.

It's The Job, I Think, Of Leaders To Try To Address Peoples' Real Legitimate Concerns And Channel Them In The Most Constructive Ways Possible.

This Kind Of Gaping Inequality Gives Lie To The Promise That’s At The Very Heart Of America: That This Is A Place Where You Can Make It If You Try. We Tell People - We Tell Our Kids - That In This Country, Even If You’re Born With Nothing, Work Hard And You Can Get Into The Middle Class. We Tell Them That Your Children Will Have A Chance To Do Even Better Than You Do. That’s Why Immigrants From Around The World Historically Have Flocked To Our Shores.

It Could Be Another Election Where The Alignments Between Republicans And Democrats Are Different Than They Were This Time And Who A Foreign Country Prefers.

There's No Straight Line To Progress.

I'm Never Surprised By Controversies That Are Whipped Up In Washington.

Democracy Cannot Be Imposed On Any Nation From The Outside. Each Society Must Search For Its Own Path, And No Path Is Perfect.

And So You [young Americans]need To Be The Idea Generation. The Generation Who's Always Thinking On The Cutting Edge, Who's Wondering How To Create And Keep The Next Wave Of American Jobs And American Innovations, Who's Figuring Out How To Out-compete The Idea Generations Of Indias And Chinas Of The World.

I Know That Gaps Can Be Closed. And They Can Be Closed Substantially, More Than I Think We Believe.

Winnie The Pooh Seems To Me To Be A Fundamental Text On National Security.

National Security

We Are On Alert 24/7. And Everything That You Report Will Be Investigated. We Do It In Private. We Do It Covertly. This Could Be A Problem, It Could Simply Be Your Neighbor Having A Bad Day. But Better Be Safe Than Sorry.

You Now Have The Potential Of 200 People Deciding Who Ends Up Being Elected President Every Single Time.

Cynicism Is A Sorry Kind Of Wisdom.

I Support Ensuring That Committed Gay Couples Have The Same Rights And Responsibilities Afforded To Any Married Couple In This Country. I Believe Strongly In Stopping Laws Designed To Take Rights Away And Passing Laws That Extend Equal Rights To Gay Couples. I've Required All Agencies In The Federal Government To Extend As Many Federal Benefits As Possible To Lgbt Families As The Current Law Allows. And I've Called On Congress To Repeal The So-called Defense Of Marriage Act And To Pass The Domestic Partners Benefits And Obligations Act.

Each And Every Time, A New Generation Has Risen Up And Done What’s Needed To Be Done. Today We Are Called Once More — And It Is Time For Our Generation To Answer That Call. For That Is Our Unyielding Faith — That In The Face Of Impossible Odds, People Who Love Their Country Can Change It.

You Can Question Somebody's Views And Their Judgment Without Questioning Their Motives Or Patriotism.

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.

Let's Face It, I Like Stanford Grads. I'd Always Hear About This Campus, And Everybody Is Riding Bikes, And People Hopping Into Fountains.

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.

"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?"

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'm Not Denouncing The Church, And I'm Not Interested In People Who Want Me To Denounce The Church. It's Not A Church Worthy Of Denouncing.

Chancellor [angela] Merkel Is Perhaps The Only Leader Left Among Our Closest Allies That Was There When I Arrived. So In Some Ways We Are Now The Veterans Of Many Challenges Over The Last Eight Years.

The Campaign Was A More Significant Training Ground Than I Think People Give It Credit For. By The Time I Got Here, I Think I Had A Pretty Good Sense Of What Was Required. But The Circumstances In Which I Came In Were Different Than Most Executives, Right? The Enterprise Was In The Midst Of A Major Crisis.

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 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.

I Reject Discrimination Against Muslim Americans - Who Are Just As Patriotic As We Are.

When You're A Candidate And You Say Something That Is Inaccurate Or Controversial, It Has Less Impact Than It Does When You're President Of The United States. Everybody Around The World's Paying Attention. Markets Move. National Security Issues Require A Level Of Precision In Order To Make Sure That You Don't Make Mistakes.

My Parents Shared Not Only An Improbable Love, They Shared An Abiding Faith In The Possibilities Of This Nation. They Would Give Me An African Name, Barack, Or Blessed, Believing That In A Tolerant America Your Name Is No Barrier To Success.

And So Our Goal On Health Care Is, If We Can Get, Instead Of Health Care Costs Going Up 6 Percent A Year, It's Going Up At The Level Of Inflation, Maybe Just Slightly Above Inflation, We've Made Huge Progress. And By The Way, That Is The Single Most Important Thing We Could Do In Terms Of Reducing Our Deficit. That's Why We Did It.

The Last Thing That I Want To Do Is To Have The United States Be A Foil.

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.

I Don't Have To Negotiate An Arms Agreement With Great Britain Or With France.

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

It Is My Judgment That Had I Spent The First Two Years Trying To Get A Single-payer System, All Those Folks Who Now Have Health Insurance That Didn't Have It Would Still Be Uninsured. And Those Are Millions Of People Whose Lives Are Impacted Right Now.

We Have Reaffirmed Again And Again That The United States Is Not And Never Will Be At War With Islam. Islam Teaches Peace, And When It Comes To America And Islam, There Is No Us And Them, There's Only Us, Because Millions Of Muslim Americans Are Part Of The Fabric Of Our Country. So, We Reject Any Suggestion Of A Clash Of Civilizations.

Tonight, Let Us Think Back To The Sense Of Unity That Prevailed On 9/11.

We Can Be Civil To Each Other, And We Can Try To Express Ourselves Acknowledging That We're All Patriots, We're All Americans, And Not Assume The Absolute Worst In People's Motives.

One Of The Challenges Over The Last Decade Is America Has Done Experiments In Nation Building In Places Like Iraq And Afghanistan And We've Neglected, For Example, Developing Our Own Economy, Our Own Energy Sectors, Our Own Education System. And It's Very Hard For Us To Project Leadership Around The World When We're Not Doing What We Need To Do.

I Found This National Debt Doubled, Wrapped In A Big Bow Waiting For Me As I Stepped Into The Oval Office.

Ultimately, I Remain Optimistic About Not Just America's Future, But The Direction That The World Is Growing.

I Wouldn't Advise [people] To Be Silent.

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

Guarantees That

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

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

I Was Raised By A Single Mom Who Had To Put Herself Through School While Looking After Two Kids. And She Worked Hard Every Day And Made A Lot Of Sacrifices To Make Sure We Got Everything We Needed. My Grandmother, She Started Off As A Secretary In A Bank. She Never Got A College Education, Even Though She Was Smart As A Whip. And She Worked Her Way Up To Become A Vice President Of A Local Bank, But She Hit The Glass Ceiling. She Trained People Who Would End Up Becoming Her Bosses During The Course Of Her Career.

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.

Today, The World Lost A Creative Icon. Michelle And I Join Millions Of Fans From Around The World In Mourning The Sudden Death Of Prince.

Number One, It Is Important That We Fix The Legal Immigration System, Because Right Now We've Got A Backlog That Means Years For People To Apply Legally. And What's Worse Is, We Keep On Increasing The Fees, So That If You've Got A Hard Working Immigrant Family, They've Got To Hire A Lawyer; They've Got To Pay Thousands Of Dollars In Fees. They Just Can't Afford It. And It's Discriminatory Against People Who Have Good Character, We Should Want In This Country, But Don't Have The Money. So We've Got To Fix That.

Our Nation Honors Its Unbroken Line Of Fallen Heroes - And I See Many Of Them In The Audience Here Today.

One Of The Great Qualities Of Chancellor Merkel Is That She Is Steady. She Analyzes A Situation. She's Honest. Sometimes We've Had Disagreements, But When We Do, It's Very Constructive. And We Are Consistently Open With Each Other About How We Should Approach These Issues.

The Amount Of Information, The Amount Of Incoming That Any Administration Has To Deal With Today And Respond To Much More Rapidly Than Ever Before, That Makes It Different.

I Think We All Know That World Owes An Enormous Debt To Greece And The Greek People.

In America, We Want A Peaceful Planet. We Want People To Be Able To Enjoy Their Lives And Know They're Going To Have A Bright And Prosperous Future, Not Be At War. That's Our Purpose.

Prosperous Future

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.

The Private Sector Is Doing Fine.

I Think That We Are In A Position To Continue To Make Progress, But It's Gonna Require Us To Both Recognize What The Problems Are, Also Recognize The Progress We've Made. Last Point I'd Make On This, Since We're On Criminal Justice: During The Course Of My Presidency Crime Has Been The Lowest It's Been Probably Since The '60s.

A Person’s Zip Code Shouldn’t Decide Their Destiny.

We Ask Our Men And Women In Uniform To Leave Their Families, Our Guardsmen And Reservists To Leave Their Jobs. We Ask You To Fight, To Sacrifice, To Risk Your Lives For Your Country. The Last Thing You Should Have To Do Is Fight For A Job When You Come Home.

I Am Looking Forward To Getting Out Of The Bubble. I Am Glad That I'm Leaving This Place At A Relatively Young Age, At 55. So I Have The Opportunity For A Second Maybe Even A Third Act In A Way That I Think Would Be Tougher If I Were, You Know, The Age Of Some Presidents When They Left.

Nobody Cares How Tough Your Upbringing Was. Nobody Cares If You Suffered Some Discrimination.

Later, I Would Realize That The Position Of Most Black Students In Predominantly White Colleges Was Already Too Tenuous, Our Identities Too Scrambled, To Admit To Ourselves That Our Black Pride Remained Incomplete. And To Admit Our Doubt And Confusion To Whites, To Open Up Our Psyches To General Examination By Those Who Had Caused So Much Of The Damage In The First Place, Seemed Ludicrous, Itself An Expression Of Self-hatred - For There Seemed No Reason To Expect That Whites Would Look At Our Private Struggles As A Mirror Into Their Own Souls, Rather Than Yet More Evidence Of Black Pathology.

Our Job As Americans Is To Restore That Basic Bargain That Says, If You Work Hard, If You're Willing To Meet Your Responsibilities, You Can Get Ahead. You Can Get Ahead. Doesn't Matter What You Look Like, Doesn't Matter Where You Come From. Our Middle Class, When It's Growing, When It's Thriving, When There Are Ladders Of Opportunity For People To Do A Little Bit Better Each Year And Then Make Sure That Their Kids Are Doing Even Better Than Them, That's The American Dream. That's What We Got To Fight For. That Has To Be The North Star That Guides Everything We Do.

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.

It's Useful For Activists Just To Be Out There To Keep You Mindful And Not Get Complacent, Even If Ultimately You Think Some Of Their Criticism Is Misguided.

Politics Didn't Lead Me To Working People. Working People Led Me Into Politics.

All This Marked Them As Vaguely Liberal, Although Their Ideas Would Never Congeal Into Anything Like A Firm Ideology; In This, Too, They Were American.

We Have Real Enemies In The World. These Enemies Must Be Found. They Must Be Pursued And They Must Be Defeated.

Torture Is How You Create Enemies, Not How You Defeat Them... Torture Is How You Get Bad Information, Not Good Intelligence. Torture Is How You Set Back America's Standing In The World, Not How You Strengthen It.

The Public School System Is Not About Educating Black Children. Never Has Been. Inner-city Schools Are About Social Control. Period. They’re Operated As Holding Pens—miniature Jails, Really. It’s Only When Black Children Start Breaking Out Of Their Pens And Bothering White People That Society Even Pays Any Attention To The Issue Of Whether These Children Are Being Educated.

I Have Been Blessed By Having, And I Admittedly Am Biased, Some Of The Smartest, Hardest-working, And Good People In My Administration That I Think Any President Has Ever Had.

The People Of The United Kingdom Have Spoken, And We Respect Their Decision. The Special Relationship Between The United States And The United Kingdom Is Enduring, And The United Kingdom's Membership In Nato Remains A Vital Cornerstone Of Us Foreign, Security And Economic Policy.

We Are Not A Nation That Says, 'don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.' We Are A Nation That Says, 'out Of Many, We Are One.' We Are A Nation That Welcomes The Service Of Every Patriot. We Are A Nation That Believes That All Men And Women Are Created Equal. Those Are The Ideals That Generations Have Fought For. Those Are The Ideals That We Upheld Today.

The Path Of America's Development Is Never A Straight Line. Sometimes We Move In Ways That Are Forwards; Sometime That Seem Back.

I Don't Think That There's A Hard-and-fast Deadline. . . .what We Have Said All Along Is That This Is Not An Open-ended Process, We Are Not In This Just To Talk For Talk's Sake. . . . We Expect Prompt, Concrete Steps To Be Taken Over The Next Couple Of Weeks.

I Think The American People, You Know, They're Going To Want That New Car Smell. They Want To Drive Something Off The Lot That Doesn't Have As Much Mileage As Me.

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

Tonight, I Can Report To The American People And To The World That The United States Has Conducted An Operation That Killed Osama Bin Laden, The Leader Of Al Qaeda, And A Terrorist Who's Responsible For The Murder Of Thousands Of Innocent Men, Women, And Children.

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.

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

The Ideas Of Ancient Greece Helped Inspire America's Founding Fathers As They Reached For Democracy. Our Revolutionary Ideas Helped Inspire Greeks As They Sought Their Own Freedom.

It's Important To Know That The Vast Majority Of People Who Were Excited In 2008 Are Still Really Enthusiastic. We've Got More Volunteers Now Than Ever, And They're Engaged, They're Motivated, They're Not Paying Attention To The Ups And Downs Of Polls Or Washington.

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.

For The Palestinians' Efforts To Delegitimize Israel Will End In Failure. Palestinian Leaders Will Not Achieve Peace Or Prosperity If Hamas Insists On A Path Of Terror And Rejection. And Palestinians Will Never Realize Their Independence By Denying The Right Of Israel To Exist.

I Have Seen, The Desperation And Disorder Of The Powerless: How It Twists The Lives Of Children On The Streets Of Jakarta Or Nairobi In Much The Same Way As It Does The Lives Of Children On Chicago 's South Side.

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.

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.

Fear, Uncertainty And Discomfort Are Your Compasses Toward Growth. If You Run You Stand A Chance Of Losing, But If You Don't Run You've Already Lost.

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.

The Notion That Somehow As A Consequence Of Me Knowing Somebody Who Engaged In Detestable Acts 40 Years Ago, When I Was 8 Years Old, Somehow Reflects On Me And My Values Doesn't Make Much Sense.

We Have States. And We Have Cities. And We Have Counties. And We Have The Private Sector. And - And So The Country Still Works Even When Washington's Dysfunctional.

I Believe That There Are Many Paths To The Same Place, And That Is A Belief That There Is A Higher Power, A Belief That We Are Connected As A People.

You're Going To Face A Choice In November. This Is A Choice Between The Policies That Got Us Into This Mess In The First Place And The Policies That Got Us Out Of This Mess - And What The Other Side Is Counting On Is People Not Having A Good Memory.

It Was The Labor Movement That Helped Secure So Much Of What We Take For Granted Today. The 40-hour Work Week, The Minimum Wage, Family Leave, Health Insurance, Social Security, Medicare, Retirement Plans. The Cornerstones Of The Middle-class Security All Bear The Union Label.

We Rise And Fall As One People, One Nation.

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

I Can't Even Get A Credit Card Without Three Credit Bureaus Saying I'm Good Enough.

Poorly Secured Nuclear Material In The Former Soviet Union, Or Secrets From A Scientist In Pakistan Could Help Build A Bomb That Detonates In Paris. The Poppies In Afghanistan Become The Heroin In Berlin. The Poverty And Violence In Somalia Breeds The Terror Of Tomorrow.

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

We Do Not Consider Ourselves A Christian Nation.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer A Christian Nation

It's A Generational Project Just To Get America To Live Up Fully To Its Ideals And To Have The Kind Of Society Where Everybody Has A Shot, And Every Kid Is Getting A Good Education, And People Are Getting Living Wages, And They Have Decent Retirement.

I Believe That This Country Succeeds When Everyone Gets A Fair Shot, When Everyone Does Their Fair Share, When Everyone Plays By The Same Rules.

[this Upset] Means That Means Donald Trump Now Has To Transition To Governance.

Making Products We Sell Around The World, Stamped With Three Proud Words, 'made In The Usa!'

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.

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.

In The White Community, The Path To A More Perfect Union Means Acknowledging That What Ails The African-american Community Does Not Just Exist In The Minds Of Black People; That The Legacy Of Discrimination - And Current Incidents Of Discrimination, While Less Overt Than In The Past - Are Real And Must Be Addressed.

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.

We Have To Find Ways In Which, Collectively, We Agree There's Some Things That Government Needs To Do To Help Protect Us, That In This Age Of Non-state Actors Who Can Amass Great Power, I Want My Government - And I Think The German People Should Want Their Government - To Be Able To Find Out If A Terrorist Organization Has Access To A Weapon Of Mass Destruction That Might Go Off In The Middle Of Berlin.

Mass Destruction

I'm Not The Caricature That You See On Fox News Or Rush Limbaugh, But I'm Somebody Who Is Interested In Solving Problems And Is Pretty Practical, And That, Actually, A Lot Of The Things That We've Put In Place Worked Better Than People Might Think.

The Most Expensive Care We Can Give, We're Giving Those Americans Without Insurance. It's Kind Of Stupid That We're Fighting The Notion That We Want To Quit Paying A Hidden Tax And Be Up Front About Covering People In A Way That Is Cost-effective.

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.

You Have Social Media And The Internet And Immigration And So, Suddenly, Cultures Are Clashing And People Feel As If They're Less Familiar With The People Around Them. That Causes Social Anxieties.

Does That Mean That All Vestiges Of Past Discrimination Would Be Eliminated, That The Income Gap Or The Wealth Gap Or The Education Gap [between Afro-americans And White] Would Be Erased In Five Years Or 10 Years? Probably Not, And So This Is Obviously A Discussion We've Had Before When You Talk About Something Like Reparations.

Obama Said If Elected His Government Would "harness Technology To Confront The Biggest Challenges That America Faces".

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

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

I Believe That The Free Enterprise System Is The Greatest Engine Of Prosperity The World's Ever Known. I Believe In Self-reliance And Individual Initiative And Risk-takers Being Rewarded. But I Also Believe That Everybody Should Have A Fair Shot And Everybody Should Do Their Fair Share And Everybody Should Play By The Same Rules, Because That's How Our Economy's Grown. That's How We Built The World's Greatest Middle Class.

I Take The Constitution Very Seriously. The Biggest Problems That We're Facing Right Now Have To Do With [the President] Trying To Bring More And More Power Into The Executive Branch And Not Go Through Congress At All. And That's What I Intend To Reverse When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

My Wife Has Been My Closest Friend, My Closest Advisor. And ... She's Not Somebody Who Looks To The Limelight, Or Even Is Wild About Me Being In Politics. And That's A Good Reality Check On Me. When I Go Home, She Wants Me To Be A Good Father And A Good Husband. And Everything Else Is Secondary To That.

Please Proceed, Governor.

I Would Say This, I'll Go Back To Those Black Ladies I Was Talking About Who Love Them Some Barack And Love Michelle Even More - And By The Way, They Are Not Middle-aged Anymore, Because I'm Now Middle-aged. So They're A Little Bit Older. As Fervent As They Were, As Excited And Happy As They Were When I Was Elected, They Had To Go To Work The Next Morning. They Still Had Trouble Paying Those Bills. They Might Have Still Had A Son Who Was In Trouble With The Law Or Couldn't Get A Job Because Of A Felony Record. They Didn't Stop Being Grounded.

The Leaders We Revere And The Businesses That Last Are Generally Not The Result Of A Narrow Pursuit Of Popularity Or Personal Advancement, But Of Devotion To Some Bigger Purpose. That's The Hallmark Of Real Success. The Other Trapping Of Success Might Be The By Product Of This Larger Mission, But It Can't Be The Central Thing.

Although Israel Was Founded Based On The Historic Jewish Homeland And The Need To Have A Jewish Homeland, Israeli Democracy Has Been Premised On Everybody In The Country Being Treated Equally And Fairly. And I Think That That Is What's Best About Israeli Democracy.

Democracies Have

Today, We Are Closer To Fulfilling America's Promise Of Economic And Social Justice Because We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants Like Dr. King, Yet Our Future Progress Will Depend On How We Prepare Our Next Generation Of Leaders. We Must Fortify Their Ladders Of Opportunity By Correcting Social Injustice, Breaking The Cycle Of Poverty In Struggling Communities, And Reinvesting In Our Schools. Education Can Unlock A Child's Potential And Remains Our Strongest Weapon Against Injustice And Inequality.

For All The Noise And Anger That Too Often Surrounds The Immigration Debate, America Has Nothing To Fear From Today's Immigrants. They Have Come Here For The Same Reason That Families Have Always Come Here-for The Hope That In America, They Could Build A Better Life For Themselves And Their Families. Like The Waves Of Immigrants That Came Before Them And The Hispanic Americans Whose Families Have Been Here For Generations, The Recent Arrival Of Latino Immigrants Will Only Enrich Our Country.

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

Peace Is Not Just The Absence Of War. True Peace Depends Upon Creating The Opportunity That Makes Life Worth Living. And To Do That, We Must Confront The Common Enemies Of Human Beings: Nuclear Weapons And Poverty; Ignorance And Disease.

We're Not Going To Baby Sit A Civil War.

At The Moment That We Persuade A Child, Any Child, To Cross That Threshold, That Magic Threshold Into A Library, We Change Their Lives Forever, For The Better

Those Who Adhere To The Ideology Of Rejecting Israel’s Right To Exist, They Might As Well Reject The Earth Beneath Them Or The Sky Above, Because Israel Is Not Going Anywhere.

America Isn't Congress. America Isn't Washington. America Is The Striving Immigrant Who Starts A Business, Or The Mom Who Works Two Low-wage Jobs To Give Her Kid A Better Life. America Is The Union Leader And The Ceo Who Put Aside Their Differences To Make The Economy Stronger.

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

It's Time To Recognize That Under The Equal Protection Clause Of The United States [constitution], Same-sex Couples Should Have The Same Rights As Anybody Else.

The American People Are A Non-ideological People. They Very Much Are Looking For Common-sense, Practical Solutions To The Problems That They Face. Oftentimes They've Got Contradictory Senses Of Various Issues And Policy Positions And I Don't Think That Either The Republican Party Or The Democratic Party Necessarily Capture Their Deepest Dreams When Those Parties Are Described In Caricature Or In Policy Terms.

One Of The Best Investments We Can Make In A Child’s Life Is High-quality Early Education.

I Think Perhaps Education Doesn’t Do Us Much Good Unless It Is Mixed With Sweat.

There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around. I Think The Problem Here Is That In Our School Systems, And To Some Degree - And This Is Where It Is Relevant - With School Boards Around The Country That Are Mandating Curriculums And Textbooks, You Start Seeing This Weird Watering Down Of Scientific Fact So That Our Kids Are Growing Up In An Environment - And This Connects To What I Was Saying Earlier Abou The Media - Where Everything's Contested. Where Nothing Is True.

Having A Tax Code That Rewards Companies That Are Shipping Jobs Overseas Instead Of Companies That Are Investing Here In The United States, That Will Not Make Us More Competitive.

I Don't Think There's A Lot Of Dispute For This. You Can Argue That We Didn't Get Everything Done That We Wanted To Get Done, But I Can Make A Really Strong Argument, And I Think Prove, That By Almost Every Measure The Country's Better Off Now Than When I Started.

As A Practical Matter, It Is Hard To Think Of Any Society In Human History In Which A Majority Population Has Said That As A Consequence Of Historic Wrongs, We Are Now Going To Take A Big Chunk Of The Nation's Resources Over A Long Period Of Time To Make That Right.

We Know That Every Father Has A Personal Responsibility To Do Right By Their Kids - To Encourage Them To Turn Off The Video Games And Pick Up A Book; To Teach Them The Difference Between Right And Wrong; To Show Them Through Our Own Example The Value In Treating One Another As We Wish To Be Treated. And Most Of All, To Play An Active And Engaged Role In Their Lives.

You Wouldn't Know That If You Talked To Human Rights Watch Or Amnesty International Or Some Of The International Activist Organizations. Certainly You Wouldn't Know That If You Were Talking To Some Of The Writers Who Criticize Our Drone Policy. But I've Actually Told My Staff It's Probably Good That They Stay Critical Of This Policy, Even Though I Think Right Now We're Doing The Best That We Can In A Dangerous World With Terrorists Who Would Gladly Blow Up A School Bus Full Of American Kids If They Could.

We Don't Make Determinations About Who We Love. And That's Why I Think That Discrimination On The Basis Of Sexual Orientation Is Wrong.

I Try To Explain To Them About The Aloha Spirit. And It's That Spirit That I Am Absolutely Convinced Is What America Is Looking For Right Now.

We Are Reminded That, In The Fleeting Time We Have On This Earth, What Matters Is Not Wealth, Or Status, Or Power, Or Fame, But Rather How Well We Have Loved And What Small Part We Have Played In Making The Lives Of Other People Better.

Islam Has Always Been Part Of America

I've Been Called Worse On The Basketball Court.

Basketball Court

I Believe That Marriage Is The Union Between A Man And A Woman. Now, For Me As A Christian - For Me - For Me As A Christian, It Is Also A Sacred Union. God's In The Mix.

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.

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.

Put Simply, What I'd Like To Do Is To See The First Two Years Of Community College Free For Everybody's Who Is Willing To Work For It.

There Are Certain Occupations - Probably, Most Prominently, Politics - Where There Would Be A Bias Against Somebody Who's Agnostic Or Atheist In Running For Office.

We Have Come From A Time Of The Large-scale, Planned, Al Qaeda-style Attacks, To The Encouragement Of Lone Wolves: Fort Hood, Chattanooga. To The Encouragement Of People To Act On Their Own.

Everything We've Done Has Been Designed To Make Sure That We Address That Number One Priority. That's What The Sanctions Regime Was All About. That's How We Were Able To Mobilize The International Community, Including Some Folks That We Are Not Particularly Close To, To Abide By These Sanctions. That's How These Crippling Sanctions Came About, Was Because We [usa] Were Able To Gain Global Consensus That Iran Having A Nuclear Weapon Would Be A Problem For Everybody.

A Political Consultant, When We First Started Thinking About Senate Race, Said, "you Can Have One Funny Name. You Can Be 'barack Smith.' Or You Can Be 'joe Obama.' But 'barack Obama' - That's Not Gonna Work."

Here's The Truth: The Soviet Union Had Thousands Of Nuclear Weapons, And Iran Doesn't Have A Single One. But When The World Was On The Brink Of Nuclear Holocaust, Kennedy Talked To Khrushchev And He Got Those Missiles Out Of Cuba. Why Shouldn't We Have The Same Courage And The Confidence To Talk To Our Enemies? That's What Strong Countries Do, That's What Strong Presidents Do, That's What I'll Do When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

Every Decision, Every Debate, No Matter How Important It Is, With The Same Question: 'what Does This Mean For The Next Election? What Does It Mean For Your Poll Numbers? Is This Good For The Democrats Or Good For The Republicans? Who Won The News Cycle?' That's Just How Washington Is. They Can't Help It. They're Obsessed With The Sport Of Politics.

... I Just Want To Remind The Owners And The Players: You Guys Make Money Because You Have A Whole Bunch Of Fans Out There Who Are Working Really Hard. They Buy Tickets. They're Watching On Tv. Ya'll Should Be Able To Figure This Out. Get This Done.

No, You Can't Deny Women Their Basic Rights And Pretend It's About Your 'religious Freedom'. If You Don't Like Birth Control, Don't Use It. Religious Freedom Doesn't Mean You Can Force Others To Live By Your Own Beliefs.

We Will Kill Bin Laden. We Will Crush Al Qaeda. That Has To Be Our Biggest National Security Priority.

What You Have Is Mitt Romney Running Around The Country Saying 'well, You Know, My Wife Tells Me That What Women Really Care About Are Economic Issues, And When I Listen To My Wife, That's What I'm Hearing.' Guess What? His Wife Has Actually Never Worked A Day In Her Life.

It Would Be Good For The Workers In Vietnam Even As It Helps Make Sure That They're Not Undercutting Competition Here In The United States.

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.

As The Wealthiest Nation On Earth, I Believe The United States Has A Moral Obligation To Lead The Fight Against Hunger And Malnutrition, And To Partner With Others.

Hunger And Poverty

And There’s Been Drift In Afghanistan Over The Last Couple Of Years. That’s Something That We Intend To Fix This.

I Kept Finding The Same Anguish, The Same Doubt; A Self-contempt That Neither Irony Nor Intellect Seemed Able To Deflect. Even Dubois’s Learning And Baldwin’s Love And Langston’s Humor Eventually Succumbed To Its Corrosive Force, Each Man Finally Forced To Doubt Art’s Redemptive Power, Each Man Finally Forced To Withdraw, One To Africa, One To Europe, One Deeper Into The Bowels Of Harlem, But All Of Them In The Same Weary Flight, All Of Them Exhausted, Bitter Men, The Devil At Their Heels.

I Want Every Young Man Who Sees Me To Know That I'm Not That Different From Them. I Wasn't Born Into Wealth. I Wasn't Born Into Fame. I Made A Lot Of Mistakes - But I Kept At It.

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