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We Had To Get Out Of Chicago So Quick. Election Night Happens, Suddenly I'm Talking To Ben Bernanke And Hank Paulson And Trying To Figure Out Whether The World's Going To Fly Apart, And Michelle Is Trying To Figure Out Where The Girls Are Going To Go To School. And We Pack Up And Leave And Basically Our House In Chicago Just Became Like A Time Capsule. My Desk In My Home Office Still Had Stacks Of Articles And Bills And Stuff From 2008.

-Barack Obama

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We Had To Get

Barack Obama

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We Had To Get Out Of Chicago So Quick. Election Night Happens, Suddenly I'm Talking To Ben Bernanke And Hank Paulson And Trying To Figure Out Whether The World's Going To Fly Apart, And Michelle Is Trying To Figure Out Where The Girls Are Going To Go To School. And We Pack Up And Leave And Basically Our House In Chicago Just Became Like A Time Capsule. My Desk In My Home Office Still Had Stacks Of Articles And Bills And Stuff From 2008.

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No Party Has A Monopoly On Wisdom. No Democracy Works Without Compromise. But When Governor Romney And His Allies In Congress Tell Us We Can Somehow Lower Our Deficit By Spending Trillions More On New Tax Breaks For The Wealthy - Well, You Do The Math. I Refuse To Go Along With That. And As Long As I'm President, I Never Will.

We Know That Isil And Other Terrorist Groups Are Actively Encouraging People, Around The World And In Our Country, To Commit Terrible Acts Of Violence, Oftentimes As Lone-wolf Actors.

Terrorist Groups

If It's On Facebook, It All Looks The Same.

We Were Just At The Beginnings Of A Recovery [in 2010]. And The, You Know, Whoever Is President At That Point Is Gonna Get Hit And His Party's Gonna Get Hit. That Then Means That Suddenly You've Got A Redistricting In Which A Lot Of State Legislatures Are Now Republican. They Draw Lines That Give A Huge Structural Advantage In Subsequent Elections.

Black Churches Minister To Social Needs Out Of Necessity.

My Mother Was The One Constant In My Life. When I Think About My Mom Raising Me Alone When She Was 20, And Working And Paying The Bills, And, You Know, Trying To Pursue Your Own Dreams, I Think Is A Feat That Is Unmatched.

Our Patience Is Not Infinite. We're Not Willing To Let This Go On Forever.

The Conservative Revolution That Reagan Helped Usher In Gained Traction Because Reagan's Central Insight - That The Liberal Welfare State Had Grown Complacent And Overly Bureaucratic, With Democratic Policy Makers More Obsessed With Slicing The Economic Pie Than With Growing The Pie - Contained A Good Deal Of Truth.

If You Look At What Happened, I Came In The Middle Of The Worst Financial Crisis Since The Great Depression. And Unlike Franklin Delano Roosevelt Who Waited, Well, Didn't Take Office Until About Three Years Into The Great Depression, It Was Happening Just As I Was Elected.

If You've Got A Business, You Didn't Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen.

I Think Raising Wages, Investing In Infrastructure, Making Sure That People Have Access To Good Educations That Equip Them For The Jobs Of The Future. Those Are All Agenda Items That Would Help Alleviate Some Of Those Economic Pressures And Dislocations That People Are Experiencing. The Problem Was I Couldn't Convince The Republican Congress To Pass A Lot Of Them.

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.

Unemployment Is Low, Incomes Are Up, Poverty Is Down - And That's Going To Be A Lasting Change.

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

I Think It's Important To Realize That I Was Actually Black Before The Election.

The Idea Of America Endures. Our Destiny Remains Our Choice. And Tonight, More Than Two Centuries Later, It Is Because Of Our People That Our Future Is Hopeful, Our Journey Goes Forward, And The State Of Our Union Is Strong.

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

Listening To Evangelicals Bridges Major Political Fault Line.

We Don't Have This Huge Footprint, We Are Less Likely To Be Targeted As, You Know, Occupiers [in Afghanistan And Iraq].

Lincoln Basically Pulled In All The People Who Had Been Running Against Him Into His Cabinet Because, Whatever Personal Feelings There Were, The Issue Was 'how Can We Get This Country Through This Time Of Crisis?'

You Have To Be Involved During Midterm Elections, You Have To Care About What Happens At A School Board Level.

If Democrats Are Not Showing Up In Those [rural] Places Even If You're Not Gonna Win Right Away But If You're Not In There At Least Making An Argument That, "hey, You Know What? It's The Democrats Who Are Trying To Raise Your Minimum Wage."

This Is What I Would Call Old Politics. This Is The Stuff We're Trying To Get Rid Of. Because The Problem Is, When We Start Breaking Down Into Conservative And Liberal, And We've Got A Bunch Of Set Predispositions, Whether It's On Gun Control, Or Its' On Health Care, Any Attempt To Do Health Care Is Socialized Medicine.

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

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.

Our Politics At Its Best Involves Us Recognizing Ourselves In Each Other. And Our Politics At Its Worst Are When We See Immigrants Or Women Or Blacks Or Gays Or Mexicans As Somehow Separate, Apart From Us.

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.

The Window Is Closing.

Angela Merkel Has Been An Extraordinary Partner For Me And For The United States Throughout My Presidency.

We, The People, Declare Today That The Most Evident Of Truths - That All Of Us Are Created Equal - Is The Star That Guides Us Still; Just As It Guided Our Forebears Through Seneca Falls, And Selma, And Stonewall; Just As It Guided All Those Men And Women, Sung And Unsung, Who Left Footprints Along This Great Mall, To Hear A Preacher Say That We Cannot Walk Alone; To Hear A King Proclaim That Our Individual Freedom Is Inextricably Bound To The Freedom Of Every Soul On Earth.

Justice Needs To Be Served, What I Think People Of Baltimore Want More Than Anything Else Is The Truth. That's What People Around The Country Expect.

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

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

We Are Going To Trace More Effectively, How These Guns Are Ending Up On The Streets, To Unscrupulous Gun Dealers, Who Often Times Are Selling To Straw Purchasers. And Cracking Down On The Various Loopholes That Exist In Terms Of Background Checks For Children, The Mentally Ill.

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

The Greatest Gift That Michelle And I Have Received Over The Last Eight Years Has Been The Honor Of Serving As Your President And First Lady. Together, We Fought Our Way Back From The Worst Recession In 80 Years, And Got Unemployment To A Nine-year Low.

It's My Job As President And Congress’s Job To Maker Sure That There’s Some Rules Of The Road That People Are Going To Abide By And That We’ve Got Transparency And Accountability That This Stuff Is Being Posted And One Of The Things That We Are Going To Do Is Put Together An Independent Board On The Recovery Package…

As We Look Forward To The New Year, Let's Resolve To Recommit Ourselves To The Values We Share.

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World.

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.

If You Listen To The Rhetoric, It Is So Over-the-top And So Overheated, And Most Importantly, Is Not Acknowledging The Fact That There's Nothing Else [like Guns] In Our Lives That We Purchase Where We Don't Try To Make It A Little Safer If We Can.

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

To Look At The Issue Of Life And Abortion, Actually We're Moving In That Direction Where Most Americans Oppose Most Abortions.

I Think A Lot Of Teachers Want To Talk About How To Continually Improve Performance.

I Think There Are A Lot Of People Who Are Involved In The Tea Party Who Have Very Real And Sincere Concerns About Spending That's Out Of Control Or Generally Philosophically Believe That The Government Should Be Less Involved In Certain Aspects Of American Life Rather Than More Involved. And They Have Every Right And Obligation As Citizens To Be Involved And Engaged In This Process.

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 Asking You To Believe. Not Just In My Ability To Bring About Real Change In Washington...i’m Asking You To Believe In Yours.

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.

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

I've Been Called Worse On The Basketball Court.

Basketball Court

For The United States Of America, The Best Is Yet To Come.

Best Is Yet To Come

Sometimes It May Seem As If Progress Is Stalled But What History Of Post-war Germany Shows Is That Strength And Determination And Focus And Adherence To The Values That We Care About Will Result In A Better Future For Our Children And Our Grandchildren.

Hunter Pence Eats Pizza With A Fork.

You Don't Defeat A Terrorist Network That Operates In Eighty Countries By Occupying Iraq.

The Best Judge Of Whether Or Not A Country Is Going To Develop Is How It Treats Its Women

What I Believe Unites The People Of This Nation, Regardless Of Race Or Region Or Party, Young Or Old, Rich Or Poor, Is The Simple, Profound Belief In Opportunity For All - The Notion That If You Work Hard And Take Responsibility, You Can Get Ahead.

I Think Back To The Day I Drove Michelle And A Newborn Malia Home From The Hospital Nearly 11 Years Ago - Crawling Along, Miles Under The Speed Limit, Feeling The Weight Of My Daughter's Future Resting In My Hands. I Think About The Pledge I Made To Her That Day: That I Would Give Her What I Never Had - That If I Could Be Anything In Life, I Would Be A Good Father. I Knew That Day That My Own Life Wouldn't Count For Much Unless She Had Every Opportunity In Hers.

To Those Who Cling To Power Through Corruption And Deceit And The Silencing Of Dissent, Know That You Are On The Wrong Side Of History; But That We Will Extend A Hand If You Are Willing To Unclench Your Fist.

If You Look At Libya, I Was Deeply Concerned About What Would Happen After Qaddafi Was Gone.

We Cannot Drill Our Way Out Of Our Addiction To Oil.

I Became A Lightning Rod For Some Partisan Battles. I Could Not Be Prouder Of The Track Record We've Put Together. By Almost Every Measure, The Country Is Significantly Better Off Than When I Came In.

We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend. And We Honor Those Ideals By Upholding Them Not When It's Easy, But When It Is Hard.

I Think That The Issues We Have With Science These Days Are Not Restricted To What's Happening With Respect To Religion. There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around.

The Supreme Court Had The Choice Not Only Which Way To Rule, Pro- Or Anti-gay Marriage Rights, But Also How They Were Going To Rule. They Could Have Ruled Just Federalism, Saying, "this Isn't A Matter For Federal; This Isn't A Federal Issue At All. States Should Decide It." Or They Could Decide It On Equal Protection Grounds And Say That, "gay Discrimination Is Wrong."

Environmentalism Is Not An Upper-income Issue, It's Not A White Issue, It's Not A Black Issue, It's Not A South Or A North Or An East Or A West Issue. It's An Issue That All Of Us Have A Stake In. And If I Can Do Anything To Make Sure That Not Just My Daughter But Every Child In America Has Green Pastures To Run In And Clean Air To Breathe And Clean Water To Swim In, Then That Is Something I'm Going To Work My Hardest To Make Happen.

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.

Lieutenant Al-kaseasbeh's Dedication, Courage And Service To His Country And Family Represent Universal Human Values That Stand In Opposition To The Cowardice And Depravity Of Isil, Which Has Been So Broadly Rejected Around The Globe.

I Can Document This Past Week [of Presidency] We've Put Out Memos From Every Agency Showing What Did We Do. Try To Be As Honest As Possible. There's A Little Hype Involved Obviously. It's Spin Because It's Our Agencies. We Feel Some Pride About It. But Tried To Be Self-critical As Well.

A Better Politics Is One Where We Appeal To Each Other’s Basic Decency Instead Of Our Basest Fears.

This Is My Last Election. After My Election, I Have More Flexibility.

Unless You're One Of The First Americans, A Native American, You Came From Someplace Else. Somebody Brought You.

Native American

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

[the Democrats] Have Got To Do A Better Job Of Showing Up.

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

Young People Recognize The Big Challenges That Are Coming Up.

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.

I'm A Christian By Choice.

Our Pride Is Based On A Very Simple Premise, Summed Up In A Declaration Made Over Two Hundred Years Ago.

There Are Patriots Who Opposed The War In Iraq And There Are Patriots Who Supported The War In Iraq. We Are One People, All Of Us Pledging Allegiance To The Stars And Stripes, All Of Us Defending The United States Of America.

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.

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.

Of Course, Violence Will Not End With Our Combat Mission. Extremists Will Continue To Set Off Bombs, Attack Iraqi Civilians And Try To Spark Sectarian Strife. But Ultimately, These Terrorists Will Fail To Achieve Their Goals.

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 Know That There Are Those Who Disagree With The Overwhelming Scientific Evidence On Climate Change. But Here's The Thing -- Even If You Doubt The Evidence, Providing Incentives For Energy-efficien Cy And Clean Energy Are The Right Thing To Do For Our Future -- Because The Nation That Leads The Clean Energy Economy Will Be The Nation That Leads The Global Economy. And America Must Be That Nation.

If We Don’t Uphold Our Constitution And Our Values, That Over Time, That Will Make Us Less Safe And That Will Be A Recruitment Tool For Organizations Like Al Qaeda. That’s What I Have To Keep My Eye On.

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

A Nation Cannot Prosper Long When It Favors Only The Prosperous.

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

I'm Asking You To Believe. Not Just In My Ability To Bring About Real Change In Washington . . . I'm Asking You To Believe In Yours." Keeping Faith With Those Who Serve Must Always Be A Core American Value And A Cornerstone Of American Patriotism. Because America's Commitment To Its Servicemen And Women Begins At Enlistment, And It Must Never End.

Yes, This Is Hard. But There Should Be No Question That The United States Of America Is Stepping Up To The Plate. We Recognize Our Role In Creating This Problem; We Embrace Our Responsibility To Combat It. We Will Do Our Part, And We Will Help Developing Nations Do Theirs. But We Can Only Succeed In Combating Climate Change If We Are Joined In This Effort By Every Nation - Developed And Developing Alike. Nobody Gets A Pass.

We Do Want People To Know If In Fact We Learn Of An Incident That's Focused On A Particular City.if We Learn Of Long-term Planning, That's Focused On A Particular Industry Or Infrastructure. And So We Feel We Have An Obligation To Let People Know If We Have Information Of A Credible Threat Or Not.

It’s Important To Make Sure That We’re Talking With Each Other In A Way That Heals, Not In A Way That Wounds." - Barack Obama, 44th U.s. President

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

I Have Always Believed That What Brings Us Together Is Stronger Than What Pulls Us Apart.

We Remain More Than A Collection Of Red States And Blue States. We Are And Forever Will Be The United States Of America.

At Some Fundamental Level, Religion Does Not Allow For Compromise. It Insists On The Impossible. If God Has Spoken, Then Followers Are Expected To Live Up To God's Edicts, Regardless Of The Consequences. To Base One's Life On Such Uncompromising Commitment May Be Sublime; To Base Our Policy Making On Such Commitments Would Be A Dangerous Thing.

For Decades, We've Been Told That It Doesn't Make Economic Sense To Switch To Renewable Energy. Today, That's No Longer True.

You Could Analyze Me And Say That My Father Leaving And Being Absent Was A Motivator For Early Ambition, Trying To Prove Myself To This Apparition Who Had Vanished. You Could Argue That Me Being A Mixed Kid In A Place Where There Weren't A Lot Of Black Kids Around Might Have Spurred On My Ambitions. You Could Go Through A Whole Litany Of Things That Sparked Me Wanting To Do Something Important.

Donald Trump Will Be The Next President, The 45th President Of The United States. And It Will Be Up To Him To Set Up A Team That He Thinks Will Serve Him Well And Reflect His Policies. It Takes A While For People To Reconcile Themselves With That New Reality. Hopefully, It`s A Reminder That Elections Matter. I Think It`s Important For Us To Let Him Make His Decisions, And I Think The American People Will Judge Over The Course Of The Next Couple Of Years Whether They Like What They See.

That May Prevent Us From Getting A Deal Done, It Is There To Be Had. Whether Ultimately Iran Can Seize That Opportunity - We Will Have To Wait And See, But It Is Not For Lack Of Trying On Our Part.

I Don't Want To Be Invited To The Family Hunting Party.

I Refuse To Condemn Your Generation And Future Generations To A Planet That's Beyond Fixing.

Over The Last Few Years A Lot Of People Have Become Aware Of The Inequities In The Criminal Justice System, Right Now, With Our Overall Crime Rate And Incarceration Rate Both Falling, We're At A Moment When Some Good People In Both Parties, Republicans And Democrats And Folks All Across The Country, Are Coming Up With Ideas To Make The System Work Smarter And Better.

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.

But Today, Just A Few Years Into The Twenty-first Century, We Already Find Ourselves In A Different And Precarious Position. As Revolutions In Communications And Technology Have Broken Down Barriers Across The World, It Has Given More Power To Both Our Competitors And Our Enemies.

In Fact, The Best Thing We Could Do On Taxes For All Americans Is To Simplify The Individual Tax Code. This Will Be A Tough Job, But Members Of Both Parties Have Expressed An Interest In Doing This, And I Am Prepared To Join Them.

We [americans] Are A Nation Of Immigrants. We All Understand What This Country Has Become Because Talent From All Around The World Wants To Come Here, People Who Are Willing To Take Risks, People Who Want To Build On Their Dreams And Make Sure Their Kids Have An - Even Bigger Dreams Than They Have.

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.

Donald Trump Seems To Do A Good Job Mentioning His Own Name.

On The Other Hand, It Is Also Undeniable That The Palestinian People - Muslims And Christians - Have Suffered In Pursuit Of A Homeland.

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

No Other Advanced Nation Endures This Kind Of Violence. None. Here In America, The Murder Rate Is Three Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. The Murder Rate With Guns Is Ten Times What It Is In Other Developed Nations. And There's Nothing Inevitable About It. It Comes About Because Of Decisions We Make Or Fail To Make. And It Falls Upon Us To Make It Different.

I Think That At A Certain Stage Those Early Ambitions Burn Away, Partly Because You Achieve Something, You Get Something Done, You Get Some Notoriety. And Then The Particularities Of Who You Are And What Your Deepest Commitments Are Begin Expressing Themselves. You're Not Just Chasing The Idea Of "me" Being Important, But You, Rather, Are Chasing A Particular Passion.

We Cannot Simply Look To Austerity As A Strategy And It Is Incredibly Important That The Greek People See Improvements In Their Daily Lives So That They Can Carry With Them The Hope That Their Lives Will Get Better.

I Believe In Keeping Guns Out Of Our Inner Cities, And That Our Leaders Must Say So In The Face Of The Gun Manfuacturer's Lobby. But I Also Believe That When A Gangbanger Shoots Indiscriminately Into A Crowd Because He Feels Someone Disrespected Him, We Have A Problem Of Morality. Not Only Do We Need To Punish That Man For His Crime, But We Need To Acknowledge That There's A Hole In His Heart, One That Government Programs Alone May Not Be Able To Repair.

I Said To One Young Activist Who Herself Was The Daughter Of An Undocumented Worker, And So Could Speak From A Very Personal And Legitimate Perspective - I Remember Saying To Her: I Agree With You, From A Moral Perspective, That A Child From Honduras Is Worth The Same As My Daughter. God Is Not A Respecter Of Boundaries; He's Not Saying That American Kids Deserve A Better Life Than Honduran Kids. But I'm The President Of The United States, And The Nation-state By Definition Means That Boundaries Mean Something And Borders Mean Something.

You Have To Have A Strong Team Around You [being A President].

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.

It's The Answer Told By Lines That Stretched Around Schools And Churches In Numbers This Nation Has Never Seen; By People Who Waited Three Hours And Four Hours, Many For The Very First Time In Their Lives, Because They Believed That This Time Must Be Different, That Their Voice Could Be That Difference.

I Said This Right After The Election - We Have To Remind Ourselves We're On The Same Team. Vladimir Putin's Not On Our Team.

The President [barack Obama] Understands That The Country's Very Concerned About [terrorism] Issue. And I Think What You're Going To Hear From Him Is A Discussion About What Government's Doing To Ensure All Of Our Highest Priority, The Protection Of The American People.

We've Got To Control Our Own Energy. Now, Not Only Oil And Natural Gas, Which We've Been Investing In; But Also, We've Got To Make Sure We're Building The Energy Source Of The Future, Not Just Thinking About Next Year, But Ten Years From Now, 20 Years From Now. That's Why We've Invested In Solar And Wind And Biofuels, Energy Efficient Cars.

What I Could Not Support Was A Dumb War, A Rash War, A War Based Not On Reason But On Passion, Not On Principle But On Politics.

In Europe, Where The Terrorist Threat Is Probably Greatest At The Moment, The Amount Of Information-sharing That's Been Taking Place, The Effectiveness Of Law Enforcement Across Borders Gives Us The Ability To Protect Ourselves While Still Being True To The Basic Precepts Of Our Liberal Democracies. I Hope That That Continues, And It Is Something That I Think We Should Be Worried About.

[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.

Historically - When You Look At How America Has Evolved, Typically We Make Progress On Race Relations In Fits And Starts. We Make Some Progress, And Then There's Maybe Some Slippage.

It Was A Creed Written Into The Founding Documents That Declared The Destiny Of A Nation. Yes We Can. It Was Whispered By Slaves And Abolitionists As They Blazed A Trail Towards Freedom Through The Darkest Of Nights. Yes We Can. It Was Sung By Immigrants As They Struck Out From Distant Shores And Pioneers Who Pushed Westward Against An Unforgiving Wilderness. Yes We Can.

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

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."

In 2010 There Were A Lot Of Folks Who Were Still Out Of Work. There Were A Lot Of Folks Who Had Lost Their Homes Or Saw Their Home Values Plummet, Their 401k's Plummet.

Year After Year, An Ideological And Economic Barrier Hardened Between Our Two Countries, Meanwhile, The Cuban Exile Community In The United States Made Enormous Contributions To Our Country, In Politics, In Business, Culture And Sports.

Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg Never Gives Up And He Does Not Quit.

Let's Be Grateful For What We Have. Let's Be Mindful Of Those Who Have Less. Let's Appreciate Those Who Hold A Special Place In Our Lives, And Make Sure They Know It. And Let's Think About Those Who Can't Spend The Holiday With Their Loved Ones - Especially The Members Of Our Military Serving Overseas.

There Is Not A Liberal America And A Conservative America - There Is The United States Of America. There Is Not A Black America And A White America And Latino America And Asian America - There's The United States Of America.

My Central Focus Is What Are We Doing To Protect The American People And The American Homeland? Afghanistan And Pakistan Are Critical Elements In That Process.

Whatever Success I Have Achieved, Whatever Positions Of Leadership I Have Held Have Depended Less On Ivy League Degrees Or Sat Scores Or Gpas And Have Instead Been Due To That Sense Of Connection And Empathy, The Special Obligation I Felt As A Black Man Like You To Help Those Who Need It Most, People Who Didn't Have The Opportunities That I Had Because There, But For The Grace Of God Go I. I Might Have Been In Their Shoes. I Might Have Been In Prison. I Might Have Been Unemployed. I Might Not Have Been Able To Support A Family. And That Motivates Me.

Rather Than Double-down On The Top-down Economics That Let A Fortunate Few Play By Their Own Rules, Let’s Embrace An Economic Patriotism That Says We Rise Or Fall Together, As One Nation, And As One People.

Sometimes People Just Feel As If We Want To Try Something To See If We Can Shake Things Up.

Senator Mccain Likes To Talk About Judgment, But Really, What Does It Say About Your Judgment When You Think George Bush Has Been Right More Than Ninety Percent Of The Time? I Don't Know About You, But I'm Not Ready To Take A Ten Percent Chance On Change.

So How Do Latinos Feel If There's A Big Investment Just In The African American Community, And They're Looking Around And Saying, "we're Poor As Well. What Kind Of Help Are We Getting?" Or Asian Americans Who Say, "look, I'm A First-generation Immigrant, And Clearly I Didn't Have Anything To Do With What Was Taking Place."

African American

We Are Defined Not By Our Borders But By Our Bonds.

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?

After My Election There Was Talk Of A Postracial America. And Such A Vision, However Well Intended, Was Never Realistic.

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

Broken Promises

[the White House Staff] Start Bringing In Their Kids, Who You Think Should Be Babies And Now Are In Second Grade Or Something, And You've Watched Them Grow Up. So I Think What Ends Up Happening Is You End Up Maintaining Those Networks And Those Contacts, But The Concentrated Interactions And Experience That You Have Here, I Don't Think, I Don't Expect You Can Duplicate Anyplace Else.

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

You Can't Just Listen To Rush Limbaugh And Get Things Done.

Every Single American - Gay, Straight, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender - Every Single American Deserves To Be Treated Equally In The Eyes Of The Law And In The Eyes Of Our Society. It’s A Pretty Simple Proposition.

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.

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

Moammar Gadhafi Had More American Blood On His Hands Than Any Individual Other Than Osama Bin Laden.

Osama Bin Laden

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

The Values That We Talked About, The Values Democracy And Free Speech And International Norms And Rule Of Law, Respecting The Ability Of Other Countries To Determine Their Own Destiny And Preserve Their Sovereignty And Territorial Integrity. Things Are Not Something That We Can Set Aside.

People Are Discouraged From Voting And Part Of What Is Important For Latino Citizens Is To Make Your Voice Heard, Because You're Not Just Speaking For Yourself. You're Speaking For Family Members, Friends, Classmates Of Yours In School.

Netanyahu Made All Sorts Of Claims. This Was Going To Be A Terrible Deal. This Was Going To Result In Iran Getting 50 Billion Dollars Worth Of Relief. Iran Would Not Abide By The Agreement. None Of That Has Come True.

You Don't Like Dealing With Somebody Who Denies Horrible Things Happening To Your People Or Threatens Future Horrible Things To Your People.

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.

Cutting The Deficit By Gutting Our Investments In Innovation And Education Is Like Lightening An Overloaded Airplane By Removing Its Engine. It May Make You Feel Like You're Flying High At First, But It Won't Take Long Before You Feel The Impact.

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.

We Have To Have Better Intelligence. We Have To Have Better Interdiction Capabilities. And So The Issue Is Not How Much We Spend Or How Hard We Try; The Issue Is Are We Doing It The Right Way? Are We Being Smart About It?

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.

American Values And Legal Traditions Do Not Permit The Indefinite Detention Of People Beyond Our Borders.

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.

The Greatest Danger Of All Is To Allow New Walls To Divide Us From One Another

We're Starting To Make Some Progress. But There's Still Gonna Be Some Pain Out There. If I Don't Have This Done In Three Years, Then There's Gonna Be A One-term Proposition.

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.

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

We Are Unique Among Advanced Countries That We Don't Have Universal Health Care. My Hope Was That I Was Able To Get A Hundred Percent Of People Health Care While I Was President. We Didn't Quite Achieve That, But We Were Able To Get 20 Million People Health Care Who Didn't Have It Before. And Obviously Some Of The Progress We Made Is Now Imperiled Because There's Still A Significant Debate Taking Place In The United States. For Those 20 Million People, Their Lives Have Been Better.

Leadership Isn't Just Legislation, That It's A Matter Of Persuading People And Giving Them Confidence, And Bringing Them Together And Setting A Tone.

I Have Nothing To Hide. I Enjoy Being Myself. I'm Not Going To Change Who I Am Just Because It's Halloween.

There Is No Doubt That Thanks To The Steps That We Took Early On To Rescue Our Economy And To Rebuild It On A New Foundation, We Are Entering Into The New Year With New Confidence That America Is Coming Back.

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 Think The Turks' Willingness To Take Seriously Action On The Borders To Stop The Flow Of Foreign Fighters Joining Isil Is Significant.

Israel Is A True Friend. It Is Our Greatest Ally In The Region. And If Israel Is Attacked, America Will Stand With Israel. I've Made That Clear Throughout My Presidency.

The Supreme Court Nominations [example]. I Mean, The Fact That Mitch Mcconnell, The Leader Of The Republicans, Was Able To Just Stop A Nomination Almost A Year Before The Next Election And Really Not Pay A Political Price For It, That's A Sign That The Incentives For Politicians In This Town To Be So Sharply Partisan Have Gotten So Outta Hand That We're Weakening Ourselves.

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

I'm Not A Particularly Ideological Person. There's Things, Some Values I Feel Passionately About.

Corporations Aren’t People. People Are People.

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

Our Goal Is To Have A Country That's Not Divided By Race. And My Impression, As I Travel Around The Country, Is That That's The Kind Of Country That Most People Want, As Well, And That We All Have Prejudice, We All Have Certain Suspicions Or Stereotypes About People Who Are Different From Us, Whether It's Religious Or Racial Or Ethnic, But What I Think I Found In The American People, I Think There's A Core Decency There, Where If They Take The Time, If They Get The Time To Know Individuals, Then They Want To Judge Those Individuals By Their Character.

We've Seen How Militarized Gear Can Sometimes Give People A Feeling Like There's An Occupying Force, As Opposed To A Force That's Part Of The Community That's Protecting Them And Serving Them.

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

People Are Less Certain Of Their National Identities Or Their Place In The World. It Starts Looking Different And Disorienting. And There Is No Doubt That That Has Produced Populist Movements Both From The Left And From The Right In Many Countries In Europe.

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.

America Can't Provide Health Care To People Who Need It. We Can't Invest In Science And Technology, Which Will Determine Whether Or Not We Are Going To Be Competitive In The Long Term. There Has Never Been A Country On Earth That Saw Its Economy Decline And Yet Maintained Its Military Superiority.

We Shouldn't Assume That Government Is Always Trying To Do The Wrong Thing.

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.

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.

We Seem To Have Trouble With [critical Thinking]. And Our Political System Doesn't Help.

I Have Fought Against Spending. I Have Fought Against Special Interests. I Have Fought For Reform.

Leaving The Broken System The Way It Is, That`s Not A Solution.

There Are Problems That Just End Up Being Really Hard And By Definition The Only Problems That Come To My Desk Are The Ones That Nobody Else Can Solve.

Several Americans, Unjustly Detained By Iran, Are Finally Coming Home. In Some Cases, These Americans Faced Years Of Continued Detention, And I've Met With Some Of Their Families. I've Seen Their Anguish, How They Ache For Their Sons And Husbands. I Gave These Families My Word. I Made A Vow That We Would Do Everything In Our Power To Win The Release Of Their Loved Ones, And We Have Been Tireless.

Our First And Immutable Commitment Must Be To The Security Of Israel, Our Only True Ally In The Middle East And The Only Democracy.

The United States, Therefore, Works To Ensure That Any Actions We Take Are Consistent With International Laws And Norms - Including Those Reflected In The Law Of The Sea Convention. It's Worth Remembering That Our Presence In The Region Is Nothing New.

I Like My Quiet Time. There Is A Writer's Sensibility In Me Sometimes, Where I Step Back.

Iran Will For Sure Have Pledged To The International Community That It Will Not Develop A Nuclear Weapon, And Now Will Be Subject To An Additional Protocol, A More Vigorous Inspection And Monitoring Regime That Lasts In Perpetuity.

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.

Military Surge In Afghanistan To Eliminate The Taliban.

I Always Believe That Ultimately, If People Are Paying Attention, Then We Get Good Government And Good Leadership. And When We Get Lazy, As A Democracy And Civically Start Taking Shortcuts, Then It Results In Bad Government And Politics.

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