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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.

-Barack Obama

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We're Not Going To

Barack Obama

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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.

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Justice For All

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If You Ask The Average Person They'd Tell Ya, "naw, It's Much More Dangerous," Despite The Fact That Violent Crime Has Dropped Precipitously.

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I've Been Called Worse On The Basketball Court.

Basketball Court

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Around The World

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Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

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Nuclear Weapons

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We Invest In Early Childhood Education. We Invest Additional Job Training Dollars. We Make Sure That We've Got A Strong Research And Development Strategy So That We Continue To Innovate. Rebuilding Our Infrastructure, Which We Know Will Attract Businesses.

Research And Development

So Here's What I Want You To Know, And Here's What I Want All Our Men And Women In Uniform To Know: Because Of You, We Are Ending These Wars In A Way That Will Make America Stronger And The World More Secure. Because Of You.

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I Never Regret Anything... I Just Lie About It Or Change The Story.

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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.

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.

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

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.

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Surround Yourself

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I Was Watching A Documentary That During The Bay Of Pigs Crisis Jfk Had About Two Weeks Before Anybody Reported On It. Imagine That. I Think It's Fair To Say That If Something Like That Happens Under A Current President, They've Got To Figure Out In About An Hour What Their Response Is.

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

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Health Care Got Done Because There Were A Lot Of People Out There Who Aren't Professional Politicians, But Are Citizens, Who Pushed For It Even When The Politics Was Hard.

The Terrorists Do Not Speak For Over A Billion Muslims Who Reject Their Hateful Ideology.

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As Commander In Chief, I Will Maintain The Strongest Military In The World, Keep Faith With Our Troops And Go After Those Who Would Do Us Harm. But After A Decade Of War, I Think We All Recognize We've Got To Do Some Nation Building Here At Home, Rebuilding Our Roads, Our Bridges And Especially Caring For Our Veterans Who Sacrificed So Much For Our Freedom.

His Peaceful Resistance Shook The Foundations Of An Empire, Exposed The Emptiness Of A Repressive Ideology, And Proved That Moral Leadership Is More Powerful Than Any Weapon.

Moral Leadership

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

We Live In A Moment When The Dream Of Equal Opportunity Is Within Reach.

Even As We Do All That's Necessary To Ensure Israel's Security, Even As We Are Clear-eyed About The Difficult Challenges Before Us, And Even As We Pledge To Stand By Israel Through Whatever Tough Days Lie Ahead, I Hope We Do Not Give Up On That Vision Of Peace. For If History Teaches Us Anything, If The Story Of Israel Teaches Us Anything, It Is That With Courage And Resolve, Progress Is Possible. Peace Is Possible.

For As Much As Government Can Do And Must Do, It Is Ultimately The Faith And Determination Of The American People Upon Which This Nation Relies. So Let Us Mark This Day With Remebrance, Of Who We Are And How Far We Have Traveled.

Progress In The Most Impoverished Parts Of Our World Enriches Us All.

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

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.

I Think That The Important Point Is We've Got To Have A President Who Understands The Benefits Of Free Trade But Also Is Going To Enforce Unfair Trade Agreements And Is Going To Stand Up To Other Countries.

Our Government Shouldn't Make Promises We Cannot Keep, But We Must Keep The Promises We've Already Made.

I'm A Warrior For The Middle Class.

Even Limited Military Actions End Up Carrying With Them Great Costs And Unintended Consequences.

I Have No Patience With People Who Go Around Blowing Up Innocent People.

It Continues To Be My Strong Belief That The Way We Are Going To Make Sure That Everybody Feels A Part Of This Global Economy Is Not By Shutting Ourselves Off From Each Other, Even If We Could, But Rather By Working Together More Effectively Than We Have In The Past.

Working Together

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.

[young People] Are Much Less Likely To Express Attitudes That Defied Us Between Us And Them. They See Themselves As Part Of A Global Economy That They Can Navigate Successfully.

One Faction Of One Party, In One House Of Congress, In One Branch Of Government, Doesn't Get To Shut Down The Entire Government Just To Refight The Results Of An Election.

Do I Need To Apologize For Mr.[tom] Coburn's Statements? Because I Certainly Don't Agree With Those, Either.

Well, Governor, We Also Have Fewer Horses And Bayonets.

Aircraft Carriers

Nothing Is More Powerful Than The Black Church Experience. A Good Choir And A Good Sermon In The Black Church, It's Pretty Hard Not To Be Move And Be Transported.

John Mccain Likes To Say That He'll Follow Bin Laden To The Gates Of Hell - But He Won't Even Go To The Cave Where He Lives.

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

They Will Tell You That The Americans Who Sleep In The Streets And Beg For Food Got There Because They’re All Lazy Or Weak Of Spirit. That The Inner-city Children Who Are Trapped In Dilapidated Schools Can’t Learn And Won’t Learn And So We Should Just Give Up On Them Entirely. That The Innocent People Being Slaughtered And Expelled From Their Homes Half A World Away Are Somebody Else’s Problem To Take Care Of.

I Always Enjoy Watching Republicans Compliment Bill Clinton Now, Because At The Time, I'm Sure He Didn't Feel A Lot Of The Love.

That Is The True Genius Of America-a Faith In Simple Dreams, An Insistence On Small Miracles.

Unless We Free Ourselves From A Dependence On These Fossil Fuels... We Are Condemning Future Generations To Global Catastrophe

I Bowled A 129... It Was Like The Special Olympics Or Something!

The Fear Among Economists Across The Political Spectrum That Was - Was That We Were Rapidly Plummeting Towards A Second Great Depression. So, In The Weeks And Months That Followed, We Undertook A Series Of Difficult Steps To Prevent That Outcome. And We Were Forced To Take Those Steps Largely Without The Help Of An Opposition Party, Which, Unfortunately, After Having Presided Over The Decision-making That Had Led To The Crisis, Decided To Hand It Over To Others To Solve.

We Did Not Come To Fear The Future. We Came Here To Shape It.

Elections Are Always A Little Bit Funny. People Start Saying Things And Emphasizing Differences. After The Election, My Hope Is, Is That People Start Emphasizing What We Have In Common.

Without A Deal [with Iran], The International Sanctions Regime Will Unravel With Little Ability To Reimpose Them. With This Deal, We Have The Possibility Of Peacefully Resolving A Major Threat To Regional And International Security. Without A Deal, We Risk Even More War In The Middle East And Other Countries In The Region Would Feel Compelled To Pursue Their Own Nuclear Programs, Threatening A Nuclear Arms Race In The Most Volatile Region In The World.

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.

While Freedom Is A Gift From God, It Must Be Secured By His People Here On Earth.

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.

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

Ours Is Not The First Generation To Understand The Dire Need For Health Reform. And I Am Not The First President To Take Up This Cause, But I Am Determined To Be The Last.

If We Have The Kinds Of Confirmation That We Need, We Will Once Again Work With The International Community And The Organization Charged With Monitoring Compliance By The Syrian Government, And We Will Reach Out To Patrons Of Assad Like Russia To Put A Stop To It.

I Think Part Of The Reason That I Have Been Successful, Though, Despite Maybe Not Always Fitting My Message Into The Pre-packaged Formulas, Is There Is This Whole Other Media Ecology Out There Of The Internet And Instagram And Memes And Talk Shows And Comedy, And I'm Pretty Good At That.

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

We Have Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists, And Their Own Path To Grace Is One That We Have To Revere And Respect As Much As Our Own

Who Cares If It's A Campaign Strategy, And Who Are Other People To Say It's Ridiculous? I'm Not Gay, But I Strongly Support Gay Marriage. What If Someone Told You You Couldn't Marry The One You Love? I Think It's About Time! Let People Who Love Each Other That Are The Same Sex Get Married. They Deserve The Right To Be Happy Also.

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.

I Think That What Is Always True When You Run Against An Incumbent President Is, Is That You End Up Talking More About That President's Record Than Your Vision For The Future, And I Think That The Democrats Do Have To Present A Proactive Agenda And Vision For The Country And Not Simply Run Against Something If They're Going To Be Successful.

The American People Are Both Anxious For Change. We're In A Time Of Flux.

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.

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

As I've Said, There Were Patriots Who Supported This War, And Patriots Who Opposed It. And All Of Us Are United In Appreciation For Our Servicemen And Women, And Our Hopes For Iraqis' Future.

Part Of American Leadership Is Making Sure That We're Doing Nation Building Here At Home. That Will Help Us Maintain The Kind Of American Leadership That We Need.

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.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until We Find A Better Way To Welcome The Striving, Hopeful Immigrants Who Still See America As A Land Of Opportunity, Until Bright Young Students And Engineers Are Enlisted In Our Workforce Rather Than Expelled From Our Country.

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 That The Fda Has Not Been Able To Catch Some Of These Things As Quickly As I Expect Them To Catch And So We’re Going To Be Doing A Complete Review Of Fda Operations. At Bare Minimum, We Should Be Able To Count On Our Government Keeping Our Kids Safe When They Eat Peanut Butter. That’s What Sasha Eats For Lunch. Probably Three Times A Week...

We Stand With Women By Fighting For Economic Security, Protecting Access To Health Care And Supporting Women's Leadership Across The Country

As President, I Decided That A Strong, Confident America Could Advance Our National Security By Engaging Directly With The Iranian Government. We've Seen The Results.

I Believe, In The Words Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., That There Is Such A Thing As Being Too Late, And When It Comes To Climate Change, That Hour Is Almost Upon Us.

My Hope Is Donald Trump Makes Things Better. And If He Does, We'll All Benefit From It.

I Think That Whenever You Have Got An Incoming President Of The Other Side It Takes A While For People To Reconcile Themselves With That New Reality.

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

Hunter Pence Eats Pizza With A Fork.

She Is Running Around Talking About How This Is An Insult To Sportsmen, How She Values The Second Amendment. She's Talking Like She's Annie Oakley.

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

I Believe That The U.s. Can And Should Be A Global Leader In The Development Of Alternative Energy Sources.

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

Common Humanity

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.

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.

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

Progressives Should Recognize Common Morality With Religion.

I Think We Would Have Made A Lot More Mistakes And Would Have Accomplished A Lot Less Had We Not Been Grounded In Some Basic Truths.

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.

Now Let's Make Two Things Clear: Isil Is Not 'islamic.' No Religion Condones The Killing Of Innocents, And The Vast Majority Of Isil's Victims Have Been Muslim. And Isil Is Certainly Not A State. It Was Formerly Al Qaeda's Affiliate In Iraq, And Has Taken Advantage Of Sectarian Strife And Syria's Civil War To Gain Territory On Both Sides Of The Iraq-syrian Border. It Is Recognized By No Government, Nor The People It Subjugates. Isil Is A Terrorist Organization, Pure And Simple. And It Has No Vision Other Than The Slaughter Of All Who Stand In Its Way.

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.

For America To Get More Entangled Militarily In Syria Is A Serious Step, And We Have To Do So Making Absolutely Certain That We Know Who We Are Helping; That We're Not Putting Arms In The Hands Of Folks Who Eventually Could Turn Them Against Us Or Allies In The Region.

In Terms Of My Conversations With [vladimir] Putin, These Are Conversations That Took Place Before The Election. As I Indicated, There Has Been Very Clear Proof That They Have Engaged In Cyber Attacks. This Isn't New. It's Not Unique To Russia. There Are A Number Of States Where We've Seen Low-level Cyber Attacks And Industrial Espionage And, You Know, Other Behavior That We Think Should Be Out Of Bounds.

I'm A Christian By Choice.

Change Doesn't Come From Washington. Change Comes To Washington

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.

Cuba Is Actually One Where I Am More Optimistic Because Of The Unique Nature Of Cuba - 90 Miles Off Our Shore With A Massive Ex-patriot Population, Now Cuban-american Population That Still Have Deep Links To The Island. There I Am More Confident That Over Time That The Winds Of Commerce And Telecommunication And Travel Start Shifting The Nature Of That Regime. But That's A Small Country Which Has Almost A Unique Relationship To Us.

My Hope Is That We Can Get A Republican-democratic Agreement On How We Strengthen Social Security As Well As Looking At Some Of These Other Major Expenditures That We Have That We've Got To Deal With To Make Sure That We're Not Just Leaving You Guys With A Mountain Of Debt.

Each Of Us Deserves The Freedom To Pursue Our Own Version Of Happiness. No One Deserves To Be Bullied.

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.

A Child's Course In Life Should Be Determined Not By The Zip Code She's Born In, But By The Strength Of Her Work Ethic And The Scope Of Her Dreams.

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

Rather Than Fight The Same Tired Battles That Have Dominated Washington For Decades, It's Time To Try Something New. Let's Invest In Our People Without Leaving Them A Mountain Of Debt. Let's Meet Our Responsibility To The Citizens Who Sent Us Here. Let's Try Common Sense.

Clearly, Iran Has Influence In Iraq. Iraq Has A Majority Shi'a Population, They Have Relationships To Iran. Some Are Natural.

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.

This Kind Of Game In Which Anybody Who I Know, Regardless Of How Flimsy The Relationship Is, That Somehow Their Ideas Could Be Attributed To Me, I Think The American People Are Smarter Than That. They're Not Going To Suggest Somehow That That Is Reflective Of My Views, Because It Obviously Isn't.

As Iraqi Forces Continue The Liberation Of Mosul, I'm Pleased That Nato Will Be Meeting The Commitment We Made In Warsaw To Begin Training Additional Forces In Iraq.

The People There, The Community, The Lessons That I Learned -- They're All Based Right In This Few Square Miles Where We'll Now Be Able To Give Something Back And Bring The World Back Home After This Incredible Journey.

Jesus Lived A Life Of Peace, Love, Kindness And Forgiveness, During The Hustle And Bustle Of The Christmas Season, May We All Do Our Best To Follow His Example.

I Have Somehow, Continued To Miss Oktoberfest So That's Probably Something That Is Better For Me To Do As A Former President Rather Than As President, I'll Have More Fun.

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