Background Image

...

We've Got To Be Able To Have A Conversation And Recognize We're All Americans; We All Want The Best For This Country. We May Have Some Disagreements In Terms Of How To Get There, But All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong, That Jobs Are Growing. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That People Aren't Bankrupt When They Get Sick. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Young People Can Afford An Education.

-Barack Obama

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

We've Got To Be

Barack Obama

...

We've Got To Be Able To Have A Conversation And Recognize We're All Americans; We All Want The Best For This Country. We May Have Some Disagreements In Terms Of How To Get There, But All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong, That Jobs Are Growing. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That People Aren't Bankrupt When They Get Sick. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Young People Can Afford An Education.

Views: 76671

Topic

More From Barack Obama

Now Is The Time For All Of Us To Take Our Share Of Responsibility For A Global Response To Global Challenges.

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.

Our Enemies Are Also Seeking The Abilities To Sabotage Our Power Grid, Our Financial Institutions, Our Air Traffic Control Systems.

This Week I've Travelled More Than 15,000 Miles From America To China To Burma To Australia. I Have No Idea What Time It Is Right Now.

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

When People Are Oppressed, And Human Rights Are Denied - Particularly Along Sectarian Lines Or Ethnic Lines - When Dissent Is Silenced, It Feeds Violent Extremism, It Creates An Environment That Is Ripe For Terrorists To Exploit. When Peaceful, Democratic Change Is Impossible, It Feeds Into The Terrorist Propaganda That Violence Is The Only Answer Available.

I Stand Here Today Humbled By The Task Before Us, Grateful For The Trust You Have Bestowed, Mindful Of The Sacrifices Borne By Our Ancestors.

If You're An American And You Are, You Know, Subscribing To The Ideals And The Creed And The Values That We Believe In As A Country, You Know, Then We Don't Have A Religious Test In This Country.

We Have Not Always Been In Sync On Every Issue In Terms Of Our Core Values, In Terms Of Her Integrity, Her Truthfulness, Her Thoughtfulness, [angela Merkel] Doing Her Homework, Knowing Her Facts, Her Commitment To Looking Out For The Interests Of The German People First, But Recognizing That Part Of Good Leadership On Behalf Of The Nation Requires Engaging The World As A Whole, And Participating Effectively In Multilaterally Institutions, I Think She's Been Outstanding.

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.

We Know We Can't Stop Every Act Of Violence, Every Act Of Evil In The World, But Maybe We Could Try To Stop One Act Of Evil, One Act Of Violence.

It’s Not That I Want To Punish Your Success. I Want To Make Sure That Everybody Who Is Behind You, That They’ve Got A Chance For Success, Too. My Attitude Is That If The Economy’s Good For Folks From The Bottom Up, It’s Gonna Be Good For Everybody. I Think When You Spread The Wealth Around, It’s Good For Everybody.

That's Why The American Recovery & Reinvestment Plan Won't Just Throw Money At Our Problems, We'll Invest In What Works

I'll Remember The View Out This Window [from Oval Cabinet], Because This Is Where We Had Our - The Playground That We Put In When Malia And Sasha Came In. Being Able Every Once In Awhile To Look Out The Window And See Your Daughters During The Summer, Swinging On That Swing Set, That Made The Presidency A Little Bit Sweeter.

The Biggest Threat That We Face Right Now Is Not A Nuclear Missile Coming Over The Skies. It's In A Suitcase. This Is Why The Issue Of Nuclear Proliferation Is So Important. It Is The - The Biggest Threat To The United States Is A Terrorist Getting Their Hands On Nuclear Weapons.

We Are Not Going To Have A Situation Where Our Education Spending Goes Back To Its Lowest Level Since The Year 2000 Despite A Larger Population And More Kids To Educate. We Know That The Single Most Important Thing In Terms Of How Well We Can Compete Around The World Is The Quality Of Our Workforce. We Can't Do That To Our Kids.

I Look Forward To Hosting An Iftar Dinner Celebrating Ramadan Here At The White House Later This Week, And Wish You A Blessed Month.

I Will Veto Any Effort To Get Rid Of Those Automatic Spending Cuts To Domestic And Defense Spending. There Will Be No Easy Off Ramps On This One.

What Can I Do To Make Sure That Middle-class Families Are Feeling More Secure, That More Young People Are Able To Access Opportunity, That We Are Safe, That We Are Working With Our International Partners To Try To Create More Order At A Time When There's A Lot Of Chaos? How Do We Deal With Terrorism In A Way That's Consistent With Our Values? As Long As I Stay Focused On Those North Stars, Then I Tend Not To Get Too Rattled.

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.

And I Agree That The Democratic Legislators In Massachusetts Might Have Given Some Advice To Republicans In Congress About How To Cooperate, But The Fact Of The Matter Is We Used The Same Advisers And They Say It's The Same Plan.

Everybody Knows Politics Is A Contact Sport.

But At The End Of The Day, The Circumstances Of Your Life What You Look Like, Where You Come From, How Much Money You Have, What You've Got Going On At Home That's No Excuse ... Where You Are Right Now Doesn't Have To Determine Where You'll End Up. No One's Written Your Destiny For You. Here In America, You Write Your Own Destiny. You Make Your Own Future.

I Can Make A Firm Pledge, Under My Plan, No Family Making Less Than $250,000 A Year Will See Any Form Of Tax Increase. Not Your Income Tax, Not Your Payroll Tax, Not Your Capital Gains Taxes, Not Any Of Your Taxes.

Let's Not Play Games. I Was Suggesting - You're Absolutely Right That John Mccain Has Not Talked About My Muslim Faith.

I Think That Part Of My Optimism Comes From The Belief That We As A People Could Actually, Regardless Of All The Disadvantage Of The Past, Regardless Of The Fact That A Lot Of Other Folks Got A Head Start In The Race, If We Were Able To Make The Race Fair Right Now.

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

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

Israel Has Legitimate Concerns About Its Security Relative To Iran. I Mean, You Have A Large Country With A Significant Military That Has Proclaimed That Israel Shouldn't Exist, That Has Denied The Holocaust, That Has Financed Hezbollah, And As A Consequence, There Are Missiles That Are Pointed Towards Tel Aviv. There Are Very Good Reasons Why Israelis Are Nervous About Iran's Position In The World Generally.

In The Campaign Back In 2007, 2008, People Would Say, "oh, He's Being Naïve. He Thinks That There's No Red States And Blue States. And Wait 'til He Gets Here." And I Will Confess That, I Didn't Fully Appreciate The Ways In Which Individual Senators Or Members Of Congress Now Are Pushed To The Extremes By Their Voter Bases. I Did Not Expect, Particularly In The Midst Of Crisis, Just How Severe That Partisanship Would Be.

When It Comes To Preventing Iran From Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon, I Will Take No Options Off The Table. ... That Includes All Elements Of American Power: A Political Effort Aimed At Isolating Iran, A Diplomatic Effort To Sustain Our Coalition And Ensure That The Iranian Program Is Monitored, An Economic Effort That Imposes Crippling Sanctions And, Yes, A Military Effort To Be Prepared For Any Contingency.

The Government Of Libya Announced The Death Of Moammar Gadhafi. This Marks The End Of A Long And Painful Chapter For The People Of Libya, Who Now Have The Opportunity To Determine Their Own Destiny In A New And Democratic Libya. The Gadhafi Regime Ruled The Libyan People With An Iron Fist. The Enormous Potential Of The Libyan People Was Held Back And Terror Was Used As A Political Weapon. The Last Major Regime Strongholds Have Fallen. The New Government Is Consolidating The Control Over The Country. And One Of The World's Longest-serving Dictators Is No More.

I Don't Want Ever To Be A President Who Is Comfortable And At Ease With Killing People.

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.

There's A Reason Why The Nra's Not Here. They're Just Down The Street. And Since This Is The Main Reason They Exist, You'd Think That They'd Be Prepared To Have A Debate With A President.

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.

I Said That America’s Role Would Be Limited; That We Would Not Put Ground Troops Into Libya; That We Would Focus Our Unique Capabilities On The Front End Of The Operation And That We Would Transfer Responsibility To Our Allies And Partners.

I Think When You Spread The Wealth Around It's Good For Everybody.

I've Always Viewed The Paris Agreement As A Starting Point. If You Look At All The Commitments That Have Been Made By All The Countries, It's Still Not Sufficient To Deal With The Very Dangerous Situation We Face. What It Has Done Is That It Created An Architecture Whereby As Technology Improves, As We Find New Clean Sources Of Energy, As We Make Our Economies More Efficient, Then Gradually We Can Turn Up The Dial And Improve The Outcomes Of Paris.

[the Generation Engaged, Inspired, Worked For Change] That Generation, It's Coming. They're Not The Majority Yet But They're Gonna Be The Majority Soon.

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 Do Have An Obligation To Make Sure That I Am Following Some Of The Rules. I Can't Simply Ignore Laws That Are Out There.

One Of The Hardest Things In Politics Is To Convince People To Do Things Now That Will Have A Good Effect 20 Or 30 Years From Now Because Politicians Tend To Have A Short-term View. They Are More Attentive To Things That People Care About Today.

I Am Designating A New Director Of Recovery For Auto Communities And Workers To Cut Through Red Tape And Ensure That The Full Resources Of Our Federal Government Are Leveraged To Assist The Workers, Communities, And Regions That Rely On Our Auto Industry.

I've Said Many Times Around The World That Like Any Government, Like Any Country, Like, Any Set Of Human Institutions, We Have Our Flaws. We've Operated Imperfectly. There Are Times We've Made Mistakes.

I Think What You're Seeing Is A Profound Recognition On The Part Of The American People That Gays And Lesbians And Transgender Persons Are Our Brothers, Our Sisters, Our Children, Our Cousins, Our Friends, Our Co-workers, And That They've Got To Be Treated Like Every Other American. And I Think That Principle Will Win Out.

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.

My Liberty Depends On You Being Free, Too.

You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of Other Kids Or Neighbors Who Were Wealthier Than You And Teased You. You May Want To Prove That You're Worthy Of High Expectations. But I Do Think That There Is A Youthful Ambition That Very Much Has To Do With Making Your Mark In The World. And I Think That Cuts Across The Experiences Of A Lot Of People Who End Up Achieving Something Significant In Their Field.

For Top Executives To Award Themselves These Kinds Of Compensation Packages In The Midst Of This Economic Crisis Isn't Just Bad Taste, It's Bad Strategy, And I Will Not Tolerate It As President.

Iran Is A State Sponsor Of Terrorism. And For Them To Be Able To Provide Nuclear Technology To Non-state Actors, That's Unacceptable.

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

My Particular Passion For Lincoln Dates Back From My Earliest Memories Of Politics.

Iran . . . Has Failed To Take The Opportunity To Demonstrate That Its Nuclear Program Is Peaceful . . . Time Is Not Unlimited.

We Want Our Children To Live In An America...that Isn't Threatened By The Destructive Power Of A Warming Planet.

I Might Have Arguments With The Size Of Reagan's Military Buildup, But Given The Soviet Invasion Of Afghanistan, Staying Ahead Of The Soviets Militarily Seemed A Sensible Thing To Do. Pride In Our Country, Respect For Our Armed Services, A Healthy Appreciation For The Dangers Beyond Our Borders, An Insistence That There Was No Easy Equivalence Between East And West--in All This I Had No Quarrel With Reagan. And When The Berlin Wall Came Tumbling Down, I Had To Give The Old Man His Due, Even If I Never Gave Him My Vote.

Cathleen Falsani: What Is Sin? Barack Obama: Being Out Of Alignment With My Values.

It's Easier To Make Negative Attacks And Simplistic Slogans [in Social Media] Than It Is To Communicate Complex Policies.

I've Got Two Daughters. 9 Years Old And 6 Years Old. I Am Going To Teach Them First Of All About Values And Morals. But If They Make A Mistake, I Don't Want Them Punished With A Baby.

I Know Many Of You Are Hurting And Angry About The Economy, And I Don't Blame You. It's The Worst Economy Since The Great Depression. When Consumers Can't Buy And Businesses Won't Expand For Lack Of Customers, The Government Has To Be The Purchaser And Employer Of Last Resort. We Learned That In The Great Depression, But Republicans Obviously Didn't - And They've Blocked Every Jobs Program I've Offered.

Great Depression

Our Resources May Be Finite, But Our Will Is Infinite, And I Am Confident That If We Come Together And Summon That Great American Spirit Once Again, We Will Meet The Challenges Of Our Time And Write The Next Great Chapter In Our American Story.

I Don't Oppose All Wars. What I Am Opposed To Is A Dumb War. What I Am Opposed To Is A Rash War.

We Have Got To Dispel This Myth That Bullying Is Just A Normal Rite Of Passage.

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.

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

We Should Not Anticipate That Every Time Countries Come Together That We Are Doing Some Revolutionary Thing. Instead Of Hitting Home Runs, Sometimes We're Going To Hit Singles.

Faith Doesn't Mean That You Don't Have Doubts.

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.

When Michelle And I Decided That I Would Run For President, It Was Because Of A Shared Belief In The Power Of Community And Connection, A Commitment To The Idea That We Are Our Brothers' Keepers.

We Need To Reduce Our Dependence On Foreign Oil By Ending The Subsidies For Oil Companies, And Doubling Down On Clean Energy That Generates Jobs And Strengthens Our Security.

In December, I Agreed To Extend The Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans Because It Was The Only Way I Could Prevent A Tax Hike On Middle-class Americans. But We Cannot Afford $1 Trillion Worth Of Tax Cuts For Every Millionaire And Billionaire In Our Society. We Can't Afford It. And I Refuse To Renew Them Again.

International Inspectors Are On The Ground And Iran Is Being Subjected To The Most Comprehensive, Intrusive Inspection Regime Ever Negotiated To Monitor A Nuclear Program. Inspectors Will Monitor Iran's Key Nuclear Facilities 24 Hours A Day, 365 Days A Year. For Decades To Come, Inspectors Will Have Access To Iran's Entire Nuclear Supply Chain. In Other Words, If Iran Tries To Cheat - If They Try To Find Build A Bomb Covertly, We Will Catch Them.

I Will Promise You This, That If We Have Not Gotten Our Troops Out By The Time I Am President, It Is The First Thing I Will Do. I Will Get Our Troops Home, We Will Bring An End To This War. You Can Take That To The Bank.

I Think If You Worked At The Community Level In Chicago And Then A Politician On The South Side Of Chicago, And Worked At The State Level, Then You're Pretty Familiar With All The Variations Of Politics In The African American Community And Criticisms You May Get. If You're Not Familiar With Those Or You Don't Have A Thick Enough Skin To Take It, Then You Probably Wouldn't Have Gotten Here.

African American

And I Believe The Nation That Invented The Automobile Cannot Walk Away From It.

We Shouldn’t Have A Bunch Of Politicians, A Majority Of Whom Are Men, Making Health Care Decisions On Behalf Of Women.

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.

You Can Put Lipstick On A Pig. It's Still A Pig.

We Don't Ask You To Believe In Our Ability To Bring Change, Rather, We Ask You To Believe In Yours.

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

Don't Just Buy A New Video Game. Make One.

If We're Not There Making The Argument Then The Cultural Gulf That Republicans Try To Exploit Saying, "ah, These City Slickers: They're All Looking Down On You, They Don't Care About You. They're Just Trying To Help Out Their Various Special Interest Constituencies," That Argument Ends Up Being Successful.

Some Banks Won’t Make It. Other Banks Are Going To Make Sure That We Strengthen. All Deposits Are Going To Be Safe For Ordinary People, But We’re Going To Have To Bring Out Some Of These Bad Assets.

The Reforms We Seek Would Bring Greater Competition, Choice, Savings And Inefficiencies To Our Health Care System.

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

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.

And Lest We Get On Our High Horse And Think This Is Unique To Some Other Place, Remember That During The Crusades And The Inquisition, People Committed Terrible Deeds In The Name Of Christ. In Our Home Country, Slavery And Jim Crow All Too Often Was Justified In The Name Of Christ.

So Many Of My Staff Is Young Enough That They're Going To Do Amazing Things. And I'm Going To Be Helping Them Try To Do Them.

I've Been Talking About Things Like Reversing The Rise Of Inequality And Strengthening Social Mobility,since Before It Was Cool.

The Laws Of Our Land Are Catching Up To The Fundamental Truth That Millions Of Americans Hold In Our Hearts: When All Americans Are Treated As Equal, No Matter Who They Are Or Whom They Love, We Are All More Free.

Medicare In Particular, Will Run Out Of Money, And We Will Not Be Able To Sustain That Program.

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.

I Think The Irony ... Is That I Actually Would Like To See A Relatively Light Touch When It Comes To The Government.

The Genius Of Our Founders Is That They Designed A System Of Government That Can Be Changed. And We Should Take Heart, Because We’ve Changed This Country Before.

I Will Call Not Just On Israel, But On The Palestinians, On The Arab States, And The International Community To Join Us In This Effort, Because The Burden Of Making Hard Choices Must Not Be Israel’s Alone.

I Don't Think I Underestimated [vladimir Putin], But I Think That I Underestimated The Degree To Which, In This New Information Age, It Is Possible For Misinformation For Cyber Hacking And So Forth To Have An Impact On Our Open Societies, Our Open Systems, To Insinuate Themselves Into Our Democratic Practices In Ways That I Think Are Accelerating.

There Are War-torn Countries, People Full Of Poverty, Who Still Voted, 60, 70 Percent. If Here In The United States Of America, We Voted At 60 Percent, 70 Percent, It Would Transform Our Politics.

I'll Be The First Us President To Not Only Visit Kenya And Ethiopia, But Also To Address The Continent As A Whole, Building Off The African Summit That We Did Here Which Was Historic And Has, I Think, Deepened The Kinds Of Already Strong Relationships That We Have Across The Continent.

Ensuring That The Us Continues To Lead The World In Science And Technology Will Be A Central Priority For My Administration.

Not Out Of Mere Charity, But Because Peace In Our Time Requires The Constant Advance Of Those Principles That Our Common Creed Describes; Tolerance And Opportunity, Human Dignity And Justice.

Climate Change Constitutes A Serious Threat To Global Security, An Immediate Risk To Our National Security, And, Make No Mistake, It Will Impact How Our Military Defends Our Country.

You Have To Exercise, Or At Some Point You'll Just Break Down.

Perfect Is Unattainable. Better Is Possible.

My Little Girls Can Break My Heart. They Can Make Me Cry Just Looking At Them Eating Their String Beans.

I Have Said Repeatedly That I Intend To Close Guantanamo, And I Will Follow Through On That. I Have Said Repeatedly That America Doesn't Torture. And I'm Gonna Make Sure That We Don't Torture. Those Are Part And Parcel Of An Effort To Regain America's Moral Stature In The World.

As Progressives We Believe In Affordable Health Care For All Americans.

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.

It Was The Call Of Workers Who Organized; Women Who Reached For The Ballot; A President Who Chose The Moon As Our New Frontier; And A King Who Took Us To The Mountain Top And Pointed The Way To The Promised Land. Yes We Can!

We Proved That We Are Still A People Capable Of Doing Big Things And Tackling Our Biggest Challenges.

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

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

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.

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

When Americans Are Called On To Innovate, That's What We Do - Whether It's Making More Fuel-efficient Cars Or More Fuel-efficient Appliances, Or Making Sure That We Are Putting In Place The Kinds Of Equipment That Prevents Harm To The Ozone Layer And Eliminates Acid Rain. At Every One Of These Steps, There Have Been Folks Who Have Said It Can't Be Done. There Have Been Naysayers Who Said This Is Going To Destroy Jobs And Destroy Industry. And It Doesn't Happen Because Once We Have A Clear Target To Meet, We Typically Meet It. And We Find The Best Ways To Do It.

We, The People, Still Believe That Every Citizen Deserves A Basic Measure Of Security And Dignity.

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

I Remember Having Meetings With Republican Senators Who Initially Had Been Trying To Engage [obamacare] But Saw That The Politics Of 'no' Were Growing Inside The Republican Party.

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.

It Is In The Interests Of All Of Us - The United States, China And The Rest Of The World - To Make Sure That The Rules Of The Road Are Upheld. These Rules And Norms Are Part Of The Foundation Of Regional Stability, And They Have Allowed Nations Across The Region, Including China, To Grow And Prosper.

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

In A Summer Marked By Instability In The Middle East And Eastern Europe, I Know The World Also Took Notice Of The Small American City Of Ferguson, Missouri - Where A Young Man Was Killed, And A Community Was Divided. So Yes, We Have Our Own Racial And Ethnic Tensions.

What Washington Needs Is Adult Supervision.

I Think That It's Important For Judges To Understand That If A Woman Is Out There Trying To Raise A Family, Trying To Support Her Family, And Is Being Treated Unfairly, Then The Court Has To Stand Up, If Nobody Else Will. And That's The Kind Of Judge That I Want.

The Cuban People Must Know That They Have A Friend And Partner In The United States Of America.

Throughout American History, There Have Been Moments That Call On Us To Meet The Challenges Of An Uncertain World, And Pay Whatever Price Is Required To Secure Our Freedom.

The United States Believes That Every Nation Should Respect International Law, Including In The South China Sea.

[michelle Obama] Used To Say To Our Friends, "barack's Exactly The Kind Of Guy I Want To Be President. I Just Wish He Didn't Want To Do It When I Was Married To Him."

I'm Not Going To Wall Street [after The Presidency]. The Amount Of Time That I'll Be Investing In Issues Is Going To Be High. But It'll Be Necessarily In A Different Capacity.

Those Opposed To Abortion Cannot Simply Invoke God's Will-they Have To Explain Why Abortion Violates Some Principle That Is Accessible To People Of All Faiths.

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

Oftentimes, Misunderstandings And Antagonism Surfaces Most Strongly When Economic Times Are Tough. And That's Not Surprising. If Everybody Is Working And Feeling Good And Making Money And Buying A New House And A Big Screen Tv, You're Less Worried About What Other Folks Are Doing.

There Is Enough Oil Out There For World Demand. It Is True That A Lot Of What's Driving Oil Prices Up Right Now Is Not The Lack Of Supply. There's Enough Supply.

You Bomb Isil. You're Not Trying To Bomb Innocent People. And That Requires Intelligence And Confidence In Our Military To Be Able To Develop The Kinds Of Targets That We Need. We're Already Doing Special Forces, Who Are Going To Help Us Gather That Intelligence And Help Advise And Assist And Train Local Forces So That They Can Go After Isil In Areas Like Raqqah And Mosul.

I'm Skeptical That [the Republicans] Can Do [something Better With Healthcare] Mainly Because For Seven Years Now, Including When We First Tried To Pass Health Care, I Said To 'em, "okay, If [obamacare] Doesn't Work Tell Me What Does."

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

Even As Ramadan Holds Profound Meaning For The World’s 1.5 Billion Muslims, It Is Also A Reminder To People Of All Faiths Of Our Common Humanity And The Commitment To Justice, Equality, And Compassion Shared By All Great Faiths. In That Spirit, I Wish Muslims Across America And Around The World A Blessed Month, And I Look Forward To Again Hosting An Iftar Dinner Here At The White House. Ramadan Kareem.

If You're Reading Something From A Nobel Prize-winning Physicist Next To Some Guy In His Underwear Writing In His Basement, Or His Mom's Basement, On Text, It Looks Like It's Equally Plausible.

I Believe In American Exceptionalism, Just As I Suspect That The Brits Believe In British Exceptionalism And The Greeks Believe In Greek Exceptionalism.

As An Elected Official Who Comes From The African-american Community, There Are Some Similarities. You Are Always Trying To Reconcile Your Own Personal Biography And Affiliations With The Demands Of The Broader Democracy. And You Need To Make Sure You Are Representing Everybody.

African American

I Think That There Is A Particular Mindset That Was On Display In The Run-up To The Iraq War That Continues To This Day. Some Of The Folks Who Were Involved In That Decision Either Don't Remember What They Said Or Are Entirely Unapologetic About The Results, But That Views The Middle East As A Place Where Force And Intimidation Will Deliver On The Security Interests That We Have, And That It Is Not Possible For Us To At Least Test The Possibility Of Diplomacy.

My Job Is To Keep My Eye On The Ball And To Stay Focused On What Can We Get Done Every Single Day To Advance The Vision And Values That Brought Me Here.

What Used To Be Racial Segregation Now Mirrors Itself In Class Segregation, This Great Sorting (has) Taken Place. It Creates Its Own Politics. There Are Some Communities Where Not Only Do I Not Know Poor People, I Don't Even Know People Who Have Trouble Paying The Bills At The End Of The Month. I Just Don't Know Those People. And So There's Less Sense Of Investment In Those Children.

Africa Doesn't Need Strongmen, It Needs Strong Institutions.

I Strongly Agree With Vice President Gore That We Cannot Drill Our Way To Energy Independence, But Must Fast-track Investments In Renewable Sources Of Energy Like Solar Power, Wind Power And Advanced Biofuels...

When The Economy's Shrinking, Providing Jobs, Spending On Things Like Infrastructure Can Actually Increase Revenue And Drive Down Debt. And Then, There's Going To Be A Time At Which Point Debt Has To Be Taken Care Of.

The Government Has To Treat All Citizens Equally. I Am A Strong Supporter Not Of A Weak Version Of Civil Unions, But Of A Strong Version, In Which The Rights That Are Conferred At The Federal Level To Persons Who Are Part Of The Same-sex Union Are Compatible. When It Comes To Federal Rights, The Over 1,100 Rights That Right Now Are Not Being Given To Same-sex Couples, I Think That's Unacceptable.

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

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.

Civility Also Requires Relearning How To Disagree Without Being Disagreeable. Surely You Can Question My Policies Without Questioning My Faith Or, For That Matter, My Citizenship.

Marco Rubio Is One Of Those People. How Does That Work? How Can You Call Him A Con Artist And Dangerous, And Object To All The Controversial Things He Says, And Then Say, But I`m Still Going To Vote For Him? Come On, Man.

The Silence Killed Your Faith.

Reading Makes All Other Learning Possible. We Have To Get Books Into Our Children's Hands Early And Often.

If You Like Your Healthcare Plan, You'll Be Able To Keep Your Healthcare Plan, Period. No One Will Take It Away, No Matter What.

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

I've Sought A Constructive Relationship With Russia, But What I Have Also Been Is Realistic In Recognizing That There Is Some Significant Differences In How Russia Views The World And How We View The World.

Now, The Iranian People Are A Great People, And Persian Civilization Is A Great Civilization. Iran Has Acted In Ways That's Not Conducive To Peace And Prosperity In The Region: Their Threats Against Israel; Their Pursuit Of A Nuclear Weapon Which Could Potentially Set Off An Arms Race In The Region That Would Make Everybody Less Safe; Their Support Of Terrorist Organizations In The Past - None Of These Things Have Been Helpful.

The United States Is Doing Our Part By Increasing The Number Of Refugees We Resettle And I Want Again To Commend Angela [merkel], And More Importantly, The German People For The Extraordinary Leadership And Compassion That You Have Shown In The Face Of What I Know Is A Very Difficult Challenge.

We've Persevered Because Of A Belief We Share With The Iraqi People - A Belief That Out Of The Ashes Of War, A New Beginning Could Be Born In This Cradle Of Civilization. Through This Remarkable Chapter In The History Of The United States And Iraq, We Have Met Our Responsibility. Now, It's Time To Turn The Page.

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

Majority Leader

I Warn Young People That I Interact With About This - You Get Into Unrealistic Expectations Where You Think That, "oh, We're Gonna Eliminate Racism Like That. After Obama's Elected How Could There Be Any Racism?".

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

We Are A Nation Of Christians And Muslims, Jews And Hindus, And Nonbelievers.

The World Thanks You For Sharing Nelson Mandela With Us.

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.

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.

It's Only When You Hitch Your Wagon To Something Larger Than Yourself That You Realize Your True Potential.

Greatest Leadership

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

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

Contrary To The Claims Of Some Of My Critics And Some Of The Editorial Pages, I Am An Ardent Believer In The Free Market.

Honestly This Is Not Going To Change Unless The People Who Want To Prevent These Kinds Of Mass Shootings From Taking Place Feel At Least As Passionate, At Least As Mobilized And Well-funded As The Nra And The Gun Manufacturers Are Because The Politics In Congress Are Such Where Even Members Of Congress Who Know Better Are Fearful If They Vote Their Conscience And Support Common Sense Measures Like Background Checks, They're Worried They're Going To Lose.

I Don't Believe We Can Get Very Far, With Leaders Who Write Off Half The Nation As A Bunch Of Victims Who Never Take Responsibility For Their Own Lives.

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

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.

This Comes From A Group Of People Who`ve Been Wrong About Every Foreign Policy Issue Over The Last Two Decades. They Supported Hillary Clinton`s War In Libya. They Supported President [barack] Obama`s Bombing Of Assad.

Islam Has A Proud Tradition Of Tolerance.

It [the Constitution] Didn't Break Free From The Essential Constraints That Were Placed By The Founding Fathers In The Constitution, At Least As It's Been Interpreted, And The Warren Court Interpreted It In The Same Way That Generally The Constitution Is A Charter Of Negative Liberties. It Says What The States Can't Do To You, It Says What The Federal Government Can't Do To You, But It Doesn't Say What The Federal Government Or The State Government Must Do On Your Behalf. And That Hasn't Shifted.

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

Well, I Think That When You Think About The Challenges We Face, These Are Challenges That Require Us To Look Forward And Not Backwards. When It Comes To The Economy I Think We Have To Recognize That We Are Now In A Global Economy. And That The Measure Of Our Success Is: How Well Are We Training Our Workers? How Well Are We Investing In The New Energy Economy?

We Have Known For Decades That Our Survival Depends On Finding New Sources Of Energy. Yet We Import More Oil Today Than Ever Before.

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

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.

What We Saw Was That The Ferguson Police Department In Conjunction With The Municipality Saw Traffic Stops, Arrests, Tickets As A Revenue Generator, As Opposed To Serving The Community, And That It Systematically Was Biased Against African-americans In That City Who Were Stopped, Harassed, Mistreated, Abused, Called Names, Fined.

One Of The Interesting Things About Being In Public Life Is There Are Constantly These Pressures Being Placed On You From Different Sides. To Be Effective, You Have To Be Able To Listen To A Variety Of Points Of View, Synthesize Viewpoints.

I Refuse To Give In To The Notion That The American People Can't Handle Complicated Information.

That's Why I Stand Here Tonight. Because For Two Hundred And Thirty Two Years, At Each Moment When That Promise Was In Jeopardy, Ordinary Men And Women - Students And Soldiers, Farmers And Teachers, Nurses And Janitors - Found The Courage To Keep It Alive.

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.

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.

For The World Has Changed, And We Must Change With It

You Are Part Of The First Generation Of Officers To Begin Your Service In A World Where The Effects Of Climate Change Are So Clearly Upon Us. Climate Change Will Shape How Every One Of Our Services Plan, Operate, Train, Equip, And Protect Their Infrastructure, Today And For The Long-term.

Imagine If You Had Genuine, High-quality Early-childhood Education For Every Child, And Suddenly Every Black Child In America - But Also Every Poor White Child Or Latino [child], But Just Stick With Every Black Child In America - Is Getting A Really Good Education. And They're Graduating From High School At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Going To College At The Same Rates That Whites Are, And They Are Able To Afford College At The Same Rates Because The Government Has Universal Programs. So Now They're All Graduating.

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.

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

We May Not Be Able To Stop Evil In The World, But How We Treat One Another Is Entirely Up To Us.

I Hope People Appreciate Chancellor Merkel Because, Although She Traditionally Is Considered Center-right And I'm Considered Center-left, The Truth Is That We Share Those Core Values, And Those Are Worth Protecting. As The Senior Leader In Europe, As The Leader Who's Been Longest Lasting, I Think She Has Great Credibility, And She Is Willing To Fight For Those Values. I'm Glad That She's There, And I Think The German People Should Appreciate Her. Certainly, I Have Appreciated Her As A Partner.

If John Mccain Wants To Have A Debate About Who Has The Temperament, And Judgment, To Serve As The Next Commander-in-chief, That's A Debate I'm Ready To Have.

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

Jimmy Carter Will Go Down In American History As 'the President Who Lost Iran,'

American History

They Say I Need To Be Seasoned; They Say I Need To Be Stewed. They Say, 'we Need To Boil All The Hope Out Of Him -- Like Us -- And Then He'll Be Ready.'

When I've Sent Young Men And Women Into Harm's Way, I Always Understand That That Is The Last Resort, Not The First Resort.

We Are Committed To A World In Which We Keep America Safe, But We Recognize That Our Power Doesn't Just Flow From Our Extraordinary Military But Also Flows From The Strength In Our Ideals And Our Principles And Our Values.

Trending Author

Chazz Palminteri

Lester B. Pearson

Category