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We Were Very Effective, And I Was Very Effective, In Shaping Public Opinion Around My Campaigns. But There Were Big Stretches, While Governing, Where Even Though We Were Doing The Right Thing, We Weren't Able To Mobilize Public Opinion Firmly Enough Behind Us To Weaken The Resolve Of The Republicans To Stop Opposing Us Or To Cooperate With Us. And There Were Times During My Presidency Where I Lost The Pr Battle.

-Barack Obama

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We Were Very Effective,

Barack Obama

...

We Were Very Effective, And I Was Very Effective, In Shaping Public Opinion Around My Campaigns. But There Were Big Stretches, While Governing, Where Even Though We Were Doing The Right Thing, We Weren't Able To Mobilize Public Opinion Firmly Enough Behind Us To Weaken The Resolve Of The Republicans To Stop Opposing Us Or To Cooperate With Us. And There Were Times During My Presidency Where I Lost The Pr Battle.

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We Can’t Afford To Be So Worried About Losing The Next Election That We Lose The Battles We Owe To The Next Generation. The Real Gamble In This Election Is Playing The Same Washington Game With The Same Washington Players And Expecting A Different Result. And That’s A Risk We Can’t Take.

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

We Have To Deal With Issues Like Inequality, We Have Deal With Issues Of Economic Dislocation, We Have To Deal With Peoples Fears That Their Children Won't Do As Well As They Have. The More Aggressively And Effectively We Deal With Those Issues, The Less Those Fears May Channel Themselves Into Counter-productive Approaches That Pit People Against Each Other.

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

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Isis Is A Virulent, Nasty Organization That Has Gained A Foothold In Ungoverned Spaces Effectively In Syria And Parts Of Western Iraq. We Have To Take It Seriously. They've Shown In Paris What They Can Do In An Organized Fashion.

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A Man Who Took History In His Hands, And Bent The Arc Of The Moral Universe Toward Justice.

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Common Humanity

America, We Cannot Turn Back. Not With So Much Work To Be Done. Not With So Many Children To Educate, And So Many Veterans To Care For. Not With An Economy To Fix And Cities To Rebuild And Farms To Save. Not With So Many Families To Protect And So Many Lives To Mend. America, We Cannot Turn Back. We Cannot Walk Alone. At This Moment, In This Election, We Must Pledge Once More To March Into The Future. Let Us Keep That Promise - That American Promise - And In The Words Of Scripture Hold Firmly, Without Wavering, To The Hope That We Confess.

There Is A Reason Why George Washington Is Always One Of The Top Three Presidents, And It's Not Because Of His Prowess As A Military Leader; It's Not Because Of The Incredible Innovations In Policy That He Introduced. It's Because He Knew When It Was Time To Go.

[people] Are Looking For Some Means Of Control And What That Means Is Is That The Politics In All Of Our Countries Is Gonna Require Us To Manage Technology And Global Integration And All These Demographic Shifts In A Way That Makes People Feel More Control, That Gives Them More Confidence In Their Future.

The Recovery Act, Which Helped Saved The Economy And Prevented Us Going Into The Great Depression, Was The Largest Investment In Green Technology, The Largest Investment In Education. We Rebuilt Roads And Bridges.

Now, As The World's Largest Economy And As The World's Second Largest Emitter, America Bears Our Responsibility To Address Climate Change, And We Intend To Meet That Responsibility.

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.

Whenever I Look At The History Of Presidents I Deeply Admire - The One Thing That I'm Always Struck By Is Persistence. It's A Quality That's Underrated. Being Able To Plough Through, Being Able To Stay Buoyant In The Face Of Challenges.

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

If War Explodes In Sudan, It Could Have A Destabilizing Effect That Creates More Space For Terrorist Activity That Could Eventually Be Directed At Our Homeland.

It's Important To Recognize That You Can't Have 100 Percent Security And Also Then Have 100 Percent Privacy And Zero Inconvenience.

I Honor, We Honor The Service Of John Mccain, And I Respect His Many Accomplishments, Even If He Chooses To Deny Mine. My Differences With Him Are Not Personal; They Are With The Policies He Has Proposed In This Campaign.

I Think That Leadership More Than Anything Is About Setting A Course And Describing A Vision For People.

What I've Said To [my Team] Is, "look, We Ran Our Leg Of The Race And We Did A Darn Good Job."

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.

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

If We're Going To Prevent People From Being Susceptible To The False Promises Of Extremism, Then The International Community Has To Offer Something Better And The United States Intends To Do Its Part.

Obviously, We've All Had Disagreements And Differences In The Past. I Suspect We'll Have Them Again In The Future. But Last Night As Americans Learned That The United States Had Carried Out An Operation That Resulted In The Capture And Death Of Osama Bin Laden. I Think We Experienced The Same Sense Of Unity That Prevailed On 9/11. We Were Reminded Again That There Is A Pride In What This Nation Stands For. And What We Can Achieve That Runs Far Deeper Than Party, Far Deeper Than Politics.

There Wasn't A Time Where I Felt Fearful That I Couldn't Make The Best Decisions Possible.

Ultimately, Only Diplomacy Can Bring About A Durable Solution To The Challenge Posed By Iran's Nuclear Program. As President And Commander In Chief, I Will Do What Is Necessary To Prevent Iran From Obtaining A Nuclear Weapon. However, I Have A Profound Responsibility To Try To Resolve Our Differences Peacefully, Rather Than Rush Towards Conflict.

The Size Of Your Paycheck Shouldn’t Determine Your Child’s Future.

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.

[fall Of The Berlin Wall] Is A Reminder That The Commitment Of The United States, To Europe Is Enduring And It's Rooted In The Values We Share; Our Commitment To Democracy, Our Commitment To Rule Of Law, Our Commitment To The Dignity Of All People In Our Own Countries And Around The World.

In Five Days, You Can Turn The Page On Policies That Put Greed And Irresponsibility On Wall Street Before The Hard Work And Sacrifice Of Folks On Main Street. In Five Days, You Can Choose Policies That Invest In Our Middle Class, And Create New Jobs, And Grow This Economy, So That Everyone Has A Chance To Succeed, Not Just The Ceo, But The Secretary And Janitor, Not Just The Factory Owner, But The Men And Women On The Factory Floor.

Many Of Our Ideas Of Democracy, So Much Of Our Literature And Philosophy And Science Can Be Traced Back To Roots Right Here In Athens.

The Greatest Threat To U.s. And Global Security Is No Longer A Nuclear Exchange Between Nations, But Nuclear Terrorism By Violent Extremists And Nuclear Proliferation To An Increasing Number Of States.

Nuclear Terrorism

Nuclear Proliferation

And, As A Consequence Of The Pressure That We've Applied Over The Last Couple Of Weeks, We Have Syria -- For The First Time -- Acknowledging That It Has Chemical Weapons, Agreeing To Join The Convention That Prohibits The Use Of Chemical Weapons, And The Russians -- Their Primary Sponsors -- Saying That They Will Push Syria To Get All Of Their Chemical Weapons Out. The Distance That We've Traveled Over These Couple Of Weeks Is Remarkable.

But Another Thing I Know Is This — We Can’t Steer Ourselves Out Of This Crisis By Heading In The Same, Disastrous Direction. We Can’t Change Direction With A New Driver Who Wants To Follow The Same Old Map. And That’s What This Election Is All About.

The Irony Is That We've Seen This Model Work Really Well In Massachusetts Because Gov. Romney Did A Good Thing, Working With Democrats In The State To Set Up What Is Essentially The Identical Model And, As A Consequence, People Are Covered There. It Hasn't Destroyed Jobs. And As A Consequence, We Now Have A System In Which We Have The Opportunity To Start Bringing Down Costs As Opposed To Just Leaving Millions Of People Out In The Cold." "gov. Romney Said This Has To Be Done On A Bipartisan Basis

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

Everybody Knows Politics Is A Contact Sport.

I Intend To Protect A Free And Open Internet, Extend Its Reach To Every Classroom, And Every Community, And Help Folks Build The Fastest Networks, So That The Next Generation Of Digital Innovators And Entrepreneurs Have The Platform To Keep Reshaping Our World.

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

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.

My Main Message Is To The Parents Of Trayvon Martin. You Know, If I Had A Son, He'd Look Like Trayvon.

My Hope Is That The President-elect [donald Trump] Coming In Takes A Similarly Constructive Approach, Finding Areas Where We Can Cooperate With Russia, Where Our Values And Interests Align. But That The President-elect Also Is Willing To Stand Up To Russia Where They Are Deviating From Our Values And International Norms.

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 Small Irritations Or Indignities That We Experience Are Nothing Compared To What A Previous Generation Experienced... It’s One Thing For Me To Be Mistaken For A Waiter At A Gala. It’s Another Thing For My Son To Be Mistaken For A Robber And To Be Handcuffed Or, Worse, If He Happens To Be Walking Down The Street And Is Dressed The Way Teenagers Dress.

And I Want To Work With This Congress, To Make Sure Americans Already Burdened With Student Loans Can Reduce Their Monthly Payments, So That Student Debt Doesn't Derail Anyone's Dreams.

If You Only Think About Yourself - How Much Money Can I Make, What Can I Buy, How Nice Is My House, What Kind Of Fancy Car Do I Have? - Over The Long Term, I Think, You Get Bored. I Think Your Life Becomes Diminished. The Way To Live A Full Life Is To Think: What Can I Do For Others?

We Reaffirm That On Days Like This, There Are No Republicans Or Democrats. We Are Americans, United In Concern For Our Fellow Citizens.

I Am Willing To Work With Anybody Who Wants To Have A Serious Conversation About Our Fiscal Future. We're Not Going To Do This Under The Threat Of Blowing Up The Entire Economy. I Will Not Negotiate Over Congress' Responsibility To Pay The Bills That Have Already Been Racked Up. I Don't Know How I Can Be More Clear About This.

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.

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

I Absolutely Think That When We Talk About Family, Faith, Community, I Think It's Important For Democrats To Be Able To Connect With Folks Where They Live.

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

If Iran Cheats, The World Will Know It.

The Actions Of Those In Power Can Have Enormous Consequences - A Price That They Themselves Almost Never Have To Pay.

My Liberty Depends On You Being Free, Too.

This Is A Core Principle Of My Presidency - If You Threaten America, You Will Find No Safe Haven.

I Have To Say That My Kids, Like Every Child In America, Is Completely Absorbed With Harry Potter. And So, I Have Gotten Sucked Into It, Too; I Can't Wait For The Next One To Come Out. I Am Trying To Figure Out What Happens With Harry And Voldemort. So We Have Been Reading That.

We May Disagree About Gay Marriage, But Surely We Can Agree That It Is Unconscionable To Target Gays And Lesbians For Who They Are - Whether It's Here In The United States Or, As Hillary (clinton) Mentioned, More Extremely In Odious Laws That Are Being Proposed Most Recently In Uganda.

Now You Have A Choice: We Can Give More Tax Breaks To Corporations That Ship Jobs Overseas, Or We Can Start Rewarding Companies That Open New Plants And Train New Workers And Create New Jobs Here, In The United States Of America.

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

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

Since I'm The President And Democrats Have Controlled The House And The Senate, It's Understandable That People Are Saying, You Know, 'what Have You Done?'

That Sort Of Lack Of Awareness On The Part Of An Activist About The Constraints Of Our Political System And The Constraints On This Office, I Think, Sometimes Would Leave Me To Mutter Under My Breath. Very Rarely Did I Lose It Publicly. Yeah, Usually I'd Just Smile.

The World Is Complicated And Full Of Grays, But There's Still Truth There To Be Found.

I'm Kind Of A Night Owl.

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

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.

Ask Osama Bin Laden And The 22-out-of-30 Top Al-qaida Leaders Who've Been Taken Off The Field Whether I Engage In Appeasement. Or Whoever Is Left Out There, Ask Them About That.

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.

Theoretically, You Can Make, Obviously, A Powerful Argument That Centuries Of Slavery, Jim Crow, Discrimination Are The Primary Cause For All Those Gaps. That Those Were Wrongs Done To The Black Community As A Whole, And Black Families Specifically, And That In Order To Close That Gap, A Society Has A Moral Obligation To Make A Large, Aggressive Investment, Even If It's Not In The Form Of Individual Reparations Checks, But In The Form Of A Marshall Plan, In Order To Close Those Gaps. It Is Easy To Make That Theoretical Argument.

Families Across America Are Feeling The Pinch As They Watch Debts Mount, Bills Pile Up And Savings Disappear.

My Experience Is That Our Intelligence Officials Try To Do The Right Thing, But Even With Good Intentions, Sometimes They Make Mistakes. Sometimes They Can Be Overzealous.

Good Intentions

On Every Continent, There Are Girls Who Will Go On To Change The World In Ways We Can Only Imagine, If Only We Allow Them The Freedom To Dream.

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.

We, The People, Still Believe That Our Obligations As Americans Are Not Just To Ourselves, But To All Posterity.

Because Our Right To Worship Freely And Safely, That Right Was Denied To Christians In Charleston, South Carolina, And That Was Denied Jews In Kansas City, And That Was Denied Muslims In Chapel Hill, And Sikhs In Oak Creek. They Had Rights Too. Our Right To Peaceful Assembly, That Right Was Robbed From Movie Goers In Aurora And Lafayette.

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

My Sister Is A Teacher, So I Am A Strong Support Of Teachers, But I'm Not Going To Be Bound By Just A Certain Way Of Talking About These Things, In Order For Us To Move Forward On Behalf Of Our Kids.

Because This Is A Country Where Everyone Deserves The Same Freedom And Opportunities To Fulfill Their Dreams.

When It Comes To Our Military, What We Have To Think About Is Not, You Know Just Budgets, We've Got To Think About Capabilities.

In Order For Us To Solve Many Big Problems Around The World, It Is In Our Interest To Work With Russia And Obtain Their Cooperation.

Around The World

You Got Into These Small Towns In Pennsylvania And, Like A Lot Of Small Towns In The Midwest, The Jobs Have Been Gone Now For 25 Years And Nothing's Replaced Them. And They Fell Through The Clinton Administration, And The Bush Administration, And Each Successive Administration Has Said That Somehow These Communities Are Gonna Regenerate And They Have Not. And It's Not Surprising Then They Get Bitter, They Cling To Guns Or Religion Or Antipathy To People Who Aren't Like Them Or Anti-immigrant Sentiment Or Anti-trade Sentiment As A Way To Explain Their Frustrations.

Al Qaeda, The Taliban, A Whole Host Of Networks That Are Bent On Attacking America, Who Have A Distorted Ideology, Who Have Perverted The Faith Of Islam, And So We Have To Go After Them.

If, Technologically, It Is Possible To Make An Impenetrable Device Or System Where The Encryption Is So Strong That There's No Key - There's No Door At All - Then How Do We Apprehend The Child Pornographer? How Do We Solve Or Disrupt A Terrorist Plot?

This Is The Defining Issue Of Our Time. This Is A Make-or-break Moment For The Middle Class And For All Those Who Are Fighting To Get Into The Middle Class.

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.

We Want Our Children To Live In An America That Isn't Burdened By Debt, That Isn't Weakened By Inequality, That Isn't Threatened By The Destructive Power Of A Warming Planet.

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

I Am Confident That We Will One Day End The Scourge Of Modern Slavery, Because I Believe In Those Committed To This Issue.

In Ancient Times And In Our Times, Muslim Communities Have Been At The Forefront Of Innovation And Education.

It's The Idea Held By Generations Of Citizens Who Believed That America Is A Constant Work In Progress; Who Believed That Loving This Country Requires More Than Singing Its Praises Or Avoiding Uncomfortable Truths. It Requires The Occasional Disruption, The Willingness To Speak Out For What's Right, And Shake Up The Status Quo.

We Know Hackers Steal People's Identities And Infiltrate Private E-mails. We Know Foreign Countries And Companies Swipe Our Corporate Secrets.

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

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

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

A Lot Of Pictures Of Yourself - You Know, It's A Little Narcissistic.

Pictures Of Yourself

The American People Are Going To Have A Good Choice.

This Is A Time Of Great Change In The World But America's Always Been A Pillar Of Strength And A Beacon Of Hope To Peoples Around The Globe And That's What It Must Continue To Be.

I Make No Apologies For Us Wanting To Do This [bombing Iraq And Syria] Appropriately And In A Way That Is Consistent With American Values.

I Have Made It A Top Priority For My Administration To Deepen Cooperation With Israel Across The Whole Spectrum Of Security Issues - Intelligence, Military, Technology.

I Get A Thick Book Full Of Death, Destruction, Strife, And Chaos. That's What I Take With My Morning Tea.

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.

We Can Lead This World And Make It Safer And More Secure For Our Children And Our Grandchildren, For Generations To Come.

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.

I Think That The Democratic Party Is A Big Tent, Which Means That There Are Positions I May Not Agree With.

The Strongest Democracies Flourish From Frequent And Lively Debate, But They Endure When People Of Every Background And Belief Find A Way To Set Aside Smaller Differences In Service Of A Greater Purpose.

It's Not Enough To Celebrate The Ideals That We're Built On, Liberty And Justice And Equality For All. Those Just Can't Be Words On Paper, The Work Of Every Generation Is To Make Those Words Mean Something, Concrete In The Lives Of Our Children. And We Won't Get There As Long As Kids In Baltimore Or Ferguson Or New York Or Appalachia Or The Mississippi Delta Or The Pine Ridge Reservation Believe That Their Lives Are Somehow Worthless.

Now, As A Nation, We Don't Promise Equal Outcomes, But We Were Founded On The Idea Everybody Should Have An Equal Opportunity To Succeed. No Matter Who You Are, What You Look Like, Where You Come From, You Can Make It. That's An Essential Promise Of America. Where You Start Should Not Determine Where You End Up.

That's The True Genius Of America: That America Can Change. Our Union Can Be Perfected. What We've Already Achieved Gives Us Hope For What We Can And Must Achieve Tomorrow.

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

I Will Never Forget Who This Victory Truly Belongs To. It Belongs To You. It Belongs To You. I Was Never The Likeliest Candidate For This Office. We Didn't Start With Much Money Or Many Endorsements. Our Campaign Was Not Hatched In The Halls Of Washington. It Began In The Backyards Of Des Moines And The Living Rooms Of Concord And The Front Porches Of Charleston. It Was Built By Working Men And Women Who Dug Into What Little Savings They Had To Give $5 And $10 And $20 To The Cause.

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