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When I Talked To [donald Trump] About - Our Intelligence Agencies, What I've Said To Him Is - Is That There Are Gonna Be Times Where You've Got Raw Intelligence That Comes In And In My Experience, Over Eight Years, The Intelligence Community Is Pretty Good About Saying, "look, We Can't Say For Certain What This Means." But There Are Gonna Be Times Where The Only Way You Can Make A Good Decision Is If You Have Confidence That The Process Is Working, And The People That You Put In Charge Are Giving You Their Very Best Assessments.

-Barack Obama

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When I Talked To

Barack Obama

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When I Talked To [donald Trump] About - Our Intelligence Agencies, What I've Said To Him Is - Is That There Are Gonna Be Times Where You've Got Raw Intelligence That Comes In And In My Experience, Over Eight Years, The Intelligence Community Is Pretty Good About Saying, "look, We Can't Say For Certain What This Means." But There Are Gonna Be Times Where The Only Way You Can Make A Good Decision Is If You Have Confidence That The Process Is Working, And The People That You Put In Charge Are Giving You Their Very Best Assessments.

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

Tonight, We Gather To Affirm The Greatness Of Our Nation - Not Because Of The Height Of Our Skyscrapers, Or The Power Of Our Military, Or The Size Of Our Economy. Our Pride Is Based On A Very Simple Premise, Summed Up In A Declaration Made Over Two Hundred Years Ago.

You Didn't Elect Me To Tell You What You Wanted To Hear. You Elected Me To Tell You The Truth.

African American

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

If You Give Up On The Idea That Your Voice Can Make A Difference, Then Other Voices Will Fill The Void

The Real Test Is Not Whether You Avoid Failure, Because You Won't. It's Whether You Let It Harden Or Shame You Into Inaction, Or Whether You Learn From It. . .

My Faith Reminds Me That We All Are Sinners.

Few Artists Have Influenced The Sound And Trajectory Of Popular Music More Distinctly, Or Touched Quite So Many People With Their Talent. A Strong Spirit Transcends Rules,' Prince Once Said - And Nobody's Spirit Was Stronger, Bolder, Or More Creative. Our Thoughts And Prayers Are With His Family, His Band, And All Who Loved Him.

What A Vindication Of The Belief That Ordinary People Can Do Extraordinary Things, What A Reminder Of What Bobby Kennedy Once Said, About How Small Actions Can Be Like Pebbles Being Thrown Into A Still Lake, And Ripples Of Hope Cascade Outwards And Change The World.

My Hope Is That More And More Investors Around The World See An Opportunity To Do Business In Greece.

I Have The Authority To Address The Threat From Isil, But I Believe We Are Strongest As A Nation When The President And Congress Work Together. So I Welcome Congressional Support For This Effort In Order To Show The World That Americans Are United In Confronting This Danger.

Never Read Who Moved My Cheese In The Workplace When You Can Read The Joy Of Not Working.

My Father's Voice Had Nevertheless Remained Untainted, Inspiring, Rebuking, Granting Or Withholding Approval. 'you Do Not Work Hard Enough, Barry. You Must Help In Your People's Struggle. Wake Up, Black Man!

Without Investments In Research And Science That Will Create The Next Apple, Create The Next New Innovation That Will Sell Products Around The World, We Will Lose. If We're Not Training Engineers To Make Sure That They Are Equipped Here In This Country, Then Companies Won't Come Here. Those Investments Are What's Going To Help To Make Sure That We Continue To Lead This World Economy Not Just Next Year, But 10 Years From Now, 50 Years From Now, A Hundred Years From Now.

The Challenges Posed By Threats Like Terrorism, Proliferation, And Cyber Attacks Are Not Going Away Any Time Soon, And For Our Intelligence Community To Be Effective Over The Long Haul, We Must Maintain The Trust Of The American People And People Around The World.

And We Remember The End Of Our Combat Mission And The Emergence Of A New Dawn - The Precision Of Our Efforts Against Al Qaeda In Iraq, The Professionalism Of The Training Of Iraqi Security Forces, And The Steady Drawdown Of Our Forces. In Handing Over Responsibility To The Iraqis, You Preserved The Gains Of The Last Four Years And Made This Day Possible.

I Would Say To People Is, That Investigation, As It Has Already Been Stated, Is A Marathon And Not A Sprint. But It Is One Of Great Concern To The American People. And So We're Committed To Keeping People Informed.

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

Andrew Cuomo Own Story Taught Andrew Cuomo That As Americans, We Are Bound Together As One People, And Our Country's Success Rests On The Success Of All Of Us, Not Just A Fortunate Few.

I Refuse To Leave Our Children With A Debt That They Cannot Repay.

Broken Promises

I Can't Really Characterize Any Country, Except To Say That We Work Well With A Number Of Our Foreign Counterparts.

We've Seen Those Results In Generations Of Muslim Immigrants - Farmers And Factory Workers, Helping To Lay The Railroads And Build Our Cities, The Muslim Innovators Who Helped Build Some Of Our Highest Skyscrapers And Who Helped Unlock The Secrets Of Our Universe.

Islam Has A Proud Tradition Of Tolerance.

I Think, The Argument Sometimes That I've Had With Folks Who Are Much More Interested In Sort Of Race-specific Programs Is Less An Argument About What Is Practically Achievable And Sometimes Maybe More An Argument Of "we Want Society To See What's Happened, And Internalize It, And Answer It In Demonstrable Ways." And Those Impulses I Very Much Understand.

The Fact That My 15 Minutes Of Fame Has Extended A Little Longer Than 15 Minutes Is Somewhat Surprising To Me, And A Matter Of Bewilderment For My Wife.

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.

Simple Exchanges Can Break Down Walls Between Us, For When People Come Together And Speak To One Another And Share A Common Experience, Then Their Common Humanity Is Revealed. We Are Reminded That We're Joined Together By Our Pursuit Of A Life That's Productive And Purposeful, And When That Happens Mistrust Begins To Fade And Our Smaller Differences No Longer Overshadow The Things That We Share. And That's Where Progress Begins.

Common Humanity

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

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

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.

All I Want To Do, If You've Already Got Health Care, Is Lower Your Costs.

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.

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

There's A Little Perspiration Involved In Bringing About Change Too.

We Have To Deal With The 11 Million Individuals Who Are Here Illegally. The Bill That Senator [marco] Rubio Put Forward, I Think Is A Great Place To Start.

My Job Is To Communicate To The American People That The Muslim World Is Filled With Extraordinary People Who Simply Want To Live Their Lives And See Their Children Live Better Lives. My Job To The Muslim World Is To Communicate That The Americans Are Not Your Enemy. We Sometimes Make Mistakes. But If You Look At The Track Record America Was Not Born As A Colonial Power, And That The Same Respect And Partnership That America Had With The Muslim World As Recently As 20 Or 30 Years Ago, There's No Reason Why We Can't Restore That. And That I Think Is Going To Be An Important Task.

A Lot Of Shelter Dogs Are Mutts Like Me.

We Cannot Tolerate A Nuclear Iran. It Would Be A Game Changer. Not Only Would It Threaten Israel, A Country That Is Our Stalwart Ally, But It Would Also Create An Environment In Which You Could Set Off An Arms Race In This Middle East.

[the] United States Is Proud To Stand With You As Your Strongest Ally And Greatest Friend. I See This Visit As An Opportunity To Reaffirm The Unbreakable Bond Between Our Nations, To Restate America's Unwavering Commitment To Israel's Security, And To Speak Directly To Israel And To Your Neighbors.

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

One Of The Things That I Am Concerned About Is The Degree To Which We've Seen A Lot Of Commentary Lately Where There Were, There Are Republicans Or Pundits Or Cable Commentators Who Seemed To Have More Confidence In Vladimir Putin Than Fellow Americans Because Those Fellow Americans Were Democrats. That Cannot Be.

There's Nothing That America Can't Handle If We Actually Look Squarely At The Problem. ...change Depends On Our Actions.

I Think That People Are Concerned About The Breakdown Of The Family But They Also Don't Want To See Discrimination Against Gays And Lesbians Who They Work With And They Want To Be Able To Make Sure That Gays Can Visit Each Other In Hospitals And Be Able To Inherit Property.

My Tax Plan Will Cut Taxes For 95 Percent Of Workers, Because We Need To Put Money Back Into The Pockets Of Struggling Middle-class Families And Close The Egregious Tax Loopholes That Have Exploded Over The Last Eight Years. My Plan Eliminates Capital Gains Taxes Entirely For The Small Businesses And Start-ups That Are The Backbone Of Our Economy, As Opposed To John Mccain's Plan, Which Would Tax These Businesses. John Mccain Is Running To Serve Out A Third Bush Term. But The Truth Is, When It Comes To Taxes, That's Not Being Fair To George Bush.

If There Is Anyone Out There Who Still Doubts That America Is A Place Where All Things Are Possible; Who Still Wonders If The Dream Of Our Founders Is Alive In Our Time; Who Still Questions The Power Of Our Democracy; Tonight Is Your Answer.

We Are Now At A Point Where Because We In Fact Have Been Successful At Stopping A Number Of Plots, A Threat Has Evolved. We Do See These Lone-wolf Actors. We Do See These Encouragements For Troubled Individuals To Pick Up A Gun And Act Out Of This Ideology.

Faced With The Potential Of Mass Atrocities And A Call For Help From The Libyan People, The United States And Our Friends And Allies Stopped Gadhafi's Forces In Their Tracks. A Coalition That Included The United States, Nato And Arab Nations Persevered To Protect Libyan Civilians. So This Is A Momentous Day In The History Of Libya. The Dark Shadow Of Tyranny Has Been Lifted, And With This Enormous Promise The Libyan People Now Have A Great Responsibility: To Build An Inclusive And Tolerant And Democratic Libya That Stands As The Ultimate Rebuke To Gadhafi's Dictatorship.

I Was Able To Excite And Engage People Who Previously Hadn't Been Involved In Politics, And Part Of The Reason That I Was Able To Be Re-elected And Stay Relatively Popular In The United States Was Because Even When The Economy Was Bad Or We Had Problems, People Sensed That I Listened To Them And I Was On Their Side.

I Would Love To See An America Where Race Is Understood In The Same Way That The Ethnic Diversity Of The White Population Is Understood.

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

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

Native American

I Would Put Our Legislative And Foreign Policy Accomplishments In Our First Two Years Against Any President - With The Possible Exceptions Of Johnson, Fdr, And Lincoln - Just In Terms Of What We've Gotten Done In Modern History. But, You Know, But When It Comes To The Economy, We've Got A Lot More Work To Do. And We're Gonna Keep On At It.

I Think We Want To See New Voices And New Ideas Emerge - That's Part Of The Reason Why Term Limits Are A Really Useful Thing.

I Don't Believe That The American People Want Us To Focus On Our Job Security. They Want Us To Focus On Their Job Security. I Don't Think They Want More Gridlock. I Don't Think They Want More Partisanship. I Don't Think They Want More Obstruction. They Didn't Send Us To Washington To Fight Each Other In Some Sort Of Political Steel-cage Match To See Who Comes Out Alive. That's Not What They Want. They Sent Us To Washington To Work Together, To Get Things Done, And To Solve The Problems That They're Grappling With Every Single Day.

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

I Am Asking My Attorney General To Create A Special Unit Of Federal Prosecutors And Leading State Attorneys General To Expand Our Investigations Into The Abusive Lending And Packaging Of Risky Mortgages That Led To The Housing Crisis. This New Unit Will Hold Accountable Those Who Broke The Law, Speed Assistance To Homeowners, And Help Turn The Page On An Era Of Recklessness That Hurt So Many Americans.

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

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

I Think It's Perfectly Consistent To Say That I Want My Government To Be Operating For All Faiths And All Peoples, Including Atheists And Agnostics, While Also Insisting That There Are Values Tha Tinform My Politics That Are Appropriate To Talk About.

I Do Think That This Whole Area Of Cyber Is Something That At An International Level We Have To Work On And Develop Frameworks And International Norms So That We Don't See A Cyber Arms Race.

I'm Determined To Disagree With People Without Being Disagreeable. That's Part Of The Empathy. Empathy Doesn't Just Extend To Cute Little Kids. You Have To Have Empathy When You're Talking To Some Guy Who Doesn't Like Black People.

No One In America Should Ever Be Afraid To Walk Down The Street Holding The Hand Of The Person They Love.

E.u. Need To Be Nurtured And Cultivated And Protected And Fought For Because The Achievements That We've Seen On This Continent, In Contrast To A Divided Europe Of The Previous Century, Are Ones That Remind Us Of How Important It Is That We Work Together.

Working Together

Strong Countries And Strong Presidents Talk To Their Adversaries. That's What Kennedy Did With Khrushchev. That's What Reagan Did With Gorbachev. That's What Nixon Did With Mao. I Mean Think About It. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela - These Countries Are Tiny Compared To The Soviet Union. They Don't Pose A Serious Threat To Us The Way The Soviet Union Posed A Threat To Us. And Yet We Were Willing To Talk To The Soviet Union At The Time When They Were Saying We're Going To Wipe You Off The Planet.

I Also Believe That If We're Serious About Change, We Need To Have A Real Discussion About Public Financing For Congressional Elections.

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.

What The American People Hope - What They Deserve - Is For All Of Us, Democrats And Republicans, To Work Through Our Differences; To Overcome The Numbing Weight Of Our Politics. For While The People Who Sent Us Here Have Different Backgrounds, Different Stories, Different Beliefs, The Anxieties They Face Are The Same. The Aspirations They Hold Are Shared: A Job That Pays The Bills; A Chance To Get Ahead; Most Of All, The Ability To Give Their Children A Better Life.

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.

I Can Be Much More Sarcastic And, I Think, Sometimes Withering In My Assessments Of Things Than I Allow To Show In My Public Life.

We Have To Ensure Free And Open Exchange Of Information. That Starts With An Open Internet. I Will Take A Backseat To No One In My Commitment To Network Neutrality. Because Once Providers Start To Privilege Some Applications Or Websites Over Others Then The Smaller Voices Get Squeezed Out And We All Lose. The Internet Is Perhaps The Most Open Network In History, And We Have To Keep It That Way.

I Am The Eternal Optimist. I Think That, Over Time, People Respond To Civility And -- And Rational Argument.

We Can't Get To The $4 Trillion In Savings That We Need By Just Cutting The 12 Percent Of The Budget That Pays For Things Like Medical Research And Education Funding And Food Inspectors And The Weather Service. And We Can't Just Do It By Making Seniors Pay More For Medicare.

We Americans Are Not An Inherently More Violent People Than Folks In Other Countries. We're Not Inherently More Prone To Mental Health Problems. The Main Difference That Sets Our Nation Apart Is What Makes Us So Susceptible To So Many Mass Shootings Is That We Don't Do Enough, We Don't Take The Basic Commonsense Actions To Keep Guns Out Of The Hands Of Criminals And Dangerous People. What's Different In America Is It's Easy To Get Your Hands On A Gun.

I Think There Are A Lot Of Factors Going Into An Election. I Think The Bottom Line Is - Is That Donald Trump Is Gonna Be Sworn In As The 45th President Of The United States Of America. And It's Not Necessarily Profitable To Sort Of Try To Untangle All The Different Factors That Went Into It.

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

Insurance Companies, Drug Companies Are Going To Have To Be Ponying Up, Partly Because Right Now They're Receiving Huge Subsidies.

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.

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

My Family, Frankly, They Weren't Folks Who Went To Church Every Week. My Mother Was One Of The Most Spiritual People I Knew But She Didn't Raise Me In The Church, So I Came To My Christian Faith Later In Life And It Was Because The Precepts Of Jesus Christ Spoke To Me In Terms Of The Kind Of Life That I Would Want To Lead.

Focusing Your Life Solely On Making A Buck Shows A Certain Poverty Of Ambition. It Asks Too Little Of Yourself. Because It's Only When You Hitch Your Wagon To Something Larger Than Yourself That You Realize Your True Potential.

Democracy Demands That The Religiously Motivated Translate Their Concerns In To Universal, Rather Than Religion-specific, Values... It Requires That Their Proposals Be Subject To Argument And Amenable To Reason. Now I May Be Opposed To Abortion For Religious Reasons, To Take One Example, But If I Seek To Pass A Law Banning The Practice, I Cannot Simply Point To The Teachings Of My Church Or Evoke God's Will. I Have To Explain Why Abortion Violates Some Principle That Is Accessible To People Of All Faiths, Including Those With No Faith At All.

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

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

Today, Women Make Up About Half Our Workforce. But They Still Make 77 Cents For Every Dollar A Man Earns. That Is Wrong, And In 2014, It’s An Embarrassment. Women Deserve Equal Pay For Equal Work.

My First Job As Commander In Chief Is To Keep The American People Safe.

I Never Understood That Line. The Point Was To Inhale. That Was The Point.

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

I Believe That The Best Measure Of Whether A Nation Is Going To Be Successful Is Whether They Are Tapping The Talents Of Their Women.

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools. We Must Make Sure That People Who Have The Grades, The Desire And The Will, But Not The Money, Can Still Get The Best Education Possible.

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

America, Now Is Not The Time For Small Plans.

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

One Thing I Will Not Compromise Over Is Whether Or Not Congress Should Pay The Tab For A Bill They've Already Racked Up. If Congress Refuses To Give The United States The Ability To Pay Its Bills On Time, The Consequences For The Entire Global Economy Could Be Catastrophic.

The Role Of Government Has Never Been To Plan Every Detail Or Dictate Every Outcome. At Its Best, Government Has Simply Knocked Away Barriers To Opportunity And Laid The Foundation For A Better Future. Our People -- With All Their Drive And Ingenuity -- Always End Up Building The Rest. And If We Can Do That Again -- If We Can Continue Building That Foundation And Making Those Hard Decisions On Behalf Of The Next Generation -- I Have No Doubt That We Will Leave Our Children The America That We All Hope For.

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.

I Just Want To Say That The Only Thing Less Popular Than Putting Money Into Banks Is Putting Money Into The Auto Industry.

My Job Is Not To Represent Washington To You, But To Represent You To Washington.

I Think I Have An Ongoing Conversation With God. I Think Throughout The Day, I'm Constantly Asking Myself Questions About What I'm Doing, Why Am I Doing It.

The United States Was The First Country To Recognize Israel In 1948, Minutes After Its Declaration Of Independence, And The Deep Bonds Of Friendship Between The U.s. And Israel Remain As Strong And Unshakeable As Ever.

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

With The Changing Economy, No One Has Lifetime Employment. But Community Colleges Provide Lifetime Employability.

Going Back To The Discussion We Were Having About Immigration Reform, Some Of The Most Challenging Discussions I've Had Are With Activists Who Essentially Would Argue That Any Immigrant From Central America, Let's Say, Who Gets Here To This Country Should Be Allowed To Stay Because Their Country Is Dangerous, Their Country Is Poor, And The Opportunities For That Mom And That Kid Are Much Greater Here, And Why Would You Send Them Back?

We’re Making New Investments In The Development Of Gasoline And Diesel And Jet Fuel That’s Actually Made From A Plant-like Substance-algae... We Could Replace Up To 17 Percent Of The Oil We Import For Transportation With This Fuel That We Can Grow Right Here In The United States.

That Is Another Theme In The Book [dreams From My Father]. How Do We Exercise More Empathy In Our Public Discourse? How Do We Get The Black To See Through The Eyes Of The White? Or The Citizen To See Through The Eyes Of The Immigrant? Or The Straight To See Through The Eyes Of The Gay? That Has Always Been A Struggle In Our Politics.

Generally Speaking In America, A Lot Of Environmentally Problematic Facilities Tend To Be Located In Places Where Poor Folks Live Because Wealthier Folks Have The Ability To Say, "not In My Backyard."

I'm Not So Optimistic As To Think That You Would Ever Be Able To Garner A Majority Of An American Congress That Would Make Those Kinds Of Investments Above And Beyond The Kinds Of Investments That Could Be Made In A Progressive Program For Lifting Up All People.

If We're Serious About Building An Economy That Lasts, We Have Got To Get Serious About Education. We Are Going To Have To Pick Up Our Games And Raise Our Standards.

Our Combat Mission Is Ending, But Our Commitment To Iraq's Future Is Not.

Those Who Are Already Feeling The Effects Of Climate Change Don't Have Time To Deny It - They're Busy Dealing With It.

One Of The Things You Discover About Being President Is That There Are All These Rules And Norms And Laws And You Got To Pay Attention To Them.

We Want Everybody To Act Like Adults, Quit Playing Games, Realize That It's Not Just My Way Or The Highway.

Government Without A Tough And Vibrant Media Is Not An Option For The United States Of America.

If You Like Your Doctor Or Health Care Provider, You Can Keep Them. If You Like Your Health Care Plan, You Can Keep That, Too.

I Know Starting Careers In Troubled Times Is A Challenge, But It Is Also A Privilege. Because It's Moments Like These That Force Us To Try Harder, Dig Deeper And To Discover Gifts We Never Knew We Had. To Find The Greatness That Lies Within Each Of Us. So Don't Ever Shy Away From That Endeavor. Don't Stop Adding To Your Body Of Work. I Can Promise That You Will Be The Better For That Continued Effort As Will Be This Nation That We All Love.

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

Lincoln, They Used To Talk About Him Almost As Bad As They Talk About Me. So Democracy Has Never Been For The Faint Of Heart.

Democracies Have

We Believe That Big Nations Should Not Bully Smaller Nations, And That The Sovereignty Of Nations Must Be Respected. And We Have Long Urged That Disputes Be Resolved Peacefully, Including Through Mechanisms Like International Arbitration.

You Look At Something Like Health Care, The Affordable Care Act. And For All The Controversy, We Now Have 20 Million People Who Have Health Insurance Who Didn't Have It. It's Actually Proven To Be More Effective, Cheaper Than Even Advocates Like Me Expected.

But Race Is An Issue That I Believe This Nation Cannot Afford To Ignore Right Now. We Would Be Making The Same Mistake That Reverend Wright Made In His Offending Sermons About America - To Simplify And Stereotype And Amplify The Negative To The Point That It Distorts Reality.

Tonight, More Americans Are Out Of Work And More Are Working Harder For Less. More Of You Have Lost Your Homes And Even More Are Watching Your Home Values Plummet. More Of You Have Cars You Can't Afford To Drive, Credit Card Bills You Can't Afford To Pay, And Tuition That's Beyond Your Reach.

That's What Building A Body Of Work Is All About. It's About The Daily Labor, The Many Individual Acts, The Choices Large And Small That Add Up Over Time, Over A Lifetime To A Lasting Legacy. It's About Not Being Satisfied With The Latest Achievement, The Latest Gold Star, Because The One Thing I Know About A Body Of Work Is That It's Never Finished. It's Cumulative. It Deepens And Expands With Each Day You Give Your Best. You May Have Setbacks And You May Have Failures, But You're Not Done.

The Way We Have To Measure Progress Is Not, "is There Ever Going To Be An Incident Of Racism In The Country?" It's, "how Does The Majority Of Our Country Respond?"

I Will Never Apologize For Saying That The Future Of Humanity And The Future Of The World Is Going To Be Defined By What We Have In Common As Opposed To Those Things That Separate Us And Ultimately Lead Us Into Conflict.

Do I Wish That Things Were More Orderly In Washington And Rational And People Listened To The Best Arguments And Compromised And Operated In A More Thoughtful And Organized Fashion? Absolutely. But When You Look At History That's Been The Exception Rather Than The Norm.

Learning To Stand In Somebody Else's Shoes, To See Through Their Eyes, That's How Peace Begins. And It's Up To You To Make That Happen. Empathy Is A Quality Of Character That Can Change The World.

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

We Don't Turn Back. We Leave No One Behind. We Pull Each Other Up. We Draw Strength From Our Victories, And We Learn From Our Mistakes, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, But We Keep Our Eyes Fixed On That Distant Horizon, Knowing That Providence Is With Us, And That We Are Surely Blessed To Be Citizens Of The Greatest Nation On Earth.

Maybe You Could Be A Great Writer - Maybe Even Good Enough To Write A Book Or Articles In A Newspaper - But You Might Not Know It Until You Write That English Paper - That English Class Paper That's Assigned To You.

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.

Unfortunately, You've Grown Up Hearing Voices That Incessantly Warn Of Government As Nothing More Than Some Separate, Sinister Entity That's At The Root Of All Our Problems. Some Of These Same Voices Also Do Their Best To Gum Up The Works. They'll Warn That Tyranny Is Always Lurking Just Around The Corner. You Should Reject These Voices.

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 Future Must Not Belong To Those Who Slander The Prophet Of Islam

For We, The People, Understand That Our Country Cannot Succeed When A Shrinking Few Do Very Well And A Growing Many Barely Make It.

The United States Was Founded On The Idea That All People Are Endowed With Inalienable Rights, And That Principle Has Allowed Us To Work To Perfect Our Union At Home While Standing As A Beacon Of Hope To The World. Today, That Principle Is Embodied In Agreements Americans Helped Forge - The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, The Geneva Conventions, And Treaties Against Torture And Genocide - And It Unites Us With People From Every Country And Culture.

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

Most People Who Serve In Washington Have Been Trained Either As Lawyers Or As Political Operatives--professions That Tend To Place A Premium On Winning Arguments Rather Than Solving Problems.

On The Spectrum Of Successful Politicians, I'm Not Introverted The Way Some Have Been.

I Came In With A Healthy Skepticism About These Programs. My Team Evaluated Them. We Scrubbed Them Thoroughly. We Actually Expanded Some Of The Oversight, Increased Some Of The Safeguards. But My Assessment, And My Team's Assessment Was That They Help Us Prevent Terrorist Attacks. In The Abstract, You Can Complain About 'big Brother' And How This Is A Potential Program Run Amok. But When You Actually Look At The Details, Then, I Think We've Struck The Right Balance.

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

Both President Kennedy And President Reagan Were Roundly Criticized By Parts Of The Foreign Policy Establishment That Felt They Were Being Weak By Engaging Our Adversaries. So Some Of It Is Built Into A Political Lexicon That Makes You Sound Tougher If You Don't Talk To Somebody, And Rather, Very Loudly, Wield A Big Stick.

We Are Not Going To Be Able To Rebuild Afghanistan Into A Jeffersonian Democracy.

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

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

I Know That Campaigns Can Seem Small, And Even Silly. Trivial Things Become Big Distractions. Serious Issues Become Sound Bites. And The Truth Gets Buried Under An Avalanche Of Money And Advertising. If You're Sick Of Hearing Me Approve This Message, Believe Me - So Am I.

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.

What Is Required Of Us Now Is A New Era Of Responsibility - A Recognition, On The Part Of Every American, That We Have Duties To Ourselves, Our Nation, And The World, Duties That We Do Not Grudgingly Accept But Rather Seize Gladly, Firm In The Knowledge That There Is Nothing So Satisfying To The Spirit, So Defining Of Our Character, Than Giving Our All To A Difficult Task. This Is The Price And The Promise Of Citizenship.

I Do Think That It Is Impossible For Us To Think Only In Terms Of The Palestinian-israeli Conflict And Not Think In Terms Of What's Happening With Syria Or Iran Or Lebanon Or Afghanistan And Pakistan. These Things Are Interrelated. And If We Are Looking At The Region As A Whole And Communicating A Message To The Arab World And The Muslim World, That We Are Ready To Initiate A New Partnership Based On Mutual Respect And Mutual Interest, Then I Think That We Can Make Significant Progress.

With Singapore's Partnership, The United States In Engaging More Deeply Across South-east Asia And Asean, Which Is Central To The Region's Peace And Prosperity. Singapore Is An Anchor For The Us Presence In The Region, Which Is A Foundation Of Stability And Peace.

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

I Think We Have Two Conflicting Traditions In This Country. I Think It's Important For Us To Recognize That We've Got A Tradition Of Handgun Ownership And Gun Ownership Generally. And A Lot Of People - Law-abiding Citizens Use If For Hunting, For Sportsmanship, And For Protecting Their Families. We Also Have A Violence On The Streets That Is The Result Of Illegal Handgun Usage. And So I Think There Is Nothing Wrong With A Community Saying We Are Going To Take Those Illegal Handguns Off The Streets.

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 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.

I'm So Overexposed, I'm Making Paris Hilton Look Like A Recluse.

Let's Not Only Provide A Jumpstart To The Economy And Immediately Or Save 3 Million Jobs, But Let's Also Put A Down Payment On Some Of The Structural Problems That We Have In Our Economy.

I've Been Struck By How Hungry We All Are For A Different Kind Of Politics. So I've Spent Some Time Thinking About How I Could Best Advance The Cause Of Change And Progress That We So Desperately Need.

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

We All Know A Lot Of People Who Died In 9/11, The World Trade Center. A Lot Of Money Funding That Mission Is Directly Tied - From The 9/11 Commission, Directly Tied To Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas.

If You're Willing To Put In The Work, The Idea Is That You Should Be Able To Raise A Family And Own A Home, Not Go Bankrupt Because You Got Sick, 'cause You've Got Some Health Insurance That Helps You Deal With Those Difficult Times; That You Can Send Your Kids To College; That You Can Put Some Money Away For Retirement. That's All Most People Want. Folks Don't Have Unrealistic Ambitions. They Do Believe That If They Work Hard, They Should Be Able To Achieve That Small Measure Of An American Dream.

America Does Not Accept The Legitimacy Of Continued Israeli Settlements.

Israeli Settlements

In The United States, If 43 Percent Of Eligible Voters Do Not Vote, Then Democracy Is Weakened.

Today We're Seeing That Climate Change Is About More Than A Few Unseasonably Mild Winters Or Hot Summers. It's About The Chain Of Natural Catastrophes And Devastating Weather Patterns That Global Warming Is Beginning To Set Off Around The World.. The Frequency And Intensity Of Which Are Breaking Records Thousands Of Years Old.

I Would Say Of All The Things That Have Happened During The Course Of My Presidency The Knowledge That You Have Hundreds Of Thousands Of People Who Have Been Killed, Millions Who Have Been Displaced, [makes Me] Ask Myself What Might I Have Done Differently Along The Course Of The Last Five, Six Years.

Politics Has Become So Bitter And Partisan, So Gummed Up By Money And Influence, That We Can't Tackle The Big Problems That Demand Solutions. And That's What We Have To Change First. We Have To Change Our Politics, And Come Together Around Our Common Interests And Concerns As Americans.

Starting Today, We Must Pick Ourselves Up, Dust Ourselves Off, And Begin Again The Work Of Remaking America.

I Do Make Sure That I've Got People Who Are Experts That Are Helping Me Make The Best Decisions Possible.

I Was Elected Because I Believed In What We Call "grassroots Politics," Politics From The Bottom Up, Not The Top Down.

What I'm Interested In Doing After I Get Out Of The Presidency Is To Make Sure That I'm Working With That Next Generation So That They Understand You Can't Just Rely On Inspiration.

I Think It Was Not A Bad Idea To Wrap Barack Obama In The Mantle Of Teddy Roosevelt. He`s Been Assuming A Sort Of Progressive Mantle, And He Ticked Off Some Large And Systemic Problems That This Country Faces.

Nobody's Madder Than Me About The Website Not Working As Well As It Should, Which Means It's Going To Get Fixed.

Our Challenges May Be New. The Instruments With Which We Meet Them May Be New. But Those Values Upon Which Our Success Depends -- Honesty And Hard Work, Courage And Fair Play, Tolerance And Curiosity, Loyalty And Patriotism -- These Things Are Old. These Things Are True. They Have Been The Quiet Force Of Progress Throughout Our History. What Is Demanded, Then, Is A Return To These Truths.

We're All In This Together. That's How We Campaigned, And That's Who We Are. This Happened Because Of You. Thank You.

Today, More Than Ever Before, Science Holds The Key To Our Survival As A Planet And Our Security And Prosperity As A Nation. It's Time We Once Again Put Science At The Top Of Our Agenda And Work To Restore America's Place As The World Leader In Science And Technology.

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.

The Map Isn't Always The Territory, And You Have To Kind Of Walk Through It To Get A Feel For It.

Our Enemies Are Fully Aware That They Can Use Oil As A Weapon Against America. And If We Don't Take This Threat As Seriously As The Bombs They Build Or The Guns They Buy, We Will Be Fighting The War On Terror With One Hand Tied Behind Our Back.

Even The Smallest Act Of Service, The Simplest Act Of Kindness, Is A Way To Honor Those We Lost, A Way To Reclaim That Spirit Of Unity That Followed 9/11.

The Easiest Way To Get 15 Minutes Of Fame Is To Be Rude To Somebody.

If You Have Health Care, My Plan Will Lower Your Premiums. If You Don't, You'll Be Able To Get The Same Kind Of Coverage That Members Of Congress Give Themselves.

Even When Folks Are Hitting You Over The Head, You Can't Stop Marching. Even When They're Turning The Hoses On You, You Can't Stop.

I Will Not Stand By While The Special Interests Use The Same Old Tactics To Keep Things Exactly The Way They Are ... Not This Time. Not Now.

A Lot Of The Issues That I See, It Is Not An Either-or Situation.

There Are Places I Want To Visit Where If I'm Wearing A Baseball Cap And Some Sunglasses I Think I Can Get Away With And Mingle In A Crowd.

And To Those Nations Like Ours That Enjoy Relative Plenty, We Say We Can No Longer Afford Indifference To The Suffering Outside Our Borders; Nor Can We Consume The World's Resources Without Regard To Effect. For The World Has Changed, And We Must Change With It.

Independent Economists Say Immigration Reform Will Grow Our Economy And Shrink Our Deficits By Almost $1 Trillion In The Next Two Decades. And For Good Reason: When People Come Here To Fulfill Their Dreams - To Study, Invent, And Contribute To Our Culture - They Make Our Country A More Attractive Place For Businesses To Locate And Create Jobs For Everyone. So Let's Get Immigration Reform Done This Year.

I Think The Prime Minister Is The First To Acknowledge That Malaysia's Still Got Some Work To Do. Just Like The United States, By The Way, Has Some Work To Do On These Issues. Human Rights Watch Probably Has A List Of Things They Think We Should Be Doing As A Government.

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

I'm Not Saying I'm Impervious To Criticism.

Together, We Could Open Up Government And Invite Citizens In, While Connecting All Of America To 21st Century Broadband. We Could Use Technology To Help Achieve Universal Health Care, To Reach For A Clean Energy Future, And To Ensure That Young Americans Can Compete - And Win - In The Global Economy.

Not Much Happens In Russia Without Vladimir Putin.

The United States Of America Has Helped Underwrite The Global Security For More Than Six Decades With The Blood Of Our Citizens And The Strength Of Our Arms. The Service And Sacrifice Of Our Men And Women In Uniform Has Promoted Peace And Prosperity From Germany To Korea And Enabled Democracy To Take Hold In Places Like The Balkans.

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.

I Am Very Proud Of The Fact I Do Not Cheat When I'm Playing Golf.

If You Can Look Back And Say, "the Economy's Better. Our Security's Better. The Environment's Better. Our Kids' Education Is Better," If You Can Say That You've Made Things Better, Then Considering All The Challenges Out There, You Should Feel Good. But I'm The First To Acknowledge That I Did Not Crack The Code In Terms Of Reducing This Partisan Fever.

I Think Dona;d Trump Is Sincere In Wanting To Be A Successful President And Moving This Country Forward And I Don't Think Any President Ever Comes In Saying To Himself "i Want To Figure Out How To Make People Angry Or Alienate Half The Country."

Yes, Our Greatness As A Nation Has Depended On Individual Initiative, On A Belief In The Free Market. But It Has Also Depended On Our Sense Of Mutual Regard For Each Other, Of Mutual Responsibility. The Idea That Everybody Has A Stake In The Country, That We're All In It Together And Everybody's Got A Shot At Opportunity. Americans Know This. We Know That Government Can't Solve All Our Problems - And We Don't Want It To. But We Also Know That There Are Some Things We Can't Do On Our Own. We Know That There Are Some Things We Do Better Together.

Rather Take That Moral Sense And Apply It To The Particulars Of A Job That Is Going To Test Those Ethical And Moral Precepts Differently Than If You're A Professor, Or A Business Person, Or A Dad. And If I Were Not Comfortable With The Judicious Use Of Our Military To Protect The American People, Than I Shouldn't Have Run For President. And Having Said That, I Do Think That The Wisdom Of A [martin Luther] King Or A [mahatma] Gandhi Can Inform My Decisions.

We Continue To Believe That A Two-state Solution Is The Only Way For The Long-term Security Of Israel, If It Wants To Stay Both A Jewish State And Democratic.

Societies In Which We Are Able To Unify Ourselves Around Values And Ideals And Character And How We Treat Each Other And Cooperation And Innovation, Ultimately Are Gonna Be More Successful Than Societies That Don't.

For More Than Four Decades, The Libyan People Have Been Ruled By A Tyrant - Moammar Gaddafi. He Has Denied His People Freedom, Exploited Their Wealth, Murdered Opponents At Home And Abroad, And Terrorized Innocent People Around The World - Including Americans Who Were Killed By Libyan Agents.

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