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When This Crisis Began, Crucial Decisions About What Would Happen To Some Of The World's Biggest Companies - Companies Employing Tens Of Thousands Of People And Holding Trillions Of Dollars In Assets - Took Place In Hurried Discussions In The Middle Of The Night. We Should Not Be Forced To Choose Between Allowing A Company To Fall Into A Rapid And Chaotic Dissolution Or Forcing Taxpayers To Foot The Bill.

-Barack Obama

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When This Crisis Began,

Barack Obama

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When This Crisis Began, Crucial Decisions About What Would Happen To Some Of The World's Biggest Companies - Companies Employing Tens Of Thousands Of People And Holding Trillions Of Dollars In Assets - Took Place In Hurried Discussions In The Middle Of The Night. We Should Not Be Forced To Choose Between Allowing A Company To Fall Into A Rapid And Chaotic Dissolution Or Forcing Taxpayers To Foot The Bill.

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In The Midst Of This Enormous Economic Crisis, I Think Canada Has Shown Itself To Be A Pretty Good Manager Of The Financial System And The Economy In Ways That We Always - Haven't Always Been Here In The United States.

I Do Not Believe Being Gay Or Lesbian Is A Choice.

You Can’t Let Your Failures Define You. You Have To Let Your Failures Teach You.

If All It Took Was Someone Proclaiming I Believe Jesus Christ And That He Died For My Sins, And That Was All There Was To It, People Wouldn't Have To Keep Coming To Church, Would They.

The United States Is Not, And Never Will Be, At War With Islam.

I Try To Make It A Rule Not To Meddle In Other People's Politics.

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

I Don't Know The Facts Of When Joe Soptic's Wife Got Sick Or When She Died.

It Is Our Generation's Task, Then, To Reignite The True Engine Of America's Economic Growth - A Rising, Thriving Middle Class.

I Do Think That When You Go Into Red States, They're - So-called Red States - I Think They're Troubled With Certain Excesses With Respect To The Patriot Act, But They're Also Concerned With Making Sure We're Secure Against Terrorism.

Without Regard To Whether Some Place Is Wealthy Or Poor, Everybody Should Have The Chance At Clean Air And Clean Water.

So We Don't Need More Top-down Economics. We've Tried That Theory. We've Seen What Happens. We Can't Afford To Go Back To It.

Don't Let Your Failures Define You.

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

Today, We Are Closer To Fulfilling America's Promise Of Economic And Social Justice Because We Stand On The Shoulders Of Giants Like Dr. King, Yet Our Future Progress Will Depend On How We Prepare Our Next Generation Of Leaders. We Must Fortify Their Ladders Of Opportunity By Correcting Social Injustice, Breaking The Cycle Of Poverty In Struggling Communities, And Reinvesting In Our Schools. Education Can Unlock A Child's Potential And Remains Our Strongest Weapon Against Injustice And Inequality.

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.

As Opposed To Getting Into Arguments About, Well, These Folks Have Been Treated Fairly So Now We're Going To Be Doing Things That, Very Easily In The Minds Of A Lot Americans Feel Like, "now I'm Being Treated Unfairly."

I Will Tell You, When 20 6-year-olds Are Gunned Down And Congress Literally Does Nothing, Yeah That's The Closest I Came To Feeling Disgusted.

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.

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

[white House] Feels Even More Like Home Now Because You Have All These Memories That Were Formed Watching Your Kids Grow Up.

We Should Be More Modest In Our Belief That We Can Impose Democracy On A Country Through Military Force.

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

The Framers, In Their Wisdom, Designed The [political] System So That Power's Pretty Disbursed.

Political Systems

I Think That Sometimes The Democrats Have To Run Upstream Or Swim Upstream Because We've Got The Republicans Making It Out As If We Don't Care About These Things, And We Should Be Able To Engage And Be Willing To Engage In The Discussion About Morality And Values.

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

Some Heinous Crimes Justify The Ultimate Punishment.

I’m Convinced That A World In Which Girls Are Educated Is A Safer, More Stable, More Prosperous Place.

Men Have To Take More Responsibility. Men Have To Intervene

If We Have Osama Bin Laden In Our Sights And The Pakistani Government Is Unable Or Unwilling To Take Them Out, Then, I Think That We Have To Act And We Will Take Them Out. We Will Kill Bin Laden. We Will Crush Al Qaeda. That Has To Be Our Biggest National Security Priority.

Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science.

I'm A Big Believer In Tolerance. I Think That Religion At It's Best Comes With A Big Dose Of Doubt.

Mothers Are The Rocks Of Our Families And A Foundation In Our Communities. In Gratitude For Their Generous Love, Patient Counsel, And Lifelong Support, Let Us Pay Respect To The Women Who Carry Out The Hard Work Of Motherhood With Skill And Grace, And Let Us Remember Those Mothers Who, Though No Longer With Us, Inspire Us Still.

Those Are The Ladies Sitting In Church. And In The Same Way That They Might Feel A Joy And Release On Sunday, They Are Still Going To Work On Monday. And That's Who I Was Listening To During This Process. And If At The End Of My Presidency They Feel Like I Did A Pretty Good Job, Then I'll Feel Pretty Good.

Yesterday, John Mccain Actually Said That If He's President That He'll Take On, And I Quote, 'the Old Boys Network In Washington.' Now I'm Not Making This Up. This Is Somebody Who's Been In Congress For Twenty-six Years, Who Put Seven Of The Most Powerful Washington Lobbyists In Charge Of His Campaign. And Now He Tells Us That He's The One Who's Gonna' To Take On The Old Boys Network. The Old Boys Network? In The Mccain Campaign That's Called A Staff Meeting. Come, On!

Constitution Is A Living Document; No Strict Constructionism.

How We Think About Terrorism Has To Be Defined And Specific Enough That It Doesn't Lead Us To Think That Any Horrible Actions That Take Place Around The World That Are Motivated In Part By An Extremist Islamic Ideology Is A Direct Threat To Us Or Something That We Have To Wade Into.

Public School System Status Quo Is Indefensible.

After A Decade Of Profligacy, The American People Are Tired Of Politicians Who Talk The Talk But Don't Walk The Walk When It Comes To Fiscal Responsibility. It's Easy To Get Up In Front Of The Cameras And Rant Against Exploding Deficits. What's Hard Is Actually Getting Deficits Under Control. But That's What We Must Do. Like Families Across The Country, We Have To Take Responsibility For Every Dollar We Spend.

When We Start Using Religion As A Bludgeon In Politics, When We Start Questioning Other People's Faith, We Start Using Religion To Divide, Instead Of Bring The Country Together, Then I Think We've Got A Problem.

John Mccain Has Not Spoken About My Muslim Faith.

Absolutely. I Think, I Think The American People, At Their Core, Are A Decent People. I Think That We Still Have Prejudice In Our Midst, But I Think That The Vast Majority Of Americans Are Willing, Are Willing To Judge People On The Basis Of Their Ideas And Their Character. And In The Case Of The Presidency, I Think What's Most Important Is Whether The American People Think That You Understand Their Hopes And Dreams And Struggles And Whether They Think You Can Actually Help Them Achieve Those Hopes And Dreams.

I Was Raised By A Single Mom Who Had To Put Herself Through School While Looking After Two Kids. And She Worked Hard Every Day And Made A Lot Of Sacrifices To Make Sure We Got Everything We Needed. My Grandmother, She Started Off As A Secretary In A Bank. She Never Got A College Education, Even Though She Was Smart As A Whip. And She Worked Her Way Up To Become A Vice President Of A Local Bank, But She Hit The Glass Ceiling. She Trained People Who Would End Up Becoming Her Bosses During The Course Of Her Career.

Under My Plan Of A Cap And Trade System, Electricity Rates Would Necessarily Skyrocket… Because I’m Capping Greenhouse Gasses, Coal Power Plants, Natural Gas…you Name It…whatever The Plants Were, Whatever The Industry Was, They Would Have To Retro-fit Their Operations. That Will Cost Money…they Will Pass That Money On To The Consumers.

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.

If We Want America To Stay On The Cutting Edge, We Need Young Americans To Master The Tools And Technology That Will Change The Way We Do Just About Everything.

Here At This Site, Solyndra Expects To Make Enough Solar Panels Each Year To Generate 500 Megawatts Of Electricity. And Over The Lifetime Of This Expanded Facility, That Could Be Like Replacing As Many As Eight Coal-fired Power Plants.

If You're One Of The More Than 250 Million Americans Who Already Have Health Insurance, You Will Keep Your Health Insurance. This Law Will Only Make It More Secure And More Affordable.

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

America Is The Greatest Country On Earth. But Because Of Some Of The Mistakes That Have Been Made, We, I Think, Are Going To Have A Lot Of Work To Do In The Next Administration To Restore That Sense That America Is That Shining Beacon On A Hill.

I've Been Fighting With Acorn, Alongside Acorn, On Issues You Care About, My Entire Career.

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

The Problem Is That Young People Are Less Likely To Vote Than Older People. What Results Is A Situation In Which Sometimes The Elections Don't Fully Reflect The Views Of The American Population.

For Decades, Our Differences With Iran Meant That Our Governments Almost Never Spoke To Each Other. Ultimately, That Did Not Advance America's Interests.

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

We're Leaving Behind A Sovereign, Stable And Self-reliant Iraq With A Representative Government That Was Elected By Its People. We're Building A New Partnership Between Our Nations And We Are Ending A War Not With A Final Battle But With A Final March Toward Home. This Is An Extraordinary Achievement

We Should Foster A Culture In Which People's Private Religious Beliefs, Including Atheists And Agnostics, Are Respected. And That's The Kind Of Culture That I Think Allows All Of Us, Then, To Believe What We Want. That's Freedom Of Conscience. That's What Our Constitution Guarantees.

For Half Of The World's Population, Roughly Three Billion People Around The World Living On Less Than Two Dollars A Day, An Election Is At Best A Means, Not An End; A Starting Point, Not Deliverance. These People Are Looking Less For An "electocracy" Than For The Basic Elements That For Most Of Us Define A Decent Life--food, Shelter, Electricity, Basic Health Care, Education For Their Children, And The Ability To Make Their Way Through Life Without Having To Endure Corruption, Violence, Or Arbitrary Power.

More Broadly, Prime Minister Lee [hsien Loong] And I Will Work To Advance The Us-singapore Partnership Across The Board. We're Committed To Sustaining The Dynamism Of Our Economies With The Trans-pacific Partnership - The Highest-standard Trade Agreement Ever - Which Will Support Trade And Innovation In Both Our Countries.

If You Were President 50 Years Ago, The Tragedy In Syria Might Not Even Penetrate What The American People Were Thinking About On A Day To Day Basis. Today, They're Seeing Vivid Images Of A Child In The Aftermath Of A Bombing.

To Resolve This Issue Will Require Iran To Come To The Table And Discuss In A Clear And Forthright Way How To Prove To The International Community That The Intentions Of Their Nuclear Program Are Peaceful. [...] The Question Is Going To Be Whether In These Discussions They Show Themselves Moving Clearly In That Direction.

In Sectors Like Energy, I Haven't Been Arguing For More Spending Per Se; I've Been Arguing That It Doesn't Make Sense For Us To Spend $4 Billion Subsidizing An Oil Industry That's Mature And Very Profitable. We Should Be Using That Money To Finance Clean Energy Of The Future.

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.

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

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.

Throughout History, The Arts And Humanities Have Helped Men And Women Around The Globe Grapple With The Most Challenging Questions And Come To Know The Most Basic Truths. In Our Increasingly Interconnected World, The Arts Play An Important Role In Both Shaping The Character That Defines Us And Reminding Us Of Our Shared Humanity. This Month, We Celebrate Our Nation's Arts And Humanities, And We Recommit To Ensuring All Americans Can Access And Experience Them.

I Think What Grows The Economy Is When You Get That Tax Credit That We Put In Place For Your Kids Going To College. I Think That Grows The Economy. I Think What Grows The Economy Is When We Make Sure Small Businesses Are Getting A Tax Credit For Hiring Veterans Who Fought For Our Country. That Grows Our Economy.

This Is About Respect For Women, The Judgments That Women Make And Their Doctors About Their Reproductive Health. It's An Important Part Of Who Women Are, Their Reproductive Health.

Let's Face It, I Like Stanford Grads. I'd Always Hear About This Campus, And Everybody Is Riding Bikes, And People Hopping Into Fountains.

The Private Sector Is Doing Fine.

To The Muslim World, We Seek A New Way Forward, Based On Mutual Interest And Mutual Respect. To Those Leaders Around The Globe Who Seek To Sow Conflict, Or Blame Their Society's Ills On The West - Know That Your People Will Judge You On What You Can Build, Not What You Destroy. To Those Who Cling To Power Through Corruption And Deceit And The Silencing Of Dissent, Know That You Are On The Wrong Side Of History; But That We Will Extend A Hand If You Are Willing To Unclench Your Fist.

Mutual Interest

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.

The Borders Of Israel And Palestine Should Be Based On The 1967 Lines With Mutually Agreed Swaps, So That Secure And Recognized Borders Are Established For Both States.

If We Are Truly Created Equal Then Surely The Love We Commit To One Another Must Be Equal As Well

I Learned To Slip Back And Forth Between My Black And White Worlds. One Of Those Tricks I Had Learned: People Were Satisfied So Long As You Were Courteous And Smiled And Made No Sudden Moves. They Were More Than Satisfied; They Were Relieved -- Such A Pleasant Surprise To Find A Well-mannered Young Black Man Who Didn't Seem Angry All The Time.

Black And White

I Think It's Important Not To Start Drawing Parallels, For Example, Between Theresa May, A Fairly Traditional Conservative Politician, Who's Now Prime Minister And Le Pen In France. Those Aren't The Same And The Situation In Each Country Is Different.

Those Who Threaten Israel Threaten Us. Israel Has Always Faced These Threats On The Frontlines. And I Will Bring To The White House An Unshakable Commitment To Israel's Security. That Starts With Insuring Israel's Qualitative Military Advantage. I Will Insure That Israel Can Defend Itself From Any Threat - From Gaza To Tehran.

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.

That Is The True Genius Of America, A Faith In The Simple Dreams Of Its People, The Insistence On Small Miracles. That We Can Say What We Think, Write What We Think, Without Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Have An Idea And Start Our Own Business Without Paying A Bribe Or Hearing A Sudden Knock On The Door. That We Can Participate In The Political Process Without Fear Of Retribution, And That Our Votes Will Be Counted.

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

I Always Tell Young People In Particular: Do Not Say That Nothing's Changed When It Comes To Race In America, Unless You Lived Through Being A Black Man In The 1950s Or '60s Or '70s.

Every Single Thing I`ve Done, From The Affordable Care Act To Pushing To Raise The Minimum Wage, To Making Sure That Young People Are Able To Go To College And Get Good Job Training, To What We`re Pushing Now In Terms Of Sick Paid Leave,everything I Do Has Been Focused On How Do We Make Sure The Middle Class Is Getting A Fair Deal.

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

Most People Who Meet My Wife Quickly Conclude That She Is Remarkable. They Are Right About This. She Is Smart, Funny And Thoroughly Charming... Often, After Hearing Her Speak At Some Function Or Working With Her On A Project, People Will Approach Me And Say Something To The Effect Of "you Know, I Think The World Of You, Barack, But Your Wife... Wow!"

Health Care Has Become A Proxy For A Broader Set Of Issues About How Much Government Should Be Involved In Our Economy, Particularly Coming Off A Huge Economic Crisis.

The Cyber World Is Sort Of The Wild, Wild West, And To Some Degree, We're Asked To Be The Sheriff.

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

People Call Me A Socialist Sometimes. But, No, You Gotta Meet Real Socialists. You'll Have A Sense Of What A Socialist Is.

Listening To Evangelicals Bridges Major Political Fault Line.

I'm Really Excited About The Prospect Of A Woman President Of The United States.

By Hook Or By Crook, We're Going To Make Sure That When I Leave This Office, That The Country Is More Prosperous, More People Have Opportunity, Kids Have A Better Education, We're More Competitive, Climate Change Is Being Taken More Seriously Than It Was.those Are Going To Be The Measures By Which I Look Back And Say Whether I've Been Successful As President.

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.

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

We Think Of Faith As A Source Of Comfort And Understanding But Find Our Expressions Of Faith Sowing Division; We Believe Ourselves To Be A Tolerant People Even As Racial, Religious, And Cultural Tensions Roil The Landscape. And Instead Of Resolving These Tensions Or Mediating These Conflicts, Our Politics Fans Them, Exploits Them,and Drives Us Further Apart.

One Of The Great Qualities Of Chancellor Merkel Is That She Is Steady. She Analyzes A Situation. She's Honest. Sometimes We've Had Disagreements, But When We Do, It's Very Constructive. And We Are Consistently Open With Each Other About How We Should Approach These Issues.

Turns Out I'm Really Good At Killing People. Didn't Know That Was Gonna Be A Strong Suit Of Mine.

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

We Will Keep The Promise Of Social Security By Taking The Responsible Steps To Strengthen It - Not By Turning It Over To Wall Street.

Our Founders Made It Extraordinarily Difficult To Amend The Constitution.

The Worst Thing That Colonialism Did Was To Cloud Our View Of Our Past.

As Has Been Well Documented, I Smoked Pot As A Kid, And I View It As A Bad Habit And A Vice, Not Very Different From The Cigarettes That I Smoked As A Young Person Up Through A Big Chunk Of My Adult Life. I Don't Think It Is More Dangerous Than Alcohol.

For The First Time In Our History, The Winners Of The White House Turkey Pardon Were Chosen Through A Highly Competitive Online Vote. And Once Again, Nate Silver Completely Nailed It. The Guy Is Amazing.

Across The Globe There Are Girls Who Will One Day Lead Nations, If Only We Afford Them The Chance To Choose Their Own Destinies.

Let's Take The Money That We've Been Spending On War Over The Last Decade To Rebuild America, Roads, Bridges Schools. We Do Those Things, Not Only Is Your Future Going To Be Bright But America's Future Is Going To Bright As Well.

America Can Do Whatever We Set Our Mind To. That Is The Story Of Our History, Whether It's The Pursuit Of Prosperity For Our People, Or The Struggle For Equality For All Our Citizens; Our Commitment To Stand Up For Our Values Abroad, And Our Sacrifices To Make The World A Safer Place. Let Us Remember That We Can Do These Things Not Just Because Of Wealth Or Power, But Because Of Who We Are: One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.

If You Have A Family Member Who Maybe Is Undocumented, Then You Have An Even Greater Reason To Vote.

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

If Condoms And Potentially Microbicides Can Prevent Millions Of Deaths [from Aids], They Should Be Made More Widely Available. I Know That There Are Those Who, Out Of Sincere Religious Conviction, Oppose Such Measures. And With These Folks, I Must Respectfully But Unequivocally Disagree.

It Is Time To Put In Place Tough, New Common-sense Rules Of The Road So That Our Financial Market Rewards Drive And Innovation, And Punishes Short-cuts And Abuse.

And Above All, Children Need Our Unconditional Love - Whether They Succeed Or Make Mistakes; When Life Is Easy And When Life Is Tough.

I See Tragedy And Comedy And Pain And Irony And All That Stuff. But In The End I Think Life Is Fascinating, And I Think People Are More Good Than Bad, And I Think That The Possibilities Of Progress Are Real.

Americans Should Tremble Before Suggesting That Any Fellow Citizen Lacks Patriotism.

I Was Able To See Faith As More Than Just A Comfort To The Weary Or A Hedge Against Death; Rather, It Was An Active, Palpable Agent In The World.

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.

If You're A Strong Man, You Should Not Feel Threatened By Strong Women.

The Spirit's There And That's Not Just My Imagination. I Think If You Look At Surveys And Attitudes Among Young People, You See It.

It's A Generational Project Just To Get America To Live Up Fully To Its Ideals And To Have The Kind Of Society Where Everybody Has A Shot, And Every Kid Is Getting A Good Education, And People Are Getting Living Wages, And They Have Decent Retirement.

You Can't Just Heely Away From Your Problems Forever

The Question We Ask Today Is Not Whether Our Government Is Too Big Or Too Small, But Whether Government Works.

Where The Stakes Are The Highest, In The War On Terror, We Cannot Possibly Succeed Without Extraordinary International Cooperation. Effective International Police Actions Require The Highest Degree Of Intelligence Sharing, Planning And Collaborative Enforcement.

The Capacity Of Iraq's Security Forces Has Improved, And Iraq's Leaders Have Made Strides Toward Political Accommodation

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.

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

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.

What Is True, Though, Is Now We've Got A Bunch Of Videos That Whatever Side Of The Issue You're On, Raises The Temperature On These Issues And Makes People Really Focused .

Who Is Barack Obama? Contrary To The Rumors You Have Heard, I Was Not Born In A Manger. I Was Actually Born On Krypton And Sent Here By My Father Jor-el To Save The Planet Earth. Many Of You Know That I Got My Name, Barack, From My Father. What You May Not Know Is Barack Is Actually Swahili For 'that One.' And I Got My Middle Name From Somebody Who Obviously Didn't Think I'd Ever Run For President. If I Had To Name My Greatest Strength, I Guess It Would Be My Humility. Greatest Weakness, It's Possible That I'm A Little Too Awesome.

There's One Issue That Will Define The Contours Of This Century More Dramatically Than Any Other, And That Is The Urgent And Growing Threat Of A Changing Climate.

Operation Iraqi Freedom Is Over, And The Iraqi People Now Have Lead Responsibility For The Security Of Their Country

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.

I Know What The Counterterrorism Feels Like Because I Was There. But I Also Operated Within Limits. And Within The United States Government, We've Decided Long Ago That There Are Limits On What We're Going To Do In The War Against Terrorism.

The First Thing I'd Do As President Is Sign The Freedom Of Choice Act.

National Legislation Will Prevent Other States' Flawed Concealed-weapons Laws From Threatening The Safety Of Illinois Residents.

In The Absence Of Sound Oversight,responsible Businesses Are Forced To Compete Against Unscrupulous And Underhanded Businesses, Who Are Unencumbered By Any Restrictions On Activities That Might Harm The Environment, Or Take Advantage Of Middle-class Families, Or Threaten To Bring Down The Entire Financial System.

Responsible Business

What Matters Is How Well We Have Loved, And What Small Part We Have Played In Making The Lives Around Us Better.

I Stand Here Today As Hopeful As Ever That The United States Of America Will Endure, That It Will Prevail, That The Dream Of Our Founders Will Live On In Our Time.

That's Just How White Folks Will Do You. It Wasn't Merely The Cruelty Involved; I Was Learning That Black People Could Be Mean And Then Some. It Was A Particular Brand Of Arrogance, An Obtuseness In Otherwise Sane People That Brought Forth Our Bitter Laughter. It Was As If Whites Didn't Know They Were Being Cruel In The First Place. Or At Least Thought You Deserved Of Their Scorn.

I Do Not Accept That We Cannot Find A Common Sense Way To Preserve Our Traditions, Including Our Basic Second Amendment Freedoms And The Rights Of Law Abiding Gun Owners, While At The Same Time Reducing The Gun Violence That Unleashes So Much Mayhem On A Regular Basis.

In America, One Of Our Challenges, Historically, Is That We Have Very Low Voting Rates, Even During Presidential Elections.

I'm Going To Insist On Making Sure That We've Got Decent Funding, That We've Got Enough Teachers, That We've Got Computers In The Classroom, But Unless You Turn Off The Television Set And Get Over A Certain Anti-intellectualism That I Think Pervades Some Low-income Communities, Our Children Are Not Going To Achieve.

Keeping The People's Government Open Is Not A Concession To Me. Keeping Vital Service Running And Hundreds Of Thousands Of Americans On The Job Is Not Something You 'give' To The Other Side.

My Question Would Be Whether There Is Active Persecution Of Atheists.

Nobody Gets To Threaten The Full Faith And Credit Of The United States Just To Extract Political Concessions.

Number One, It Is Absolutely Critical That We Tone Down The Rhetoric When It Comes To The Immigration Debate, Because There Has Been An Undertone That Has Been Ugly. Oftentimes, It Has Been Directed At The Hispanic Community. We Have Seen Hate Crimes Skyrocket In The Wake Of The Immigration Debate As It Has Been Conducted In Washington, And That Is Unacceptable.

We Need Scientists To Design New Fuels. We Need Farmers To Help Grow Them. We Need Engineers To Invent New Technologies. We Need Entrepreneurs To Sell Those Technologies. We Need Workers To Operate Assembly Lines That Hum With High-tech, Zero-carbon Components. We Need Builders To Hammer Into Place The Foundations For A Clean Energy Age. We Need Diplomats And Businessmen And Women, And Peace Corps Volunteers To Help Developing Nations Skip Past The Dirty Phase Of Development And Transition To Sustainable Sources Of Energy. In Other Words, We Need You.

When Friends Are In Trouble, America Helps.

Let Me Be Absolutely Clear. Israel Is A Strong Friend Of Israel's. It Will Be A Strong Friend Of Israel's Under A Mccain Administration. It Will Be A Strong Friend Of Israel's Under An Obama Administration. So That Policy Is Not Going To Change.

I Do Have Confidence That We're Gonna Be Able To Get It Right. But It's Not Gonna Be Overnight. And There's No Silver Bullets To This. The Fact Of The Matter Is, Is That We Are Suffering From A Massive Hangover From A Binge Of Risk Taking.

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

America At Its Best Is Inclusive And Not Exclusive.

I Insist On The Dignity And God- Given Potential And Work Of Every Child, Regardless Of Race Or Gender Or Sexual Orientation Or What Zip Code They Were Born In.

I Think That There's A Power In That [information Through Tweets And Sound Bites ]. There's Also A Danger, What Generates A Headline Or Stirs Up A Controversy And Gets Attention Isn't The Same As The Process Required To Actually Solve The Problem.

And When It Comes To Developing The High Standards We Need, It's Time To Stop Working Against Our Teachers And Start Working With Them. Teachers Don't Go In To Education To Get Rich. They Don't Go In To Education Because They Don't Believe In Their Children. They Want Their Children To Succeed, But We've Got To Give Them The Tools. Invest In Early Childhood Education. Invest In Our Teachers And Our Children Will Succeed.

Because As Tough As Things Have Been, I Am Convinced You Are Tougher. I've Seen Your Passion And I've Seen Your Service... I've Seen A Generation Eager, Impatient Even, To Step Into The Rushing Waters Of History And Change Its Course.

I Think We've Set The Bar With Respect To The Notion That It Is Possible To Provide Health Care For People. Now I Know That The Incoming Congress And Administration Talks About Repealing It. But We've Set A Bar That Shows That This Can Be Done. And That Core Principle Is One That The Majority Of Americans, Including Supporters Of Donald Trump Believe In.

Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me 35 Years Ago.

Could Have Been

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

Common Humanity

Members Of Congress On Both Sides Of The Aisle, Are Motivated By All Kinds Of Issues. They're Sincerely Interested In The Economy, In Terrorism, In Social Issues. But The One Overriding Thing They're Interested In Is Getting Reelected. And If They Think That It's Harder For Them To Get Reelected By Cooperating With Each Other, Then They Won't Cooperate.

We Long For Unity, But Are Unwilling To Pay The Price. But Of Course, True Unity Cannot Be So Easily Won. It Starts With A Change In Attitudes - A Broadening Of Our Minds, And A Broadening Of Our Hearts.

Life Takes Its Own Turns, Makes Its Own Demands, Writes Its Own Story, And Along The Way, We Start To Realize We Are Not The Author.

Inspirational Life

Hope -- Hope In The Face Of Difficulty. Hope In The Face Of Uncertainty. The Audacity Of Hope! In The End, That Is God’s Greatest Gift To Us...a Belief In Things Not Seen. A Belief That There Are Better Days Ahead.

So Just To Be Clear, I'm Not Going To Sign Any Package That Somehow Prevents The Top Rate From Going Up For Folks At The Top 2 Percent.

I Have Muslim Members Of My Family. I Have Lived In Muslim Countries.

Today’s Decision Was A Victory For People All Across This Country Whose Lives Will Be More Secure.

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.

Islam Has A Proud Tradition Of Tolerance.

For Now, Decisions Are Upon Us And We Cannot Afford Delay. We Cannot Mistake Absolutism For Principle Or Substitute Spectacle For Politics, Or Treat Name-calling As Reasoned Debate.

If We Have Actionable Intelligence About High Value Terrorist Targets And President [pervez] Musharraf Will Not Act, We Will.

The Only Reason I Send A Single Young Man Or Woman In Uniform Anywhere In The World Is Because I Think It's Necessary To Keep Us Safe.

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

The Sweetest Sound I Know Is The Muslim Call To Prayer.

California Is Our Biggest Economy. California Is Our Biggest Agricultural Producer. So What Happens Here Matters To Every Working American.

You Like Pie? I Like Pie.

If You Want Some Additional Money For Your School, We'll Give It To You. But You've Got To Compete, Show Us That You're Going To Reform Your Education System So That Our Children Are Performing Better.

People Take Pride In Being Irish-american And Italian-american. They Have A Particular Culture That Infuses The Whole Culture And Makes It Richer And More Interesting. I Think If We Can Expand That Attitude To Embrace African-americans And Latino-americans And Asian-americans, Then We Will Be In A Position Where All Our Kids Can Feel Comfortable With The Worlds They Are Coming Out Of, Knowing They Are Part Of Something Larger.

Whatever We Once Were, We Are No Longer Just A Christian Nation; We Are Also A Jewish Nation, A Muslim Nation, A Buddhist Nation, A Hindu Nation, And A Nation Of Nonbelievers.

My Advice To African Leaders Is To Make Sure That If, In Fact, China Is Putting In Roads And Bridges, Number One, That They Are Hiring African Workers; Number Two, That The Roads Don't Just Lead From The Mine To The Port To Shanghai.

Who You Are, What You Are, Does Not Change After You Occupy The Oval Office. All It Does Is Magnify Who You Are. All It Does Is Shine A Spotlight On Who You Are.

I Think Republicans Now Are Recognizing That [obamacare Cancellation] May Not Be What The American People, Including Even [donald] Trump Voters, Are Looking For. And My Hope Is That The President-elect, Members Of Congress From Both Parties Look At, "where Have We Objectively Made Progress, Where Things Are Working Better?" Don't Undo Things Just Because I Did Them. I Don't Have Pride Of Authorship.

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

I Haven't Been Sorting Through Each And Every Aspect Of This. Here's What I Know: Hillary Clinton Was An Outstanding Secretary Of State. She Would Never Intentionally Put America In Any Kind Of Jeopardy.' Mr. Wallace Pressed Further On The Jeopardy Angle, And Mr. Obama Responded Again: 'i Continue To Believe That She Has Not Jeopardized America's National Security. Now What I've Also Said Is That - And She Has Acknowledged - That There's A Carelessness, In Terms Of Managing Emails...'"

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.

You Can't Manage [country] The Way You Would Manage A Family Business.

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.

If We're Going To Prevent Large Parts Of This Earth From Becoming Not Only Inhospitable But Uninhabitable In Our Lifetimes, We're Going To Have To Keep Some Fossil Fuels In The Ground Rather Than Burn Them And Release More Dangerous Pollution Into The Sky.

Now, I Know That He's Taken Some Flak Lately, But No One Is Prouder To Put This Birth Certificate To Rest Than The Donald. Now He Can Get To Focusing On The Issues That Matter. Like, Did We Fake The Moon Landing? What Really Happened In Roswell? And Where Are Biggie And Tupac?

More People Are Realising That Isil's Not A Caliphate. It's A Crime Ring.

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.

Anybody Gone Into Whole Foods Lately And See What They Charge For Arugula? I Mean, They're Charging A Lot Of Money For This Stuff.

I Opposed The Defense Of Marriage Act In 1996. It Should Be Repealed And I Will Vote For Its Repeal On The Senate Floor. I Will Also Oppose Any Proposal To Amend The U.s. Constitution To Ban Gays And Lesbians From Marrying.

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

African American

And We Can See The Positive Impacts Right Here At Solyndra. Less Than A Year Ago, We Were Standing On What Was An Empty Lot. But Through The Recovery Act, This Company Received A Loan To Expand Its Operations. This New Factory Is The Result Of Those Loans.

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

Of Course I Have Got Concerns. Donald Trump And I Differ On A Whole Bunch Of Issues.

Persevere. Nothing Worthwhile Is Easy.

As I Travel Around The World, It's Fascinating; European Leaders, Asian Leaders, They All Say To Me, America Is Actually Poised To Be The World Leader For Another Century - If We Can Fix Some Of This Political Dysfunction. ... We've Got A Lot Of National Security Challenges, But If We Get Our Economy Together, And If We Can Get Our Political System To Work Well, I Am Really Confident About Our Future.

So We Have A Choice To Make. We Can Once Again Let Washington's Bad Habits Stand In The Way Of Progress. Or We Can Pull Together And Say That In America, Our Destiny Isn't Written For Us But By Us. We Can Place Good Ideas Ahead Of Old Ideological Battles, And A Sense Of Purpose Above The Same Narrow Partisanship. We Can Act Boldly To Turn Crisis Into Opportunity And, Together, Write The Next Great Chapter In Our History And Meet The Test Of Our Time.

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

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.

If You Were Successful, Somebody Along The Line Gave You Some Help... Somebody Helped To Create This Unbelievable American System That We Have That Allowed You To Thrive. Somebody Invested In Roads And Bridges. If You’ve Got A Business - You Didn’t Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen.

I Don't Take A Dime Of Their [lobbyist] Money, And When I Am President, They Won't Find A Job In My White House.

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