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Where We Get Into Problems, Typically, Is When Our Personal Religious Faith, Or The Community Of Faith That We Participate In, Tips Into A Sort Of Fundamentalist Extremism, In Which It's Not Enough For Us To Believe What We Believe, But We Start Feeling Obligated To, You Know, Hit You Over The Head Because You Don't Believe The Same Thing. Or To Treat You As Somebody Who's Less Than I Am.

-Barack Obama

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Where We Get Into

Barack Obama

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Where We Get Into Problems, Typically, Is When Our Personal Religious Faith, Or The Community Of Faith That We Participate In, Tips Into A Sort Of Fundamentalist Extremism, In Which It's Not Enough For Us To Believe What We Believe, But We Start Feeling Obligated To, You Know, Hit You Over The Head Because You Don't Believe The Same Thing. Or To Treat You As Somebody Who's Less Than I Am.

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Buy Health Insurance, Or Go To Jail.

People Who Have Health Insurance Are Benefiting In All Sorts Of Ways That They May Not Be Aware Of, Everything From No Longer Having Lifetime Limits On The Claims That They Can Make To Seniors Getting Prescription Drug Discounts Under Medicare To Free Mammograms.

There Is A Certain Percentage Of The White Population ... If They Started Having More Middle-class Black Kids Who Are Friends With Their Kids, Eating Cheerios In Their Kitchen, Their Attitudes Start Changing.

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.

Now, I've Lived Long Enough To Know That Race Relations Are Better Than They Were 10 Or 20 Or 30 Years Ago No Matter What Some Folks Say. You Can See It Not Just In Statistics, You See It In The Attitudes Of Young Americans Across The Political Spectrum. But We're Not Where We Need To Be. And All Of Us Have More Work To Do.

I Am Here For My Mother And All The Americans Who Are Forced To Spend Time Arguing With Health Insurance Companies Instead Of Focusing On Getting Well. I Am Here For The Millions Of Lives That Will Be Touched And In Some Cases, Saved, By Health Insurance Reform. I Am Here For The Small Businesses Who Are Forced To Choose Between Health Care And Hiring. I Am Here For The Seniors Who Are Unable To Afford The Prescriptions They Need.

Donald Trump Is Uniquely Unqualified To Be President.

I Use A Different Style If I'm Speaking To A Big Crowd; I Can Gin Up Folks Pretty Well. But When I'm In These Town Hall Settings, My Job Is Not To Throw Them A Lot Of Red Meat. I Want To Give Them A Sense Of My Thought Process.

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.

We Will Not Apologise For Our Way Of Life.

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.

It Is True, I Worry About The Hype. The Only Person More Over-hyped Than Me Is You.

We, The People, Recognize That We Have Responsibilities As Well As Rights; That Our Destinies Are Bound Together; That A Freedom Which Only Asks What's In It For Me, A Freedom Without A Commitment To Others, A Freedom Without Love Or Charity Or Duty Or Patriotism, Is Unworthy Of Our Founding Ideals, And Those Who Died In Their Defense.

These Kinds Of Tragedies [like Shooting In Fort Lauderdale] Have Happened Too Often During The Eight Years That I've Been President. The Pain, The Grief, The Shock That They Must Be Going Through Is Enormous. I've Asked Me Staff To Reach Out To The Mayor Down There And Make Sure That Coordination Between The State And Local Officials Is What It Should Be. But I Think We'll Find Out Over The Next 24 Hours Exactly How This Happened And What Motivated This Individual.

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

If You Look At The Current Mosul Campaign Against Isil, For Example The Few Thousand Troops That We Have There To Support That Effort Allows The Iraqi Military To Move Forward In An Effective Way.

These Are Young People Who Made Mistakes That Aren't That Different Than The Mistakes I Made And The Mistakes That A Lot Of You Guys Made, We Have A Tendency Sometimes To Almost Take For Granted Or Think It's Normal That So Many Young People End Up In Our Criminal Justice System. It's Not Normal. ... What Is Normal Is Teenagers Doing Stupid Things.

Don't Shortchange The Future, Because Of Fear In The Present.

We Can Rattle Our Sabers All We Want But, Realistically, We Don't Have Troops For An Invasion [iran] And Surgical Strikes Aren't Going To Work.

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

You Didn't Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen.

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It Was Into My Father's Image, The Black Man, Son Of Africa, That I'd Packed All The Attributes I Sought In Myself, The Attributes Of Martin And Malcolm, Dubois And Mandela.

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We Have A Rare Chance To Pursue A New Path, A Different, Better Future That Delivers Progress For Both Our Peoples And The Wider World. That's The Opportunity Before The Iranian People. We Need To Take Advantage Of That.

There's No Doubt That Probably At Least Once A Week, Maybe Once A Day, I Said, "ah, I Should Have Done That Better."

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African American

America Must Always Lead On The World Stage. If We Don't, No One Else Will. The Military That You Have Joined Is, And Always Will Be, The Backbone Of That Leadership. But U.s. Military Action Cannot Be The Only - Or Even Primary - Component Of Our Leadership In Every Instance. Just Because We Have The Best Hammer Does Not Mean That Every Problem Is A Nail.

If [black] Nationalism Could Create A Strong And Effective Insularity, Deliver On Its Promise Of Self-respect, Then The Hurt It Might Cause Well-meaning Whites, Or The Inner Turmoil It Caused People Like Me, Would Be Of Little Consequence.

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Reflecting On His Years In Prison, Nelson Mandela Wrote That There Were Dark Moments That Tested His Faith In Humanity, But He Refused To Give Up.

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There Are Things I Cannot Say.

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I Think Ultimately Is, Donald Trump Is Pragmatic.

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Working Together

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

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No Black Or White America-just United States Of America.

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Our Stories May Be Singular, But Our Destination Is Shared.

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Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science.

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

Political Systems

Sometimes Slow, Steady Effort Is Rewarded With Justice That Arrives Like A Thunderbolt.

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We All Want The Greek People To Prosper, To Be Able To Provide A Good Life For Their Families And Their Children. That Would Be Good For Greece, That Would Be Good For The European Union, Good For The United States, And Ultimately, Good For The World.

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While We Breathe, We Will Hope.

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Sticking Your Head In The Sand Might Make You Feel Safer, But It’s Not Going To Protect You From The Coming Storm.

The Best Judge Of Whether Or Not A Country Is Going To Develop Is How It Treats Its Women

It Ought To Concern Every Person, Because It Is A Debasement Of Our Common Humanity. It Ought To Concern Every Community, Because It Tears At Our Social Fabric. It Ought To Concern Every Business, Because It Distorts Markets. It Ought To Concern Every Nation, Because It Endangers Public Health And Fuels Violence And Organized Crime. I’m Talking About The Injustice, The Outrage, Of Human Trafficking, Which Must Be Called By Its True Name - Modern Slavery.

Common Humanity

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

I Believe Marriage Is Between A Man And A Woman. I Am Not In Favor Of Gay Marriage.

When Your Team Loses, Everybody Gets Deflated. And It's Hard, And It's Challenging.

That Is Our Generation’s Task - To Make These Words, These Rights, These Values Of Life And Liberty And The Pursuit Of Happiness Real For Every American.

Pursuit Of Happiness

Political Gerrymandering Makes The Incentive For Most Members Of Congress To Play To The Extremes Of Their Base Rather Than To The Center.

And Whether I Earned Your Vote Or Not, I Have Listened To You. I Have Learned From You. And You’ve Made Me A Better President. And With Your Stories And Your Struggles, I Return To The White House More Determined And More Inspired Than Ever About The Work There Is To Do And The Future That Lies Ahead.

I Think It's True That We Shouldn't Apply A Strict Litmus Test And The Most Important Thing In Any Judge Is Their Capacity To Provide Fairness And Justice To The American People.

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[american Citizenship] Captures The Enduring Idea That This Country Only Works When We Accept Certain Obligations To One Another And To Future Generations

It Probably Wouldn't Be Good For Our Economy For A Bunch Of These Jobs To Come Back Because, There's No Way That People Could Be Getting Paid A Living Wage On Some Of These Jobs - At Least In Order To Be Competitive In An International Setting.

We Need Earmark Reform, And When I'm President, I Will Go Line By Line To Make Sure That We Are Not Spending Money Unwisely.

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.

America, This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time. Our Time To Turn The Page Of The Policies Of The Past.

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

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

They Assert That Their Program Is Purely Peaceful. . . . We Want Them To Demonstrate Clearly In The Actions They Propose That They Have Truly Abandoned Any Nuclear Weapons Ambition.

So Long As I'm Commander-in-chief, We Will Sustain The Strongest Military The World Has Ever Known. When You Take Off The Uniform, We Will Serve You As Well As You've Served Us - Because No One Who Fights For This Country Should Have To Fight For A Job, Or A Roof Over Their Head, Or The Care That They Need When They Come Home.

Politics Didn't Lead Me To Working People. Working People Led Me Into Politics.

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.

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.

If Democrats Are Not Showing Up In Those [rural] Places Even If You're Not Gonna Win Right Away But If You're Not In There At Least Making An Argument That, "hey, You Know What? It's The Democrats Who Are Trying To Raise Your Minimum Wage."

Americans Have Always Pursued Our Dreams Within A Free Market That Has Been The Engine Of Our Progress. It's A Market That Has Created A Prosperity That Is The Envy Of The World, And Rewarded The Innovators And Risk-takers Who Have Made America A Beacon Of Science, And Technology, And Discovery. But The American Economy Has Worked In Large Part Because We Have Guided The Market's Invisible Hand With A Higher Principle - That America Prospers When All Americans Can Prosper. That Is Why We Have Put In Place Rules Of The Road To Make Competition Fair, And Open, And Honest.

As I Got Older, Then My Particular Ambitions Started Cohering Around Creating A World In Which People Of Different Races Or Backgrounds Or Faiths Can Recognize Each Other's Humanity, Or Creating A World In Which Every Kid, Regardless Of Their Background, Can Strive And Achieve And Fulfill Their Potential.

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

My Guiding Principle As President Has Been To Try To Do The Right Thing Even When It's Not Politically Convenient.

Guiding Principles

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

There Aren't A Lot Of Situations Where I Look Back And I Say, The Decision I Actually Made Or The Course We Actually Pursued Was The Wrong Course.

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.

We Have Real Enemies In The World. These Enemies Must Be Found. They Must Be Pursued And They Must Be Defeated.

This Victory Alone Is Not The Change We Seek; It Is Only The Chance For Us To Make That Change.

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.

People Will Still Be Looking To The United States. Our Example Will Still Carry Great Weight.

One Of The Gratifying Things, I Think, About The End Of My Presidency Even Though Admittedly My Successor Ran Against A Lot Of What We Stood For, Is When You Look At The Individual Issues And The Progress That We've Made On A Lot Of Those Issues, We Got The Support Of A Pretty Decent Majority.

To Ensure Prosperity Here At Home And Peace Abroad, We All Share The Belief We Have To Maintain The Strongest Military On The Planet.

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.

In America, We're Getting Too Comfortable With Our Ability To Take Kinetic Strikes Around The World Without Having Enough Process To Avoid Consistently The Kinds Of Civilian Casualties That Can End Up Actually Hurting Us In The War Against Radicalization.

The American People Want To Make Sure That The Rules Of The Game Are Fair. And What That Means Is That If You Look At Surveys Around Americans' Attitudes On Trade, The Majority Of The American People Still Support Trade. But They're Concerned About Whether Or Not Trade Is Fair, And Whether We Get The Same Access To Other Countries' Markets That They Have With Us. Is There Just A Race To The Bottom When It Comes To Wages, And So Forth.

I Don't Think There's A Lot Of Dispute For This. You Can Argue That We Didn't Get Everything Done That We Wanted To Get Done, But I Can Make A Really Strong Argument, And I Think Prove, That By Almost Every Measure The Country's Better Off Now Than When I Started.

I Refuse To Accept Any Approach That Isn't Balanced. I'm Not Going To Ask Students And Seniors And Middle-class Families To Pay Down The Entire Deficit While People Like Me, Making Over $250,000, Aren't Asked To Pay A Dime More In Taxes.

One Of The Great Things About Our Democracy Is It Expresses Itself In All Sorts Of Ways. And That Includes People Protesting. I've Been The Subject Of Protests During The Course Of My Eight Years And I Suspect That There's Not A President In Our History That At Some Point Hasn't Been Subject To These Protests.

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

This Is What I Would Call Old Politics. This Is The Stuff We're Trying To Get Rid Of. Because The Problem Is, When We Start Breaking Down Into Conservative And Liberal, And We've Got A Bunch Of Set Predispositions, Whether It's On Gun Control, Or Its' On Health Care, Any Attempt To Do Health Care Is Socialized Medicine.

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.

Empowering Women Isn’t Just The Right Thing To Do - It’s The Smart Thing To Do.

My Hope Would Be That, As We're Moving Through The World Right Now, We're Able To Get That Psychological Or Emotional Peace By Seeing Very Concretely Our Kids Doing Better And Being More Hopeful And Having Greater Opportunities.

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.

He [barack Obama] Might Have A Pen, And He Might Have A Phone, But What He Does Not Have Is The Constitutional Power To Run This Country Like A Dictator.

We Continue To Stand United With Germany And Our Nato Allies In Our Ongoing Efforts To Build Peace And Stability In Afghanistan.

The Supreme Court Had The Choice Not Only Which Way To Rule, Pro- Or Anti-gay Marriage Rights, But Also How They Were Going To Rule. They Could Have Ruled Just Federalism, Saying, "this Isn't A Matter For Federal; This Isn't A Federal Issue At All. States Should Decide It." Or They Could Decide It On Equal Protection Grounds And Say That, "gay Discrimination Is Wrong."

We Know The Battle Ahead Will Be Long, But Always Remember That No Matter What Obstacles Stand In Our Way, Nothing Can Stand In The Way Of The Power Of Millions Of Voices Calling For Change. We Have Been Told We Cannot Do This By A Chorus Of Cynics. They Will Only Grow Louder And More Dissonant. We've Been Asked To Pause For A Reality Check. We've Been Warned Against Offering The People Of This Nation False Hope. But In The Unlikely Story That Is America, There Has Never Been Anything False About Hope.

If You Have Health Insurance, Then You Don't Have To Do Anything. If You've Got Health Insurance Through Your Employer, You Can Keep Your Health Insurance, Keep Your Choice Of Doctor, Keep Your Plan.

I Actually Believe In Redistribution (of Wealth)

Redistribution Of Wealth

Jason Rezaian Is Coming Home. A Courageous Journalist For The Washington Post Who Wrote About The Daily Lives And Hopes Of The Iranian People, He's Been Held For A Year And A Half. He Embodies The Brave Spirit That Gives Life To The Freedom Of The Press. Jason Has Already Been Reunited With His Wife And Mom.

The United States, Therefore, Works To Ensure That Any Actions We Take Are Consistent With International Laws And Norms - Including Those Reflected In The Law Of The Sea Convention. It's Worth Remembering That Our Presence In The Region Is Nothing New.

Too Often, We Have Failed To Enforce International Norms When It's Inconvenient To Do So.

Scripture Tells Us To "run With Endurance The Race That Is Set Before Us." As We Do, May God Hold Close Those Who’ve Been Taken From Us Too Soon.

I Have Been Blessed By Having, And I Admittedly Am Biased, Some Of The Smartest, Hardest-working, And Good People In My Administration That I Think Any President Has Ever Had.

Mitt Romney Is Familiar With Jobs Being Shipped Overseas Because He Invested In Companies That Were Shipping Jobs Overseas.

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

In 2010 There Were A Lot Of Folks Who Were Still Out Of Work. There Were A Lot Of Folks Who Had Lost Their Homes Or Saw Their Home Values Plummet, Their 401k's Plummet.

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 We're Not Vigilant Foreign Countries Can Have An Impact On The Political Debate In The United States In Ways That Might Not Have Been True 10, 20, 30 Years Ago In - In Part Because Of The Way News Is Transmitted And In Part Because So Many People Are Skeptical Of Mainstream News Organizations That - Everything's True And Everything's False.

We Had A Farewell Dinner For Some Of My Senior Staff, And Generally Everybody Likes To Talk About How Cool I Was.

Going Through The Legislative Process Is Always Better, In Part Because It's Harder To Undo.

Legislative Process

I Believe That If We Stop Talking At One Another And Start Talking With One Another, We Can Get A Lot Done.

The United States Has To Go Through Structural Reforms In Terms Of Improving Our Education System Or Revamping Our Infrastructure Or, You Know, Looking At Some Regulations That Weren't Properly Controlling Excesses On Wall Street.

I Will Work Every Single Day To Make Sure That America Continues To Be The Greatest Nation On Earth.

No Deal Means A Greater Chance Of More War In The Middle East.

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

Its Important For People To Know That I Will Make Many Promises To Get Their Votes.

We Know That Every Father Has A Personal Responsibility To Do Right By Their Kids - To Encourage Them To Turn Off The Video Games And Pick Up A Book; To Teach Them The Difference Between Right And Wrong; To Show Them Through Our Own Example The Value In Treating One Another As We Wish To Be Treated. And Most Of All, To Play An Active And Engaged Role In Their Lives.

When I Read History, I [see] What Typically Happens To Presidents And The Other Party During Tumultuous Times And How People React When The Economy Is Collapsing And They're Losing Their Homes, Losing Their Pensions - It Sort Of Tracks, What Ended Up Happening, Because Some Of That Is Human Nature.

And There’s Been Drift In Afghanistan Over The Last Couple Of Years. That’s Something That We Intend To Fix This.

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

African American

There’s Only One Thing We Can Be Sure Of, And That Is The Love That We Have -- For Our Children, For Our Families, For Each Other. The Warmth Of A Small Child’s Embrace -- That Is True. The Memories We Have Of Them, The Joy That They Bring, The Wonder We See Through Their Eyes, That Fierce And Boundless Love We Feel For Them, A Love That Takes Us Out Of Ourselves, And Binds Us To Something Larger -- We Know That’s What Matters. We Know We’re Always Doing Right When We’re Taking Care Of Them, When We’re Teaching Them Well, When We’re Showing Acts Of Kindness. We Don’t Go Wrong When We Do That.

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

We Built This Country By Making Things, By Producing Goods We Could Sell.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until All Our Children... Know That They Are Cared For And Cherished And Always Safe From Harm.

We, The People, Still Believe That Our Obligations As Americans Are Not Just To Ourselves, But To All Posterity. We Will Respond To The Threat Of Climate Change, Knowing That The Failure To Do So Would Betray Our Children And Future Generations. Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science, But None Can Avoid The Devastating Impact Of Raging Fires And Crippling Drought And More Powerful Storms.

We Are Not Entitled To Success We Have To Earn It

Change Has Come To America.

I Want To Reform The Tax Code So That It's Simple, Fair, And Asks The Wealthiest Households To Pay Higher Taxes On Incomes Over $250,000 - The Same Rate We Had When Bill Clinton Was President; The Same Rate We Had When Our Economy Created Nearly 23 Million New Jobs, The Biggest Surplus In History, And A Lot Of Millionaires To Boot.

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World.

Back In The '50s And '60s, Most Politicians Were Concerned About Not Talking About Faith, Partly Because There Were Consequences You Had To Deal With - (for Instance) Catholicism Had Been Made An Issue.

The Most Frustrated And Most Stymied It Is The Fact That The United States Of America Is The One Advanced Nation On Earth In Which We Do Not Have Sufficient Common-sense, Gun-safety Laws. Even In The Face Of Repeated Mass Killings.

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

The President And The Executive Branch Are Always Going To Have Greater Latitude And Greater Authority When It Comes To Protecting America Because Sometimes You Just Have To Respond Quickly And Not Everything That Is A Danger Can Be Publicized And Be Subject To Open Debate, But There Have To Be Some Guardrails.

The Time To Fix Our Broken Immigration System Is Now... We Need Stronger Enforcement On The Border And At The Workplace... But For Reform To Work, We Also Must Respond To What Pulls People To America... Where We Can Reunite Families, We Should. Where We Can Bring In More Foreign-born Workers With The Skills Our Economy Needs, We Should.

We Have A Choice. We Can Shape Our Future, Or Let Events Shape It For Us. And If We Want To Succeed, We Can't Fall Back On The Stale Debates And Old Divides That Won't Move Us Forward.

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

Who You Are And Who You Love Should Never Be A Fireable Offense

Just Because Iran And Syria May Recognize Assad's Weaknesses Doesn't Necessarily Mean That Assad Recognizes His Weaknesses.

We Cannot Have A Society In Which Some Dictator Some Place Can Start Imposing Censorship Here In The United States. If Somebody Is Able To Intimidate Folks Out Of Releasing A Satirical Movie, Imagine What's Going To Happen When They See A Documentary They Don't Like Or News Reports They Don't Like."

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

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

Each Side Has Legitimate Aspirations - And That's Part Of What Makes Peace So Hard. And The Deadlock Will Only Be Broken When Each Side Learns To Stand In The Other's Shoes; Each Side Can See The World Through The Other's Eyes. That's What We Should Be Encouraging. That's What We Should Be Promoting.

I Reserve The Right, As President Of The United States To Meet With Anybody At A Time And Place Of My Choosing If I Think It's Going To Keep America Safe.

It Is Time To Do Away With Work Place Policies That Belong In A Mad Men Episode.

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.

I Make No Apologies For Being Reasonable.

We're Opposing Russia's Aggression Against Ukraine, Which Is A Threat To The World, As We Saw In The Appalling Shoot-down Of Mh17.

Secularists Are Wrong When They Ask Believers To Leave Their Religion At The Door Before Entering Into The Public Square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - Indeed, The Majority Of Great Reformers In American History - Were Not Only Motivated By Faith, But Repeatedly Used Religious Language To Argue For Their Cause. To Say That Men And Women Should Not Inject Their "personal Morality" Into Public Policy Debates Is A Practical Absurdity.

Operations In Iraq And Afghanistan And The War On Terrorism Have Reduced The Pace Of Military Transformation And Have Revealed Our Lack Of Preparation For Defensive And Stability Operations. This Administration Has Overextended Our Military.

The Forces That Divide Us Are Not As Strong As Those That Unite Us.

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.

Justice Needs To Be Served, What I Think People Of Baltimore Want More Than Anything Else Is The Truth. That's What People Around The Country Expect.

Africa Is On The Move; A New Africa Is Emerging!

We Lose Ourselves When We Compromise The Very Ideals That We Fight To Defend. And We Honor Those Ideals By Upholding Them Not When It's Easy, But When It Is Hard.

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.

All This Marked Them As Vaguely Liberal, Although Their Ideas Would Never Congeal Into Anything Like A Firm Ideology; In This, Too, They Were American.

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

Societies Held Together By Fear And Repression May Offer The Illusion Of Stability For A Time, But They Are Built Upon Fault Lines That Will Eventually Tear Asunder.

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

Common Humanity

I'm Told There's A Saying From Those Ancient Times, Kalos Kai Agathos, When Someone Or Something Is Good And Beautiful On The Outside, But Is Also Good And Noble On The Inside In Terms Of Character And In Terms Of Purpose. And I Think That's A Fine Description Of The Friendship That Exists Between The Greek People And The American People.

We're Going To Make Sure, Regardless Of Disagreements We Have On Policy, That Our Military And Intelligence Cooperation To Keep The Israeli People Safe Continues And That Cooperation Also Helps The American People Stay Safe.

After I Received The News, Malia Walked In And Said, "daddy, You Won The Nobel Peace Prize, And It Is Bo's Birthday!" And Then Sasha Added, "plus, We Have A Three-day Weekend Coming Up." So It's Good To Have Kids To Keep Things In Perspective.

You Can Be Stylish, And Powerful Too.

I Miss Saturday Morning, Rolling Out Of Bed, Not Shaving, Getting Into My Car With My Girls, Driving To The Supermarket, Squeezing The Fruit, Getting My Car Washed, Taking Walks.

Building New Roads And Bridges Creates Jobs. Growing Our Exports Creates Jobs. Reforming Our Outdated Tax System And Our Broken Immigration System Creates Jobs.

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

I 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.

The American People Intuitively Understand This, Which Is Why The Majority Of Catholics Practice Birth Control And Some Of Those Opposed To Gay Marriage Nevertheless Are Opposed To A Constitutional Amendment To Ban It. Religious Leadership Need Not Accept Such Wisdom In Counseling Their Flocks, But They Should Recognize This Wisdom In Their Politics.

You Know, I Think That We Are Going To Be Ok. Look, Malia Is 10, So Three Years From Now She Is 13. Who Knows What Happens To Teenagers?

I'm Kind Of A Night Owl.

Insist That The First Question Each Of Us Asks Isn't "what's Good For Me?" But "what's Good For The Country My Children Will Inherit?

I Can Think About What [mahatma] Gandhi Said Or [martin Luther] King Said About Violence Begetting Violence, And Still Be True To My Job By Asking Myself The Question Whenever We're Confronted With A Situation Where Some May Be Arguing For Military Action: Will This Actually Result In America Being Safer, Or The Most Lives Being Saved?

We Are Growing The Economy In Smart Ways And Rebuilding Our Infrastructure And Investing In Science And Development And That We Stay True To Those Values That Helped To Get Us Here.

We Should Raise The Minimum Wage So That No One Who Works Full Time Has To Live In Poverty

What We Also Have To Recognize Is That The Deficit Levels That I'm Inheriting, Over A Trillion Dollars, Coming Out Of Last Year, That That Is Unsustainable. At A Certain Point, Other Countries Stop Buying Our Debt, At A Certain Point, We'd End Up Having To Raise Interest Rates, And It Would End Up Creating More Economic Chaos And Potentially Inflation.

The Study Of Geography Is About More Than Just Memorizing Places On A Map. It's About Understanding The Complexity Of Our World, Appreciating The Diversity Of Cultures That Exists Across Continents. And In The End, It's About Using All That Knowledge To Help Bridge Divides And Bring People Together.

So Americans Understand The Costs Of War. Yet As A Country, We Will Never Tolerate Our Security Being Threatened, Nor Stand Idly By When Our People Have Been Killed. We Will Be Relentless In Defense Of Our Citizens And Our Friends And Allies. We Will Be True To The Values That Make Us Who We Are.

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

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