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While We Have Come A Long Way Since The Stonewall Riots In 1969, We Still Have A Lot Of Work To Do. Too Often, The Issue Of Lgbt Rights Is Exploited By Those Seeking To Divide Us. But At Its Core, This Issue Is About Who We Are As Americans. It's About Whether This Nation Is Going To Live Up To Its Founding Promise Of Equality By Treating All Its Citizens With Dignity And Respect.

-Barack Obama

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While We Have Come

Barack Obama

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While We Have Come A Long Way Since The Stonewall Riots In 1969, We Still Have A Lot Of Work To Do. Too Often, The Issue Of Lgbt Rights Is Exploited By Those Seeking To Divide Us. But At Its Core, This Issue Is About Who We Are As Americans. It's About Whether This Nation Is Going To Live Up To Its Founding Promise Of Equality By Treating All Its Citizens With Dignity And Respect.

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

If I Were German And I Had A Vote, I Might Support Angela Merkel.

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

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.

It Will Take Time To Eradicate A Cancer Like Isil. And Any Time We Take Military Action, There Are Risks Involved - Especially To The Servicemen And Women Who Carry Out These Missions. But I Want The American People To Understand How This Effort Will Be Different From The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan. It Will Not Involve American Combat Troops Fighting On Foreign Soil.

I Wouldn't Be The Man I Am Today Without The Woman Who Agreed To Marry Me 20 Years Ago

Higher Education Cannot Be A Luxury Reserved Just For A Privileged Few. It Is An Economic Necessity For Every Family. And Every Family Should Be Able To Afford It.

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.

With Respect To The Pledge I Made That If You Like Your Plan You Can Keep It. The Way I Put That Forward Unequivocally Ended Up Not Being Accurate.

Obviously, If Congress Wants To Talk About Anything, We're Happy To Provide Information. We're Committed To Moving Forward Under The Current Act.

I Don't Have Much Patience For Anyone Who Denies That This Challenge Is Real.

In The First Two Years, When I Had A Strong Majority In The House And The Senate, We Were As Productive As Any Administration Has Been Since The '60s. I Mean, We Got A Lot Done.

We've Got A Tax Code That Is Encouraging Flight Of Jobs And Outsourcing. And That's Why We've Specifically Recommended In This Campaign That Congress Change Our Tax Code So That We Stop Giving Tax Breaks To Companies That Are Moving To Mexico And China And Other Places, And Start Putting Those Tax Breaks Into Companies That Are Investing Here In The United States.

Our Environment Is Too Important To Neglect And It's Time For The Federal Government To Focus On Real Solutions And Live Up To Their Promises.

As Citizens, We Understand That It Is Not About What America May Do For Us. It's About What Can Be Done By Us, Together.

We Are Defined Not By Our Borders But By Our Bonds.

If You're 54 Or 55, You Might Want To Listen Because This Will Affect You. The Idea, Which Was Originally Presented By Congressman Ryan, Your Running Mate, Is That We Would Give A Voucher To Seniors And They Could Go Out In The Private Marketplace And Buy Their Own Health Insurance.

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

It Wasn't Until About A Year, Year And A Half In Where I Began To Realize That The Pentagon And Our National-security Apparatus And The Cia Were All Getting Too Comfortable With The Technology As A Tool To Fight Terrorism, And Not Being Mindful Enough About How That Technology Is Being Used And The Dangers Of A Form Of Warfare That Is So Detached From What Is Actually Happening On The Ground. And So We Initiated This Big Process To Try To Get It In A Box.

Every Country Has Violent, Hateful, Or Mentally Unstable People. What's Different Is Not Every Country Is Awash With Easily Accessible Guns.

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 Day I'm Inaugurated, This Country Looks At Itself Differently And The World Looks At America Differently. If You Believe That We've Got To Heal America And We've Got To Repair Our Standing In The World, Then I Think My Supporters Believe That I Am A Messenger Who Can Deliver That Message Around The World In A Way That No Other Candidate Can Do.

Thanksgiving Reminds Us That No Matter Our Differences, We're Still One People, Part Of Something Bigger Than Ourselves.

Stamina. There Is A Greater Physical Element To This Job Than You Would Think, Just Being Able To Grind It Out. And I Think Your Ability To Not Just Mentally And Emotionally, But Physically Be Able To Say, "we Got This. We're Going To Be Ok."

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

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.

I Do Think That You're Starting To See Young People Pay Attention To Some Longterm Issues That They Feel Washington Has Neglected.

The Affordable Care Act Is Here To Stay.

Affordable Care Act

Foreign Assistance Is Not An End In Itself. The Purpose Of Aid Must Be To Create The Conditions Where It's No Longer Need.

If You Want To Right-size Executive Power Relative To The Other Branches Of Government, The Best Way To Do That Is To Have A Healthy Congress In Which The Two Parties Are Debating, Disagreeing, But Also Occasionally Working Together To Pass Legislation.

The Easiest Way To Save Money Is To Waste Less Energy.

Here In The United States, Hopefully, What We're Building Are Not Just Pyramids, Are Not Icons To One Pharaoh. What We're Building Is A Culture And A Way Of Living Together That We Can Look Back On And Say, [this] Was Good, Was Inclusive, Was Kind, Was Innovative, Was Able To Fulfill The Dreams Of As Many People As Possible.

Islam Has Always Been A Part Of America’s Story.... And Since Our Founding, American Muslims Have Enriched The United States.

I Can No More Disown (jeremiah Wright) Than I Can Disown The Black Community. I Can No More Disown Him Than I Can My White Grandmother - A Woman Who Helped Raise Me, A Woman Who Sacrificed Again And Again For Me, A Woman Who Loves Me As Much As She Loves Anything In This World, But A Woman Who Once Confessed Her Fear Of Black Men Who Passed By Her On The Street, And Who On More Than One Occasion Has Uttered Racial Or Ethnic Stereotypes That Made Me Cringe.

If You Give Up On The Idea That Your Voice Can Make A Difference, Then Other Voices Will Fill The Void: Lobbyists And Special Interests; The People With The $10 Million Checks Who Are Trying To Buy This Election And Those Who Are Making It Harder For You To Vote; Washington Politicians Who Want To Decide Who You Can Marry, Or Control Health Care Choices That Women Should Make For Themselves.

I Kept Finding The Same Anguish, The Same Doubt; A Self-contempt That Neither Irony Nor Intellect Seemed Able To Deflect. Even Dubois’s Learning And Baldwin’s Love And Langston’s Humor Eventually Succumbed To Its Corrosive Force, Each Man Finally Forced To Doubt Art’s Redemptive Power, Each Man Finally Forced To Withdraw, One To Africa, One To Europe, One Deeper Into The Bowels Of Harlem, But All Of Them In The Same Weary Flight, All Of Them Exhausted, Bitter Men, The Devil At Their Heels.

I'm Not The Strapping Young Muslim Socialist That I Used To Be.

A Lot Of Countries Have Advanced Capabilities. And Given The Vulnerabilities Of Our Infrastructure And Our Economies To Digital Platforms, We Have To Be Careful In Making Sure That This Doesn't Become A Lawless, Low-level Battlefield.

Ultimately, If You Think About All The Youth That Everybody Has Mentioned Here In Africa, If Everybody Is Raising Living Standards To The Point Where Everybody Has Got A Car And Everybody Has Got Air Conditioning, And Everybody Has Got A Big House, Well, The Planet Will Boil Over - Unless We Find New Ways Of Producing Energy.

I Think There Are Hard-liners Inside Of Iran That Think It Is The Right Thing To Do To Oppose Us, To Seek To Destroy Israel, To Cause Havoc In Places Like Syria Or Yemen Or Lebanon, If They Don't Change At All, We're Still Better Off Having The Deal.

Cutting Our Education Budget, That's Not A Smart Choice. That Will Not Help America Compete With China.

There’s No Doubt That There’s Some Folks Who Just Really Dislike Me Because They Don’t Like The Idea Of A Black President.

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

Political Systems

America Is Governed By Rules Of Law, And Those Are Not Ones That The President Of The United States Or Anybody Else Can Just Set Aside For The Sake Of Expediency Even When We Are Deeply Supportive Of Turkish Democracy, And Even When We Care Deeply About Any Attempts To Overthrow Their Government Or Any Other Illegal Actions, We've Got To Go Through A Legal Process.

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.

I Don`t Think The Donald Trump`s Qualified To Be President Of The United States, And Every Time He Speaks, That Opinion Is Confirmed.

Winter Came And The City [chicago] Turned Monochrome -- Black Trees Against Gray Sky Above White Earth. Night Now Fell In Midafternoon, Especially When The Snowstorms Rolled In, Boundless Prairie Storms That Set The Sky Close To The Ground, The City Lights Reflected Against The Clouds

I Am Living Testimony To The Moral Force Of Non-violence. I Know There's Nothing Weak - Nothing Passive - Nothing Naïve - In The Creed And Lives Of Gandhi And King.

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

Not Much Happens In Russia Without Vladimir Putin.

Basically, I Am A Night Owl. My Wife Is An Early Bird, So She Goes To Bed Around 9:30, And My Kids Are In Bed About 8. So, If I Am Home, I Will Usually Start Writing About 9:30 And Go Till About 12:30 Or 1:30, Depending On What My Energy Level Is.

When Friends Are In Trouble, America Helps.

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

The Emotions Between The Races Could Never Be Pure; Even Love Was Tarnished By The Desire To Find In The Other Some Element That Was Missing In Ourselves. Whether We Sought Out Our Demons Or Salvation, The Other Race Would Always Remain Just That: Menacing, Alien, And Apart.

The Dollar Is The Reserve Currency Of The World.

I Think I Have A Pretty Good Take On Popular Culture That Maybe Makes Up For The Fact That I'm Not A Sound-bite Politician For The Nightly News.

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.

We Have To Find Ways In Which, Collectively, We Agree There's Some Things That Government Needs To Do To Help Protect Us, That In This Age Of Non-state Actors Who Can Amass Great Power, I Want My Government - And I Think The German People Should Want Their Government - To Be Able To Find Out If A Terrorist Organization Has Access To A Weapon Of Mass Destruction That Might Go Off In The Middle Of Berlin.

Mass Destruction

I Very Much Believe In Reforming The Tax System.

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 Am A Strong Believer In The Free Market. I Am A Strong Believer In Capitalism. But, I Am Also A Strong Believer That There Are Certain Common Goods - Our Air, Our Water, Making Sure That People Are Safe - That Require To Have Some Regulation.

Sometimes It May Seem As If Progress Is Stalled But What History Of Post-war Germany Shows Is That Strength And Determination And Focus And Adherence To The Values That We Care About Will Result In A Better Future For Our Children And Our Grandchildren.

I Cannot Swallow Whole The View Of Lincoln As The Great Emancipator.

On Issues Like Ukraine, On Issues Like Syria, We've Had Very Significant Differences [with Russia].

A Nation That Can't Control Its Energy Sources Can't Control Its Future.

It Is Very Important For I Think Those Of Us Who Desperately Want Peace, Who See War As, At Some Level, A Break-down, A Manifestation Of Human Weakness, To Understand That Sometimes It’s Also Necessary – And You Know, To – To Be Able To Balance Two Ideas At The Same Time; That We Are Constantly Striving For Peace, We Are Doubling Up On Our Diplomacy, We Are Going To Actively Engage, We Are Going To Try To See The World Through Other People’s Eyes And Not Just Our Own.

I Would Have I Think Made A Bigger Mistake If I Had Said, "eh, Chemical Weapons. That Doesn't Really Change My Calculus." I Think It Was Important For Me As President Of The United States To Send A Message That In Fact There Is Something Different About Chemical Weapons [in Syria].

I Don't Think That Any Economist Disputes That We're In The Worst Economic Crisis Since The Great Depression. The Good News Is That We're Getting A Consensus Around What Needs To Be Done.

There's Just A Whole Different Attitude And Vibe When You're Not In Power As When You're In Power.

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.

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 Have No Interest In Increasing The Size Of Government. I Just Want To Make Sure We Have Got A Smart Government That Is Regulating, For Example, The Financial Institutions Smartly, So I Don't Have To Engage In Any Kind Of Bank Bailouts.

I've Said This Before, And I Know This Raises Questions In The Minds Of Some Evangelicals. I Do Not Believe That My Mother, Who Never Formally Embraced Christianity As Far As I Know ... I Do Not Believe She Went To Hell.

Raises Questions

In Your Generation, Everybody Is Constantly Bombarded With All Kinds Of Different Input From Different Cultures, And That's A Strength, That's A Positive Thing. That's Why I Remain Confident About America's Ability To Compete In The World, Precisely Because We've Got A Little Bit Of Everybody In This Country.

One Thing Both Men Have In Common Is A Love Of Golf And A Shared Knowledge Of The Word "mulligan," Which Means A Do-over To Replace A Lousy Shot.

A Nuclear Iran Is A Threat To America's National Security, And It Is A Threat To Israel's National Security. We Cannot Afford To Have A Nuclear Arms Race In The Most Volatile Region Of The World.

I Want To Make Sure America Has Got The Best Education System In The World. And We're Retaining Our Workers For The Jobs Of Tomorrow.

I Went Through Six Years Of Battles On Health Care Because I Didn't Have $100 Million Worth Of Advertising Saying How It Would Never Work.

Singapore Was The Very First South-east Asian Nation To Join The Global Coalition Against Isil (isis) Coalition, And We'll Work To Sustain Our Momentum In Destroying That Terrorist Organisation.

Our Journey Is Not Complete Until We Find A Better Way To Welcome The Striving, Hopeful Immigrants Who Still See America As A Land Of Opportunity, Until Bright Young Students And Engineers Are Enlisted In Our Workforce Rather Than Expelled From Our Country.

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

What We May Think Is Funny Or Cute May End Up Being Powerfully Hurtful.

Let's Also Make Sure That A High School Diploma Puts Our Kids On A Path To A Good Job. Right Now, Countries Like Germany Focus On Graduating Their High School Students With The Equivalent Of A Technical Degree From One Of Our Community Colleges, So That They're Ready For A Job. At Schools Like P-tech In Brooklyn ... Students Will Graduate With A High School Diploma And An Associate Degree In Computers Or Engineering. We Need To Give Every American Student Opportunities Like This.

You Know, Sometimes I'll Go To An 8th-grade Graduation And There's All That Pomp And Circumstance And Gowns And Flowers. And I Think To Myself, It's Just 8th Grade ... An 8th-grade Education Doesn't Cut It Today. Let's Give Them A Handshake And Tell Them To Get Their Butts Back In The Library!

It's Hard To Anticipate. I Can Tell You What I'm Feeling Right Now Is That I'm Busier Than I Expected These Last Two Weeks. A Great Deal Of Emotion Around The People That I've Worked With And The Gratitude I Feel For The Sacrifices They've Made On Behalf Of The American People, But Also On Behalf Of Me Personally.

What Washington Needs Is Adult Supervision.

The Changes In Thinking About Same-sex Marriage Have Come Slowly At First And Then In Rapid Course. If Such Change Is Possible In This Area, Is It Also Possible In The Vexed And Sordid Realm Of Race Relations?

Politics Has Never Been For The Thin-skinned Or The Faint-of-heart, And If You Enter The Arena, You Should Expect To Get Roughed Up.

The Ultimate Goal Is Two States For Two People: Israel As A Jewish State And The Homeland For The Jewish People And The State Of Palestine As The Homeland For The Palestinian People - Each State In Joined Self-determination, Mutual Recognition, And Peace.

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.

I Will Begin To Remove Our Troops From Iraq Immediately.

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.

A Low-carbon, Clean Energy Economy Can Be An Engine Of Growth For Decades To Come.

We Reject The Use Of National Security Letters To Spy On Citizens Who Are Not Suspected Of A Crime.

Democracy Cannot Be Imposed On Any Nation From The Outside. Each Society Must Search For Its Own Path, And No Path Is Perfect.

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

Because Of The Civil Rights Movement, New Doors Of Opportunity And Education Swung Open For Everybody ... Not Just For Blacks And Whites, But Also Women And Latinos; And Asians And Native Americans; And Gay Americans And Americans With A Disability. They Swung Open For You, And They Swung Open For Me. And That's Why I'm Standing Here Today-because Of Those Efforts, Because Of That Legacy.

Native American

Historically, When A Previous Us Administration Enters Into An Agreement, It Carries Forward Into The Future Administration.

John Kerry Believes In An America Where Hard Work Is Rewarded.

It Was Unknowable Then, But So Much Of The Progress That Would Define The 20th Century, On Both Sides Of The Atlantic, Came Down To The Battle For A Slice Of Beach Only Six Miles Long And Two Miles Wide.

We Must Build A World Free Of Unnecessary Barriers, Stereotypes, And Discrimination. ... Policies Must Be Developed, Attitudes Must Be Shaped, And Buildings And Organizations Must Be Designed To Ensure That Everyone Has A Chance To Get The Education They Need And Live Independently As Full Citizens In Their Communities.

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

I Do Not Want Two Classes Of Citizens In This Country. I Want Everybody To Prosper. That's Going To Be A Top Priority.

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."

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.

The Peaceful Transition Of Power Is One Of The Hallmarks Of Our Democracy.

Let Us Reach For The World That Ought To Be -- That Spark Of The Divine That Still Stirs Within Each Of Our Souls.

Today We Continue A Never Ending Journey To Bridge The Meaning Of Those Words With The Realities Of Our Time.

We're Breaking Protocol Here. That's The Good Thing About Being President - I Can Do Whatever I Want.

This Is Where I Think Policies Do Need To Be Somewhat Race-specific, Is Making Sure That Institutions Are Not Discriminatory. So You've Got Something Like The Fha [federal Housing Administration], Which Was On Its Face A Universal Program That Involved A Huge Mechanism For Wealth Accumulation And People Entering Into The Middle Class.

The President Is Eager To Get To Work And Looks Forward To Working With The New Congress On Policies That Will Make Sure Middle-class Americans Are Sharing In The Economic Recovery, But The President Is Clear That He Will Not Let This Congress Undo Important Protections Gained -- Particularly In Areas Of Health Care, Wall Street Reform And The Environment.

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

The Brain Is A Body Part Too; We Just Know Less About It.

Like No Other Illness, Aids Tests Our Ability To Put Ourselves In Someone Else's Shoes - To Empathize With The Plight Of Our Fellow Man. While Most Would Agree That The Aids Orphan Or The Transfusion Victim Or The Wronged Wife Contracted The Disease Through No Fault Of Their Own, It Has Too Often Been Easy For Some To Point To The Unfaithful Husband Or The Promiscuous Youth Or The Gay Man And Say This Is Your Fault. You Have Sinned. I Don't Think That's A Satisfactory Response. My Faith Reminds Me That We All Are Sinners.

[a] Family With Two Kids That Earns The Minimum Wage Still Lives Below The Poverty Line. That's Wrong. That's Why, Since The Last Time This Congress Raised The Minimum Wage, 19 States Have Chosen To Bump Theirs Even Higher. Tonight, Let's Declare That In The Wealthiest Nation On Earth, No One Who Works Full-time Should Have To Live In Poverty, And Raise The Federal Minimum Wage To $9 An Hour.

One Of The Issues The Democrats Have To Be Clear On Is The Given Population Distribution Across The Country. We Have To Compete Everywhere. We Have To Show Up Everywhere. We Have To Work At A Grassroots Level, Something That's Been A Running Thread In My Career.

Iran Is The Latest Expression Of A Deep, Ancient, Powerful Culture That's Different Than Ours. And We Don't Know How It's Going To Play Itself Out.

You Could Analyze Me And Say That My Father Leaving And Being Absent Was A Motivator For Early Ambition, Trying To Prove Myself To This Apparition Who Had Vanished. You Could Argue That Me Being A Mixed Kid In A Place Where There Weren't A Lot Of Black Kids Around Might Have Spurred On My Ambitions. You Could Go Through A Whole Litany Of Things That Sparked Me Wanting To Do Something Important.

For Decades, This Great Leader, Often At Dr. King’s Side, Was Denied His Rightful Place In History Because He Was Openly Gay. No Medal Can Change That, But Today, We Honor Bayard Rustin’s Memory By Taking Our Place In His March Towards True Equality, No Matter Who We Are Or Who We Love.

One Thing You Learn In This Job [being Us President] Is That Even If Something's Not Your Fault, You're Still Responsible. And That's How It Should Be.

Let Me Even Say Before I Even Get Inaugurated, During The Transition We Are Going To Be Having Meetings All Across The Country With Community Organizations So That You Have Input Into The Agenda For The Next Presidency Of The United States Of America.

I'm Not Just A Candidate, I'm The President

There Is A Big Part Of Me That Has A Writer's Sensibility. And So That's How I Think. That's How I Pursue Truth. That's How I Hope To Communicate Truth To People.

We Believe That No Matter Where You Live - Whether A Village In Punjab Or The Bylanes Of Chandni Chowk, An Old Section Of Kolkata Or A New High-rise In Bangalore - Every Person Deserves The Same Chance To Live In Security And Dignity, To Get An Education, To Find Work, And To Give Their Children A Better Future.

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

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.

We Remember The Grind Of The Insurgency -- The Roadside Bombs, The Sniper Fire, The Suicide Attacks. From The 'triangle Of Death' To The Fight For Ramadi; From Mosul In The North To Basra In The South -- Your Will Proved Stronger Than The Terror Of Those Who Tried To Break It.

I Will Stand With Israel If They Are Attacked.

And We Have Done More In The Two And A Half Years That I've Been In Here Than The Previous 43 Presidents To Uphold That Principle, Whether It's Ending 'don't Ask, Don't Tell,' Making Sure That Gay And Lesbian Partners Can Visit Each Other In Hospitals, Making Sure That Federal Benefits Can Be Provided To Same-sex Couples.

The Promotion Of Human Rights Cannot Be About Exhortation Alone. At Times, It Must Be Coupled With Painstaking Diplomacy. I Know That Engagement With Repressive Regimes Lacks The Satisfying Purity Of Indignation. But I Also Know That Sanctions Without Outreach -- Condemnation Without Discussion -- Can Carry Forward Only A Crippling Status Quo. No Repressive Regime Can Move Down A New Path Unless It Has The Choice Of An Open Door.

We Do Not Want To Keep Our Troops In Afghanistan. We See No Military - We Seek No Military Bases There. It Is Agonizing For America To Lose Our Young Men And Women. It Is Costly And Politically Difficult To Continue This Conflict. We Would Gladly Bring Every Single One Of Our Troops Home If We Could Be Confident That There Were Not Violent Extremists In Afghanistan And Now Pakistan Determined To Kill As Many Americans As They Possibly Can.

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

A Free Market Was Never Meant To Be A Free Licence To Take Whatever You Can Get, However You Can Get It.

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...'"

If You Looked At Their Cable Bill, Their Telephone, Their Cell Phone Bill, Other Things They're Spending Money On, It May Turn Out That, It's Just That They Haven't Prioritized Health Care.

We Have An Obligation And A Responsibility To Be Investing In Our Students And Our Schools.

Obviously [my Daughters] - And Michelle - Have Made A Lot Of Sacrifices On Behalf Of My Cockamamie Ideas, The Running For Office And Things.

The Russians Don't Make Determinations About What Our Defense Posture Is.

So I Have Known Islam On Three Continents Before Coming To The Region Where It Was First Revealed

[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."

If The People Cannot Trust Their Government To Do The Job For Which It Exists - To Protect Them And To Promote Their Common Welfare - All Else Is Lost.

But To Truly Transform Our Economy, Protect Our Security, And Save Our Planet From The Ravages Of Climate Change, We Need To Ultimately Make Clean, Renewable Energy The Profitable Kind Of Energy. So I Ask This Congress To Send Me Legislation That Places A Market-based Cap On Carbon Pollution And Drives The Production Of More Renewable Energy In America.

I Was Reminded That It Is My Obligation Not Only As An Elected Official In A Pluralistic Society, But Also As A Christian, To Remain Open To The Possibility That My Unwillingness To Support Gay Marriage Is Misguided.

The First Thing I Would Do Would Be To Move Forward With An Agenda To Make Sure That We Give D.c. The Opportunity To Elect Its Own Representatives And Have Some Political Power On Capitol Hill.

No Other Country In The World Does What We Do. On Every Issue, The World Turns To Us, Not Simply Because Of The Size Of Our Economy Or Our Military Might - But Because Of The Ideals We Stand For, And The Burdens We Bear To Advance Them.

I Believe We Can Seize This Future Together, Because We Are Not As Divided As Our Politics Suggests. [...] We Are Greater Than The Sum Of Our Individual Ambitions. [...] We Are And Forever Will Be The United States Of America. [...] We Will Continue Our Journey Forward And Remind The World Just Why It Is That We Live In The Greatest Nation On Earth.

The Private Sector Is Doing Fine.

I Didn't Have A Perfect Model, But I Wanted To Try To Blend My Own Personal Reflections And Experiences With This Broader Canvas To See How A Lot Of The Narratives We Have About Economy And Foreign Policy Got Stuck. Because We Have These Categories Of Liberal, Conservative, Free Marketer, Open Government - All These Stereotypes About Our Politics And The Categories We Try To Put Things In Are Inadequate To This Sort Of Complex, Ambiguous, Sometimes Contradictory Experience We Have As Ordinary People And That I Have As An Elected Official.

One Of The Things That I've Urged The President-elect To Do Is To Develop A Strong Working Relationship With The Intelligence Community And I Think It's Important That Congress, On A Bipartisan Basis.

This Union May Never Be Perfect, But Generation After Generation Has Shown That It Can Always Be Perfected.

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.

Iraq Will Require Us Occupation Of Undetermined Length.

State Visits Are Often An Opportunity For The United States To Reaffirm Our Ties And Friendship With Our Closest Partners Around The World.

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.

We Will Encourage More Americans To Study In Muslim Communities

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

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.

I'll Change The Posture Of Our Federal Government From Being One Of The Most Anti-science Administrations In American History To One That Embraces Science And Technology.

The Authorization I Propose Would Provide The Flexibility To Conduct Ground Combat Operations In Other More Limited Circumstances, Such As Rescue Operations Involving U.s. Or Coalition Personnel Or The Use Of Special Operations Forces To Take Military Action Against Isil Leadership, It Would Also Authorize The Use Of U.s. Forces In Situations Where Ground Combat Operations Are Not Expected Or Intended, Such As Intelligence Collection And Sharing, Missions To Enable Kinetic Strikes Or The Provision Of Operational Planning And Other Forms Of Advice And Assistance To Partner Forces.

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.

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.

The United States And Saudi Arabia Have An Extraordinary Relationship And Friendship That Dates Back To Franklin Roosevelt And King Faisal.

For People Who Have Health Insurance, We Can Provide Health Insurance Reforms That Make The Insurance They Have More Secure. And We Can Do That Mostly By Using Money That Every Expert Agrees Is Being Wasted And Is Currently In The Existing Health Care System.

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.

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

If We Can’t Puncture Some Of The Mythology Around Austerity, Politics Or Tax Cuts Or The Mythology That’s Been Built Up Around The Reagan Revolution, Where Somehow People Genuinely Think That He Slashed Government And Slashed The Deficit And That The Recovery Was Because Of All These Massive Tax Cuts, As Opposed To A Shift In Interest-rate Policy - If We Can’t Describe That Effectively, Then We’re Doomed To Keep On Making More And More Mistakes.

Now That Iran's Actions Have Been Verified, It Can Begin To Receive Relief From Certain Nuclear Sanctions And Gain Access To Its Own Money That Had Been Frozen.

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.

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

It Is Absolutely Important That We Have A Unified Alliance And That We Explain To The Russians That You Cannot Be A 21st-century Superpower, Or Power, And Act Like A 20th-century Dictatorship.

The World Thanks You For Sharing Nelson Mandela With Us.

I Will Support Iraqis And Syrians Fighting To Reclaim Their Communities.

In America, There's A Failure To Appreciate Europe's Leading Role In The World. Instead Of Celebrating Your Dynamic Union And Seeking To Partner With You To Meet Common Challenges, There Have Been Times Where America Has Shown Arrogance And Been Dismissive, Even Derisive.

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

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 Cannot Continue To Rely Only On Our Military In Order To Achieve The National Security Objectives That We've Set. We've Got To Have A Civilian National Security Force That's Just As Powerful, Just As Strong, Just As Well-funded.

Without A Deal [with Iran], The International Sanctions Regime Will Unravel With Little Ability To Reimpose Them. With This Deal, We Have The Possibility Of Peacefully Resolving A Major Threat To Regional And International Security. Without A Deal, We Risk Even More War In The Middle East And Other Countries In The Region Would Feel Compelled To Pursue Their Own Nuclear Programs, Threatening A Nuclear Arms Race In The Most Volatile Region In The World.

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.

Iran Has Agreed To Deepen Our Coordination As We Work To Locate Robert Levinson, Missing From Iran For More Than Eight Years. Even As We Rejoice In The Safe Return Of Others, We Will Never Forget About Bob. Each And Every Day Our Hearts Are With The Levinson Family, And We Will Not Rest Until Their Family Is Whole Again.

Rather Than Me Sort Of Characterize The Appropriateness Or Inappropriateness Of What Donald Trump Is Doing At The Moment, I Think What We Have To See Is How Will The President-elect Operate, And How Will His Team Operate, When They've Been Fully Briefed On All These Issues, They Have Their Hands On All The Levers Of Government, And They've Got To Start Making Decisions.

Even As We Implement The Nuclear Deal And Welcome Our Americans Home, We Recognize That There Remain About Differences Between The United States And Iran. We Remain Steadfast In Opposing Iran's Destabilizing Behavior Elsewhere, Including Its Against Israel And Our Gulf Partners And Its Support For Violent Proxies In Places Like Syria And Yemen.

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.

In The Wealthiest Nation On Earth – No Illness Or Accident Should Lead To Any Family’s Financial Ruin.

You Have Social Media And The Internet And Immigration And So, Suddenly, Cultures Are Clashing And People Feel As If They're Less Familiar With The People Around Them. That Causes Social Anxieties.

I Believe In Evolution, Scientific Inquiry, And Global Warming; I Believe In Free Speech, Whether Politically Correct Or Politically Incorrect, And I Am Suspicious Of Using Government To Impose Anybody's Religious Beliefs -including My Own- On Nonbelievers.

Climate Change Poses A Direct Threat To The Infrastructure Of America That We Need To Stay Competitive In This 21st-century Economy.

Just As Black Anger Often Proved Counterproductive, So Have These White Resentments Distracted Attention From The Real Culprits Of The Middle Class Squeeze - A Corporate Culture Rife With Inside Dealing, Questionable Accounting Practices, And Short-term Greed.

I'm About To Embark On What May Be As Important As An Initiative As Anything I Do As President, Trying To Nudge The World In The Direction Of Doing Something Serious About Climate Change.

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.

[j]ust Because You Have An Individual Right Does Not Mean That The State Or Local Government Can't Constrain The Exercise Of That Right.

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.

I Was Never Great, But I Was A Good [basketball] Player, And I Could Play Seriously. Now I'm Like One Of These Old Guys Who's Running Around, And The Guys I Play With, Who Are All A Lot Younger, They Sort Of Pity Me And Sympathize With Me. They Tolerate Me, But We All Know That I'm The Weak Link On The Court. And I Don't Like Being The Weak Link.

Each Of Us Deserves The Freedom To Pursue Our Own Version Of Happiness. No One Deserves To Be Bullied.

He Described To Me How Crocodiles Kill More People Than Sharks. There Are Just A Lot Of Things In Australia That Can Kill You.

I Think What Is True Is That There's Been An Underlying Division In The United States. Some Of It Has To Do With The Fact That Economic Growth And Recovery Tends To Be Stronger In The Cities And In Urban Areas. In Some Rural Areas, Particularly Those That Were Reliant On Manufacturing, There Has Been Weaker Growth, Stagnation, People Feeling As If Their Children Won't Do As Well As They Will.

I Know That There Are Those Who Disagree With The Overwhelming Scientific Evidence On Climate Change. But Here's The Thing -- Even If You Doubt The Evidence, Providing Incentives For Energy-efficien Cy And Clean Energy Are The Right Thing To Do For Our Future -- Because The Nation That Leads The Clean Energy Economy Will Be The Nation That Leads The Global Economy. And America Must Be That Nation.

A Lot Of Shelter Dogs Are Mutts Like Me.

I Think It's Fair To Say That [donald Trump] And I Are Sort Of Opposites In Some Ways.

What I Consistently Say To Young People - I Say It In The United States, But I'll Say It Here In Germany And Across Europe: Do Not Take For Granted Our Systems Of Government And Our Way Of Life. I Think There Is A Tendency, Because We Have Lived In An Era That Has Been Largely Stable And Peaceful, At Least In Advanced Countries, Where Living Standards Have Generally Gone Up, There Is A Tendency I Think To Assume That That's Always The Case.

Rather, My Perceptions About How We Solve Problems In Health Care Or Education Span Across A Whole Range Of Areas. And I Want To Try To Capture That Complexity.

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