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Winston Churchill Used To Say That We, Americans, Try Every Other Option Before We Finally Do The Right Thing. After Everything Else Is Exhausted We Eventually Do The Right Thing And I Think That's True For Congress As Well. And It's Important For Americans To Remember That Politics Has Always Been Messy.

-Barack Obama

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Winston Churchill Used To

Barack Obama

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Winston Churchill Used To Say That We, Americans, Try Every Other Option Before We Finally Do The Right Thing. After Everything Else Is Exhausted We Eventually Do The Right Thing And I Think That's True For Congress As Well. And It's Important For Americans To Remember That Politics Has Always Been Messy.

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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.

I Think I Was Able To Talk To People About Values In Ways That People - In Ways That Resonated With Folks.

Every Three Weeks, We Bring Online As Much Solar Power As We Did In All Of 2008...that’s Why, Over The Past Six Years, We’ve Done More Than Ever Before To Combat Climate Change, From The Way We Produce Energy, To The Way We Use It.

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.

If You Actually Took The Number Of Muslims Americans, We'd Be One Of The Largest Muslim Countries In The World.

There Are Gonna Be A Core Set Of Values That Shouldn't Be Up For Debate. Should Be Our North Star.

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

We Need To Reduce Our Dependence On Foreign Oil By Ending The Subsidies For Oil Companies, And Doubling Down On Clean Energy That Generates Jobs And Strengthens Our Security.

Our Tears Are Not Enough. Our Words And Our Prayers Are Not Enough. If We Really Want To Honor These Twelve Men And Women, If We Really Want To Be A Country Where We Can Go To Work And Go To School And Walk Our Streets Free From Senseless Violence, Without So Many Lives Being Stolen By A Bullet From A Gun, Then We're Gonna Have To Change. We're Gonna Have To Change.

In The Wake Of 9/11, My Meetings With Arab And Pakistani Americans, For Example, Have A More Urgent Quality, For The Stories Of Detentions And Fbi Questioning And Hard Stares From Neighbors Have Shaken Their Sense Of Security And Belonging. They Have Been Reminded That The History Of Immigration In This Country Has A Dark Underbelly; They Need Specific Reassurances That Their Citizenship Really Means Something, That America Has Learned The Right Lessons From The Japanese Internments During World War Ii, And That I Will Stand With Them Should The Political Winds Shift In An Ugly Direction.

We Can Choose A Future Where We Export More Products And Outsource Fewer Jobs. After A Decade That Was Defined By What We Bought And Borrowed, We're Getting Back To Basics, And Doing What America Has Always Done Best: We're Making Things Again.

It May Be Something That Future Generations Are More Open To, But I Am Pretty Confident That For The Foreseeable Future, Using The Argument Of Nondiscrimination, And "let's Get It Right For The Kids Who Are Here Right Now," And Giving Them The Best Chance Possible, Is Going To Be A More Persuasive Argument.

I've Come To Embrace The Notion That I Haven't Done Enough In My Life. I've Come To Confirm That One's Title, Even A Title Like President Of The United States, Says Very Little About How Well One's Life Has Been Led. No Matter How Much You've Done Or How Successful You've Been, There's Always More To Do, Always More To Learn, And Always More To Achieve.

I Think That There Have Been A Number Of Public Figures Where You Start Hearing Commentary That Is Dangerous Because What It Starts Doing Is It Starts Dividing Us Up As Americans.

The Degree Of Polarization That Currently Exists In Washington Is Such Where I Think It's Fair To Say If I Presented A Cure For Cancer, Getting Legislation Passed To Move That Forward Would Be A Nail-biter.

Let's Say I'm On The Policy Wonk End Of The Spectrum. As Much As I Can Dive Into A Briefing Book And Really Work To Master Various Subjects That Come Before My Desk, I'm Still Not An Expert On A Huge Amount Of The Stuff That We Work On.

One Of The Proudest Things Of My Three Years In Office Is Helping To Restore A Sense Of Respect For America Around The World.

The Bottom Line Is This - Whereas Iran Was Steadily Expanding Its Nuclear Program, We Have Now Cut Off Every Single Path That Iran Could Have Used To Build A Bomb.

Global Warming Is Not Just The Greatest Environmental Challenge Facing Our Planet - It Is One Of Our Greatest Challenges Of Any Kind.

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

No Religion Is Responsible For Terrorism. People Are Responsible For Violence And Terrorism.

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

We Want Our Children To Live In An America...that Isn't Threatened By The Destructive Power Of A Warming Planet.

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.

There Are Places And Moments In America Where This Nation’s Destiny Has Been Decided...selma Is Such A Place.

A Mother Deserves A Day Off To Care For A Sick Child Or Sick Parent Without Running Into Hardship - And You Know What, A Father Does, Too. It's Time To Do Away With Workplace Policies That Belong In A 'mad Men' Episode.

If Everybody Who Voted In 2008 Shows Up In 2010, We Will Win This Election. We Will Win This Election.

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.

I've Been Keeping My Own Naughty And Nice List For Washington.

The Soldier 's Courage And Sacrifice Is Full Of Glory , Expressing Devotion To Country , To Cause, To Comrades In Arms. But War Itself Is Never Glorious , And We Must Never Trumpet It As Such.

I Was Always Amused That People Were Either Skeptical Or Surprised That I Would Choose A Hillary Clinton As A Secretary Of State. To My Mind, Having Somebody Smart, Tough, Capable With Her Own Stature, Who Could Travel Around The World And Command The Stage, Was A Huge Asset.

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.

Making Your Mark On The World Is Hard. If It Were Easy, Everybody Would Do It. But It's Not. It Takes Patience, It Takes Commitment, And It Comes With Plenty Of Failure Along The Way. The Real Test Is Not Whether You Avoid This Failure, Because You Won't. It's Whether You Let It Harden Or Shame You Into Inaction, Or Whether You Learn From It; Whether You Choose To Persevere.

We've Got To Control Our Own Energy. Now, Not Only Oil And Natural Gas, Which We've Been Investing In; But Also, We've Got To Make Sure We're Building The Energy Source Of The Future, Not Just Thinking About Next Year, But Ten Years From Now, 20 Years From Now. That's Why We've Invested In Solar And Wind And Biofuels, Energy Efficient Cars.

Too Many Americans Who Struggle With Mental Health Illnesses Are Suffering In Silence Rather Than Seeking Help, And We Need To See To It That Men And Women Who Would Never Hesitate To Go See A Doctor If They Had A Broken Arm Or Came Down With The Flu, That They Have That Same Attitude When It Comes To Their Mental Health.

The Asia Pacific Is Home To Nearly Half The World's Population, A Growing Middle Class And Holds So Much Opportunity For Us All.

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

My Fellow Americans, We Are And Always Will Be A Nation Of Immigrants. We Were Strangers Once, Too.

Undocumented Workers

Sometimes I Wonder How Much Of These Debates Have To Do With The Desire, The Legitimate Desire, For That History To Be Recognized. Because There Is A Psychic Power To The Recognition That Is Not Satisfied With A Universal Program, It's Not Satisfied By The Affordable Care Act, Or An Expansion Of Pell Grants, Or An Expansion Of The Earned-income Tax Credit.

I Have Much More Confidence In My Ability, Or Any President Or Any Leader's Ability, To Mobilize The American People Around A Multiyear, Multibillion-dollar Investment To Help Every Child In Poverty In This Country Than I Am In Being Able To Mobilize The Country Around Providing A Benefit Specific To African Americans As A Consequence Of Slavery And Jim Crow.

What Is True, And I Think That We Can't Deny It, Is That Some Of The Same Concerns About Globalization, About Technology, Rapid Social Change That Were Reflected In Brexit, That's Been Reflected In Some Of The Debates In Germany And France And Other Places, That Those Exist In The United States As Well. My View Is That Over The Long Term, Over The Next 10, 15, 20 Years, If We Are Able To Address The Legitimate Economic Concerns Of Those Who Feel Left Behind By Globalization, Then Many Of These Tensions Will Be Reduced. And We Will See A World That Is Less Divided.

A Number Of Countries, Including Some Who Have Loudly Criticized The Nsa, Privately Acknowledge That America Has Special Responsibilities As The World's Only Superpower, That Our Intelligence Capabilities Are Critical To Meeting These Responsibilities, And That They Themselves Have Relied On The Information We Obtain To Protect Their Own People.

Today We Are Engaged In A Deadly Global Struggle For Those Who Would Intimidate, Torture, And Murder People For Exercising The Most Basic Freedoms. If We Are To Win This Struggle And Spread Those Freedoms, We Must Keep Our Own Moral Compass Pointed In A True Direction.

How You Staff, Particularly The Chief Of Staff, The National Security Adviser, Your White House Counsel, How You Set Up A Process In The System To Surface Information And Generate Options For A President, Understanding That Ultimately The President Is Going To Be The Final Decision-maker. That's Something That Has To Be Attended To Right Away.

I Believe In Returning The Nation's Wealth To Its Rightful Owners.

All Too Rarely Do I Hear People Asking Just What It Is That We've Done To Make So Many Children's Hearts So Hard, Or What Collectively We Might Do To Right Their Moral Compass - What Values We Must Live By.

John Mccain Likes To Say That He'll Follow Bin Laden To The Gates Of Hell - But He Won't Even Go To The Cave Where He Lives.

Often The Best Source Of Information About Waste, Fraud, And Abuse In Government Is An Existing Government Employee Committed To Public Integrity And Willing To Speak Out. Such Acts Of Courage And Patriotism, Which Can Sometimes Save Lives And Often Save Taxpayer Dollars, Should Be Encouraged Rather Than Stifled As They Have Been During The Bush Administration. We Need To Empower Federal Employees As Watchdogs Of Wrongdoing And Partners In Performance.

I Think That The Issues We Have With Science These Days Are Not Restricted To What's Happening With Respect To Religion. There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around.

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

There Are Certain Things We Can Only Do Together. There Are Certain Things Only A Union Can Do. Only A Union Could Harness The Courage Of Our Pioneers To Settle The American West, Which Is Why President Abraham Lincoln Passed A Homestead Act Giving A Tract Of Land To Anyone Seeking A Stake In Our Growing Economy.

I Think That One Of The Things That We All Agree To Is That The Touchstone For Economic Policy Is, Does It Allow The Average American To Find Good Employment And See Their Incomes Rise; That We Can't Just Look At Things In The Aggregate, We Do Want To Grow The Pie, But We Want To Make Sure That Prosperity Is Spread Across The Spectrum Of Regions And Occupations And Genders And Races; And That Economic Policy Should Focus On Growing The Pie, But It Also Has To Make Sure That Everybody Has Got Opportunity In That System.

Does That Mean That All Vestiges Of Past Discrimination Would Be Eliminated, That The Income Gap Or The Wealth Gap Or The Education Gap [between Afro-americans And White] Would Be Erased In Five Years Or 10 Years? Probably Not, And So This Is Obviously A Discussion We've Had Before When You Talk About Something Like Reparations.

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

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 .

... I Just Want To Remind The Owners And The Players: You Guys Make Money Because You Have A Whole Bunch Of Fans Out There Who Are Working Really Hard. They Buy Tickets. They're Watching On Tv. Ya'll Should Be Able To Figure This Out. Get This Done.

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

I Continue To Believe That She Has Not Jeopardized America's National Security. Now, What I've Also Said Is That, And She's Acknowledged, That There's A Carelessness In Terms Of Managing Emails That She Has Owned And She Recognizes. But I Also Think It Is Important To Keep This In Perspective. This Is Somebody Who Has Served Her Country For Four Years As Secretary Of State And Did An Outstanding Job, And No One Has Suggested That In Some Ways, As A Consequence Of How She Handled Emails, That That Detracted From Her Excellent Ability To Carry Out Her Duties.

[we Should Beware] That Our Democracy Stays Healthy. And Making Sure That We Maintain That Sense Of Solidarity.

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.

All People Should Be Treated Equally, Regardless Of Who They Are Or Who They Love.

One Of The Thing About Being President - That Can't Be Taught, You Have To Experience, Is - There Is The Sheer Weight Of Decision Making. And When I Make A Decision To Send 17,000 Young Americans To Afghanistan - You Can Understand That Intellectually. But Understanding What That Means For Those Families, For Those Young People - When You End Up Sitting At Your Desk, Signing - A Condolence Letter To One Of The Family Members Of A Fallen Hero - You're Reminded Each And Every Day, At Every Moment, That - The Decisions You Make Count.

I Think Barack Obama 'll Talk About The Actions That We've Taken, Not Just Since 9/11, But Since Paris, To Help Keep The American People And American Interests Safe.

When Michelle And I Decided That I Would Run For President, It Was Because Of A Shared Belief In The Power Of Community And Connection, A Commitment To The Idea That We Are Our Brothers' Keepers.

Don't Just Buy A New Video Game, Make One. Don't Just Download The Latest App, Help Design It. Don't Just Play On Your Phone, Program It.

Well, I Think That When You Think About The Challenges We Face, These Are Challenges That Require Us To Look Forward And Not Backwards. When It Comes To The Economy I Think We Have To Recognize That We Are Now In A Global Economy. And That The Measure Of Our Success Is: How Well Are We Training Our Workers? How Well Are We Investing In The New Energy Economy?

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

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.

We Will Outstretch The Hand If You Unclench Your Fist.

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

Good Intentions

Sometimes When These Kinds Of Things Happen, It Can Seem A Little Bit Too Much To Bear. But What I Want The People Of Louisiana Know Is That You're Not Alone On This. Even After The Tv Cameras Leave, The Whole Country Is Going To Continue To Support You And Help You Until We Get Folks Back In Their Homes And Lives Are Rebuilt.

Muslim Leaders Around The Globe Have To Continue Working With Us To Decisively And Unequivocally Reject The Hateful Ideology That Groups Like Isil And Al Qaeda Promote. To Speak Out Against Not Just Acts Of Violence, But Also Those Interpretations Of Islam That Are Incompatible With The Values Of Religious Tolerance, Mutual Respect, And Human Dignity.

There's A Whole Generation Coming Up Behind Us That Was Engaged, Inspired, Worked For Change During The Course Of My Presidency, Saw What Was Possible.

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.

Certainly I've Appreciated Angela Merkel As A Partner.

Specifically, The Part Where In The Early 19th Century America Reconstituted The U.s. Marine Corps To Battle The Islamic Barbary Pirates, Though I Don't Think That's What Obama Meant.

My Relationship With Silicon Valley And The Tech Community Historically Has Been Really Good. Many Of These Folks Are My Friends.

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

What I Want To Communicate Is The Fact That In All My Travels Throughout The Muslim World, What I've Come To Understand Is That Regardless Of Your Faith - And America Is A Country Of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Non-believers - Regardless Of Your Faith, People All Have Certain Common Hopes And Common Dreams.

Of All The Rocks Upon Which We Build Our Lives, We Are Reminded Today That Family Is The Most Important. And We Are Called To Recognize And Honor How Critical Every Father Is To That Foundation. They Are Teachers And Coaches. They Are Mentors And Role Models. They Are Examples Of Success And The Men Who Constantly Push Us Toward It.

Generally Speaking, Rand Paul Is Been More Wrong Than Right. He Has An Isolationist View Of The World That I Don`t Share.

Black Children, White Children, Latino Children. America Is Becoming More Diverse, It's Becoming More Tolerant As A Consequence There's More Interactions Between Groups. There Are Going Be Tensions That Arise.

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

Jobs Was Brave Enough To Think Differently, Bold Enough To Believe He Could Change The World, And Talented Enough To Do It.

I Am Absolutely Convinced That Race Relations On The Whole Are Actually Better Now Than They Were 20 Years [ago].

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.

I'd Say, Probably, Intellectually I've Drawn As Much From Judaism As Any Other Faith.

As President, I'll Invest In Renewable Energies Like Wind Power, Solar Power, And The Next Generation Of Homegrown Biofuels. That's How America Is Going To Free Itself From Our Dependence On Foreign Oil Not Through Short-term Gimmicks, But Through A Real, Long-term Commitment To Transform Our Energy Sector.

You Wouldn't Know That If You Talked To Human Rights Watch Or Amnesty International Or Some Of The International Activist Organizations. Certainly You Wouldn't Know That If You Were Talking To Some Of The Writers Who Criticize Our Drone Policy. But I've Actually Told My Staff It's Probably Good That They Stay Critical Of This Policy, Even Though I Think Right Now We're Doing The Best That We Can In A Dangerous World With Terrorists Who Would Gladly Blow Up A School Bus Full Of American Kids If They Could.

His Peaceful Resistance Shook The Foundations Of An Empire, Exposed The Emptiness Of A Repressive Ideology, And Proved That Moral Leadership Is More Powerful Than Any Weapon.

Moral Leadership

I'm Not A Particularly Ideological Person. There's Things, Some Values I Feel Passionately About.

... The Country Deserves Us To Be Willing To Compromise On Behalf Of The Greater Good.

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

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.

As I Said In My State Of The Union Address Ensuring The Security Of The United States And The Safety Of Our People Demands A Smart, Patient And Disciplined Approach To The World.

I Don’t Believe It Is Possible To Transcend Race In This Country. Race Is A Factor In This Society. The Legacy Of Jim Crow And Slavery Has Not Gone Away. It Is Not An Accident That African-americans Experience High Crime Rates, Are Poor, And Have Less Wealth. It Is A Direct Result Of Our Racial History.

I Mean, I Do Think At A Certain Point You've Made Enough Money.

I Have Said Repeatedly That America Doesn't Torture And I'm Going To Make Sure That We Don't Torture. Those Are Part And Parcel An Effort To Regain America's Moral Stature In The World.

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.

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

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.

You Don't Know How It Would Have Turned Out If [kids] Would Grown Up In Chicago Instead, And A More Normal Environment.

One Of The Great Things About The United States Is That When It Comes To World Affairs, The President Obviously Is The Leader Of The Executive Branch, The Commander-in-chief, The Spokesperson For The Nation, But The Influence And The Work That We Have Is The Result Not Just Of The President, It Is The Result Of Countless Interactions And Arrangements And Relationships Between Our Military And Other Militaries, And Our Diplomats And Other Diplomats, The Intelligence Officers And Development Workers.

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

Broken Promises

But Something Stirred Across The Country Because Of What Happened In Selma, Alabama, Because Some Folks Were Willing To March Across A Bridge. And So They [my Parents] Got Together, Barack Obama Jr. Was Born. So Don't Tell Me I Don't Have A Claim On Selma, Alabama. Don't Tell Me I'm Not Coming Home When I Come To Selma, Alabama.

Germany, South Korea - These Are All Countries That Are Investing Massively In Education. We've Got To Do The Same Thing In America.

I Think The American People Recognize Is After A Decade Of War It's Time To Do Some Nation Building Here At Home. And What We Can Now Do Is Free Up Some Resources, To, For Example, Put Americans Back To Work, Especially Our Veterans, Rebuilding Our Roads, Our Bridges, Our Schools, Making Sure That, You Know, Our Veterans Are Getting The Care That They Need When It Comes To Post-traumatic Stress Disorder And Traumatic Brain Injury, Making Sure That The Certifications That They Need For Good Jobs Of The Future Are In Place.

Of Course, There's Been A Real Debate About Where To Invest And Where To Cut, And I'm Committed To Working With Members Of Both Parties To Cut Our Deficits And Debt. But We Can't Simply Cut Our Way To Prosperity.

Their Foreign Policy Is So Disjointed, Confusing, And Chaotic That, Really, People Need To Reexamine Those Who Want To Be Involved In Every War.

You Have To Have A Strong Team Around You [being A President].

I Think That To The Extent That We Focus On Problems Where We Can Build A Moral And A Political Consensus, Then I Think That We Move The Country Forward And When We Are Divided And Our Politics Is Focused On Dividing, Then I Think We're Less Successful, Not Just From The Perspective Of The Democratic Party Or The Republican Party But From The Perspective Of The Nation As A Whole.

We May Come From Different Places And Have Different Stories, But We Share Common Hopes, And One Very American Dream.

The Affordable Care Act Is Here To Stay.

Affordable Care Act

This Is My Number One Priority. I've Got A Lot Of Things On My Plate. But My Top Priority Is To Defeat Isil And To Eliminate The Scourge Of This Barbaric Terrorism That's Been Taking Place Around The World. Groups Like Isil Can't Destroy Us. They Can't Defeat Us. They Don't Produce Anything. They're Not An Existential Threat To Us. It Is Very Important For Us To Not Respond With Fear.

We've Got To Be Able To Distinguish Between Dangerous Individuals Who Need To Be Incapacitated And Incarcerated Versus Young People Who Are In An Environment In Which They Are Adapting, But If Given Different Opportunities, A Different Vision Of Life, Could Be Thriving The Way We Are. That's What Strikes Me. There But For The Grace Of God. And That, I Think, Is Something That We All Have To Think About.

We Don't Really Have Any Kind Of Regulatory Structure At All.

The Leaders We Revere And The Businesses That Last Are Generally Not The Result Of A Narrow Pursuit Of Popularity Or Personal Advancement, But Of Devotion To Some Bigger Purpose. That's The Hallmark Of Real Success. The Other Trapping Of Success Might Be The By Product Of This Larger Mission, But It Can't Be The Central Thing.

I'm Less Interested In How We Label Ourselves. I'm More Interested In How We Treat Each Other. And If We're Treating Each Other Right, Then I Can Be African-american, I Can Be Multi-racial, I Can Be You Name It, What Matters Is, Am I Showing People Respect, Am I Caring For One, For Other People.

What Washington Needs Is Adult Supervision.

My Hope Is That We Can Get A Republican-democratic Agreement On How We Strengthen Social Security As Well As Looking At Some Of These Other Major Expenditures That We Have That We've Got To Deal With To Make Sure That We're Not Just Leaving You Guys With A Mountain Of Debt.

So If Somebody Wants To Build A Coal-powered Plant, They Can; It's Just That It Will Bankrupt Them Because They're Going To Be Charged A Huge Sum For All That Greenhouse Gas That's Being Emitted.

I Think That Donald Trump Is Coming To This Office With Fewer Set Hard-and-fast Policy Prescriptions Than A Lot Of Other Presidents Might Be Arriving With.

The One Thing I've Said To [donald Trump] Directly, And I Would Advise My Republican Friends In Congress And Supporters Around The Country, Is Just Make Sure That, As We Go Forward Certain Norms, Certain Institutional Traditions Don't Get Eroded, Because There's A Reason They're In Place.

Ultimately, The Challenges Of The 21st Century Can't Be Met Without Collective Action. Agreement Will Almost Never Be Easy, And Results Won't Always Come Quickly. But I Am Committed To Respecting Different Points Of View, And To Forging A Consensus Instead Of Dictating Our Terms... That's How We Will Advance And Uphold Our Ideals.

Although There Are Some Parallels To The Problems That We're Seeing Now And What We Say Back In The '30s, No Period Is Exactly The Same. For Us To Simply Recreate What Existed Back In The '30s In The 21st Century, I Think Would Be Missing The Boat. We've Gotta Come Up With Solutions That Are True To Our Times And True To This Moment. And That's Gonna Be Our Job. I Think The Basic Principle That Government Has A Role To Play In Kick Starting An Economy That Has Ground To A Halt Is Sound.

I Like My Quiet Time. There Is A Writer's Sensibility In Me Sometimes, Where I Step Back.

Legislatively, The Thing I'm Most Proud Of Is Healthcare, And I Will Continue To Be Most Proud Of It Because Not Only Do We Have 30 Million People Who Are Going To Get Healthcare, We've Got Six Million Young People Who Are Able To Stay On Their Parents' Plan Until They're 26.

To Young People: You Have To Stay Encouraged.

What We Have To Do Is Make Sure That Here In America, If You Work Hard, You Can Get Ahead. If You Worked Hard, Not Only Did You Have A Good Job, But You Also Had Decent Benefits, Decent Health Care. We've Got To Make Sure That We're Doing Everything We Can To Expand The Middle Class And People Who Are Working Hard Can Get Into The Middle Class.

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

Part Of The Reason That Our Politics Seems So Tough Right Now And Facts And Science And Argument Does Not Seem To Be Winning The Day All The Time Is Because We're Hardwired Not To Always Think Clearly When We're Scared. And The Country's Scared.

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.

As An Elected Official Who Comes From The African-american Community, There Are Some Similarities. You Are Always Trying To Reconcile Your Own Personal Biography And Affiliations With The Demands Of The Broader Democracy. And You Need To Make Sure You Are Representing Everybody.

African American

My Abiding Faith In The American People Is Undiminished. That's Still What Drives Me Every Single Day.

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

Now Let Me Be Clear - I Suffer No Illusions About Saddam Hussein. He Is A Brutal Man. A Ruthless Man. A Man Who Butchers His Own People To Secure His Own Power. He Has Repeatedly Defied Un Resolutions, Thwarted Un Inspection Teams, Developed Chemical And Biological Weapons, And Coveted Nuclear Capacity. He's A Bad Guy. The World, And The Iraqi People, Would Be Better Off Without Him.

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

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.

Do I Need To Apologize For Mr.[tom] Coburn's Statements? Because I Certainly Don't Agree With Those, Either.

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

Why Can't I Just Eat My Waffle?

The Criminal-justice System Is, Obviously, The Sole Source Of Racial Tension In This Country [usa] Or The Key Institution To Resolving The Opportunity Gap. It Is A Part Of The Broader Set Of Challenges That We Face In Creating A More Perfect Union.

I Think At Times Of Significant Stress People Are Going To Be Looking For Something And They Don't Always Know Exactly What It Is That They're Looking For And They May Opt For Change Even If They're Not Entirely Confident What That Change Will Bring.

One Of The Things That We Have To Change In This Country Is The Idea That People Can't Disagree Without Challenging Each Other's Character And Patriotism. I Have Never Suggested That Sen. Mccain Picks His Positions On National Security Based On Politics Or Personal Ambition. I Have Not Suggested It Because I Believe That He Genuinely Wants To Serve America's National Interest. Now, It's Time For Him To Acknowledge That I Want To Do The Same. Let Me Be Clear: I Will Let No One Question My Love Of This Country.

Of Course We [with Angela Merkel] Discussed Our Commitment To Meeting Shared Security Challenges From Countering Cyber Threats To Ensuring That Iran Continues To Live Up To The Terms Of The Iran Nuclear Deal.

Our Nation Honors Its Unbroken Line Of Fallen Heroes - And I See Many Of Them In The Audience Here Today.

We Consume About 25 Percent Of The World's Oil. We Only Have 2 Percent Of The Reserves.

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.

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

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.

America And Islam Are Not Exclusive And Need Not Be In Competition. Instead, They Overlap, And Share Common Principles Of Justice And Progress, Tolerance And The Dignity Of All Human Beings.

We Have The Power To Make The World We Seek, But Only If We Have The Courage To Make A New Beginning.

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

All Of These Different Strands In Me - The Black, The White, The African - All Of That Has Contributed Directly To My Success Because When I Meet People, I See A Piece Of Myself In Them. And Maybe They See A Piece Of Themselves In Me.

Fdr, Jfk, Lbj [all Democratic Presidents ] We Have A Pretty Long List Of Presidents Who Maybe Were Not Entirely Forthcoming With Intelligence Information Before They Went To War, So I'd Be Cautious Against Making Legal Cases Against The Administration.

Instead Of Having A Set Of Policies That Are Equipping People For The Globalization Of The Economy, We Have Policies That Are Accelerating The Most Destructive Trends Of The Global Economy.

I Don't Expect To Get 100 Percent Of What I Want, But What We Can't Do Is Go Back To The Kind Of Top-down Economics That Doesn't Work.

We Have Concerns Whenever We See People Who Have Large Stockpiles Of Weapons, Or Appear To Be In The Process Of Accumulating Weapons And Ammunition.

We Need Not Throw Away 200 Years Of American Jurisprudence While We Fight Terrorism. We Need Not Choose Between Our Most Deeply Held Values, And Keeping This Nation Safe.

Third, We Will Continue To Draw On Our Substantial Counterterrorism Capabilities To Prevent Isil Attacks. Working With Our Partners, We Will Redouble Our Efforts To Cut Off Its Funding; Improve Our Intelligence; Strengthen Our Defenses; Counter Its Warped Ideology; And Stem The Flow Of Foreign Fighters Into - And Out Of - The Middle East. And In Two Weeks, I Will Chair A Meeting Of The Un Security Council To Further Mobilize The International Community Around This Effort.

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

You've Got Audiences Cheering At The Prospect Of Somebody Dying Because They Don't Have Health Care And Booing A Service Member In Iraq Because They're Gay. That's Not Reflective Of Who We Are.

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

This Is Something That I'm Sure I'd Have Serious Debates With My Fellow Christians About. I Think That The Difficult Thing About Any Religion, Including Christianity, Is That At Some Level There Is A Call To Evangelize And Prostelytize. There's The Belief, Certainly In Some Quarters, That People Haven't Embraced Jesus Christ As Their Personal Savior That They're Going To Hell.

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.

We've Got To Be Able To Have A Conversation And Recognize We're All Americans; We All Want The Best For This Country. We May Have Some Disagreements In Terms Of How To Get There, But All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Our Economy Is Strong, That Jobs Are Growing. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That People Aren't Bankrupt When They Get Sick. All Of Us Want To Make Sure That Young People Can Afford An Education.

In Fact, The American People Did Decide, Back In 2012, When They Elected Me President Of The United States.

Iran Is A State Sponsor Of Terrorism. And For Them To Be Able To Provide Nuclear Technology To Non-state Actors, That's Unacceptable.

You Know, My Faith Is One That Admits Some Doubt.

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.

Everybody Acknowledges That The Current Path We're On Is Unsustainable, Not Just For The People Who Don't Have Health Insurance But For Those Who Do.

I'm Not So Out Of Touch That I Don't See How Young People Interact Today.it Was Horrific. And That's An Example Of Something That It's Not As If That's The First Time That A Hate Crime Has Taken Place In This Country. Hate Crimes Have Been Taking Place For Hundreds Of Years In This Country, But It's There On Video.

To Look At Long Term Trends In Our Economy, In Our Society, In The International Sphere And Using My Best Judgment, Shape Policies That Will Serve The American People, Keep Them Safe, Keep Our Economy Growing, Put People Back To Work.

It's Time To Recognize That Under The Equal Protection Clause Of The United States [constitution], Same-sex Couples Should Have The Same Rights As Anybody Else.

Abraham Lincoln And Millard Fillmore Had The Same Title. They Were Both Presidents Of The United States, But Their Tenure In Office And Their Legacy Could Not Be More Different.

Campaigning Is Different From Governing.

We Don't Have This Huge Footprint, We Are Less Likely To Be Targeted As, You Know, Occupiers [in Afghanistan And Iraq].

No One Is Pro-abortion.

One Of The Things That You Learn, Having Been In This [president's] Office For Four Years, Is The Old Adage Of Abraham Lincoln's. That With Public Opinion There's Nothing You Can't Do And Without Public Opinion There's Very Little You Can Get Done.

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

I Marched With You In The Streets Of Chicago To Meet Our Immigration Challenge. I Fought With You In The Senate For Comprehensive Immigration Reform. And I Will Make It A Top Priority In My First Year As President.

It Is Very Rare I Come To An Event Where I’m Like The Fifth Or Sixth Most Interesting Person.

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

I Don't Know What The Word Is In Austrian.

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

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

Working Together

We Are Willing To Uphold Principles That Have Resulted In Unprecedented Prosperity And Security Throughout Europe And Around The World. With The Threat Of Climate Change Only Becoming More Urgent, Angela [merkel] And I Focused On The Need For American And E.u. Leadership To Advance Global Cooperation.

So My Biggest Fun Has Been Watching My Daughters Grow Up. Now, Unfortunately They're Hitting The Age Where They Still Love Me, But They Think I'm Completely Boring. And So They'll Come In, Pat Me On The Head, Talk To Me For 10 Minutes, And Then They're Gone All Weekend. Right? They Break My Heart! So Now I've Got To Start Thinking, Well What's Going To Replace That Fun?

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.

Part Of American Leadership Is Making Sure That We're Doing Nation Building Here At Home. That Will Help Us Maintain The Kind Of American Leadership That We Need.

We'll Build New Ties Of Trade And Of Commerce, Culture And Education That Unleash The Potential Of The Iraqi People.

Just Listen To What Mr. [donald] Trump Has To Say And Make Your Own Judgment With Respect To How Confident You Feel About His Ability To Manage Things Like Our Nuclear Triad.

And I Believe The Nation That Invented The Automobile Cannot Walk Away From It.

Like Joe Biden And So Many Other Americans, I've Lost People I Love Deeply To Cancer. I've Heard Often From Those Whose Loved Ones Are Suffering From Alzheimer's, Addiction, And Other Debilitating Diseases. Their Heartbreak Is Real, And So We Have A Responsibility To Respond With Real Solutions.

...started By Missionaries In 1841, Punahou Academy Had Grown Into A Prestigious Prep School, An Incubator For Island Elites...it Hadn't Been Easy To Get Me In, My Grandparents Told Her (my Mother); There Was A Long Waiting List, And I Was Considered Only Because Of The Intervention Of Gramps' Boss, Who Was An Alumnus (my First Experience With Affirmative Action, It Seems, Had Little To Do With Race).

When I Think About What I'm Going Through, As President, It Doesn't Compare To What The Folks That I'm Representing Are Going Through. They're Losing Jobs. They're Trying To Figure Out How To Pay Their Medical Bills. They've Seen Retirements Suddenly Dissipate Because Of What's Happening In The Stock Market. And So As Tough As The Job Might Be, And The Politics Of Washington Can Sometimes Be I'm Always Reminded Of How Fortunate I Am To Be Here, And What An Extraordinary Responsibility I Have To Try To Deliver On Some Of The Promises That I Made During The Election.

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.

With Effort We Can Protect The Foundation Of Our Democracy, For Which So Many Marched Across This Bridge, The Right To Vote.

The Nation That Leads The Clean Energy Economy Will Be The Nation That Leads The Global Economy.

We Don't Believe In A Small America. We Believe In A Big America - A Tolerant America, A Just America, An Equal America - That Values The Service Of Every Patriot.

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