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

-Barack Obama

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You Look At Something

Barack Obama

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

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More From Barack Obama

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.

A Political Candidacy Built Around Hope And Change And Compromise Would Eventually Become A Presidency Of Crisis And Confrontation.

On The One Hand Information Is Moving Quick Or The Way In Which People Consume Information Is Changing So Fast. Clearly This Worked For [donald Trump], And It Gives Him A Direct Connection To A Lot Of The People That Voted For Him.

When You've Got A Economy In Which 40 Percent Of Economic Growth Is Happening In The Financial Sector, That Turns Out That Was All An Illusion, That It Wasn't Growth Based On Real Products And Services, But Just A Bunch Of Paper Shuffling And A House Of Cards, Then What's Gonna Emerge, At Some Point, Is A Sense Of Resentment, A Sense That The System's Rigged, And It's Not Working For Ordinary People. And It's Not Fulfilling The Basic American Dream.

The Men And Women Of America's Homeland Security Apparatus Do Important Work To Protect Us, And Republicans And Democrats In Congress Should Not Be Playing Politics With That.

I Support Ensuring That Committed Gay Couples Have The Same Rights And Responsibilities Afforded To Any Married Couple In This Country. I Believe Strongly In Stopping Laws Designed To Take Rights Away And Passing Laws That Extend Equal Rights To Gay Couples. I've Required All Agencies In The Federal Government To Extend As Many Federal Benefits As Possible To Lgbt Families As The Current Law Allows. And I've Called On Congress To Repeal The So-called Defense Of Marriage Act And To Pass The Domestic Partners Benefits And Obligations Act.

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

I Am Encouraged By The President-elect's [donald Trump] Insistence That Nato Is A Commitment That Does Not Change. And His Full Commitment To Nato As The Foundation For Our International Security I Think Is Very Important.

I Don't Presume To Have Knowledge Of What Happens After I Die. But I Feel Very Strongly That Whether The Reward Is In The Here And Now Or In The Hereafter, The Aligning Myself To My Faith And My Values Is A Good Thing.

Christian Values

The Banks, Because Of Mismanagement, Because Of Huge Risk Taking, Are Now In Very Vulnerable Positions. We Can Expect That We're Gonna Have To Do More To Shore Up The Financial System. We Also Are Gonna Have To Make Sure That We Set Up Financial Regulations So That Not Only Does This Never Happen Again, But You Start Having Some Sort Of - Trust In How The Credit Markets Work Again.

There's No Reason Why Americans Should Die When Afghans Are Perfectly Capable Of Defending Their Own Country.

I See Donald Trump As A Phenomenon Of An Expression Of Certain Fears, Certain Resentments, That Have Been A Running Thread In American History.

The More We Are Using Clean Energy, Renewable Energy Sources, The Less Environmentally Problematic Facilities End Up Being A Problem For Everybody, But Particularly For Folks Who Have To Suffer The Consequences Of Some Of These Facilities.

I Have Fought Against Spending. I Have Fought Against Special Interests. I Have Fought For Reform.

The Most Expensive Care We Can Give, We're Giving Those Americans Without Insurance. It's Kind Of Stupid That We're Fighting The Notion That We Want To Quit Paying A Hidden Tax And Be Up Front About Covering People In A Way That Is Cost-effective.

Some May Still Deny The Overwhelming Judgment Of Science.

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

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.

All Of Us Take Offense To Anyone Who Reaps The Rewards Of Living In America Without Taking On The Responsibilities Of Living In America. And Undocumented Immigrants Who Desperately Want To Embrace Those Responsibilities See Little Option But To Remain In The Shadows, Or Risk Their Families Being Torn Apart.

[...] We Must Start By Inspiring Our Children With A Sense Of Purpose...by Nurturing Their Imagination So That They May Dream Big And Then Work Hard To Reach Those Dreams. Too Often, Our Children Spend Hours Playing Playstation Without Ever Finding Out How To Build Playstation. They Watch Television But Never Wonder How It's Put Together. They Surf Web Page After Web Page On The Internet, But Are Never Taught How To Design One.

[the Democrats] Have Got To Do A Better Job Of Showing Up.

My Expectation Would Be That If We Can Begin Discussions Soon, Shortly After The Iranian Elections, We Should Have A Fairly Good Sense By The End Of The Year As To Whether They Are Moving In The Right Direction.

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.

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.

The American People Are A Non-ideological People. They Very Much Are Looking For Common-sense, Practical Solutions To The Problems That They Face. Oftentimes They've Got Contradictory Senses Of Various Issues And Policy Positions And I Don't Think That Either The Republican Party Or The Democratic Party Necessarily Capture Their Deepest Dreams When Those Parties Are Described In Caricature Or In Policy Terms.

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

I Am Not In Favor Of Concealed Weapons. I Think That Creates A Potential Atmosphere Where More Innocent People Could (get Shot During) Altercations.

Tonight, I Can Report To The American People And To The World That The United States Has Conducted An Operation That Killed Osama Bin Laden, The Leader Of Al Qaeda, And A Terrorist Who's Responsible For The Murder Of Thousands Of Innocent Men, Women, And Children.

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

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.

I Confess To Wincing Every So Often At A Poorly Chosen Word, A Mangled Sentence, An Expression Of Emotion That Seems Indulgent Or Overly Practiced. I Have The Urge To Cut The Book By Fifty Pages Or So, Possessed As I Am With A Keener Appreciation For Brevity.

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.

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

We Have To Make Sure America Writes The Rules Of The Global Economy, And We Should Do It Today While Our Economy Is In The Position Of Global Strength, Because If We Don't Write The Rules For Trade Around The World, Guess What: China Will.

It [is] That Courage That Africa Most Desperately Needs.

Ultimately, I Remain Optimistic About Not Just America's Future, But The Direction That The World Is Growing.

I Will Promise You This, That If We Have Not Gotten Our Troops Out By The Time I Am President, It Is The First Thing I Will Do. I Will Get Our Troops Home, We Will Bring An End To This War. You Can Take That To The Bank.

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.

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.

It Should Be The Power Of Our Vote, Not The Size Of Our Bank Accounts, That Drives Our Democracy

The Genius Of Our Founders Is That They Designed A System Of Government That Can Be Changed. And We Should Take Heart, Because We’ve Changed This Country Before.

Now Suddenly You Got Members Of Your [white House] Team Who Were 23, 24. They've Met Their Wives Here, Or Their Husbands Here.

You Bomb Isil. You're Not Trying To Bomb Innocent People. And That Requires Intelligence And Confidence In Our Military To Be Able To Develop The Kinds Of Targets That We Need. We're Already Doing Special Forces, Who Are Going To Help Us Gather That Intelligence And Help Advise And Assist And Train Local Forces So That They Can Go After Isil In Areas Like Raqqah And Mosul.

I Thought Brittany Packnett, Who Was One Of The Ferguson Activists, Really Interesting, Smart Young Lady, Really Impressive - You Might Want To Talk With Her. So She Was One Of The Organizers Of The Ferguson Movement, Ended Up Joining Our Task Force. She Came In Here And She Just Knew Her Stuff.

As Long As Countries Like China Keep Going All In On Clean Energy, So Must We.

I'm Skeptical That [the Republicans] Can Do [something Better With Healthcare] Mainly Because For Seven Years Now, Including When We First Tried To Pass Health Care, I Said To 'em, "okay, If [obamacare] Doesn't Work Tell Me What Does."

My Parents Shared Not Only An Improbable Love, They Shared An Abiding Faith In The Possibilities Of This Nation. They Would Give Me An African Name, Barack, Or Blessed, Believing That In A Tolerant America Your Name Is No Barrier To Success.

We Need More Responsibility, But We Need It Not Just When There's A Crisis. I Mean, We've Had Years In Which The Reigning Economic Ideology Has Been What's Good For Wall Street, But Not What's Good For Main Street.

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

Ironically, The Single Thing That Has Strengthened Iran Over The Last Several Years Has Been The War In Iraq. Iraq Was Iran's Mortal Enemy. That Was Cleared Away. And What We've Seen Over The Last Several Years Is Iran's Influence Grow. They Have Funded Hezbollah, They Have Funded Hamas, They Have Gone From Zero Centrifuges To 4,000 Centrifuges To Develop A Nuclear Weapon.

You Want To Be Commander-in-chief? You Can Start By Standing Up For The Men And Women Who Wear The Uniform Of The United States, Even When It's Not Politically Convenient.

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

The Challenge There Is That Isil Doesn't Have An Air Force, So The Damage Done There Is Not Against Isil, It's Against The Syrian Regime.

When You're A Candidate And You Say Something That Is Inaccurate Or Controversial, It Has Less Impact Than It Does When You're President Of The United States. Everybody Around The World's Paying Attention. Markets Move. National Security Issues Require A Level Of Precision In Order To Make Sure That You Don't Make Mistakes.

America Is A Country Of Strong Families And Strong Values. My Life's Been Blessed By Both.

A Central Notion In The Affordable Care Act Was We Had An Inefficient System With A Lot Of Waste That Didn't Also Deliver The Kind Of Quality That Was Needed That Often Put Health Care Providers In A Box Where They Wanted To Do Better For Their Patients, But Financial Incentives Were Skewed The Other Way... We Don't Need To Reinvent The Wheel; You're Already Figuring Out What Works To Reduce Infections In Hospitals Or Help Patients With Complicated Needs.

The Old Rules May Say We Can’t Protect Our Environment And Promote Economic Growth At The Same Time, But In America, We’ve Always Used New Technologies - We’ve Used Science; We’ve Used Research And Development And Discovery To Make The Old Rules Obsolete.

Research And Development

In My Heart I Know You Didn't Come Here Just For Me, You Came Here Because You Believe In What This Country Can Be. In The Face Of War, You Believe There Can Be Peace. In The Face Of Despair, You Believe There Can Be Hope. In The Face Of A Politics That's Shut You Out, That's Told You To Settle, That's Divided Us For Too Long, You Believe We Can Be One People, Reaching For What's Possible, Building That More Perfect Union.

I Think At A Certain Age I Became Conscious Of The Power Of Words. And It Was Fairly Late. I Was Kind Of A Goofball - But I Was Always Subconsciously Thinking About Issues.

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.

Islam Has Always Been Part Of America

I Want To Reduce America's Deficit By Cutting Spending That We Don't Need But Also By Asking The Wealthy To Do A Little Bit More So That We Can Invest In Things Like Research And Technology That Are The Key To A 21st Century Economy.

For Too Many Of Us, It's Become Safer To Retreat Into Our Own Bubbles, Whether In Our Neighborhoods Or On College Campuses, Or Places Of Worship Or Especially Our Social Media Feeds, Surrounded By People Who Look Like Us And Share The Same Political Outlook And Never Challenge Our Assumptions. And Increasingly, We Become So Secure In Our Bubbles That We Start Accepting Only Information, Whether It's True Or Not, That Fits Our Opinions, Instead Of Basing Our Opinions On The Evidence That Is Out There.

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.

I Think That Dealing With Guns Is One Way To Handle The Violent-crime Issues That We Have In This Country.

I Said That America’s Role Would Be Limited; That We Would Not Put Ground Troops Into Libya; That We Would Focus Our Unique Capabilities On The Front End Of The Operation And That We Would Transfer Responsibility To Our Allies And Partners.

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.

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.

The Best Way To Not Feel Hopeless Is To Get Up And Do Something.

I Have Been A Strong Proponent Of Pay-as-you-go. Every Dollar That I've Proposed, I've Proposed An Additional Cut So That It Matches.

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

No Discrimination, That's What We're About As A Country.

Get Involved In An Issue That You're Passionate About. It Almost Doesn't Matter What It Is ... We Give Too Much Of Our Power Away, To The Professional Politicians, To The Lobbyists, To Cynicism. And Our Democracy Suffers As A Result.

What Makes America Exceptional Are The Bonds That Hold Together The Most Diverse Nation On Earth.

As I've Said, There Were Patriots Who Supported This War, And Patriots Who Opposed It. And All Of Us Are United In Appreciation For Our Servicemen And Women, And Our Hopes For Iraqis' Future.

The Ideals And The Values Of The United States Inspired The Entire World. I Don't Think Any Of Us Can Say That Our Standing In The World Now, The Way Children Around The World Look At The United States, Is The Same. And Part Of What We Need To Do Is To Send A Message To The World That We Are Going To Invest In Issues Like Education, We Are Going To Invest In Issues That Relate To How Ordinary People Are Able To Live Out Their Dreams. And That Is Something That I'm Going To Be Committed To As President Of The United States.

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

There Are Times Where I'd Say The Oval Office, You Use To Gather The Facts. The Decisions You Probably Make Late At Night, Or At Least I Do. But There Are Some Times Where You Think You've Made A Decision, But During That Walk, Where You're Announcing The Decision, You've Just Got To Make Sure That, You're Prepared To Live With It, Because As You Know George, A Lot Of These Decisions Are Not - The Outcomes Are Uncertain.

The Path Towards Sustainable Energy Sources Will Be Long And Sometimes Difficult. But America Cannot Resist This Transition, We Must Lead It.

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

Leaving The Broken System The Way It Is, That`s Not A Solution.

If, In [federal Housing Administration] Application, Black Folks Were Excluded From It, Then You Have To Override That By Going After Those Discriminatory Practices.

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...'"

Right Now I Would Rank Norway As The Largest Country In The World, I Have Never Seen Anything Like It

America, Our Endless Blessings Bestow An Enduring Burden. But As Americans, We Welcome Our Responsibility To Lead.

Don't Just Consume Things, Create Things

We Are Going Through Historic Times, And My Vision Is A World, First Of All, In Which America Continues To Be That One Indispensable Nation. Because We're Taking Care Of Our Own People, Because Our Economy Is Strong And Our Middle Class Is Growing, And People Feel Like Hard Work Is Rewarded, And We Are Continuing To Expand Opportunity And Diversity And Tolerance And Respect.

I Will Continue To Believe That Israel's Security Is Paramount.

Here's The Truth: The Soviet Union Had Thousands Of Nuclear Weapons, And Iran Doesn't Have A Single One. But When The World Was On The Brink Of Nuclear Holocaust, Kennedy Talked To Khrushchev And He Got Those Missiles Out Of Cuba. Why Shouldn't We Have The Same Courage And The Confidence To Talk To Our Enemies? That's What Strong Countries Do, That's What Strong Presidents Do, That's What I'll Do When I'm President Of The United States Of America.

Above All, Our Freedom Endures Because Of The Men And Women In Uniform Who Defend It.

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

On September 11th, 2001, In Our Time Of Grief, The American People Came Together. We Offered Our Neighbors A Hand And We Offered The Wounded Our Blood. We Reaffirmed Our Ties To Each Other And Our Love Of Community And Country. On That Day, No Matter Where We Came From, What God We Prayed To, Or What Race Or Ethnicity We Were, We Were United As One American Family.

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

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

Now Let's Make Two Things Clear: Isil Is Not 'islamic.' No Religion Condones The Killing Of Innocents, And The Vast Majority Of Isil's Victims Have Been Muslim. And Isil Is Certainly Not A State. It Was Formerly Al Qaeda's Affiliate In Iraq, And Has Taken Advantage Of Sectarian Strife And Syria's Civil War To Gain Territory On Both Sides Of The Iraq-syrian Border. It Is Recognized By No Government, Nor The People It Subjugates. Isil Is A Terrorist Organization, Pure And Simple. And It Has No Vision Other Than The Slaughter Of All Who Stand In Its Way.

Those Who Adhere To The Ideology Of Rejecting Israel’s Right To Exist, They Might As Well Reject The Earth Beneath Them Or The Sky Above, Because Israel Is Not Going Anywhere.

People Always - I Think Were Surprised About Me Connecting With Folks In Small Town Iowa. And The Reason I Did Was - First Of All, I Had The Benefit That At The Time Nobody Expected Me To Win. And So I Wasn't Viewed Through This Prism Of Fox News And Conservative Media Making Me Scary. At The Time, I Didn't Think Seem Scary, Other Than Just Having A Funny Name. I Seemed Young.

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.

I've Said Repeatedly That Where We See Terrorist Organizations Like Al-qaeda Or Isil, They Have Perverted And Distorted And Tried To Claim The Mantle Of Islam For An Excuse, For Basically Barbarism And Death. These Are People Who Kill Children, Kill Muslims, Take Sex Slaves - There's No Religious Rationale That Would Justify In Any Way Any Of The Things That They Do.

Now, Anybody Who Thinks That We Can Move This Economy Forward With Just A Few Folks At The Top Doing Well, Hoping That It's Going To Trickle Down To Working People Who Are Running Faster And Faster Just To Keep Up, You'll Never See It.

That Is The Difference We Make In The World. And Our Own Safety, Our Own Security, Depends Upon Our Willingness To Do What It Takes To Defend This Nation And Uphold The Values That We Stand For - Timeless Ideals That Will Endure Long After Those Who Offer Only Hate And Destruction Have Been Vanquished From The Earth.

I Don't Think Marriage Is A Civil Right, But I Think That Being Able To Transfer Property Is A Civil Right.

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.

We've Evolved A Lot Since 9/11 Also, In Terms Of Our Law Enforcement Capabilities, Our Intelligence Capabilities, Military, Counterterrorism.

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

Whatever Decisions I Make Are Going To Be Based First On A Strategy To Keep Us Safe And Then We'll Figure Out How To Resource It.

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.

So Many Of My Staff Is Young Enough That They're Going To Do Amazing Things. And I'm Going To Be Helping Them Try To Do Them.

I Think It Is Important That We Are Targeting Hiv/aids Resources Into The Communities Where We're Seeing The Highest Growth Rates. That Means Education And Prevention, Particularly With Young People.

We Are A People Of Improbable Hope.

There Are A Lot Of Very Religious Scientists Around. I Think The Problem Here Is That In Our School Systems, And To Some Degree - And This Is Where It Is Relevant - With School Boards Around The Country That Are Mandating Curriculums And Textbooks, You Start Seeing This Weird Watering Down Of Scientific Fact So That Our Kids Are Growing Up In An Environment - And This Connects To What I Was Saying Earlier Abou The Media - Where Everything's Contested. Where Nothing Is True.

Many Of Our Ideas Of Democracy, So Much Of Our Literature And Philosophy And Science Can Be Traced Back To Roots Right Here In Athens.

Our Nation Owes A Debt To Its Fallen Heroes That We Can Never Fully Repay, But We Can Honor Their Sacrifice.

We Are Greater Than The Sum Of Our Individual Ambitions

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

My Faith Reminds Me That We All Are Sinners.

And To All Those Who Have Wondered If Americas Beacon Still Burns As Bright - Tonight We Proved Once More That The True Strength Of Our Nation Comes Not From Our The Might Of Our Arms Or The Scale Of Our Wealth, But From The Enduring Power Of Our Ideals: Democracy, Liberty, Opportunity, And Unyielding Hope. For That Is The True Genius Of America - That America Can Change. Our Union Can Be Perfected. And What We Have Already Achieved Gives Us Hope For What We Can And Must Achieve Tomorrow.

Donald Trump Seems To Do A Good Job Mentioning His Own Name.

Yes, This Is Hard. But There Should Be No Question That The United States Of America Is Stepping Up To The Plate. We Recognize Our Role In Creating This Problem; We Embrace Our Responsibility To Combat It. We Will Do Our Part, And We Will Help Developing Nations Do Theirs. But We Can Only Succeed In Combating Climate Change If We Are Joined In This Effort By Every Nation - Developed And Developing Alike. Nobody Gets A Pass.

In Iraq And Syria, American Leadership - Including Our Military Power - Is Stopping Isil's Advance, Instead Of Getting Dragged Into Another Ground War In The Middle East, We Are Leading A Broad Coalition, Including Arab Nations, To Degrade And Ultimately Destroy This Terrorist Group.

But What I Would Say To My Successor Is That It Is Important Not Just To Shoot But To Aim. And It Is Important, In This Seat, To Make Sure That You're Making Your Best Judgments Based On Data, Intelligence, The Information That's Coming From Your Commanders And Folks On The Ground And You're Not Being Swayed By Politics.

You Know, The Truth Is That Right After 9/11, I Had A (flag) Pin. Shortly After 9/11, Particularly Because As We're Talking About The Iraq War, That Became A Substitute For, I Think, True Patriotism, Which Is Speaking Out On Issues That Are Of Importance To Our National Security, I Decided I Won't Wear That Pin On My Chest.

[t]hese Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans Are Also The Tax Cuts That Are Least Likely To Promote Growth.

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.

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

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.

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

America Ranks 21st When It Comes To Math Education. We Rank 25th When It Comes To Science. We Used To Be Number One In The Proportion Of College Graduates. We Now Rank Ninth. And At An Age Where Knowledge, Skills, Are The Determinant Of How Successful We're Going To Be, Unless We Reverse That We're Going To Keep Slipping Behind Economically To A Lot Of Other Countries.

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.

Together We Resolve That A Great Nation Must Care For The Vulnerable And Protect Its People From Life's Worst Hazards And Misfortune.

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

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

To All Those Watching Tonight From Beyond Our Shores, From Parliaments And Palaces, To Those Who Are Huddled Around Radios In The Forgotten Corners Of The World, Our Stories Are Singular, But Our Destiny Is Shared, And A New Dawn Of American Leadership Is At Hand.

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

There’s No Black Male My Age, Who’s A Professional, Who Hasn’t Come Out Of A Restaurant And Is Waiting For Their Car And Somebody Didn’t Hand Them Their Car Keys.

What I'm Thinking About Are The Millions Of People, Many Of Whom Write Me Very Personal Letters :"dear Mr. President: I Did Not Vote For You. I Was Against Obamacare. And Then My Son Who Didn't Have Health Insurance Signed Up And We Just Found Out That He Had An Illness. And Thankfully He's Now Covered, Otherwise He Might Not Have Gotten Treatment And I Might Have Lost My House."

The Values That We Share - Freedom Of Speech, Freedom Of Religious Practice, Freedom For Civil Society, Free And Fair Elections, All The Innovation That's Been Created Through A Market-based Economy - Those Things Are Ultimately Going To Be The Path For Us To Continue Into A Better Future. I Hope That, Despite Some Of The Challenges We Have, That People Appreciate That.

We Do Not Believe That In This Country, Freedom Is Reserved For The Lucky, Or Happiness For The Few.

America, This Is Our Moment. This Is Our Time. Our Time To Turn The Page On The Policies Of The Past. Our Time To Bring New Energy And New Ideas To The Challenges We Face. Our Time To Offer A New Direction For The Country We Love.

Of Course, There Is No Question That Libya - And The World - Will Be Better Off With Gaddafi Out Of Power. I, Along With Many Other World Leaders, Have Embraced That Goal, And Will Actively Pursue It Through Non-military Means. But Broadening Our Military Mission To Include Regime Change Would Be A Mistake.

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

Some Heinous Crimes Justify The Ultimate Punishment.

What Is True Is [bashar] Assad Got Rid Of His Chemical Weapons.

Chemical Weapons

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

Our Alliances And Partnerships Are Not Directed Against Any Nation.

The United States Is Committed To A Regional Order Rooted In International Rules And Norms, Including Freedom Of Navigation, And The Peaceful Resolution Of Disputes. That's The Only Way To Ensure Our Common Security.

You Might Be Locked In A World Not Of Your Own Making, Her Eyes Said, But You Still Have A Claim On How It Is Shaped. You Still Have Responsibilities.

Obviously I'm Grayer, A Few More Wrinkles. One Of The Things I'm Proud About Is That I Think My Basic Character And Outlook Actually Have Not Changed Much. And People Who Are Closest To Me Will Tell You That The Guy Who Came Here Is The Same Guy Who's Leaving.

To Young People: You Have To Stay Encouraged.

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

Love And Hope Can Conquer Hate.

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.

This Visit [to Singapore] Is An Occasion To Mark The 50th Anniversary Our Bilateral Relationship With Singapore, Which Is One Of Our Strongest And Most Reliable Partners In South-east Asia.

50th Anniversary

I Promised To Bring Change To Washington. The Underlying Reason For The Economic Mess We're In Has Been Building For Years. It's A Fundamental Imbalance In Which The Top 1 Percent Now Gets Almost A Quarter Of All National Income. We Haven't Seen Income And Wealth This Concentrated Since The Late Nineteen Twenties, And We All Know What Happened Then - The Great Depression. We'll Never Really Get Out Of The Gravitational Pull Of The Great Recession Until We Fix This Basic Problem.

Great Depression

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.

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.

There's Something About These Steps [in Oval Office] And Thinking About Everybody Who's Walked Here And All The Business That's Been Done Here.

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

I Look At Some Of The Kids That I Interact With, And They Were Born With So Many Disadvantages. And You Could Start Off In Your First Interaction With Them Saying, "unless They Get A Lot Of Compensatory Help, They're Not Going To Be Able To Compete; They're Just So Far Behind, And They're Wounded And They're Hurt."

I Think It's Very Important To Remember That So Much Of The Work That Gets Done Between Countries Is Not Done At The Level Of Presidents, But Is Done Within Various Agencies, Whether It's Law Enforcement Or Economic Ministries. And When They Establish Relationships And Systems Of Communications And Shared Projects And Shared Visions, Those Structures Continue Even After Any Particular President Is Gone. It Builds Trust And Understanding Between Countries That Are Critically Important.

I Think That There Is A Particular Mindset That Was On Display In The Run-up To The Iraq War That Continues To This Day. Some Of The Folks Who Were Involved In That Decision Either Don't Remember What They Said Or Are Entirely Unapologetic About The Results, But That Views The Middle East As A Place Where Force And Intimidation Will Deliver On The Security Interests That We Have, And That It Is Not Possible For Us To At Least Test The Possibility Of Diplomacy.

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

We Could Come Together, Democrats And Republicans, To Find Practical, Commonsense Solutions To Health Care, To Education, To Energy Issues, Because Although I'm A Proud Democrat, I'm A Prouder American. And I Think All Of Us Believe, Regardless Of Our Party Affiliations, That This Is A Critical Time, Where We've Got To Solve Big Problems.

What Is Certainly True Is That The American People, Just Like The German People, Just Like The British And People Around The World, Are Seeing Extraordinarily Rapid Change. The World Is Shrinking, The Economies Have Become Much More Integrated And Demographics Are Shifting.

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.

Our Resources May Be Finite, But Our Will Is Infinite, And I Am Confident That If We Come Together And Summon That Great American Spirit Once Again, We Will Meet The Challenges Of Our Time And Write The Next Great Chapter In Our American Story.

We Need To Steer Clear Of This Poverty Of Ambition, Where People Want To Drive Fancy Cars And Wear Nice Clothes And Live In Nice Apartments But Don't Want To Work Hard To Accomplish These Things. Everyone Should Try To Realize Their Full Potential.

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.

If Iran Cheats, The World Will Know It.

One Of The Things That I've Learned, And I Think We've All Learned, Is That We Are Not Going To Get The Kind Of Decisive, Permanent Victories In This Fight Against Terrorism That We Would Get From Fighting Another Country. We're Not Going To Get That Macarthur/emperor Moment, Because By Definition, Even After Decimating Al Qaeda In The Fata, Even After Taking Out [osama] Bin Laden There's Still People There Who Have Both The Interest And The Capacity If We Don't Maintain Vigilance To Strike Against The United States.

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

This Is The Moment When We Must Build On The Wealth That Open Markets Have Created, And Share Its Benefits More Equitably. Trade Has Been A Cornerstone Of Our Growth And Global Development. But We Will Not Be Able To Sustain This Growth If It Favors The Few, And Not The Many.

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

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

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

My Hope Is That's Something [donald Trump] Is Thinking About, Because Not Only Is The President Of The United States Somebody That The Entire Country Looks To For Direction But Sets The Agenda Internationally In A Lot Of Ways.

This Is Our First Task-caring For Our Children. It's Our First Job. If We Don't Get That Right, We Don't Get Anything Right. That's How, As A Society, We Will Be Judged.

I Think That Part Of My Optimism Comes From The Belief That We As A People Could Actually, Regardless Of All The Disadvantage Of The Past, Regardless Of The Fact That A Lot Of Other Folks Got A Head Start In The Race, If We Were Able To Make The Race Fair Right Now.

Let Me Tell Your Something. I'm From Chicago. I Don't Break.

Both Our Nations [malasian And American] Are Committed To Building A Regional Order Where All Nations Play By The Same Rules And Disputes Are Resolved Peacefully And This Visit Will Be An Opportunity To Continue Deepening Our Cooperation On Behalf Of Regional Stability And Prosperity.

I Would Meet Directly With The Leadership In Iran.

I Think There Are A Lot Of People Who Are Involved In The Tea Party Who Have Very Real And Sincere Concerns About Spending That's Out Of Control Or Generally Philosophically Believe That The Government Should Be Less Involved In Certain Aspects Of American Life Rather Than More Involved. And They Have Every Right And Obligation As Citizens To Be Involved And Engaged In This Process.

Keeping Our Military Strong Means Keepin' Our Families Strong.

If You Listen To The Rhetoric, It Is So Over-the-top And So Overheated, And Most Importantly, Is Not Acknowledging The Fact That There's Nothing Else [like Guns] In Our Lives That We Purchase Where We Don't Try To Make It A Little Safer If We Can.

I Stand Here Today Humbled By The Task Before Us, Grateful For The Trust You Have Bestowed, Mindful Of The Sacrifices Borne By Our Ancestors.

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

A Good Gi Bill Would Increase The Recruit Pool.

We Will Outstretch The Hand If You Unclench Your Fist.

Even When You Go Up Ramp, And You Think About [franklin D. Roosevelt] Wheeling Himself Up, You Know, Got A Little Cigarette Holder In His Mouth, And It, That, That Awe That You Feel, That Reverence That You Feel For The Place Never Entirely Leaves.

I Wouldn't Consider Them Acts Of War, But I Would Consider Them Acts Of Property Damage, Commercial Theft That Are Serious.

We Invest In Early Childhood Education. We Invest Additional Job Training Dollars. We Make Sure That We've Got A Strong Research And Development Strategy So That We Continue To Innovate. Rebuilding Our Infrastructure, Which We Know Will Attract Businesses.

Research And Development

I Decided To Become A Community Organizer ... Change Won't Come From The Top, I Would Say. Change Will Come From A Mobilized Grass Roots.

There's A Utility In The Democracy Refreshing Itself On An Ongoing Basis.

Our Goal Is To Have A Country That's Not Divided By Race. And My Impression, As I Travel Around The Country, Is That That's The Kind Of Country That Most People Want, As Well, And That We All Have Prejudice, We All Have Certain Suspicions Or Stereotypes About People Who Are Different From Us, Whether It's Religious Or Racial Or Ethnic, But What I Think I Found In The American People, I Think There's A Core Decency There, Where If They Take The Time, If They Get The Time To Know Individuals, Then They Want To Judge Those Individuals By Their Character.

We Have To Think About Affirmative Action And Craft It In Such A Way Where Some Of Our Children, Who Are Advantaged, Aren't Getting More Favorable Treatment Than A Poor White Kid Who Struggled More.

Call Loretta Lynch For A Vote. Get Her Confirmed. Put Her In Place. Let Her Do Her Job.

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.

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."

In This New, Hyper Competitive Age, None Of Us, None Of Us Can Afford To Be Complacent.

People Are Whupped. I'm Whupped. My Wife Is Whupped. Unless It's Your Job To Be Curious, Who Really Has The Time To Sit And Ask Questions And Explore Issues?

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