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Iraq is sort of a situation where you've got a guy who drove the bus into the ditch. You obviously have to get the bus out of the ditch, and that's not easy to do, although you probably should fire the driver.
BARACK OBAMA, The Daily Show, Nov. 7, 2005
When it comes to the war in Iraq, the time for promises and assurances, for waiting and patience is over. Too many lives have been lost and too many billions have been spent for us to trust the President on another tried-and-failed policy, opposed by generals and experts, opposed by Democrats and Republicans, opposed by Americans and even the Iraqis themselves. It is time to change our policy. It is time to give Iraqis their country back, and it is time to refocus America's effort on the wider struggle against terror yet to be won.
BARACK OBAMA, speech, Jan. 19, 2007
I trust the American people to realize that while we don't need big government, we do need a government that stands up for families who are being tricked out of their homes by Wall Street predators; a government that stands up for the middle-class by giving them a tax break; a government that ensures that no American will ever lose their life savings just because their child gets sick. Security and opportunity; compassion and prosperity aren't liberal values or conservative values – they're American values.
BARACK OBAMA, speech, May 6, 2008
My wife has been my closest friend, my closest advisor. And ... she’s not somebody who looks to the limelight, or even is wild about me being in politics. And that’s a good reality check on me. When I go home, she wants me to be a good father and a good husband. And everything else is secondary to that.
BARACK OBAMA, Tavis Smiley Show, Oct. 23, 2006
We can't change the way Washington works unless we first change how Congress works.
BARACK OBAMA, podcast, Jan. 8, 2007
Across America, a constant cross-pollination is occurring, a not entirely orderly but generally peaceful collision among people and cultures. Identities are scrambling, and then cohering in new ways. Beliefs keep slipping through the noose of predictability. Facile expectations and simple explanations are being constantly upended. Spend time actually talking to Americans, and you discover that most evangelicals are more tolerant than the media would have us believe, most secularists more spiritual. Most rich people want the poor to succeed, and most of the poor are both more self-critical and hold higher aspirations than the popular culture allows.
BARACK OBAMA, The Audacity of Hope
I'll tell you a quick story ... we have dinner together, my wife asks my two daughters, seven and four--Malia, "How was your day?" She'll say, "Tell us about it." Four year old, Sasha, "How was your day?" They ask my wife, "How was your day?" Then finally my wife says, "Well, let's ask Daddy how his day was." And, ahh, my four year old will say, "Boring." And my wife will say, "Well, that's not nice, you know, actually people come and listen to Daddy speak." And the two of them fall out of their chairs. They think that's the funniest thing--the notion that somebody would be interested in what their father has to say.
BARACK OBAMA, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, May 12, 2006
Stereotypes and prejudices still exist in American society, and for the highest office in the land a female or African-American candidate would, at the outset, confront some additional hurdles to show that they were qualified and competent. But what I've found is that the American people--once they get to know you--are going to judge you on your individual character. Whatever the flaws in the process, people get a fairly accurate read by the end of the campaign.
BARACK OBAMA, Newsweek, Jan. 1, 2007
It's not just enough to change the players. We've gotta change the game.
BARACK OBAMA, podcast, Jan. 8, 2007
We must be as careful getting out of Iraq as we were careless getting in.
BARACK OBAMA, speech, Jun. 3, 2008
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.
BARACK OBAMA, The Audacity of Hope
There is no military solution to the war in Iraq. Our troops can help suppress the violence, but they cannot solve its root causes. And all the troops in the world won't be able to force Shia, Sunni, and Kurd to sit down at a table, resolve their differences, and forge a lasting peace. In fact, adding more troops will only push this political settlement further and further into the future, as it tells the Iraqis that no matter how much of a mess they make, the American military will always be there to clean it up.
BARACK OBAMA, podcast, Jan. 3, 2007
We've gotta restore the American people's confidence in the ethics process by ensuring that political self-interest can no longer prevent politicians from enforcing ethics rules.
BARACK OBAMA, podcast, Jan. 8, 2007
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.
BARACK OBAMA, email to supporters, Jan. 16, 2007
In the end, no amount of American forces can solve the political differences that lie at the heart of somebody else's civil war.
BARACK OBAMA, speech, Jan. 19, 2007
We tortured some folks.... We did some things that were contrary to our values. I understand why it happened. I think it's important when we look back to recall how afraid people were after the Twin Towers fell, and the Pentagon had been hit, and a plane in Pennsylvania had fallen and people did not know whether more attacks were imminent and there was enormous pressure on our law enforcement and our national security teams to try to deal with this.
BARACK OBAMA, press conference, August 1, 2014
That's what we memorialize today. That spirit that says, send me, no matter the mission. Send me, no matter the risk. Send me, no matter how great the sacrifice I am called to make. The patriots we memorialize today sacrificed not only all they had but all they would ever know. They gave of themselves until they had nothing more to give. It's natural, when we lose someone we care about, to ask why it had to be them. Why my son, why my sister, why my friend, why not me? These are questions that cannot be answered by us. But on this day we remember that it is on our behalf that they gave their lives. We remember that it is their courage, their unselfishness, their devotion to duty that has sustained this country through all its trials and will sustain us through all the trials to come. We remember that the blessings we enjoy as Americans came at a dear cost; that our very presence here today, as free people in a free society, bears testimony to their enduring legacy.
BARACK OBAMA, remarks by the President at a Memorial Day service, May 30, 2011
I have seen people of differing views and opinions find common cause many times during my two decades in public life, and I have brought many together myself. I've walked arm-in-arm with community leaders on the South Side of Chicago and watched tensions fade as black, white and Latino fought together for good jobs and good schools. I've sat across the table from law enforcement and civil rights advocates to reform a criminal justice system that sent thirteen innocent people to death row. I've worked with friends in the other party to provide more children with health insurance and more working families with a tax break; to curb the spread of nuclear weapons and ensure that the American people know where their tax dollars are being spent; and to reduce the influence of lobbyists who have all too often set the agenda in Washington. In our country, I have found that this cooperation happens not because we agree on everything, but because behind all the false labels and false divisions and categories that define us; beyond all the petty bickering and point-scoring in Washington, Americans are a decent, generous, compassionate people, united by common challenges and common hopes. And every so often, there are moments which call on that fundamental goodness to make this country great again. So it was for that band of patriots who declared in a Philadelphia hall the formation of a more perfect union; and for all those who gave on the fields of Gettysburg and Antietam their last full measure of devotion to save that same union. So it was for the Greatest Generation that conquered fear itself, and liberated a continent from tyranny, and made this country home to untold opportunity and prosperity. So it was for the workers who stood out on the picket lines; the women who shattered glass ceilings; the children who braved a Selma bridge for freedom's cause. So it has been for every generation that faced down the greatest challenges and the most improbable odds to leave their children a world that's better, and kinder and more just. And so it must be for us.
BARACK OBAMA, speech, Jun. 3, 2008
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