America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to
turn the page of the policies of the past.
Barack Obama
Claiming Democratic presidential nomination
victory over Hillary Clinton after his triumph in Montana primary,
June 3, 2008. |
I honor -- we honor -- the service of John McCain, and I respect
his many accomplishments, even if he chooses to deny mine.
Barack Obama
Speech following Montana primary, June
3, 2008. |
I’m not denouncing the church, and I’m not interested
in people who want me to denounce the church. It’s not
a church worthy of denouncing.
Barack Obama
On resigning membership of Trinity United
Church of Chjrist, May 31, 2008. |
I’ve known Reverend Wright for almost twenty years. The
person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met twenty
years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive,
but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey
on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the
perspective of the black church. They certainly don’t portray
accurately my values and beliefs and if Reverend Wright thinks
that's political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn't know
me very well and based on his remarks yesterday, well I may
not know him as well as I thought either.
Barack Obama
At press conference following Reverend
Jeremiah Wright's speech at Press Club event, April 29, 2008. |
You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, a lot
like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been
gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And
they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration,
and each successive administration has said that somehow these
communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s
not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns
or religion or antipathy towards people who aren’t like
them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as
a way to explain their frustrations.
Barack Obama
At San Francisco fundraiser, April 6, 2008. |
I've got two daughters, nine years old and six years old.
I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals.
But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with
a baby.
Barack Obama
Town Hall Meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
March 29, 2008. |
The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors
any racial animosity. She doesn't. But she is a typical white
person who, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't
know, there's a reaction that's been bred into our experiences
that don't go away, and that sometimes comes out in the wrong
way, and that's just the nature of race in our society.
Barack Obama
Interview with WIP, March 20, 2008. |
John McCain once opposed these tax cuts - he rightly called
them unfair and fiscally irresponsible. But now he has done
an about face and wants to make them permanent, just like he
wants a permanent occupation in Iraq. No matter what the costs,
no matter what the consequences, John McCain seems determined
to carry out a third Bush-term. That's an outcome America can't
afford. Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned.
Barack Obama
Speech on the cost of war, March 20, 2008. |
We've got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country.
We've got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding.
... This country wants to move beyond these kinds of things.
Barack Obama
Speech on race, March 18, 2008. |
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.
I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother —
a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and
again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything
in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black
men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one
occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made
me cringe.
Barack Obama
Regarding inflammatory racial remarks of
his Pastor, Rev. Jeremiah White, speech on race, March 18, 2008. |
But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish
it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only
serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between
the races.
Barack Obama
Speech on race, March 18, 2008. |
This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation
has shown that it can always be perfected.
Barack Obama
Speech on race, March 18, 2008. |
We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Barack Obama
Speech following Super Tuesday results,
Feb 5, 2008. |
I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
Barack Obama
Interview in Christianity Today, January
22, 2008. |
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics
who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to
come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been
warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been
anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible
odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we
shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have
responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes we can.
Barack Obama
Speech following New Hampshire Primary
January 8, 2008. |
I did. It's not something that I'm proud of. It was a mistake
as a young man, but you know? I mean not going to -- I never
understood that line. The point was to inhale. That was the
point.
Barack Obama
About his marajuana use, When asked "did
you inhale?", November 2007. |
If I sit down with the leader of Iran, I will send him a strong
message that Israel is our friend, that we will assist in their
security and that we don't find nuclear weapons acceptable....
That's not going to be a propaganda coup for the president of
Iran.
Barack Obama
CNN/YouTube debate, July 23, 2007. |
Nobody's suffering more than the Palestinian people from this
whole process. And I would like to see — if we could get
some movement from Palestinian leadership — what I'd like
to see is a loosening up of some of the restrictions on providing
aid directly to the Palestinian people.
Barack Obama
Response to question in Iowa, March 11,
2007 in "Iowans get an up-close view of Obama" in
USA Today. |
In Africa, you often see that the difference between a village
where everybody eats and a village where people starve is government.
One has a functioning government, and the other does not. Which
is why it bothers me when I hear people say that government
is the enemy. They don't understand its fundamental role.
Barack Obama
Profile in The Independent Magazine, March
10, 2007. |
The Israeli people, and Prime Minister Olmert, have made clear
that they are more than willing to negotiate an end to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict that will result in two states living side by side
in peace and security. But the Israelis must trust that they
have a true Palestinian partner for peace. That is why we must
strengthen the hands of Palestinian moderates who seek peace
and that is why we must maintain the isolation of Hamas and
other extremists who are committed to Israel's destruction.
Barack Obama
Speech at AIPAC, March 2, 2007. |
We can build a more hopeful America. And that is why, in the
shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on
a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common
dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy
for President of the United States of America.
Barack Obama
Speech at Illinois capital Springfield
February 2007, announcing he is entering 2008 US presidential
race. |
The decisions that have been made in Washington these past
six years, and the problems that have been ignored, have put
our country in a precarious place.
Barack Obama
In webcast to supporters on his website,
January 2007. |
We're not going to baby sit a civil war.
Barack Obama
Voicing skepticism of President Bush's
plans for a US military buildup in Iraq, January 2007. |
Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could
afford it. Not smack [heroin] though.
Barack Obama
Admitting taking cannabis and cocaine as
a teenager, in 1995 memoir 'Dreams from My Father'. |
I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.
Barack Obama
From 'Time' magazine June 2005. |
There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are
patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all
of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us
defending the United States of America.
Barack Obama
Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention,
July 2004. |
There is not a liberal America and a conservative America
- there is the United States of America. There is not a black
America and a white America and latino America and asian America
- there's the United States of America.
Barack Obama
Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention,
July 2004. |
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation -
not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of
our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based
on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over
two hundred years ago.
Barack Obama
Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention,
July 2004. |
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.
Barack Obama
Keynote speech to Democratic National Convention,
July 2004. |
In the end, that's what this election is about. Do we participate
in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
Barack Obama
Keynote speech to 2004 Democratic National
Convention, standing as candidate for US Senate in Illinois. |
Sex
and the City
