#nat

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 It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor.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. ↗

— Barack Obama

#also #amend #any #ban #constitution

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I'm going to press on for equality. I'm going to press on for the sake of our children. I'm going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I am going to press on. ↗

— Barack Obama

#children #complain #determination #equality #families

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

#ago #based #because #declaration #economy

What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they're not discriminated on the job. ↗

— Barack Obama

#allow #also #believe #between #certain

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office. ↗

— Barack Obama

#bow #debt #doubled #found #i

Since I'm the president and Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate, it's understandable that people are saying, you know, 'What have you done?' ↗

— Barack Obama

#democrats #done #house #i #know

When we think of the major threats to our national security, the first to come to mind are nuclear proliferation, rogue states and global terrorism. But another kind of threat lurks beyond our shores, one from nature, not humans - an avian flu pandemic. ↗

— Barack Obama

#avian #beyond #come #first #flu

The higher the artist, the fewer the gestures. The fewer the tools, the greater the imagination. The greater the will, the greater the secret failure. ↗

— Ben Okri

#failure #fewer #gestures #greater #higher

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply, majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended. ↗

— Barack Obama

#about #absolute #absolute power #chambers #either

Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement. ↗

— Barack Obama

#cannot #collaborative #cooperation #degree #effective