Presidential debate: Which questions might trip up Obama and Romney?

By Amanda Paulson

Why don’t you support the DREAM Act, Mr. Romney? What economic missteps have you made, President Obama? Both candidates could face tricky questions in Wednesday’s debate.

On Wednesday, expect both presidential candidates to be pushed on some uncomfortable issues. How willing they are to address tough questions head-on will vary, of course – there is still plenty of room in a debate format to dodge the issue – but one purpose of a debate is to push candidates beyond their stump speeches.

In a first, moderator Jim Lehrer has already given advance notice of the broad topics he plans to cover: three questions on the economy, one on health care, one on governing, and one on the role of government. But that could change, and his list is also so vague as to leave room for almost anything. So, what are some of the questions that could – or should – come up in Denver Wednesday night? Expect both candidates to be pushed hard on the economy.

For Mitt Romney, one of the toughest questions might revolve around his now infamous comment to private donors that 47 percent of the country “believe that they are victims” and pay no federal income taxes.

Any question that pushes Romney on those comments – and forces him to explain how his economic policies could benefit the middle class rather than just the wealthy – could put him in a difficult position, says Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public policy at Princeton University in New Jersey.

It could also provide Romney with an opportunity, Professor Zelizer notes – but only if he has the right demeanor.
“In answering, it’s not simply that he says the right things about the middle class, but that he appears genuine,” says Zelizer. “Romney has to display a kind of humanity that’s often missing.”

And economic questions could put President Obama in a tricky position too – particularly if Mr. Lehrer presses him on why, despite his policies and the stimulus, the economy is still in as bad shape as it is.

Mr. Obama’s transition team forecast that the stimulus would keep unemployment from going above 8 percent, and instead it hasn’t gone below 8 percent, notes Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College in California.
“If they haven’t anticipated that question, then [the debate prep team] is pretty hopeless,” he adds.
In Romney’s case, says Professor Pitney, they should also be anticipating some question on the 47 percent issue that explores where those policies came from: “Ronald Reagan made a big point of taking lower-income Americans off the income-tax rolls,” for instance. “Why do you think Reagan was wrong?”

And both candidates might be pushed beyond where they’re comfortable going on economic specifics: what programs they’d cut to reduce the deficit and, in Romney’s case, what exactly he’d do differently from Obama to make the economy improve.

Health care is certainly going to come up, and is a somewhat difficult topic, complete with a lot of potential pitfalls, for both candidates.

“Obama will have to talk about health care, why this is a good bill, and why it was more important than focusing on the economy or focusing on continued stimulus,” says Zelizer.

Romney, on the other hand, still hasn’t explained to some voters’ satisfaction why his position on health care has changed.

The fact-checker team at The Washington Post has also come up with a list of tough questions based on candidates’ suspect claims. For Example: Romney has said he would reduce the size of government while boosting defense spending and reversing the slowdown in Medicare spending – a plan some experts have said doesn’t add up. He could be asked what he would cut to make the numbers work.

Or Obama could be asked when he’ll start taking responsibility for economic missteps on his watch – and whether there are any economic decisions he regrets. Multiple fact-checking organizations have questioned his claim that 90 percent of the deficit on his watch came from Bush-era policies.

Beyond the economy and health care, it’s unclear – and somewhat doubtful, given that this debate format favors fewer questions and longer discussion times – whether domestic issues like immigration, gun control, trade, education, or climate change will come up. But some of those have pitfalls as well.

Immigration is a particularly thorny issue for Romney, given the resistance in much of the Republican party to any policy smacking of amnesty. On Monday, Romney clarified his stance somewhat on Obama’s controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, sometimes referred to as the DREAM Act-lite.

Romney has been pressured recently to explain what he would do about undocumented immigrants granted temporary work status under the program. DACA essentially gives a two-year visa to some undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children, have lived here at least five years, and are still age 30 or under, among other requirements.

Romney told The Denver Post Monday that he would not rescind work permits for those who have received them – but that still doesn’t answer what he’d do about the hundreds of thousands who may have pending applications, or whether he’d allow the program to continue. It’s a tricky question for him, given how popular the program is among the Hispanic voting groups he’d like to court, and how unpopular it is among many conservatives.

Gun control is another possibility as a sleeper question, especially given the debate’s proximity to both Aurora, Colo., and Littleton, Colo., where the Columbine shootings took place. And it’s likely not a question either candidate would welcome, given how evasive they’ve been about gun control in the past – and how unpopular the issue is among many key swing voters.

On Monday, the United Against Illegal Guns Support Fund unveiled an ad featuring Stephen Barton, one of the shooting victims in this past summer’s Aurora movie theater shooting, posing that question himself.
“When you watch the presidential debates, ask yourself: Who has a plan to stop gun violence?” Mr. Barton says in the ad. “Let’s demand a plan.”

It’s unclear whether the candidates will have to answer that question themselves Wednesday night, but their answers to that – and other tough questions – might be illuminating.

100Feed: Romney Defends Marriage and Faith in Liberty University Speech

Mitt Romney stood behind his position against same sex marriage, telling graduates at Liberty University Saturday that marriage between “one man and one woman” is an “enduring institution” that should be defended.

Just days after President Obama endorsed the right of gays and lesbians to marry, the comment earned Romney a standing ovation from the crowd of more than 30,000 people — the largest crowd Romney has ever addressed as a political candidate – but it was his only mention of the hot button social issue.

Instead, the presumptive Republican nominee used his commencement address at that evangelical university to emphasize the importance of faith and family—and take some slight digs at President Obama’s handling of the country, though he didn’t name his 2012 opponent.

“Lately, I’ve found myself thinking about life in four-year stretches. And let’s just say that not everybody has achieved as much in these last four years as you have,” Romney said. ” But that’s a theme for another day.”

Indeed, Romney touched only fleetingly on issues that could be potentially controversial. His visit to Liberty, a Christian university founded by the late televangelist Jerry Falwell, was an overt appeal to social conservatives who have been wary about his White House bid. But his appearance had generated protests by some Liberty students, where the curriculum has described Romney’s Mormon faith as a “cult.”

Romney did not use his Saturday address to specifically defend his Mormon faith. But he did speak at length about the importance of faith in his own life—a riff that was clearly an attempt to discourage suspicion about his personal beliefs. He argued that people, no matter what they believe, could agree on faith and moral service to the country.

“People of different faiths, like yours and mine, sometimes wonder where we can meet in common purpose, when there are so many differences in creed and theology.” Romney said. “Surely the answer is that we can meet in service, in shared moral convictions about our nation stemming from a common worldview.”

He argued that faith and belief in God was more important than “trivial things”—but acknowledged that he, like others, had occasionally lost sight of that. He urged the graduates to always turn back to faith.

“What we have, what we wish we had–ambitions fulfilled, ambitions disappointed; investments won, investments lost; elections won, elections lost–these things may occupy our attention, but they do not define us. And each of them is subject to the vagaries and serendipities of life,” Romney said. “Our relationship with our Maker, however, depends on none of this…The best advice I know is to give those worldly things your best but never your all, reserving the ultimate hope for the only one who can grant it.”

While Romney aides insisted the former governor’s remarks would not be a “policy” speech, he gave a shout out to his former rival Rick Santorum, saying that he agreed that America’s greatness was defined by its “culture” and “values.” And he also argued for the protection of “religious freedom,” saying it’s become a “matter of debate.”

“It strikes me as odd that the free exercise of religious faith is sometimes treated as a problem, something America is stuck with instead of blessed with,” Romney said. “Perhaps religious conscience upsets the designs of those who feel that the highest wisdom and authority comes from government. ”

Romney paid homage to Truett Cathy, the founder of the fast food chain Chick fil-A, who was given an honorary degree just moments before Romney took the podium.

“The Romney campaign comes to a sudden stop when we spot a Chick-fil-A,” the Republican candidate said. “Your chicken sandwiches were our comfort food through the primary season, and there were days that we needed a lot of comforting. “

100Feed: President Obama Shows Support for Gay Marriage

President Obama announced today that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and vice president Joe Biden.

In an interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts, the president described his thought process as an evolution that led him to this place, based on conversations with his own staff members, openly gay and lesbian service members, and conversations with his wife and daughters.

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,” Obama told Roberts, in an interview to appear on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Thursday. Excerpts of the interview will air tonight on ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer.”

The president stressed that this is a personal position, and that he still supports the concept of states deciding the issue on their own. He stated that he is confident that more Americans will grow comfortable with gays and lesbians getting married, citing his own daughters’ comfort with the concept.

“It’s interesting, some of this is also generational,” the president continued. “You know when I go to college campuses, sometimes I talk to college Republicans who think that I have terrible policies on the economy, on foreign policy, but are very clear that when it comes to same sex equality or, you know, believe in equality. They are much more comfortable with it. You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples. There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the dinner table and we’re talking about their friends and their parents and Malia and Sasha, it wouldn’t dawn on them that somehow their friends’ parents would be treated differently. It doesn’t make sense to them and frankly, that’s the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.”

Roberts asked the president if First Lady Michelle Obama was involved in this decision. Obama said she was, and he talked specifically about his own faith in responding.

“This is something that, you know, we’ve talked about over the years and she, you know, she feels the same way, she feels the same way that I do. And that is that, in the end the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people and, you know, I, you know, we are both practicing Christians and obviously this position may be considered to put us at odds with the views of others but, you know, when we think about our faith, the thing at root that we think about is, not only Christ sacrificing himself on our behalf, but it’s also the Golden Rule, you know, treat others the way you would want to be treated. And I think that’s what we try to impart to our kids and that’s what motivates me as president and I figure the most consistent I can be in being true to those precepts, the better I’ll be as a as a dad and a husband and hopefully the better I’ll be as president.”

Previously, Obama has moved in the direction of supporting same-sex marriage but has consistently stopped short of supporting it. Instead, he’s voiced support for civil unions for gay and lesbian couples that provide the rights and benefits enjoyed by married couples, though not defined as marriage. At the same time, the president has opposed efforts to ban gay marriage at the state level, saying that he did not favor attempts to strip rights away from gay and lesbian couples.

The president’s position became a flashpoint this week, when Vice President Joe Biden pronounced himself absolutely comfortable with allowing same-sex couples to wed.

Obama aides insisted there was no daylight between the positions held by the president and his vice president when it comes to legal rights, but as other prominent Democrats also weighed in in favor of gay marriage, the disconnect became difficult for the White House to explain away.

The announcement completes a turnabout for the president, who has opposed gay marriage throughout his career in national politics. In 1996, as a state Senate candidate, he indicated support for gay marriage in a questionnaire, but Obama aides later disavowed it and said it did not reflect the candidate’s position.

In 2004, as a candidate for the US Senate, he cited his own religion in framing his views: “I’m a Christian. I do believe that tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”

He maintained that position through his 2008 presidential campaign, and through his term as president, until today.

As president in 2010, Obama told ABC’s Jake Tapper that his feelings about gay marriage were “constantly evolving. I struggle with this.” A year later, the president told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “I’m still working on it.”

“I probably won’t make news right now, George,” Obama said in October 2011. “But I think that there’s no doubt that as I see friends, families, children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues.”

Obama’s decision has political connotations for the fall.

The issue divides elements of the Democratic base, with liberals and gay-rights groups eager to see the president go farther, but with gay marriage far less popular among African-American voters.

Just yesterday, in North Carolina, voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage. President Obama carried North Carolina in 2008, and its status as a 2012 battleground was guaranteed by Democrats’ decision to hold their convention in Charlotte this summer.

Obama’s likely Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, opposes gay marriage, and fought his state’s highest court when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004, when Romney was governor. Romney said on the campaign trail Monday that he continues to oppose gay marriage.

“My view is that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman,” Romney said. “That’s the position I’ve had for some time, and I don’t intend to make any adjustments at this point. … Or ever, by the way.”

100Feed: Highlights of Newt Gingrich’s 2012 Campaign

Student Janitors
Calling America’s child labour laws “truly stupid”, Gingrich uses a November speech at Harvard University to propose a Dickensian alternative. At first glance, this idea sounds ridiculous, but when you stop to think about it – nope, still ridiculous.

Bitten by Penguin
Gingrich loves zoo animals, but they don’t always love him back. Or maybe the penguin bite was done lovingly? We shall never know, but it doesn’t really matter, because this story generated the headline “Newt Gingrich Bitten by a Penguin”, thus making the world a measurably better place.

James Bond Style Plan for Tracking Down Illegal Immigrants
“We send a package to every person who is here illegally. When it’s delivered, we pull it up, we know exactly where they are, it’s on the computer.”

A Moon Colony
“By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon. And it will be American,” Gingrich notoriously explained in a speech in Florida, adding further random thoughts about how big the population of such a colony might have to be before its residents could petition to become a US state. The whole notion of a moon colony by the end of a second Gingrich term was absurd, though, noted a correspondent to the St Louis Times-Dispatch, on the grounds that:

“Newt Gingrich would never have a second term.”

Attacking John King
If there’s one thing truly shocking about Gingrich’s private life, it’s John King having the bravado to ask about it. In any case Gingrich’s non-monogamous approach to marriage simply demonstrates that he has a lot of “leftover love to share with the American people”.

Birthday Cake Theory
As Gingrich helpfully explained in Iowa last year:

“If you went to somebody who was a great cook and you said ‘do you think you can bake a birthday cake’ and they said ‘sure I can bake a birthday cake,’ the odds are pretty high they’ll be able to bake a birthday cake. Now it helps to have a recipe for birthday cakes and it helps to have baked one. President Obama’s biggest challenge is, that he has exactly the wrong ideas. He belongs to an ideology that believes the way you get hard eggs is you freeze them.”

And, like my favorite part of the movie “There Will Be Blood”, “If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake, and I come over and drink up your milkshake, there is nothing you can do about it.” It looks like Mitt Romney has drank Newt Gingrich’s milkshake.

100Feed Special Report: Jon Huntsman Slams GOP by Samantha R. Selman

Jon Huntsman leveled harsh criticism at his party on Sunday evening, BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller reported, comparing the Republican Party to communist China and questioning the strength of this year’s presidential field.

During an event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Huntsman spoke candidly about his party’s flaws, lamenting the Republican National Committee’s decision to rescind an invitation to a major fundraising event after Huntsman called for a third-party candidate to enter the race.
“This is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script,” Huntsman said.
Huntsman, a former Utah governor who dropped out of the GOP primary in January, served as U.S. ambassador to China under President Barack Obama.

He also criticized the Republican candidates’ foreign policy stances, particularly in regard to China.
“I don’t know what world these people are living in,” Huntsman said.
Although Huntsman did not mention any specific candidates, he has criticized Mitt Romney in the past for his “wrong-headed” approach. Huntsman, who endorsed Romney after dropping out of the race, said in February that the former Massachusetts governor should take a more opportunity-minded view to relations with China.

Huntsman also spoke on Sunday about his presidential candidacy, revealing that he was less than impressed by his fellow candidates when he attended his first debate in August.
“Is this the best we could do?” Huntsman said he asked himself.
He also joked that his wife forbade him to pander to the party’s far-right contingent ahead of Iowa’s caucuses, which likely hurt him with conservative voters in the Hawkeye State.
“She said if you pandered, if you sign any of those damn pledges, I’ll leave you,”Huntsman said, “So I had to say I believe in science — and people on stage look at you quizzically as though you’re … an oddball.”

Huntsman, however, did not actively campaign in Iowa, telling CBS News in December that “they pick corn,” not presidents, in that early caucus state.

Since dropping out of the race, Huntsman has remained critical of his former opponents and has remained lukewarm in his backing of Romney.
“Gone are the days when the Republican Party used to put forward big, bold, visionary stuff,” Huntsman said during the February interview with MSNBC that got him disinvited from the RNC fundraiser. “I think we’re going to have problems politically until we get some sort of third-party movement or some alternative voice out there that can put forward new ideas.”

And unlike others in his party who have endorsed Romney, Huntsman has refrained from appearing at campaign events on behalf of his party’s likely nominee. According to his daughter, Abby Livingston, he won’t be joining Romney on the trail anytime soon.
“My dad is not a surrogate for Romney and will not be out stumping for him in the general,” she told ABC News earlier this month. “He is enjoying private life.”

100Feed: 100 Best Quotes from President Barack Obama

1. “[My father] had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact. They couldn’t describe what it might have been like had he stayed.”

2. “At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me both more and less than a man.”

3. “I saw that my life in America – the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I’d witnessed in Chicago – all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away.”

4. “I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars. What I am opposed to is a rash war.”

5. “Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.”

6. “We don’t quit. I don’t quit. Let’s seize this moment to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and strengthen our union once more.”

7. “I began to notice there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog…and that Santa was a white man. I went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror with all my senses and limbs seemingly intact, looking the way I had always looked, and wondered if something was wrong with me.”

8. “A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, ‘Huh. It works. It makes sense.”

9. “After a century of striving, after a year of debate, after a historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land.”

10. “Al Qaeda is still a threat. We cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as president, suddenly everything is going to be OK.”

11. “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.”

12. “Americans…still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.”

13. “And I will do everything that I can as long as I am President of the United States to remind the American people that we are one nation under God, and we may call that God different names but we remain one nation.”

14. “And so our goal on health care is, if we can get, instead of health care costs going up 6 percent a year, it’s going up at the level of inflation, maybe just slightly above inflation, we’ve made huge progress. And by the way, that is the single most important thing we could do in terms of reducing our deficit. That’s why we did it.”

15. “As a nuclear power – as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon – the United States has a moral responsibility to act.”

16. “As I’ve said, there were patriots who supported this war, and patriots who opposed it. And all of us are united in appreciate for our servicemen and women, and our hopes for Iraqis’ future.”

17. “But if you – if what- the reports are true, what they’re saying is, is that as a consequence of us getting 30 million additional people health care, at the margins that’s going to increase our costs, we knew that.”

18. “But what we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That’s what I strive to do, that’s what I pray to do every day.”

19. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’re been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

20. “Community colleges play an important role in helping people transition between careers by providing the retooling they need to take on a new career.”

21. “Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market.”

“What Washington needs is adult supervision.”

23. “I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

24. “I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.”

25. “I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

26. “I don’t care whether you’re driving a hybrid or an SUV. If you’re headed for the cliff, you change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, that’s what I intend to deliver.”

27. “I don’t take a dime of their [lobbyist] money, and when I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House.”

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

29. “I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.”

30. “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 US Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying.”

31. “I think it is important for Europe to understand that even though I am president and George Bush is not president, Al Qaeda is still a threat.”

32. “I think when you spread the wealth around it’s good for everybody.”

33. “I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.”

34. “I’m a Christian by choice.”

35. “I’ve been fighting with Acorn, alongside Acorn, on issues you care about, my entire career.”

36. “I’ve got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

37. “I’ve said very clearly, including in a State of the Union address, that I’m against ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and that we’re going to end this policy.”

38. “If everybody that voted in 2008 shows up in 2010, we will win this election. We will win this election.”

39. “If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.”

40. “If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.”

41. “In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world.”

42. “In the absence of sound oversight, responsible businesses are forced to compete against unscrupulous and underhanded business, who are unencumbered by any restrictions on activities that might harm the environment, or take advantage of middle-class families, or threaten to bring down the entire financial system.”

43. “In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?”

44. “Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.”

45. “It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we being in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.”

46. “It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was Al Qaeda. We will not sacrifice the liberties we cherish or hunker down behind walls of suspicion and mistrust.”

47. “It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.”

48. “It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

49. “It’s time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.”

50. “John Kerry believes in an America where hard work is rewarded.”

51. “Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we are going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.”

53. “Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.”

54. “My administration is the only thing between you [CEO’s] and the pitchforks.”

55. “My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because of the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kinds of life that I would want to lead.”

56. “My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.”

57. “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.”

58. “My task over the last two years hasn’t been to stop the bleeding. My task has also been to try to figure out how do we address some of the structural problems in the economy that have prevented my Googles from being created.”

59. “No one is pro-abortion.”

60. “Now we’re in the midst of not just advocating for change, not just calling for change – we’re doing the grinding, sometimes frustrating work of delivering change – inch by inch, day by day.”

61. “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.”

62. “Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission. Extremists will continues to set off bombs, attack Iraqi civilians and try to spark sectarian strife. But ultimately, these terrorists will fail to achieve their goals.”

63. “On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we’re going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.”

64. “One of the great strengths of the United States is…we have a very large Christian population – we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

65. “Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terrorism have reduced the pace of military transformation and have revealed our lack of preparation for defensive and stability operations. This Administration has overextended our military.”

66. “Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq’s future is not.”

67. “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”

68. “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.”

69. “People of Berlin – people of the world – this is our moment. This is our time.”

70. “Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow.”

71. “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?'”

72. “So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you – and fight alongside you – until the job is done. Until New Orleans is all the way back, all the way.”

73. “The Bush Administration’s failure to be consistently involved in helping Israel achieve peace with the Palestinians has been both wrong for our friendship with Israel, as well as badly damaging to our standing in the Arab world.”

74. “The fact that my 15 minutes of fame has extended a little longer than 15 minutes is somewhat surprising to me and completely baffling to my wife.”

75. “The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can
communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.”

76. “The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country – I know, because I am one of them.”

77. “The United States is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.”

78. “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.”

79. “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.”

80. “There is probably a perverse pride in my administration…that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.”

81. “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America – there’s the United States of America.”

82. “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.”

83. “This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands.”

84. “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.”

85. “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.”

86. “We all knew this. We all knew that it would take more time than any of us want to dig ourselves out of this hole created by this economic crisis.”

87. “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times…and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.”

88. “We can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for
the ride, but they gotta sit in the back.”

89. “We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

90. “We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn’t come this far by letting the special interests run wild. We didn’t do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street. We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell.”

91. “We have an obligation and a responsibility to be investing in our students and our schools. We must make sure that people who have the grades, the desire, and the will, but not the money, can still get the best education possible.”

92. “We have now just enshrined, as soon as I sign this bill, the core principle that everybody should have some basic security when it comes to their healthcare.”

93. “We have real enemies in the world. These enemies must be found. They must be pursued and they must be defeated.”

94. “We need earmark reform, and when I’m President, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”

95. “We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old – and that’s the criterion by which I’ll be selecting my judges.”

96. “We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.”

97. “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.”

98. “We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges.”

99. “We’re not going to baby sit a civil war.”

100. “Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”