Barack Obama Quotes About Debate

• If we’re going to have arguments, let’s have arguments — but let’s make them debates worthy of this body and worthy of this country.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Body, Argument

  Sixth Presidential State of the Union Address, delivered 20 January 2015

• The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose.

  Barack Obama

  Differences, People, Democracy

  First Presidential Prime Time Press Conference, delivered 9 February 2009

• The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt.

  Barack Obama

  Leadership, America, Effort

  "It's Worth Actually Reading Obama's 2006 Debt Ceiling Speech". www.slate.com. October 09, 2013.

• For all the noise and anger that too often surrounds the immigration debate, America has nothing to fear from today's immigrants. They have come here for the same reason that families have always come here-for the hope that in America, they could build a better life for themselves and their families. Like the waves of immigrants that came before them and the Hispanic Americans whose families have been here for generations, the recent arrival of Latino immigrants will only enrich our country.

  Barack Obama

  Country, America, Immigration

  Barack Obama's Remarks to NALEO, www.realclearpolitics.com. June 28, 2008.

• Secularists are wrong when they ask believers to leave their religion at the door before entering into the public square. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Williams Jennings Bryan, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King - indeed, the majority of great reformers in American history - were not only motivated by faith, but repeatedly used religious language to argue for their cause. To say that men and women should not inject their "personal morality" into public policy debates is a practical absurdity.

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Kings, Men

  "Leith Anderson, Russell Moore, Other Faith Leaders Ask Obama to Reject Gov't Report Saying Religious Freedom Is Code for Discrimination" by Anugrah Kumar, www.christianpost.com. October 12, 2016.

• The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure... It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Government, America

  Barack Obama's speech Against Raising The Debt Ceiling on the floor of the US Senate, www.redstate.com. March 16, 2006.

• I am convinced that whenever we exaggerate or demonize, oversimplify or overstate our case, we lose. Whenever we dumb down the political debate, we lose. For it's precisely the pursuit of ideological purity, the rigid orthodoxy and the sheer predictability of our current political debate, that keeps us from finding new ways to meet the challenges we face.

  Barack Obama

  Political, Dumb, Challenges

  Barack Obama (2006). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.31, Crown

• The shift to a cleaner energy economy wont happen overnight, and it will require tough choices along the way. But the debate is settled. Climate change is a fact.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Choices, Facts

  Fifth Presidential State of the Union, delivered 28 January 2014

• 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.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Law, Land

  "CNN Student News" with Carl Azuz, edition.cnn.com. March 24, 2010.

• If we're not vigilant foreign countries can have an impact on the political debate in the United States in ways that might not have been true 10, 20, 30 years ago in - in part because of the way news is transmitted and in part because so many people are skeptical of mainstream news organizations that - everything's true and everything's false.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Years, Organization

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• One of the things we're going to have to discuss and debate is how are we striking this balance between the need to keep the American people safe and our concerns about privacy. Because there are some trade-offs involved. I welcome this debate, and I think it's healthy for our democracy.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Nsa, People

  "Around The World" with Michael Holmes, www.cnn.com. June 7, 2013.

• What you saw was the people of New York having a debate, talking through these issues. It was contentious. It was emotional. But ultimately, they made a decision to recognize civil marriage. And I think that's exactly how things should work.

  Barack Obama

  New York, Emotional, Thinking

  "Obama Challenges GOP Lawmakers In Budget Debate". "All Things Considered" with Robert Siegel and Melissa Block, www.npr.org. June 29, 2011.

• Number one, it is absolutely critical that we tone down the rhetoric when it comes to the immigration debate, because there has been an undertone that has been ugly. Oftentimes, it has been directed at the Hispanic community. We have seen hate crimes skyrocket in the wake of the immigration debate as it has been conducted in Washington, and that is unacceptable.

  Barack Obama

  Hate, Numbers, Community

  Democratic Debate in Austin, Tex., www.nytimes.com. February 21, 2008.

• You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideas.

  Barack Obama

  Ideas, Voice, Pro Life

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

• All across the world, ...increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.

  Barack Obama

  Running, Real, Men

  Barack Obama (2008). “An American Story: The Speeches of Barack Obama : a Primer”, Independent Publishing Group

• This is something that I'm sure I'd have serious debates with my fellow Christians about. I think that the difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and prostelytize. There's the belief, certainly in some quarters, that people haven't embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior that they're going to hell.

  Barack Obama

  Christian, Jesus, Thinking

  "Obama on faith". The Patheos Interview, www.patheos.com. March 27, 2004.

• Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Government, Long

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

• We have a choice. We can shape our future, or let events shape it for us. And if we want to succeed, we can't fall back on the stale debates and old divides that won't move us forward.

  Barack Obama

  Powerful, Moving, Fall

  Remarks From President Obama and Prime Minister Brown, www.nytimes.com. April 1, 2009.

• Now, at times this issue has tended to degenerate into an 'either-or' type of debate. Either we protect our people from terror or we protect our most cherished principles. But that is a false choice. It asks too little of us and assumes too little about America.

  Barack Obama

  America, Issues, People

• For now, decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.

  Barack Obama

  Mistake, Names, Decision

  Second Presidential Inaugural Address, delivered 21 January 2013, Washington, D.C.

• There's a reason why the NRA's not here. They're just down the street. And since this is the main reason they exist, you'd think that they'd be prepared to have a debate with a president.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, President, Reason Why

  Source: www.abc.net.au

• What is true, and I think that we can't deny it, is that some of the same concerns about globalization, about technology, rapid social change that were reflected in Brexit, that's been reflected in some of the debates in Germany and France and other places, that those exist in the United States as well. My view is that over the long term, over the next 10, 15, 20 years, if we are able to address the legitimate economic concerns of those who feel left behind by globalization, then many of these tensions will be reduced. And we will see a world that is less divided.

  Barack Obama

  Technology, Thinking, Views

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• The fact that there is a robust debate in Congress is good. The fact that the debate sometimes seems unanchored to facts is not so good.

  Barack Obama

  Facts, Sometimes, Debate

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

• In the course of a healthy debate, we prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts, without a willingness to admit new information and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and that science and reason matter - then we're going to keep talking past each other, and we'll make common ground and compromise impossible.

  Barack Obama

  Mean, Past, Goal

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

• There are gonna be a core set of values that shouldn't be up for debate. Should be our north star.

  Barack Obama

  Stars, Debate, Should

  Source: time.com

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