Barack Obama Quotes About Politicians

• As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol.

  Barack Obama

  Weed, Kids, Thinking

  "Obama: Marijuana no more dangerous than alcohol", www.foxnews.com. January 19, 2014.

• Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

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

• You didn't elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear. You elected me to tell you the truth.

  Barack Obama

  Truth, African American, President

  Second Democratic Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 6 September 2012, Charlotte, North Carolina

• No, you can't deny women their basic rights and pretend it's about your 'religious freedom'. If you don't like birth control, don't use it. Religious freedom doesn't mean you can force others to live by your own beliefs.

  Barack Obama

  Religious, Freedom, Women

• You can't change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside.

  Barack Obama

  Change, America, Usa

  "Obama: 'You can't change Washington from the inside'". www.foxnews.com. September 21, 2012.

• I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so.

  Barack Obama

  Acceptance, Rights, People

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

• At the dawn of the 21st century, where knowledge is literally power, where it unlocks the gates of opportunity and success, we all have responsibilities as parents, as librarians, as educators, as politicians, and as citizens to instill in our children a love of reading so that we can give them a chance to fulfill their dreams.

  Barack Obama

  Dream, Children, Reading

  "We Compared Obama’s Words To Trump’s And The Result Will Make You Sad" by Nick Wing, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 28, 2016.

• Health care got done because there were a lot of people out there who aren't professional politicians, but are citizens, who pushed for it even when the politics was hard.

  Barack Obama

  People, Citizens, Done

  Source: abcnews.go.com

• If you give up on the idea that your voice can make a difference, then other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special interests; the people with the $10 million checks who are trying to buy this election and those who are making it harder for you to vote; Washington politicians who want to decide who you can marry, or control health care choices that women should make for themselves.

  Barack Obama

  Giving Up, Gay, Differences

  Second Democratic Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, delivered 6 September 2012, Charlotte, North Carolina

• Get involved in an issue that you're passionate about. It almost doesn't matter what it is ... We give too much of our power away, to the professional politicians, to the lobbyists, to cynicism. And our democracy suffers as a result.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Issues, Giving

• I could never be a politician. But as uncomfortable as I would be doing so, I have no problem with Obama's long-planned 'change of heart.' This dude's made huge, measurable strides for gay rights, and if being coy about his plans for gay marriage for a few years was needed to get him elected, then so be it. LGBT persons will be better off, and federal same-sex marriage recognition will come sooner because of it.

  Barack Obama

  Sex, Heart, Gay

• And let me say this as a politician I can promise you this, political leaders will never take risks if the people do not push them to take some risks. You must create the change that you want to see.

  Barack Obama

  People, Leader, Political

  "Obama Asks Young Israelis To Push For Peace". "Morning Edition" with Steve Inskeep, www.npr.org. March 22, 2013.

• On the spectrum of successful politicians, I'm not introverted the way some have been.

  Barack Obama

  Successful, Way, Politician

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

• I think I have a pretty good take on popular culture that maybe makes up for the fact that I'm not a sound-bite politician for the nightly news.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Culture, News

  Source: www.vanityfair.com

• We shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions on behalf of women.

  Barack Obama

  Men, Decision, Majority

  Barack Obama's Remarks to the White House Press Corps, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. August 20, 2012.

• One of the hardest things in politics is to convince people to do things now that will have a good effect 20 or 30 years from now because politicians tend to have a short-term view. They are more attentive to things that people care about today.

  Barack Obama

  Views, Years, People

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• 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

  Self, People, Political

• I do think that all politicians today have to be more attentive to people wanting to be heard, wanting to have more control over their lives.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, People, Today

  Source: www.spiegel.de

• Some of the same politicians and pundits that are so quick to reject the possibility of a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear program are the same folks who were so quick to go to war in Iraq and said it would take a few months.

  Barack Obama

  War, Blood, Iran

  "Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee joins Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room". cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com. July 21, 2015.

• I think it's important not to start drawing parallels, for example, between Theresa May, a fairly traditional conservative politician, who's now prime minister and Le Pen in France. Those aren't the same and the situation in each country is different.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Thinking, Drawing

  Source: time.com

• I think if you worked at the community level in Chicago and then a politician on the South Side of Chicago, and worked at the state level, then you're pretty familiar with all the variations of politics in the African American community and criticisms you may get. If you're not familiar with those or you don't have a thick enough skin to take it, then you probably wouldn't have gotten here.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Community, African American

  Source: www.theatlantic.com

• After a decade of profligacy, the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don't walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility. It's easy to get up in front of the cameras and rant against exploding deficits. What's hard is actually getting deficits under control. But that's what we must do. Like families across the country, we have to take responsibility for every dollar we spend.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Tired, Responsibility

  "Obama hails return to PAYGO" by Josh Gerstein, www.politico.com. February 13, 2010.

• The Supreme Court nominations [example]. I mean, the fact that Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Republicans, was able to just stop a nomination almost a year before the next election and really not pay a political price for it, that's a sign that the incentives for politicians in this town to be so sharply partisan have gotten so outta hand that we're weakening ourselves.

  Barack Obama

  Mean, Years, Hands

  Source: www.cbsnews.com

• Back in the '50s and '60s, most politicians were concerned about not talking about faith, partly because there were consequences you had to deal with - (for instance) Catholicism had been made an issue.

  Barack Obama

  Talking, Issues, Politician

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