It is possible for leaders or regimes to be cruel, bigoted, twisted in their world views and still make rational calculations with respect to their limits and their self-preservation.

We honor those who walked so we could run. We must run so our children soar. And we will not grow weary.

Did I recognize that there was anger or frustration in the American population? Of course I did. First of all, we had to fight back from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and I can guarantee you if your housing values have crashed and you've lost most of your pension and you've lost your job, you're going to be pretty angry.

I've called on Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act to help end discrimination to help end discrimination against same-sex couples in this country. Now, I want to add we have a duty to uphold existing law, but I believe we must do so in a way that does not exacerbate old divides. And fulfilling this duty in upholding the law in no way lessens my commitment to reversing this law. I've made that clear.

Ultimately, I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all fifty states.

We're not going to put the cart before the horse and just think by sending more troops, we're automatically going to make Americans safe.

We're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq with a representative government that was elected by its people. We're building a new partnership between our nations and we are ending a war not with a final battle but with a final march toward home. This is an extraordinary achievement