My guiding principle as president has been to try to do the right thing even when it's not politically convenient.
Barack ObamaI said to one young activist who herself was the daughter of an undocumented worker, and so could speak from a very personal and legitimate perspective - I remember saying to her: I agree with you, from a moral perspective, that a child from Honduras is worth the same as my daughter. God is not a respecter of boundaries; he's not saying that American kids deserve a better life than Honduran kids. But I'm the president of the United States, and the nation-state by definition means that boundaries mean something and borders mean something.
Barack ObamaYou [Bill Maher] seem to have done alright with your TV show... I mean, I don't get a sense... to the extent that they're boycotting you, it's because of your other wacky views rather than your particular views on religion.
Barack ObamaI would say that I have been consistent in my broad view of how American power should be deployed, and the view that we underestimate our power when we restrict it to just our military power. We shortchange our influence and our ability to shape events when that's the only tool we think we have in the toolbox.
Barack Obama