Governance should be designed as an equalizer. Democrats are more inclined towards working families and those who are struggling for a better life.

I believe men and women are the same and that women should be given an equal chance to serve God with men.

I've been an evangelistic Baptist all my life and still am to some degree.

Earlier in my life I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see, like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office. But as I've grown older I've become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can't see -- the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.

I come out of the environment of the Deep South, where I had seen the millstone of racial discrimination weighting down my people, both the black people and the white people; and I had seen the enormous progress that we were able to make after we removed the legal restraints of a two-class society, with the whites superior and blacks inferior. So I was very convinced before I became President that basic human rights, equality of opportunity, the end of abuse by governments of their people, was a basic principle on which the United States should be an acknowledged champion.

From the beginning, the United States has enjoyed close and valued ties with the Muslim world.

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.