President Barack Obama
DNC Event
Mandarin Oriental
Hotel
Washington, D.C.
June 20, 2011
7:30 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. It is wonderful to see
so many
great friends. To Amy and all those who helped to organize
tonight's
dinner, I couldn't be more grateful.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, our new DNC chair, thank you for all the
extraordinary work that you're doing. (Applause.) I could
not have
made a better pick.
I want to spend most of the time in a conversation as opposed to just
me making a long speech. But I do want to talk a little bit about
the
context in which we meet this evening. Obviously we're going
through
extraordinarily challenging times. We've gone through the worst
economic crisis since the Great Depression, and a huge amount of energy
has been devoted over the last two years to making sure that we pulled
ourselves back from the brink; that an economy that was contracting is
growing again, that we're putting more and more people back to work,
that businesses are able to succeed, that we're educating our kids,
that we're making investments that will help assure that America
remains not only the most powerful country on Earth, but also one that
is just and one that lives up to the American Dream -- the idea that
anybody who has a good idea, anybody who's willing to work hard, that
they've got a shot at not only living a good life but also passing on
an even better life to their kids.
We also have an extraordinarily challenging international
environment.
When I came into office we were in the midst of two wars. We are
almost done with our troop presence in Iraq, by the end of this
year.
And in Afghanistan, we're in the process of a transition where we are
starting to give more and more responsibility to Afghans for their own
security, at the same time as we have been dogged in pursuing al Qaeda
and are creating a situation where it is very, very difficult for them
to operate.
But in the midst of all this, what we've now also seen is the kind of
tumult taking place in the Middle East that we haven’t seen in a very
long time. And the consequences of what's happening there are
potentially as significant as the consequences of what took place in
Europe when the Berlin Wall came down. It poses great challenges,
but
it also poses great opportunities.
And I think that the most important message I have for all of you here
tonight is that even as we try to manage what is going to be a very
difficult and challenging situation over the next 12 months, the next
24 months, the next decade, that one inviolable principle will be that
the United States and Israel will always be stalwart allies and friends
-- (applause) -- that that bond isn’t breakable and that Israel's
security will always be at the top tier of considerations in terms of
how America manages its foreign policy -- because it's the right thing
to do, because Israel is our closest ally and friend, it is a robust
democracy, it shares our values and it shares our principles.
Now, what's also going to be true is that both the United States and
Israel are going to have to look at this new landscape with fresh
eyes. It's not going to be sufficient for us just to keep on
doing the
same things we’ve been doing and expect somehow that things are going
to work themselves out. We’re going to have to be creative and
we’re
going to have to be engaged. We’re going to have to look for
opportunities where the best impulses in the Middle East come to the
fore and the worst impulses are weakened.
We have to do so from a position of strength, which is why my
administration has done more to promote Israel’s security, its
qualitative military edge, its defense capabilities than any
administration over the last 25 years. And we have made that
commitment consistently. (Applause.)
But it also means that we’ve got to engage diplomatically. It
means
that we’re going to have to find out who are the partners that can work
with us and how do we strengthen them, and how do we isolate those who
are unwilling to work with us and weaken them.
And
there are going to be moments over the course of the next six months or
the next 12 months or the next 24 months in which there may be tactical
disagreements in terms of how we approach these difficult
problems.
But the broader vision, which is one in which Israel is a secure Jewish
state, is able to live in peace with its neighbors, where kids can get
on the bus or go to bed at night and not have to worry about missiles
landing on them, where commerce and interactions between peoples in the
region is occurring in a normal fashion, where the hopes and dreams of
the original travelers to Israel, the original settlers in Israel, that
those hopes and dreams that date back a millennium, that those hopes
are realized. That will remain our North Star. That will
remain our
goal.
And I’m absolutely confident that we can achieve that goal. But it’s
going to require some hard work. And it’s going to require that
not
only this administration employs all of its creative powers to try to
bring about peace in the region, but it’s also going to require all of
you as engaged citizens of the United States who are friends of Israel
making sure that you are giving us suggestions, you are in an honest
dialogue with us, that you’re helping to shape how both Americans and
Israelis think about the opportunities and challenges.
All of you are leaders in your community. And my hope is, is that
through the kind of conversations that we’re having here tonight, that
we’re going to be able to, together, craft the kind of strategy that
not only leads to a strong America, but also leads to a strong
Israel.
So, to all of you who are here, thank you again for your past support,
thank you for your friendship, and thank you for what I anticipate will
be many years of collaboration between us in the years to come.
Thank
you very much. (Applause.)
END
7:38 P.M. EDT
President Barack Obama
DNC Event
Mandarin Oriental Hotel
Washington, D.C.
June 20, 2011
9:06 P.M.
EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Thank
you.
(Applause.) Thank you, everybody. Please have a seat, have
a seat.
It is wonderful to see all of you. I've got a lot of friends in
the
room here. People who knew me before anybody could pronounce my
name.
(Laughter.) People who knew me before I had gray hair.
(Laughter.)
It is wonderful to see those of you who’ve been friends for a long
time, and it’s wonderful to see new friends here as well.
What I'd like to do is to make some very brief remarks at the top and
then have a chance to take a few questions, because that will give us a
chance to have a dialogue, and you might have some suggestion that we
haven’t thought of. And it’s one of the great things about these
kinds
of events is people here have so much expertise in so many different
areas that it’s a wonderful thing for me to be able to pick your brain
as well as just you guys hearing me chatter.
We are obviously going through one of the toughest periods in American
history. We went through the worst financial crisis since the
Great
Depression, and immediately after being elected, I had to take a series
of very difficult steps to rescue ourselves from the brink. We
had
lost 4 million jobs in the six months before I was sworn in; lost
another 4 million during the period probably six months after I was
elected. And so as a consequence, we had to do some things that
we
didn’t expect we would have to do, just to save the economy --
stabilize the financial system, make sure that states and local
governments didn’t have to lay off police officers and cops and
firefighters. We had to save an auto industry. I never expected
to be
a automobile executive. (Laughter.)
As a consequence of that swift, decisive, and sometimes difficult
period, we were able to take an economy that was shrinking by about 6
percent and create an economy that is now growing, and has grown
steadily now over many consecutive quarters. Over the last 15
months
we’ve created over 2.1 million private sector
jobs. (Laughter.)
(Applause.)* We have an auto industry that, for the first time in
a
very long time is profitable, and the Big Three automakers actually
gaining market share, and not only gaining market share, but also
gaining market share in the cars of the future so that they’re actually
competing in compact cars and sub-compact cars and electric cars and
hybrids.
And so I'm extraordinarily proud of the economic record that we were
able to produce over the first two and a half years, but having said
all that, the economy is still so tough for so many people around the
country. The hole that was dug was so deep. And most
importantly, the
reasons that I decided to run for President in the first place still
had not been fully addressed, because the fact is, is that even before
this financial crisis, wages and incomes had flat-lined for most
Americans. Those at the very top had seen themselves do very
well, but
the bottom 95 percent, the bottom 90 percent, they were treading water
at a time when their cost of health care and cost of college education,
cost of groceries, cost of gasoline all were going up. And that was
before the crisis hit. And now they’ve got to worry about homes
that
have lost value and businesses that are just barely getting by.
And so although we’ve made a turn in a positive direction, the
underlying structural challenges that we face remain. And so the
reason that 2012 is important is because I did not just run for
President to get us back to where we were; I ran for President
originally to move us to where we need to be.
And what that means is that what we’ve begun we had to finish.
We’ve
begun to reform our education system, and thanks to programs like Race
to the Top, we’re not just putting more money into the schools.
We are
saying to schools and states and local school districts, if you reform,
if you get rid of the dogmas of the left or the right and you focus on
student achievement and how to get the best possible teachers at the
front of the classroom and we’re rewarding excellence and we are
holding ourselves accountable, you know what, there’s no reason why we
can’t make sure that we have the highest proportion of college
graduates in the world and make sure that every single one of our young
people are equipped to compete in a 21st-century economy.
(Applause.)
We have begun the process of changing how we think about energy in this
country –- made the largest investment in clean energy in our history
through the Recovery Act; have stood up entire industries like advanced
battery manufacturing; invested in making sure that wind power and
solar power and biothermal energy, that all of these things are being
developed and researched right here in the United States of America.
But the fact of the matter is, is that we are still way too dependent
on foreign oil and the fuels of the past. And so part of our
unfinished business is making sure that we are getting electric cars on
our roads and that we are not only tapping into traditional energy
sources here in the United States of America but we're also becoming
more energy-efficient. We're at the cutting edge of a clean
energy
revolution that could not only free ourselves from dependence on
foreign oil and clean up our environment, but also produce jobs right
here in the United States of America. Our job is not finished
when it
comes to energy policy.
We're not done when it comes to rebuilding our infrastructure.
America
has always had the best stuff. We had the best roads, we had the
best
ports, we had the best airports. People would travel from around the
world to marvel at the infrastructure we had built. We can't
claim to
have the best anymore. You go to airports in Beijing or Singapore
that
put a lot of our airports to shame. High-speed rail networks all
through Europe that could be built here in the United States of America.
And so imagine what we could do putting people back to work right now
doing the work that America needs to be done. We started.
We made the
largest investment in infrastructure since Dwight Eisenhower was
President through the Recovery Act, but we've still got $2 trillion
worth of repairs to be made. And think about all those unemployed
construction workers out there that could be working right now
rebuilding America for the future -- and not just the old traditional
infrastructure, the new infrastructure -- a smart grid that would help
us become more energy-efficient and get energy from wind farms or solar
panels to the places where it's needed most; making sure that we've got
the best broadband and 4G and 5G and -- so that we have the best
communication networks in the world.
We started, but we haven't finished. We've started reforming our
health care system, and I could not be prouder of the work that we did
on the health care act -- but we now have to implement it, because
health care costs are still going up too fast for families, for
businesses, and for governments, state and federal, that are paying the
bills.
And so this is a matter not only of making sure that 30 million
Americans never again have to go bankrupt because somebody in their
family gets sick. It's also making sure that we're getting a
better
bang for our health care dollar; that instead of taking five tests, you
take one test and it's emailed to five doctors; that we make certain
that preventive medicine is in place so that people aren't getting
amputated because of diabetes -- they're not getting diabetes in the
first place.
Those are the changes that we initiated through the Affordable Care
Act, but we've got to finish the job. The same is true when it
comes
to financial reform -- making sure that we never go through the
financial meltdown that we went through again. but also, at the same
time, that we're looking after consumers and protecting them for the
first time in a very long time, whether it's getting a mortgage or
taking out a credit card. Our job is not finished.
We've made tremendous progress on a whole host of social issues, from
ending "don't ask, don't tell" so that every American can serve their
country regardless of who they love, to making sure that we've got
equal pay for equal work, to making sure that we've got national
service so that our young people can use their talents to help rebuild
America.
But our job is not finished. We still have work to do on
immigration
reform, where we have to once again be a nation of laws and a nation of
immigrants; one that welcomes the strength that comes from talented
people from all around the world wanting to be here, but also making
sure that we're doing it in orderly way.
And we sure have got a lot of work to do on the international
front.
When I came into office, we had two active wars. By the end of
this
year, one war will be done. And we will be transitioning in
Afghanistan to turn over more and more security to the Afghan people.
But there's also enormous challenges and opportunities to all that's
happening in the Arab world right now. And it requires us to
articulate clearly what we stand for, what our values are, to reject
isolationism, but it also requires us to recognize that us having
influence in these affairs is going to have less to do with our
firepower and more to do with our ideas and our example, our economic
engagement, the quality of our diplomacy. We've still got more
work to
do.
So the bottom line is this. Back in 2008, on election night, in
Grant
Park -- it was a nice night in Chicago -- I said to people, this is not
the end, this is the beginning. We've got a steep climb ahead of
us to
get to that summit where we want to be, where every single American
knows that if they work hard, if they're doing the right thing, if
they're carrying out their responsibilities, they have a chance at the
American Dream.
We're just part of the way up that mountain. And the only way
we're
going to get all the way up that mountain is if we are as engaged, as
motivated, as involved, as excited, working as hard as we were in
2008. And that may be a little bit of challenge -- because, let's
face
it, back in 2008, I was new. (Laughter.)
Now I'm gray. (Laughter.) I've got dings and dents.
The old posters
are all faded. (Laughter.) People make fun of hope and
change. And
some folks have said, well, change didn't happen as fast as I wanted,
or it's not exactly as I expected, or why can't he just change the
minds of all those Republicans. (Laughter.)
The thing is, change is never easy because we live in a
democracy. And
that's what's wonderful about this country, is we argue it out and
ideas are tested and sometimes we lurch this way or that way and
mistakes are made. But our general trajectory has always been to
advance prosperity and equality and opportunity.
And so this process, as difficult as it has been, has also been
invigorating. And I've never had more confidence in the
possibilities
of this great American experiment, partly because I get a chance to see
and talk to Americans from every walk of life. And we are a good,
decent people. And as hard as things have been, we are resilient
and
we come back.
And so if you're willing to join with me in what will be my last
campaign -- (laughter) -- if you're willing to dig deep and talk to
your friends and neighbors and coworkers and recognize, yes, we're a
little older, we've matured a little bit, but that that fundamental
project of delivering the American Dream for that next generation,
that's just as urgent and as vital as ever, then I'm confident not only
will we win in 2012 -- more importantly, we'll get a little further up
that mountain. That's our job.
So, thank you very much, everybody.
Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)
END
9:23 P.M. EDT