Remarks by the President in Farewell Address in Chicago, January 10, 2017

Remarks by the President in Farewell Address

January 10, 2017,

McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/10/remarks-president-farewell-address

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Chicago!  (Applause.)  It’s good to be home!  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  All right, everybody sit down.  (Applause.)  We’re on live TV here.  I’ve got to move.  (Applause.)  You can tell that I’m a lame duck because nobody is following instructions.  (Laughter.)  Everybody have a seat.  (Applause.)

My fellow Americans -- (applause) -- Michelle and I have been so touched by all the well wishes that we’ve received over the past few weeks.  But tonight, it’s my turn to say thanks.  (Applause.)  Whether we have seen eye-to-eye or rarely agreed at all, my conversations with you, the American people, in living rooms and in schools, at farms, on factory floors, at diners and on distant military outposts -– those conversations are what have kept me honest, and kept me inspired, and kept me going.  And every day, I have learned from you.  You made me a better President, and you made me a better man.  (Applause.)

So I first came to Chicago when I was in my early 20s.  And I was still trying to figure out who I was, still searching for a purpose in my life.  And it was a neighborhood not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills.  It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith, and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  I can’t do that.

AUDIENCE:  Four more years!  Four more years!  Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT:  This is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved and they get engaged, and they come together to demand it.

After eight years as your President, I still believe that.  And it’s not just my belief.  It’s the beating heart of our American idea –- our bold experiment in self-government.  It’s the conviction that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  It’s the insistence that these rights, while self-evident, have never been self-executing; that We, the People, through the instrument of our democracy, can form a more perfect union.

What a radical idea.  A great gift that our Founders gave to us:  The freedom to chase our individual dreams through our sweat and toil and imagination, and the imperative to strive together, as well, to achieve a common good, a greater good.

For 240 years, our nation’s call to citizenship has given work and purpose to each new generation.  It’s what led patriots to choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to trek west, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom.  It’s what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande.  (Applause.)  It’s what pushed women to reach for the ballot.  It’s what powered workers to organize.  It’s why GIs gave their lives at Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima, Iraq and Afghanistan.  And why men and women from Selma to Stonewall were prepared to give theirs, as well.  (Applause.)

So that’s what we mean when we say America is exceptional -- not that our nation has been flawless from the start, but that we have shown the capacity to change and make life better for those who follow.  Yes, our progress has been uneven.  The work of democracy has always been hard.  It’s always been contentious.  Sometimes it’s been bloody.  For every two steps forward, it often feels we take one step back.  But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all and not just some.  (Applause.)

If I had told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry, and unleash the longest stretch of job creation in our history -- (applause) -- if I had told you that we would open up a new chapter with the Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, take out the mastermind of 9/11 -- (applause) -- if I had told you that we would win marriage equality, and secure the right to health insurance for another 20 million of our fellow citizens –- (applause) -- if I had told you all that, you might have said our sights were set a little too high.  But that’s what we did.  (Applause.)  That’s what you did.

You were the change.  You answered people’s hopes, and because of you, by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started.  (Applause.)

In 10 days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy.

AUDIENCE:  Nooo --

THE PRESIDENT:  No, no, no, no, no -- the peaceful transfer of power from one freely elected President to the next.  (Applause.)  I committed to President-elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me.  (Applause.)  Because it’s up to all of us to make sure our government can help us meet the many challenges we still face.

We have what we need to do so.  We have everything we need to meet those challenges.  After all, we remain the wealthiest, most powerful, and most respected nation on Earth.  Our youth, our drive, our diversity and openness, our boundless capacity for risk and reinvention means that the future should be ours.  But that potential will only be realized if our democracy works.  Only if our politics better reflects the decency of our people.  (Applause.)  Only if all of us, regardless of party affiliation or particular interests, help restore the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now.

That’s what I want to focus on tonight:  The state of our democracy.  Understand, democracy does not require uniformity.  Our founders argued.  They quarreled.  Eventually they compromised.  They expected us to do the same.  But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity -– the idea that for all our outward differences, we’re all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.  (Applause.)

There have been moments throughout our history that threatens that solidarity.  And the beginning of this century has been one of those times.  A shrinking world, growing inequality; demographic change and the specter of terrorism -– these forces haven’t just tested our security and our prosperity, but are testing our democracy, as well.  And how we meet these challenges to our democracy will determine our ability to educate our kids, and create good jobs, and protect our homeland.  In other words, it will determine our future.

To begin with, our democracy won’t work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity.  And the good news is that today the economy is growing again.  Wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are all rising again.  Poverty is falling again.  (Applause.)  The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records.  The unemployment rate is near a 10-year low.  The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower.  (Applause.)  Health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years.  And I’ve said and I mean it -- if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our health care system and that covers as many people at less cost, I will publicly support it.  (Applause.)

Because that, after all, is why we serve.  Not to score points or take credit, but to make people’s lives better.  (Applause.)  

But for all the real progress that we’ve made, we know it’s not enough.  Our economy doesn’t work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the expense of a growing middle class and ladders for folks who want to get into the middle class.  (Applause.)  That's the economic argument.  But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic ideal.  While the top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and in rural counties, have been left behind -- the laid-off factory worker; the waitress or health care worker who’s just barely getting by and struggling to pay the bills -- convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful -- that's a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics.

But there are no quick fixes to this long-term trend.  I agree, our trade should be fair and not just free.  But the next wave of economic dislocations won’t come from overseas.  It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good, middle-class jobs obsolete.

And so we're going to have to forge a new social compact to guarantee all our kids the education they need -- (applause) -- to give workers the power to unionize for better wages; to update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now, and make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and individuals who reap the most from this new economy don’t avoid their obligations to the country that’s made their very success possible.  (Applause.)  

We can argue about how to best achieve these goals.  But we can’t be complacent about the goals themselves.  For if we don’t create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come.

There’s a second threat to our democracy -- and this one is as old as our nation itself.  After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America.  And such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic.  Race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society.  Now, I’ve lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were 10, or 20, or 30 years ago, no matter what some folks say.  (Applause.)  You can see it not just in statistics, you see it in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum.

But we’re not where we need to be.  And all of us have more work to do.  (Applause.)  If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades are going to be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves.  (Applause.)  If we're unwilling to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we will diminish the prospects of our own children -- because those brown kids will represent a larger and larger share of America’s workforce.  (Applause.)  And we have shown that our economy doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game.  Last year, incomes rose for all races, all age groups, for men and for women.

So if we're going to be serious about race going forward, we need to uphold laws against discrimination -- in hiring, and in housing, and in education, and in the criminal justice system.  (Applause.)  That is what our Constitution and our highest ideals require.  (Applause.)

But laws alone won’t be enough.  Hearts must change.  It won't change overnight.  Social attitudes oftentimes take generations to change.  But if our democracy is to work in this increasingly diverse nation, then each one of us need to try to heed the advice of a great character in American fiction -- Atticus Finch -- (applause) -- who said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

For blacks and other minority groups, it means tying our own very real struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face -- not only the refugee, or the immigrant, or the rural poor, or the transgender American, but also the middle-aged white guy who, from the outside, may seem like he’s got advantages, but has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change.  We have to pay attention, and listen.  (Applause.)  

For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn’t suddenly vanish in the ‘60s -- (applause) -- that when minority groups voice discontent, they’re not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness.  When they wage peaceful protest, they’re not demanding special treatment but the equal treatment that our Founders promised.  (Applause.)  

For native-born Americans, it means reminding ourselves that the stereotypes about immigrants today were said, almost word for word, about the Irish, and Italians, and Poles -- who it was said we're going to destroy the fundamental character of America.  And as it turned out, America wasn’t weakened by the presence of these newcomers; these newcomers embraced this nation’s creed, and this nation was strengthened.  (Applause.)  

So regardless of the station that we occupy, we all have to try harder.  We all have to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family just like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.  (Applause.)  

And that's not easy to do.  For too many of us, it’s become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or on college campuses, or places of worship, or especially our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions.  The rise of naked partisanship, and increasing economic and regional stratification, the splintering of our media into a channel for every taste -- all this makes this great sorting seem natural, even inevitable.  And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether it's true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is out there. (Applause.)

And this trend represents a third threat to our democracy.  But politics is a battle of ideas.  That’s how our democracy was designed.  In the course of a healthy debate, we prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them.  But without some common baseline of facts, without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and that science and reason matter -- (applause) -- then we're going to keep talking past each other, and we'll make common ground and compromise impossible.  (Applause.)  

And isn’t that part of what so often makes politics dispiriting?  How can elected officials rage about deficits when we propose to spend money on preschool for kids, but not when we’re cutting taxes for corporations?  (Applause.)  How do we excuse ethical lapses in our own party, but pounce when the other party does the same thing?  It’s not just dishonest, this selective sorting of the facts; it’s self-defeating.  Because, as my mother used to tell me, reality has a way of catching up with you.  (Applause.)  

Take the challenge of climate change.  In just eight years, we’ve halved our dependence on foreign oil; we’ve doubled our renewable energy; we've led the world to an agreement that has the promise to save this planet.  (Applause.)  But without bolder action, our children won’t have time to debate the existence of climate change.  They’ll be busy dealing with its effects: more environmental disasters, more economic disruptions, waves of climate refugees seeking sanctuary.

Now, we can and should argue about the best approach to solve the problem.  But to simply deny the problem not only betrays future generations, it betrays the essential spirit of this country -- the essential spirit of innovation and practical problem-solving that guided our Founders.  (Applause.)

It is that spirit, born of the Enlightenment, that made us an economic powerhouse -- the spirit that took flight at Kitty Hawk and Cape Canaveral; the spirit that cures disease and put a computer in every pocket.

It’s that spirit -- a faith in reason, and enterprise, and the primacy of right over might -- that allowed us to resist the lure of fascism and tyranny during the Great Depression; that allowed us to build a post-World War II order with other democracies, an order based not just on military power or national affiliations but built on principles -- the rule of law, human rights, freedom of religion, and speech, and assembly, and an independent press.  (Applause.)

That order is now being challenged -- first by violent fanatics who claim to speak for Islam; more recently by autocrats in foreign capitals who see free markets and open democracies and and civil society itself as a threat to their power.  The peril each poses to our democracy is more far-reaching than a car bomb or a missile.  It represents the fear of change; the fear of people who look or speak or pray differently; a contempt for the rule of law that holds leaders accountable; an intolerance of dissent and free thought; a belief that the sword or the gun or the bomb or the propaganda machine is the ultimate arbiter of what’s true and what’s right.

Because of the extraordinary courage of our men and women in uniform, because of our intelligence officers, and law enforcement, and diplomats who support our troops -- (applause)

-- no foreign terrorist organization has successfully planned and executed an attack on our homeland these past eight years.  (Applause.)  And although Boston and Orlando and San Bernardino and Fort Hood remind us of how dangerous radicalization can be, our law enforcement agencies are more effective and vigilant than ever.  We have taken out tens of thousands of terrorists -- including bin Laden.  (Applause.)  The global coalition we’re leading against ISIL has taken out their leaders, and taken away about half their territory.  ISIL will be destroyed, and no one who threatens America will ever be safe.  (Applause.)

And to all who serve or have served, it has been the honor of my lifetime to be your Commander-in-Chief.  And we all owe you a deep debt of gratitude.  (Applause.)

But protecting our way of life, that's not just the job of our military.  Democracy can buckle when we give in to fear.  So, just as we, as citizens, must remain vigilant against external aggression, we must guard against a weakening of the values that make us who we are.  (Applause.)

And that’s why, for the past eight years, I’ve worked to put the fight against terrorism on a firmer legal footing.  That’s why we’ve ended torture, worked to close Gitmo, reformed our laws governing surveillance to protect privacy and civil liberties.  (Applause.)  That’s why I reject discrimination against Muslim Americans, who are just as patriotic as we are.  (Applause.)   

That’s why we cannot withdraw from big global fights -- to expand democracy, and human rights, and women’s rights, and LGBT rights.  No matter how imperfect our efforts, no matter how expedient ignoring such values may seem, that's part of defending America.  For the fight against extremism and intolerance and sectarianism and chauvinism are of a piece with the fight against authoritarianism and nationalist aggression.  If the scope of freedom and respect for the rule of law shrinks around the world, the likelihood of war within and between nations increases, and our own freedoms will eventually be threatened.

So let’s be vigilant, but not afraid.  (Applause.)  ISIL will try to kill innocent people.  But they cannot defeat America unless we betray our Constitution and our principles in the fight.  (Applause.)  Rivals like Russia or China cannot match our influence around the world -- unless we give up what we stand for -- (applause) --  and turn ourselves into just another big country that bullies smaller neighbors.

Which brings me to my final point:  Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted.  (Applause.)  All of us, regardless of party, should be throwing ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions.  (Applause.)    When voting rates in America are some of the lowest among advanced democracies, we should be making it easier, not harder, to vote.  (Applause.)  When trust in our institutions is low, we should reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics, and insist on the principles of transparency and ethics in public service.  (Applause.)  When Congress is dysfunctional, we should draw our congressional districts to encourage politicians to cater to common sense and not rigid extremes.  (Applause.)

But remember, none of this happens on its own.  All of this depends on our participation; on each of us accepting the responsibility of citizenship, regardless of which way the pendulum of power happens to be swinging.

Our Constitution is a remarkable, beautiful gift.  But it’s really just a piece of parchment.  It has no power on its own.  We, the people, give it power.  (Applause.)  We, the people, give it meaning.  With our participation, and with the choices that we make, and the alliances that we forge.  (Applause.)  Whether or not we stand up for our freedoms.  Whether or not we respect and enforce the rule of law.  That's up to us.  America is no fragile thing.  But the gains of our long journey to freedom are not assured.

In his own farewell address, George Washington wrote that self-government is the underpinning of our safety, prosperity, and liberty, but “from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken…to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth.”  And so we have to preserve this truth with “jealous anxiety;” that we should reject “the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties” that make us one.  (Applause.)

America, we weaken those ties when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character aren't even willing to enter into public service; so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are seen not just as misguided but as malevolent.  We weaken those ties when we define some of us as more American than others; when we write off the whole system as inevitably corrupt, and when we sit back and blame the leaders we elect without examining our own role in electing them.  (Applause.)

It falls to each of us to be those those anxious, jealous guardians of our democracy; to embrace the joyous task we’ve been given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.  Because for all our outward differences, we, in fact, all share the same proud title, the most important office in a democracy:  Citizen.  (Applause.)  Citizen.

So, you see, that’s what our democracy demands.  It needs you.  Not just when there’s an election, not just when your own narrow interest is at stake, but over the full span of a lifetime.  If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the Internet, try talking with one of them in real life.  (Applause.) If something needs fixing, then lace up your shoes and do some organizing.  (Applause.)  If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself.  (Applause.)  Show up.  Dive in.  Stay at it.

Sometimes you’ll win.  Sometimes you’ll lose.  Presuming a reservoir of goodness in other people, that can be a risk, and there will be times when the process will disappoint you.  But for those of us fortunate enough to have been a part of this work, and to see it up close, let me tell you, it can energize and inspire.  And more often than not, your faith in America -- and in Americans -- will be confirmed.  (Applause.)  

Mine sure has been.  Over the course of these eight years, I’ve seen the hopeful faces of young graduates and our newest military officers.  I have mourned with grieving families searching for answers, and found grace in a Charleston church.  I’ve seen our scientists help a paralyzed man regain his sense of touch.  I've seen wounded warriors who at points were given up for dead walk again.  I’ve seen our doctors and volunteers rebuild after earthquakes and stop pandemics in their tracks.  I’ve seen the youngest of children remind us through their actions and through their generosity of our obligations to care for refugees, or work for peace, and, above all, to look out for each other.  (Applause.)

So that faith that I placed all those years ago, not far from here, in the power of ordinary Americans to bring about change -- that faith has been rewarded in ways I could not have possibly imagined.  And I hope your faith has, too.  Some of you here tonight or watching at home, you were there with us in 2004, in 2008, 2012 -- (applause) -- maybe you still can’t believe we pulled this whole thing off.  Let me tell you, you're not the only ones.  (Laughter.) 

Michelle -- (applause) -- Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, girl of the South Side -- (applause) -- for the past 25 years, you have not only been my wife and mother of my children, you have been my best friend.  (Applause.)  You took on a role you didn’t ask for and you made it your own, with grace and with grit and with style and good humor.  (Applause.)  You made the White House a place that belongs to everybody.  (Applause.)  And the new generation sets its sights higher because it has you as a role model.  (Applause.)  So you have made me proud.  And you have made the country proud.  (Applause.)

Malia and Sasha, under the strangest of circumstances, you have become two amazing young women.  You are smart and you are beautiful, but more importantly, you are kind and you are thoughtful and you are full of passion.  (Applause.)  You wore the burden of years in the spotlight so easily.  Of all that I’ve done in my life, I am most proud to be your dad.  (Applause.)  

To Joe Biden -- (applause) -- the scrappy kid from Scranton who became Delaware’s favorite son -- you were the first decision I made as a nominee, and it was the best.  (Applause.)  Not just because you have been a great Vice President, but because in the bargain, I gained a brother.  And we love you and Jill like family, and your friendship has been one of the great joys of our lives.  (Applause.)

To my remarkable staff:  For eight years -- and for some of you, a whole lot more -- I have drawn from your energy, and every day I tried to reflect back what you displayed -- heart, and character, and idealism.  I’ve watched you grow up, get married, have kids, start incredible new journeys of your own.  Even when times got tough and frustrating, you never let Washington get the better of you.  You guarded against cynicism.  And the only thing that makes me prouder than all the good that we’ve done is the thought of all the amazing things that you’re going to achieve from here.  (Applause.)

And to all of you out there -- every organizer who moved to an unfamiliar town, every kind family who welcomed them in, every volunteer who knocked on doors, every young person who cast a ballot for the first time, every American who lived and breathed the hard work of change -- you are the best supporters and organizers anybody could ever hope for, and I will be forever grateful.  (Applause.)  Because you did change the world.  (Applause.)  You did.

And that’s why I leave this stage tonight even more optimistic about this country than when we started.  Because I know our work has not only helped so many Americans, it has inspired so many Americans -- especially so many young people out there -- to believe that you can make a difference -- (applause) -- to hitch your wagon to something bigger than yourselves.

Let me tell you, this generation coming up -- unselfish, altruistic, creative, patriotic -- I’ve seen you in every corner of the country.  You believe in a fair, and just, and inclusive America.  (Applause.)  You know that constant change has been America’s hallmark; that it's not something to fear but something to embrace.  You are willing to carry this hard work of democracy forward.  You’ll soon outnumber all of us, and I believe as a result the future is in good hands.  (Applause.)

My fellow Americans, it has been the honor of my life to serve you.  (Applause.)  I won’t stop.  In fact, I will be right there with you, as a citizen, for all my remaining days.  But for now, whether you are young or whether you're young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your President -- the same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago.  I'm asking you to believe.  Not in my ability to bring about change -- but in yours.

I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written:  Yes, we can.  (Applause.)

Yes, we did.  Yes, we can.  (Applause.)

Thank you.  God bless you.  May God continue to bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

END

8:53 P.M. CST

Remarks by the President Obama at LBJ Presidential Library Civil Rights Summit, April 10, 2014

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/10/remarks-president-lbj-presidential-library-civil-rights-summit

Remarks by the President at LBJ Presidential Library Civil Rights Summit

April 10, 2014

Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library
Austin, Texas

12:16 P.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Please, please, have a seat.  Thank you. 

What a singular honor it is for me to be here today.  I want to thank, first and foremost, the Johnson family for giving us this opportunity and the graciousness with which Michelle and I have been received. 

We came down a little bit late because we were upstairs looking at some of the exhibits and some of the private offices that were used by President Johnson and Mrs. Johnson.  And Michelle was in particular interested to -- of a recording in which Lady Bird is critiquing President Johnson’s performance.  (Laughter.)  And she said, come, come, you need to listen to this.  (Laughter.)  And she pressed the button and nodded her head.  Some things do not change -- (laughter) -- even 50 years later.

To all the members of Congress, the warriors for justice, the elected officials and community leaders who are here today  -- I want to thank you.

Four days into his sudden presidency -- and the night before he would address a joint session of the Congress in which he once served -- Lyndon Johnson sat around a table with his closest advisors, preparing his remarks to a shattered and grieving nation.

He wanted to call on senators and representatives to pass a civil rights bill -- the most sweeping since Reconstruction.  And most of his staff counseled him against it.  They said it was hopeless; that it would anger powerful Southern Democrats and committee chairmen; that it risked derailing the rest of his domestic agenda.  And one particularly bold aide said he did not believe a President should spend his time and power on lost causes, however worthy they might be.  To which, it is said, President Johnson replied, “Well, what the hell’s the presidency for?”  (Laughter and applause.)  What the hell’s the presidency for if not to fight for causes you believe in?

Today, as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, we honor the men and women who made it possible.  Some of them are here today.  We celebrate giants like John Lewis and Andrew Young and Julian Bond.  We recall the countless unheralded Americans, black and white, students and scholars, preachers and housekeepers -- whose names are etched not on monuments, but in the hearts of their loved ones, and in the fabric of the country they helped to change. 

But we also gather here, deep in the heart of the state that shaped him, to recall one giant man’s remarkable efforts to make real the promise of our founding:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

Those of us who have had the singular privilege to hold the office of the Presidency know well that progress in this country can be hard and it can be slow, frustrating and sometimes you’re stymied.  The office humbles you.  You’re reminded daily that in this great democracy, you are but a relay swimmer in the currents of history, bound by decisions made by those who came before, reliant on the efforts of those who will follow to fully vindicate your vision.

But the presidency also affords a unique opportunity to bend those currents -- by shaping our laws and by shaping our debates; by working within the confines of the world as it is, but also by reimagining the world as it should be.

This was President Johnson’s genius.  As a master of politics and the legislative process, he grasped like few others the power of government to bring about change. 

LBJ was nothing if not a realist.  He was well aware that the law alone isn’t enough to change hearts and minds.  A full century after Lincoln’s time, he said, “Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”

He understood laws couldn’t accomplish everything.  But he also knew that only the law could anchor change, and set hearts and minds on a different course.  And a lot of Americans needed the law’s most basic protections at that time.  As Dr. King said at the time, “It may be true that the law can’t make a man love me but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.”  (Applause.)

And passing laws was what LBJ knew how to do.  No one knew politics and no one loved legislating more than President Johnson.  He was charming when he needed to be, ruthless when required.  (Laughter.)  He could wear you down with logic and argument.  He could horse trade, and he could flatter.  “You come with me on this bill,” he would reportedly tell a key Republican leader from my home state during the fight for the Civil Rights Bill, “and 200 years from now, schoolchildren will know only two names:  Abraham Lincoln and Everett Dirksen!”  (Laughter.)  And he knew that senators would believe things like that.  (Laughter and applause.)

President Johnson liked power.  He liked the feel of it, the wielding of it.  But that hunger was harnessed and redeemed by a deeper understanding of the human condition; by a sympathy for the underdog, for the downtrodden, for the outcast.  And it was a sympathy rooted in his own experience.

As a young boy growing up in the Texas Hill Country, Johnson knew what being poor felt like.  “Poverty was so common,” he would later say, “we didn’t even know it had a name.”  (Laughter.)  The family home didn’t have electricity or indoor plumbing.  Everybody worked hard, including the children.  President Johnson had known the metallic taste of hunger; the feel of a mother’s calloused hands, rubbed raw from washing and cleaning and holding a household together.  His cousin Ava remembered sweltering days spent on her hands and knees in the cotton fields, with Lyndon whispering beside her, “Boy, there’s got to be a better way to make a living than this.  There’s got to be a better way.”

It wasn’t until years later when he was teaching at a so-called Mexican school in a tiny town in Texas that he came to understand how much worse the persistent pain of poverty could be for other races in a Jim Crow South.  Oftentimes his students would show up to class hungry.  And when he’d visit their homes, he’d meet fathers who were paid slave wages by the farmers they worked for.  Those children were taught, he would later say, “that the end of life is in a beet row, a spinach field, or a cotton patch.” 

Deprivation and discrimination -- these were not abstractions to Lyndon Baines Johnson.  He knew that poverty and injustice are as inseparable as opportunity and justice are joined.  So that was in him from an early age.

Now, like any of us, he was not a perfect man.  His experiences in rural Texas may have stretched his moral imagination, but he was ambitious, very ambitious, a young man in a hurry to plot his own escape from poverty and to chart his own political career.  And in the Jim Crow South, that meant not challenging convention.  During his first 20 years in Congress, he opposed every civil rights bill that came up for a vote, once calling the push for federal legislation “a farce and a sham.”  He was chosen as a vice presidential nominee in part because of his affinity with, and ability to deliver, that Southern white vote.  And at the beginning of the Kennedy administration, he shared with President Kennedy a caution towards racial controversy. 

But marchers kept marching.  Four little girls were killed in a church.  Bloody Sunday happened.  The winds of change blew.  And when the time came, when LBJ stood in the Oval Office -- I picture him standing there, taking up the entire doorframe, looking out over the South Lawn in a quiet moment -- and asked himself what the true purpose of his office was for, what was the endpoint of his ambitions, he would reach back in his own memory and he’d remember his own experience with want. 

And he knew that he had a unique capacity, as the most powerful white politician from the South, to not merely challenge the convention that had crushed the dreams of so many, but to ultimately dismantle for good the structures of legal segregation.  He’s the only guy who could do it -- and he knew there would be a cost, famously saying the Democratic Party may “have lost the South for a generation.” 

That’s what his presidency was for.  That’s where he meets his moment.  And possessed with an iron will, possessed with those skills that he had honed so many years in Congress, pushed and supported by a movement of those willing to sacrifice everything for their own liberation, President Johnson fought for and argued and horse traded and bullied and persuaded until ultimately he signed the Civil Rights Act into law. 

And he didn’t stop there -- even though his advisors again told him to wait, again told him let the dust settle, let the country absorb this momentous decision.  He shook them off.  “The meat in the coconut,” as President Johnson would put it, was the Voting Rights Act, so he fought for and passed that as well.  Immigration reform came shortly after.  And then, a Fair Housing Act.  And then, a health care law that opponents described as “socialized medicine” that would curtail America’s freedom, but ultimately freed millions of seniors from the fear that illness could rob them of dignity and security in their golden years, which we now know today as Medicare.  (Applause.)

What President Johnson understood was that equality required more than the absence of oppression.  It required the presence of economic opportunity.  He wouldn’t be as eloquent as Dr. King would be in describing that linkage, as Dr. King moved into mobilizing sanitation workers and a poor people’s movement, but he understood that connection because he had lived it.  A decent job, decent wages, health care -- those, too, were civil rights worth fighting for.  An economy where hard work is rewarded and success is shared, that was his goal.  And he knew, as someone who had seen the New Deal transform the landscape of his Texas childhood, who had seen the difference electricity had made because of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the transformation concretely day in and day out in the life of his own family, he understood that government had a role to play in broadening prosperity to all those who would strive for it.

“We want to open the gates to opportunity,” President Johnson said, “But we are also going to give all our people, black and white, the help they need to walk through those gates.” 

Now, if some of this sounds familiar, it’s because today we remain locked in this same great debate about equality and opportunity, and the role of government in ensuring each.  As was true 50 years ago, there are those who dismiss the Great Society as a failed experiment and an encroachment on liberty; who argue that government has become the true source of all that ails us, and that poverty is due to the moral failings of those who suffer from it.  There are also those who argue, John, that nothing has changed; that racism is so embedded in our DNA that there is no use trying politics -- the game is rigged. 

But such theories ignore history.  Yes, it’s true that, despite laws like the Civil Rights Act, and the Voting Rights Act and Medicare, our society is still racked with division and poverty.  Yes, race still colors our political debates, and there have been government programs that have fallen short.  In a time when cynicism is too often passed off as wisdom, it’s perhaps easy to conclude that there are limits to change; that we are trapped by our own history; and politics is a fool’s errand, and we’d be better off if we roll back big chunks of LBJ’s legacy, or at least if we don’t put too much of our hope, invest too much of our hope in our government.

I reject such thinking.  (Applause.)  Not just because Medicare and Medicaid have lifted millions from suffering; not just because the poverty rate in this nation would be far worse without food stamps and Head Start and all the Great Society programs that survive to this day.  I reject such cynicism because I have lived out the promise of LBJ’s efforts.  Because Michelle has lived out the legacy of those efforts.  Because my daughters have lived out the legacy of those efforts.  Because I and millions of my generation were in a position to take the baton that he handed to us.  (Applause.)

Because of the Civil Rights movement, because of the laws President Johnson signed, new doors of opportunity and education swung open for everybody -- not all at once, but they swung open.  Not just blacks and whites, but also women and Latinos; and Asians and Native Americans; and gay Americans and Americans with a disability.  They swung open for you, and they swung open for me.  And that’s why I’m standing here today -- because of those efforts, because of that legacy.  (Applause.)

And that means we’ve got a debt to pay.  That means we can’t afford to be cynical.  Half a century later, the laws LBJ passed are now as fundamental to our conception of ourselves and our democracy as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  They are foundational; an essential piece of the American character. 

But we are here today because we know we cannot be complacent.  For history travels not only forwards; history can travel backwards, history can travel sideways.  And securing the gains this country has made requires the vigilance of its citizens.  Our rights, our freedoms -- they are not given.  They must be won.  They must be nurtured through struggle and discipline, and persistence and faith. 

And one concern I have sometimes during these moments, the celebration of the signing of the Civil Rights Act, the March on Washington -- from a distance, sometimes these commemorations seem inevitable, they seem easy.  All the pain and difficulty and struggle and doubt -- all that is rubbed away.  And we look at ourselves and we say, oh, things are just too different now;  we couldn’t possibly do what was done then -- these giants, what they accomplished.  And yet, they were men and women, too.  It wasn’t easy then.  It wasn’t certain then. 

Still, the story of America is a story of progress.  However slow, however incomplete, however harshly challenged at each point on our journey, however flawed our leaders, however many times we have to take a quarter of a loaf or half a loaf -- the story of America is a story of progress.  And that’s true because of men like President Lyndon Baines Johnson.  (Applause.)

In so many ways, he embodied America, with all our gifts and all our flaws, in all our restlessness and all our big dreams.  This man -- born into poverty, weaned in a world full of racial hatred -- somehow found within himself the ability to connect his experience with the brown child in a small Texas town; the white child in Appalachia; the black child in Watts.  As powerful as he became in that Oval Office, he understood them.  He understood what it meant to be on the outside.  And he believed that their plight was his plight too; that his freedom ultimately was wrapped up in theirs; and that making their lives better was what the hell the presidency was for.  (Applause.)

And those children were on his mind when he strode to the podium that night in the House Chamber, when he called for the vote on the Civil Rights law.  “It never occurred to me,” he said, “in my fondest dreams that I might have the chance to help the sons and daughters of those students” that he had taught so many years ago, “and to help people like them all over this country.  But now I do have that chance.  And I’ll let you in on a secret -- I mean to use it.  And I hope that you will use it with me.”  (Applause.)

That was LBJ’s greatness.  That’s why we remember him.  And if there is one thing that he and this year’s anniversary should teach us, if there’s one lesson I hope that Malia and Sasha and young people everywhere learn from this day, it’s that with enough effort, and enough empathy, and enough perseverance, and enough courage, people who love their country can change it.

In his final year, President Johnson stood on this stage, racked with pain, battered by the controversies of Vietnam, looking far older than his 64 years, and he delivered what would be his final public speech. 

“We have proved that great progress is possible,” he said.  “We know how much still remains to be done.  And if our efforts continue, and if our will is strong, and if our hearts are right, and if courage remains our constant companion, then, my fellow Americans, I am confident, we shall overcome.”  (Applause.)

We shall overcome.  We, the citizens of the United States.  Like Dr. King, like Abraham Lincoln, like countless citizens who have driven this country inexorably forward, President Johnson knew that ours in the end is a story of optimism, a story of achievement and constant striving that is unique upon this Earth.  He knew because he had lived that story.  He believed that together we can build an America that is more fair, more equal, and more free than the one we inherited.  He believed we make our own destiny.  And in part because of him, we must believe it as well.

Thank you.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.) 

END
12:46 P.M. CDT

Transcript: Michelle Obama's 2008 Convention Speech

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93963863

Transcript: Michelle Obama's 2008 Convention Speech

August 25, 200810:36 PM ET

In these prepared remarks, Michelle Obama talks about her personal story of growing up on the South Side of Chicago and giving up a corporate law job for public service. She discusses her marriage with Barack Obama and their commitment to their children — and, in particular, highlights the Obamas' commitment to working families. The speech as delivered may vary from the following text.

As you might imagine, for Barack, running for president is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother, Craig.

I can't tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I've felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life.

At 6-foot-6, I've often felt like Craig was looking down on me too ... literally. But the truth is, both when we were kids and today, he wasn't looking down on me. He was watching over me.

And he's been there for me every step of the way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when — with little more than our faith in each other and a hunger for change — we joined my husband, Barack Obama, on the improbable journey that's brought us to this moment.

But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey.

I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend.

I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president.

I come here as a mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world — they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future — and all our children's future — is my stake in this election.

And I come here as a daughter — raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.

My dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early 30s, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing — even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder.

He and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. It was the greatest gift a child can receive: never doubting for a single minute that you're loved, and cherished, and have a place in this world. And thanks to their faith and hard work, we both were able to go on to college. So I know firsthand from their lives — and mine — that the American dream endures.

And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working-class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

And as our friendship grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he'd done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down and jobs dried up. And he'd been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their community.

The people gathered together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to build a good life. They were parents living paycheck to paycheck; grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that they couldn't support their families after their jobs disappeared. Those folks weren't asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready to work — they wanted to contribute. They believed — like you and I believe — that America should be a place where you can make it if you try.

Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about "The world as it is" and "The world as it should be." And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is — even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves — to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn't that the great American story?

It's the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in town squares and high school gyms — people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had — refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals.

It is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.] lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for our nation.

I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history — knowing that my piece of the American dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I've met all across this country:

People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift — without disappointment, without regret — that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they're working for.

The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it.

The young people across America serving our communities — teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.

People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters — and sons — can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.

People like Joe Biden, who's never forgotten where he came from and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again.

All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack's journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.

That is why I love this country.

And in my own life, in my own small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

It's a belief Barack shares — a belief at the heart of his life's work.

It's what he did all those years ago, on the streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work and after-school programs to keep kids safe — working block by block to help people lift up their families.

It's what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard-working families, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work.

It's what he's done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades but with good jobs and benefits and health care — including mental health care.

That's why he's running — to end the war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy that lifts every family, to make health care available for every American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all the way from preschool to college. That's what Barack Obama will do as president of the United States of America.

He'll achieve these goals the same way he always has — by bringing us together and reminding us how much we share and how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your background is, or what party — if any — you belong to. That's not how he sees the world. He knows that thread that connects us — our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future — is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree.

It was strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago.

It was strong enough to bring hope to the mother he met worried about her child in Iraq; hope to the man who's unemployed, but can't afford gas to find a job; hope to the student working nights to pay for her sister's health care, sleeping just a few hours a day.

And it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold Iowa night and became the first voices in this chorus for change that's been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation.

Millions of Americans who know that Barack understands their dreams; that Barack will fight for people like them; and that Barack will finally bring the change we need.

And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital 10 years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love.

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own. And one day, they — and your sons and daughters — will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country — where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House – we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.

So tonight, in honor of my father's memory and my daughters' future — out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment — let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to elect Barack Obama president of the United States of America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Source: The Democratic National Convention

Michelle Obama' speech at Hillary for America Campaign Event in Manchester, NH, October 13, 2016

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/10/13/remarks-first-lady-hillary-america-campaign-event-manchester-nh

Remarks by the First Lady at Hillary for America Campaign Event in Manchester, Nh

October 13, 2016  

Southern New Hampshire University
Manchester, New Hampshire

12:34 P.M. EDT

MRS. OBAMA:  My goodness!  (Applause.)  You guys are fired up!  (Applause.)  Well, let me just say hello, everyone.  (Applause.)  I am so thrilled to be here with you all today in New Hampshire.  This is like home to me, and this day -- thank you for a beautiful fall day.  You just ordered this day up for me, didn’t you?  (Applause.)  It’s great to be here.

Let me start by thanking your fabulous governor, your next U.S. senator, Maggie Hassan.  (Applause.)  I want to thank her for that lovely introduction.  I also want to recognize your Congresswoman, Annie McKlane Kuster, who’s a dear, dear friend.  (Applause.)  Your soon-to-be Congresswoman once again, Carol Shea Porter -- (applause) -- all of whom have been just terrific friends to us.  And your Executive Council and candidate for governor, Colin Van Ostern. (Applause.)  

And, of course, thanks to all of you for taking the time to be here today.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!  (Applause.) 

MRS. OBAMA:  Thanks so much.  That’s very sweet of you.  I love you guys too.  I can’t believe it’s just a few weeks before Election Day, as we come together to support the next President and Vice President of the United States, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine!  (Applause.)  And New Hampshire is going to be important, as always.

So I’m going to get a little serious here, because I think we can all agree that this has been a rough week in an already rough election.  This week has been particularly interesting for me personally because it has been a week of profound contrast.  

See, on Tuesday, at the White House, we celebrated the International Day of the Girl and Let Girls Learn.  (Applause.)  And it was a wonderful celebration.  It was the last event that I’m going to be doing as First Lady for Let Girls Learn.  And I had the pleasure of spending hours talking to some of the most amazing young women you will ever meet, young girls here in the U.S. and all around the world.  And we talked about their hopes and their dreams.  We talked about their aspirations.  See, because many of these girls have faced unthinkable obstacles just to attend school, jeopardizing their personal safety, their freedom, risking the rejection of their families and communities.  

So I thought it would be important to remind these young women how valuable and precious they are.  I wanted them to understand that the measure of any society is how it treats its women and girls.  (Applause.)  And I told them that they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and I told them that they should disregard anyone who demeans or devalues them, and that they should make their voices heard in the world.  And I walked away feeling so inspired, just like I’m inspired by all the young people here -- (applause) -- and I was so uplifted by these girls.  That was Tuesday.

And now, here I am, out on the campaign trail in an election where we have consistently been hearing hurtful, hateful language about women -- language that has been painful for so many of us, not just as women, but as parents trying to protect our children and raise them to be caring, respectful adults, and as citizens who think that our nation’s leaders should meet basic standards of human decency.  (Applause.)

The fact is that in this election, we have a candidate for President of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign, has said things about women that are so shocking, so demeaning that I simply will not repeat anything here today.  And last week, we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexually assaulting women.  And I can’t believe that I’m saying that a candidate for President of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women.

And I have to tell you that I can’t stop thinking about this.  It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn’t have predicted.  So while I’d love nothing more than to pretend like this isn’t happening, and to come out here and do my normal campaign speech, it would be dishonest and disingenuous to me to just move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream.

This is not something that we can ignore.  It’s not something we can just sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season.  Because this was not just a “lewd conversation.”  This wasn’t just locker-room banter.  This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior, and actually bragging about kissing and groping women, using language so obscene that many of us were worried about our children hearing it when we turn on the TV.

And to make matters worse, it now seems very clear that this isn’t an isolated incident.  It’s one of countless examples of how he has treated women his whole life.  And I have to tell you that I listen to all of this and I feel it so personally, and I’m sure that many of you do too, particularly the women.  The shameful comments about our bodies.  The disrespect of our ambitions and intellect.  The belief that you can do anything you want to a woman.

It is cruel.  It’s frightening.  And the truth is, it hurts.  It hurts.  It’s like that sick, sinking feeling you get when you’re walking down the street minding your own business and some guy yells out vulgar words about your body.  Or when you see that guy at work that stands just a little too close, stares a little too long, and makes you feel uncomfortable in your own skin.

It’s that feeling of terror and violation that too many women have felt when someone has grabbed them, or forced himself on them and they’ve said no but he didn’t listen -- something that we know happens on college campuses and countless other places every single day.  It reminds us of stories we heard from our mothers and grandmothers about how, back in their day, the boss could say and do whatever he pleased to the women in the office, and even though they worked so hard, jumped over every hurdle to prove themselves, it was never enough.

We thought all of that was ancient history, didn’t we?  And so many have worked for so many years to end this kind of violence and abuse and disrespect, but here we are, in 2016, and we’re hearing these exact same things every day on the campaign trail.  We are drowning in it.  And all of us are doing what women have always done:  We’re trying to keep our heads above water, just trying to get through it, trying to pretend like this doesn’t really bother us maybe because we think that admitting how much it hurts makes us as women look weak.  Maybe we’re afraid to be that vulnerable.  Maybe we’ve grown accustomed to swallowing these emotions and staying quiet, because we’ve seen that people often won’t take our word over his.  Or maybe we don’t want to believe that there are still people out there who think so little of us as women.  Too many are treating this as just another day’s headline, as if our outrage is overblown or unwarranted, as if this is normal, just politics as usual.

But, New Hampshire, be clear:  This is not normal.  This is not politics as usual.  (Applause.)  This is disgraceful.  It is intolerable.  And it doesn’t matter what party you belong to -- Democrat, Republican, independent -- no woman deserves to be treated this way.  None of us deserves this kind of abuse.  (Applause.)

And I know it’s a campaign, but this isn’t about politics.  It’s about basic human decency.  It’s about right and wrong.  (Applause.)  And we simply cannot endure this, or expose our children to this any longer -- not for another minute, and let alone for four years.  (Applause.)  Now is the time for all of us to stand up and say enough is enough.  (Applause.)  This has got to stop right now.  (Applause.)

Because consider this:  If all of this is painful to us as grown women, what do you think this is doing to our children?  What message are our little girls hearing about who they should look like, how they should act?  What lessons are they learning about their value as professionals, as human beings, about their dreams and aspirations?  And how is this affecting men and boys in this country?  Because I can tell you that the men in my life do not talk about women like this.  And I know that my family is not unusual.  (Applause.)  And to dismiss this as everyday locker-room talk is an insult to decent men everywhere.  (Applause.)

The men that you and I know don’t treat women this way.  They are loving fathers who are sickened by the thought of their daughters being exposed to this kind of vicious language about women.  They are husbands and brothers and sons who don’t tolerate women being treated and demeaned and disrespected.  (Applause.)  And like us, these men are worried about the impact this election is having on our boys who are looking for role models of what it means to be a man.  (Applause.)

In fact, someone recently told me a story about their six-year-old son who one day was watching the news -- they were watching the news together.  And the little boy, out of the blue, said, “I think Hillary Clinton will be President.”  And his mom said, “Well, why do you say that?”  And this little six-year-old said, “Because the other guy called someone a piggy, and,” he said, “you cannot be President if you call someone a piggy.”  (Applause.)

So even a six-year-old knows better.  A six-year-old knows that this is not how adults behave.  This is not how decent human beings behave.  And this is certainly not how someone who wants to be President of the United States behaves.  (Applause.)

Because let’s be very clear:  Strong men -- men who are truly role models -- don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful.  (Applause.)  People who are truly strong lift others up.  People who are truly powerful bring others together.  And that is what we need in our next President.  We need someone who is a uniting force in this country.  We need someone who will heal the wounds that divide us, someone who truly cares about us and our children, someone with strength and compassion to lead this country forward.  (Applause.)

And let me tell you, I’m here today because I believe with all of my heart that Hillary Clinton will be that President.  (Applause.)

See, we know that Hillary is the right person for the job because we’ve seen her character and commitment not just in this campaign, but over the course of her entire life.  The fact is that Hillary embodies so many of the values that we try so hard to teach our young people.  We tell our young people “Work hard in school, get a good education.”  We encourage them to use that education to help others -- which is exactly what Hillary did with her college and law degrees, advocating for kids with disabilities, fighting for children’s health care as First Lady, affordable child care in the Senate.  (Applause.)

We teach our kids the value of being a team player, which is what Hillary exemplified when she lost the 2008 election and actually agreed to work for her opponent as our Secretary of State -- (applause) -- earning sky-high approval ratings serving her country once again.  (Applause.)

We also teach our kids that you don’t take shortcuts in life, and you strive for meaningful success in whatever job you do.  Well, Hillary has been a lawyer, a law professor, First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States, a U.S. senator, Secretary of State.  And she has been successful in every role, gaining more experience and exposure to the presidency than any candidate in our lifetime -- more than Barack, more than Bill.  (Applause.)  And, yes, she happens to be a woman.  (Applause.)

And finally, we teach our kids that when you hit challenges in life, you don’t give up, you stick with it.  Well, during her four years as Secretary of State alone, Hillary has faced her share of challenges.  She’s traveled to 112 countries, negotiated a ceasefire, a peace agreement, a release of dissidents.  She spent 11 hours testifying before a congressional committee.  We know that when things get tough, Hillary doesn’t complain.  She doesn’t blame others.  She doesn’t abandon ship for something easier.  No, Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.  (Applause.)

So in Hillary, we have a candidate who has dedicated her life to public service, someone who has waited her turn and helped out while waiting.  (Applause.)  She is an outstanding mother.  She has raised a phenomenal young woman.  She is a loving, loyal wife.  She’s a devoted daughter who cared for her mother until her final days.  And if any of us had raised a daughter like Hillary Clinton, we would be so proud.  We would be proud.  (Applause.)

And regardless of who her opponent might be, no one could be more qualified for this job than Hillary -- no one.  And in this election, if we turn away from her, if we just stand by and allow her opponent to be elected, then what are we teaching our children about the values they should hold, about the kind of life they should lead?  What are we saying?

In our hearts, we all know that if we let Hillary’s opponent win this election, then we are sending a clear message to our kids that everything they’re seeing and hearing is perfectly okay.  We are validating it.  We are endorsing it.  We’re telling our sons that it’s okay to humiliate women.  We’re telling our daughters that this is how they deserve to be treated.  We’re telling all our kids that bigotry and bullying are perfectly acceptable in the leader of their country.  Is that what we want for our children?

AUDIENCE:  No!

MRS. OBAMA:  And remember, we won’t just be setting a bad example for our kids, but for our entire world.  Because for so long, America has been a model for countries across the globe, pushing them to educate their girls, insisting that they give more rights to their women.  But if we have a President who routinely degrades women, who brags about sexually assaulting women, then how can we maintain our moral authority in the world?  How can we continue to be a beacon of freedom and justice and human dignity?  (Applause.)

Well, fortunately, New Hampshire, here’s the beauty:  We have everything we need to stop this madness.  You see, while our mothers and grandmothers were often powerless to change their circumstances, today, we as women have all the power we need to determine the outcome of this election.  (Applause.)

We have knowledge.  We have a voice.  We have a vote.  And on November the 8th, we as women, we as Americans, we as decent human beings can come together and declare that enough is enough, and we do not tolerate this kind of behavior in this country.  (Applause.)

Remember this:  In 2012, women’s votes were the difference between Barack winning and losing in key swing states, including right here in New Hampshire.  (Applause.)  So for anyone who might be thinking that your one vote doesn’t really matter, or that one person can’t really make a difference, consider this:  Back in 2012, Barack won New Hampshire by about 40,000 votes, which sounds like a lot.  But when you break that number down, the difference between winning and losing this state was only 66 votes per precinct.  Just take that in.  If 66 people each precinct had gone the other way, Barack would have lost.

So each of you right here today could help swing an entire precinct and win this election for Hillary just by getting yourselves, your families, and your friends and neighbors out to vote.  You can do it right here.  (Applause.)  But you could also help swing an entire precinct for Hillary’s opponent with a protest vote or by staying home out of frustration.

Because here’s the truth:  Either Hillary Clinton or her opponent will be elected President this year.  And if you vote for someone other than Hillary, or if you don’t vote at all, then you are helping to elect her opponent.  And just think about how you will feel if that happens.  Imagine waking up on November the 9th and looking into the eyes of your daughter or son, or looking into your own eyes as you stare into the mirror.  Imagine how you’ll feel if you stayed home, or if you didn’t do everything possible to elect Hillary.

We simply cannot let that happen.  We cannot allow ourselves to be so disgusted that we just shut off the TV and walk away.  And we can’t just sit around wringing our hands.  Now, we need to recover from our shock and depression and do what women have always done in this country.  We need you to roll up your sleeves.  We need to get to work.  (Applause.)  Because remember this:  When they go low, we go --

AUDIENCE:  High!

MRS. OBAMA:  Yes, we do.  (Applause.)

And voting ourselves is a great start, but we also have to step up and start organizing.  So we need you to make calls, and knock on doors, and get folks to the polls on Election Day, and sign up to volunteer with one of the Hillary campaign folks who are here today just waiting for you to step up.  (Applause.)

And, young people and not-so-young people, get on social media.  (Applause.)  Share your own story of why this election matters, why it should matter for all people of conscience in this country.  There is so much at stake in this election.

See, the choice you make November 8th could determine whether we have a President who treats people with respect -- or not.  A President who will fight for kids, for good schools, for good jobs for our families -- or not.  A President who thinks that women deserve the right to make our own choices about our bodies and our health -- or not.  (Applause.)  That’s just a little bit of what’s at stake.

So we cannot afford to be tired or turned off.  And we cannot afford to stay home on Election Day.  Because on November the 8th, we have the power to show our children that America’s greatness comes from recognizing the innate dignity and worth of all our people.  On November the 8th, we can show our children that this country is big enough to have a place for us all -- men and women, folks of every background and walk of life -- and that each of us is a precious part of this great American story, and we are always stronger together.  (Applause.)

On November 8th, we can show our children that here in America, we reject hatred and fear -- (applause) -- and in difficult times, we don’t discard our highest ideals.  No, we rise up to meet them.  We rise up to perfect our union.  We rise up to defend our blessings of liberty.  We rise up to embody the values of equality and opportunity and sacrifice that have always made this country the greatest nation on Earth.  (Applause.)

That is who we are.  (Applause.)  And don’t ever let anyone tell you differently.  (Applause.)  Hope is important.  Hope is important for our young people.  And we deserve a President who can see those truths in us -- a President who can bring us together and bring out the very best in us.  Hillary Clinton will be that President.  (Applause.)

So for the next 26 days, we need to do everything we can to help her and Tim Kaine win this election.  I know I’m going to be doing it.  Are you with me?  (Applause.)  Are you all with me?  (Applause.)  You ready to roll up your sleeves?  Get to work knocking on doors?

All right, let’s get to work.  Thank you all.  God bless.  (Applause.)

END
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