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Barack Obama

United States President 2009-

Barack Obama is the President Elect of the United States. He is a Democrat with a liberal voting record, and was notably against going to war with Iraq in 2003 (though he said he is not against all wars). He has been a Lecturer in Constitutional Law at Chicago University, the President of Harvard Law Review, and a U.S. Senator.

 
John McCain   U.S. Senator, Republican 48% Agreement / 23
George W. Bush   United States President 2001-2008 25% Agreement / 11
Hillary Clinton   U.S. Senator, Democrat 77% Agreement / 9
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Quote
Even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.     
02 Oct 2002 Source
I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I’m opposed to dumb wars.     
02 Oct 2002 Source
In terms of legalization of drugs I think that the war on drugs have been an utter failure and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws but I'm not someone who believes in legalization of marijuana.     
01 Jan 2004 Source
In terms of legalization of drugs I think that the war on drugs have been an utter failure and I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws but I'm not someone who believes in legalization of marijuana.     
01 Jan 2004 Source
Hope in the face of difficulty, hope in the face of uncertainty, the audacity of hope. In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; a belief in things not seen; a belief that there are better days ahead.     
27 Jul 2004 Source
Globalization is not someone's political agenda. It is a technological revolution that is fundamentally changing the world's economy, producing winners and losers along the way. The question is not whether we can stop it, but how we respond to it. It's not whether we should protect our workers from competition, but what we can do to fully enable them to compete against workers all over the world.     
30 Jun 2005 Source
There may still be disputes about exactly how much we're contributing to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return.     
03 Apr 2006 Source
All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster.     
03 Apr 2006 Source
Most of us do believe that gay couples should be able to visit each other in the hospital and share health care benefits; most of us do believe that they should be treated with dignity and have their privacy respected by the federal government. And we all know that if this amendment [constitutionally banning gay marriage] were to pass, it would close the door on much of this.     
05 Jun 2006 Source
I think it would be helpful to remember the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy but also our religious practice.     
29 Jun 2006 Source
...there are over 400,000 embryos being stored in over 400 facilities throughout the United States. The majority of these are reserved for infertile couples. However, many of these embryos will go unused, destined for permanent storage in a freezer or disposal. We should expand and accelerate research using these embryos...     
17 Jul 2006 Source
There has been only one conviction at Guantanamo. It was for a guilty plea on a -- on material support for terrorism. The sentence was nine months long. There has not been one conviction of a terrorist act. I have faith in America's courts, and I have faith in our JAGs. As President, I will close Guantanamo, reject the Military Commissions Act, and adhere to the Geneva Conventions. Our Constitution and our Uniform Code of Military Justice provide a framework for dealing with the terrorists.     
01 Aug 2006 Source
While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes--mass murder, the rape and murder of a child--so heinous that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment. On the other hand, the way capital cases were tried in Illinois at the time was so rife with error, questionable police tactics, racial bias, and shoddy lawyering, that 13 death row inmates had been exonerated.     
01 Oct 2006 Source
[My baptism] came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth.     
16 Oct 2006 Source
We should be more modest in our belief that we can impose democracy on a country through military force. In the past, it has been movements for freedom from within tyrannical regimes that have led to flourishing democracies; movements that continue today.     
20 Nov 2006 Source
If condoms and potentially microbicides can prevent millions of deaths, they should be made more widely available. I know that there are those who, out of sincere religious conviction, oppose such measures. And with these folks, I must respectfully but unequivocally disagree. I do not accept the notion that those who make mistakes in their lives should be given an effective death sentence...     
01 Dec 2006 Source
Universal health care for every single American must not be a question of whether, it must be a question of how. We have the ideas, we have the resources, and we will have universal health care in this country by the end of the next president's first term.     
25 Jan 2007 Source
We can and we should help Israelis and Palestinians both fulfill their national goals: two states living side by side in peace and security.     
02 Mar 2007 Source
The world must work to stop Iran’s uranium enrichment program and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. It is far too dangerous to have nuclear weapons in the hands of a radical theocracy. And while we should take no option, including military action, off the table, sustained and aggressive diplomacy combined with tough sanctions should be our primary means to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.     
02 Mar 2007 Source
I trust women to make these decisions in conjunction with their doctors and their families and their clergy.     
26 Apr 2007 Source
...my daughters should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged... [and] we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged.... [but] I think what we can say is that in our society race and class still intersect... I would like to think that ...affirmative action becomes a diminishing tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society.     
14 May 2007 Source
A couple weeks ago, cops found an AK-47 near a West Side school... ...That type of weapon belongs on a battlefield, not on the streets of Chicago.     
17 Jul 2007 Source
[maybe, but] if that's the criteria by which we are making decisions on the deployment of U.S. forces, then by that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now - where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife - which we haven't done. ... We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven't done. Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea.     
20 Jul 2007 Source
When it comes to federal rights, the over 1,100 rights that right now are not being given to same sex couples, I think that's unacceptable, and as president of the United States, I am going to fight hard to make sure that those rights are available.     
09 Aug 2007 Source
Now, I have a Secret Service detail at this point. So it's hard to pretend that you don't have big guys who are packing around you at all times. [...] it's not something that I that I am thinking about on an ongoing basis. I think that every presidential candidate, certainly every president these days is a potential target. And that comes with the job. And you take the precautions that are necessary and then you go about your business.     
01 Jan 2008 Source
I will end the notion of Yucca Mountain because it has not been based on the sort of sound science that can assure people that they're going to be safe. ... I've been clear from the start that Yucca was a misconceived project.     
15 Jan 2008 Source
[Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor] Senator Obama does not believe in legalization of marijuana, but agrees with President Bush that long minimum sentences for first-time drug users may not be the best way to occupy jail space or heal people from their disease.     
31 Jan 2008 Source
I believe in evolution, and I believe there's a difference between science and faith. That doesn't make faith any less important than science. It just means they're two different things. And I think it's a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don't hold up to scientific inquiry.     
07 Apr 2008 Source
I believe in evolution, and I believe there's a difference between science and faith. That doesn't make faith any less important than science. It just means they're two different things. And I think it's a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don't hold up to scientific inquiry.     
07 Apr 2008 Source
...if we show ourselves willing to talk and to offer carrots and sticks in order to deal with these pressing problems [then] if Iran then rejects any overtures of that sort, it puts us in a stronger position to mobilize the international community to ratchet up the pressure on Iran. Our unwillingness to talk or the perception that we are trying to bully our way through negotiations, that's eliminated as an excuse for them not dealing with these issues in an appropriate way.     
23 Jul 2008 Source
Russia must back up its commitment to stop its violence and violation of Georgia's sovereignty.     
13 Aug 2008 Source
Let me be as clear as possible... I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president. ... How a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn't be the topic of our politics...     
01 Sep 2008 Source