The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
Let me be clear. The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. Why else would he define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year? How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans? How else could he offer a health care plan that would actually tax people's benefits, or an education plan that would do nothing to help families pay for college, or a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement? Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered. In Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia, we have seen Muslim-majority countries elect a woman to lead.
I understand you switched venues at considerable expense and inconvenience because of unfair labor practices at the place you were going to be having this synod. Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.
But I've got news for them, too. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. That is why I ordered the removal of our combat brigades by next August. All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written.
They want a sense of purpose, a narrative arc to their lives. This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together. The challenges we face require tough choices, and Democrats as well as Republicans will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. The third source of tension is our shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons. But it is clear to all concerned that when it comes to nuclear weapons, we have reached a decisive point.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity: Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. This issue has been a source of tension between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran. I do not believe that women must make the same choices as men in order to be equal, and I respect those women who choose to live their lives in traditional roles. It is easier to start wars than to end them.
Thank you. And may God's peace be upon you.