I Very Much Believe In Reforming The

The Two Inaugurations Were Different. The First Inauguration I Was Thinking To Myself, "let's Make Sure I Don't Screw This Up." I Think There Is - People Always Talk About How Cool I Am. I Don't Care How Cool You Are.

For We Have A Choice In This Country. We Can Accept A Politics That Breeds Division, And Conflict, And Cynicism. We Can Tackle Race Only As Spectacle - As We Did In The Oj Trial - Or In The Wake Of Tragedy, As We Did In The Aftermath Of Katrina - Or As Fodder For The Nightly News. We Can Play Reverend Wright's Sermons On Every Channel, Every Day And Talk About Them From Now Until The Election, And Make The Only Question In This Campaign Whether Or Not The American People Think That I Somehow Believe Or Sympathize With His Most Offensive Words.

We Are Growing The Economy In Smart Ways And Rebuilding Our Infrastructure And Investing In Science And Development And That We Stay True To Those Values That Helped To Get Us Here.

Higher Minimum Wages, Full-employment Programs, Early-childhood Education: Those Kinds Of Programs Are, By Design, Universal, But By Definition, Because They Are Helping Folks Who Are In The Worst Economic Situations, Are Most Likely To Disproportionately Impact And Benefit African Americans. They Also Have The Benefit Of Being Sellable To A Majority Of The Body Politic.

It Will Take Time To Eradicate A Cancer Like Isil. And Any Time We Take Military Action, There Are Risks Involved - Especially To The Servicemen And Women Who Carry Out These Missions. But I Want The American People To Understand How This Effort Will Be Different From The Wars In Iraq And Afghanistan. It Will Not Involve American Combat Troops Fighting On Foreign Soil.