The most presidential lorem ipsum in history.
He does not say education or the war. And next week, we'll also hear about those occasions when he's broken with his party as evidence that he can deliver the change that we need. And I've seen it in this campaign. I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit - for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear.
It seems to me that each day, thousands of Americans are going about their lives - dropping the kids off at school, driving to work, shopping at the mall, trying to stay on their diets, trying to kick a cigarette habit - and they're coming to the realization that something is missing. I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality.
And we cannot ignore the very real concerns of Americans who are not worried about illegal immigration because they are racist or xenophobic, but because they fear it will result in lower wages when they're already struggling to raise their families. As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all. We measure progress in the 23 million new jobs that were created when Bill Clinton was President - when the average American family saw its income go up $7,500 instead of down $2,000 like it has under George Bush. Yet in this new age, such attitudes are self-defeating. We cannot impose peace.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced. Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. Many Gulf States have enjoyed great wealth as a consequence of oil, and some are beginning to focus it on broader development.
A belief that there are better days ahead. I didn't fall out in church, as folks sometimes do. We can affirm our faith without endangering the separation of church and state, as long as we understand that when we're in the public square, we have to speak in universal terms that everyone can understand. And as someone who watched my mother argue with insurance companies while she lay in bed dying of cancer, I will make certain those companies stop discriminating against those who are sick and need care the most. The question, now, is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build. And today I am announcing a new global effort with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to eradicate polio.
Thank you.