"There have been times where we had to make some really tough decisions, really unpopular decisions, digging ourselves out of this incredible economic hole that we were in. We had to stabilize the financial system. That wasn’t always popular. We had to save the U.S. auto industry, and everybody said that wasn’t going to work. And I just want to report that GM just announced it’s hiring every single one of the workers that they laid off before we took office.
But when you look back on the track record of accomplishments over the last two years, I think you can go down that list of commitments we made to each other -- not just commitments I made, but commitment we made to each other about the kind of country we want to be -- and I think we’ve got some things that we can be proud of.
We passed health care reform, and it is going to make life better for millions of Americans. We pulled this economy out of the ditch, and just in this last year alone, over a million and a half jobs have been created, and we’re going to keep on creating more. We made sure that we finally got rid of that archaic policy, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” because we wanted to make sure that every American who wants to serve, can serve.
We raised fuel-efficiency standards on cars and invested in record amounts in clean energy, because we want to make sure that wind energy and solar panels and all of the incredible promise of a new energy future starts right here in the United States of America.
So we can go down the list domestically, and then we can talk internationally. Obviously that's been on a lot of our minds lately. And we are grateful to our men and women in uniform who have implemented so many difficult policies under such incredibly difficult conditions. And whether it’s helping the people of Haiti or it’s helping the people of Japan, whether it is being on the right side of history in the Middle East and North Africa or making sure that innocents who are seeking their freedom aren't slaughtered by tyranny --- what we've been able to do is to once again form the kind of American leadership that brings people together, as opposed to drives them apart, and that renews old alliances and creates new coalitions.
So we've gotten a lot of stuff done. But right now what’s on my mind is what hasn’t gotten done yet. We're going to have to fix a broken immigration system, and that is not yet complete. We've got to make sure that even as we're securing our borders we also recognize that we are a nation of immigrants and that we want everybody to be able to partake in the American Dream.
So if you go down this list and you say, not bad for two years work -- the one thing that I want everybody here to understand is that I am as hopeful, if not more hopeful, now than I was when I was running. "
President Barack Obama
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