Inauguration speech (January 2009)

The project of the first two years has been to effectively deal with the legacy issues that we inherited, particularly the Iraq war, the Afghan war, and the war against al Qaeda, while rebalancing our resources and our posture in the world. If you were to boil it all down to a bumper sticker, it's, 'Wind down these two wars, reestablish American standing and leadership in the world, and focus on a broader set of priorities, from Asia and the global economy to a nuclear-nonproliferation regime.'

-- Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, May 2011

Jim Bourg-Pool/Getty Images

Prague nuclear weapons speech (April 2009)

In the Prague speech I outlined a vision of a world without nuclear weapons, but said that that was unlikely to be achieved even during my lifetime. But I said that there were a series of specific steps that we could start taking to move in a direction that lessens the threat of nuclear weapons.

-- President Barack Obama, April 5, 2010 

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images 

 

Cairo speech (June 2009)

One of the reasons that the president went to Cairo was to go to a place that needed change and to do it in a way that wasn't calling out [former Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak, but was calling out that the United States was going to be on the side of change in a hopefully responsible, sustainable way." 

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, June 2012

HALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images

 

The Ghana visit (July 2009)

People in Ghana are printing clothes for this occasion.... The fact that his father is African and he picked us makes us special. He is endorsing our strong democracy in Ghana. This is historic.

-- Ghanaian hotel manager Adrian Landry, July 10, 2009

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

The Afghanistan troop surge (December 2009)

From the very first meeting, everyone started with set opinions. And no opinion was the same by the end of the process.

-- Gen. James L. Jones, Dec. 5, 2009

Pete Souza/White House

The Nobel Peace Prize award (December 2009)

What I had to do is describe a notion of a just war. But also acknowledge that the very notion of a just war can lead you into some dark places. And so you can't be complacent in labeling something just. You need to constantly ask yourself questions.

-- President Barack Obama, October 2012

Pete Souza/White House

Ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell (December 2010)

I got the opportunity to be on stage with him when he signed the bill, and my favorite moment of that day was when he was in the middle of signing his name. I just couldn't believe that it was actually happening. I was so excited, and so I somewhat spontaneously blurted out, 'Please make sure you spell it right,' to the president. He laughed. It was a great moment. It was a historic moment I think for America.

-- Retired Navy Commander Zoe Dunning, Dec. 22, 2011

Chuck Kennedy/White House

Military intervention in Libya (March 2011)

He had a very public agenda that seemed to bypass Libya. It was very focused on trade and economics with Brazil, but then there was also a private agenda, where each event of the day was sort of delayed and delayed, and we in the press corps wondered why.

In the evening, White House spokesman Ben Rhodes told us it was because he was getting briefings. The president was talking to his national security advisor, to Secretary of State Clinton, the Secretary of Defense Gates and even to foreign allies. He called the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates, and then just before a lunch with American and Brazilian CEOs, he had this consequential conference call.

-- NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro, March 20, 2011

Pete Souza/White House

The Osama bin Laden raid (May 2011)

It is one of those rare moments when you know that the man you're watching is putting everything on the line. Everything on the line. Not only risking the lives of these incredible, incredible warriors, but also knowing that if he's wrong about this man, he's going to pay a very, very high price for it.

-- Vice President Joe Biden, May 2, 2012

Pete Souza/White House

Arab Spring address (May 2011)

I think it's important not to take this particular situation and then try to project some sort of Obama Doctrine that we're going to apply in a cookie cutter fashion across the board. Each country in this region is different. Our principles remain the same. We want to make sure that governments are not attacking their own citizens. We believe in core fundamental human rights like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. We want governments that are responsive to their people. And so we'll use all our tools to try to accomplish that. But Libya was a unique situation where a limited military intervention that had a strong international mandate and strong international participation could make the difference -- life or death difference -- for a lot of people. And in that situation it made sense. That does not mean that somehow we are going to go around trying to use military force to impose or apply certain forms of government.

-- President Barack Obama, March 29, 2011

JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (May 2011)

We have not gotten the results that we wanted to have in the Arab-Israeli peace process, no doubt. There are a lot of reasons for that, but I think that if there has been a place where we have not been able to achieve the goals along the path we set out at the beginning, it is there.

-- National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Oct. 4, 2011
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Asia-Pacific trip (November 2011)

When we went to Asia last November, it was the first trip that we'd taken where everything we were talking about and doing was affirmative initiatives that had begun under our administration. It felt like, Boy, this is what American foreign policy could look like if we weren't anchored in these wars. We want the U.S. to be able to essentially help set the agenda in the Asia-Pacific region.

-- Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, June 2012

Pete Souza/White House  

 

End of U.S. combat mission in Iraq (December 2011)

I'll be blunt with you. After I made that speech in the palace with Maliki and Talabani, the  president and prime minister, to Iraqi and American assembled troops, I left, got on the phone and called Barack, the president and said, "Thank  you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do something that meant a  great deal to me personally and to the country, to end this war in Iraq." That makes everything worthwhile in this job for me.

-- Vice President Joe Biden, Dec. 13, 2011 

Lawrence Jackson/White House

Hot mic moment with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (March 2012) 

I think everybody understands that -- if they haven't they haven't been listening to my speeches -- I want to reduce our nuclear stockpiles.  And one of the barriers to doing that is building trust and cooperation around missile defense issues.  And so this is not a matter of hiding the ball. I'm on record. 

-- President Barack Obama, March 27, 2012

YEKATERINA SHTUKINA/AFP/Getty Images

Surprise Afghanistan trip (May 2012)

The reporters were instructed to tell one editor, and to do so either in person or by land-line telephone. No mobile phone calls, no e-mails.... By the time the reporters all made contact with Washington, we were standing in the courtyard of the presidential palace. Correspondents from Bloomberg, the Associated Press and Reuters gathered with [White House Press Secretary Jay] Carney, who counted to three and said, 'Go.'

The news was out and we were officially in Afghanistan.

--Bloomberg White House correspondent Julianna Goldman, May 3, 2012

Pete Souza/White House

First U.S. presidential visit to Myanmar (November 2012)

It's a remarkable moment that I never dreamed I would see in my lifetime. Even though I didn't see him in person, I'm sure he saw us from behind his tinted window. I'm sure he could feel how much we appreciate him.

--Burmese citizen Tun Shwe, Nov. 20, 2012.

Pete Souza/White House

 

Benghazi Attack (September 2012) 

I have now for 20 years been very much in the administration decision-making -- first with my husband, then after 9/11 working with President Bush, now of course in President Obama's cabinet. In the wake of an attack like this, in the fog of war, there's always going to be confusion.   

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Oct. 16, 2012

Pete Souza/White House

 

Reelection (November 2012)

I think [Ronald] Reagan is actually the best recent model, because he laid down some very ambitious rhetorical markers and he reoriented foreign policy from his predecessor in many respects, and a lot of the dividend on that started to come on line the second term. A lot of the threads of stories that we've begun -- from Asia to the Arab Spring, to even Africa, to Middle East peace -- the ability to complete the story in the second term will go a long way toward defining the legacy of the president.

-- Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, June 2012

Pete Souza/White House