Obama: ‘America Is Now Positioned Better than We Could Have Ever Imagined’

On Wednesday while speaking at the 2014 Congressional Picnic at the White House, President Obama said that "America is now positioned better than we could have ever imagined." Heralding the bipartisanship House measure granting him authorization to act against ISIS, President Obama said, "If we continue to act together," progress could also be reached on schools, roads, bridges, investments in research and development as well as cures for diseases. 

“America is now positioned, America is now positioned better than we could have ever imagined. If we continue to act in the interests of all of us and if every once in awhile we set aside politics and try to get something done, there is no doubt that we can make sure our schools work better, there is no doubt that we can make sure that our roads and our bridges and our infrastructure works the way that it should. There is no doubt that since we still have the most innovative companies in the world that we can't continue to succeed. And that we can't continue to put money into research and development and cure diseases and continue to lead the world when it comes to, not just security, but also dealing with issues like Ebola and making sure that more people are safe and well-housed and well-fed and children and girls are getting the kind of education they deserve. All of these we can do. And so hopefully, a picnic like this just reminds us the fact that a lot of people around the country are counting on us being able to work together. That doesn't mean we don't have strong passions and strong arguments, but it means that every now and then we need to set those aside, embrace compromise and try to get some stuff done. That's what people are looking for. And today, on national security at least, we showed them that we could."