Barack Obama: “Japan was my first stop in Asia as President last year, and it is a pleasure to be back for the APEC summit.”

In forming our union, the founders fell terribly short of the Declaration's promise, leaving slavery intact, allowing states to restrict the franchise to white men who owned property.

Every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold the values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in no less than I did.

I hope this center will serve as an affirmation of just how special, how precious our democracy truly is.

The success of this experiment was never a given.