Barack Obama: “The bonds that were already so strong between our two countries have become stronger.”

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.

We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, you know, put enormous strain on our military. A lot of people have died. And it feels like we’re back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little bit worse…

America is currently experiencing anger and vision but we are looking for fairness and common sense and mutual respect.

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