Barack Obama

I don't want to give anything up that I campaigned on. We need to look at the economy. We need to look at health care. We need to look at, obviously, the war in Iraq at this point. And we need to look at energy policy.

America is a strong and resilient country.

We should all take pride in the fact that we once again displayed for the world the power of our democracy.

Our destiny is not written for us, but by us.

I know that we will succeed if we put aside partisanship and work together as one nation.

But critics also say he might have made missteps, including a reference to Nancy Reagan that later required an apology.

In his first news conference, the president-elect vowed to meet the economic crisis head-on.

I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances.

Iran's development of a nuclear weapon I believe is unacceptable. And we have to mount a international effort to prevent that from happening.

I'm not going to anticipate problems. I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders in Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff…

It's only been three days since the election. Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. And I think that we've got to think it through.

My tax plan represented a net tax cut. It provided for substantial middle class tax cuts, 95 percent of working Americans would receive them. It also provided for cuts in capital gains for small businesses, additional tax credits, all of…

But, obviously, over the next several weeks and months, we're going to be continuing to take a look at the data and see what's taking place in the economy as a whole.

You need a break. And that's what I'm going to provide when I'm president of the United States of America.

We're going to have to act swiftly to resolve it. Now, the United States has only one government and one president at a time. And until January 20th of next year, that government is the current administration.

It was one of several light-hearted moments for the President-elect during his first news conference today.

Iran's development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable. And we have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening.

Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes.

Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something we should, you know, simply do in a knee-jerk fashion.

You need a break and that's what I'm going to provide when I'm president of the United States of America.

I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize deliberate as well as haste.

I am not going to anticipate problems. I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders in Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff…

We're going to have to act quickly to resolve it. Now the United States has only one government and one president at a time. And until January 20th of next year, that government is the current administration.

Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward.

Now is a time for unity, and Mr. President-elect, I will do everything in my power to help you stitch together the frayed fabric of our politics.