The President: It's good to see you.
(inaudible dialogue)
Female Speaker: And so, we've heard a lot in the
past speaker's series that we've had with all the
amazing stuff about your relentless optimism.
The President: I am a relentless optimist.
Female Speaker: I was wondering if you could talk
a little bit more about that.
How you remain optimistic or maybe you're not but people
still think that you are.
The President: Ah.
(laughter)
Some of this is temperamental.
I -- people just have different temperaments and I
tend to be a pretty happy guy.
(laughter)
I'm pretty sure this is cause I was born in Hawaii.
(laughter)
And so I spent most of my early years in really
pleasant weather all the time.
Splashing in waves and things.
So that helped.
As I get older.
And certainly in this job, what helps me a lot is
taking the long view on things.
I think so much pessimism and so much stress arises
out of looking at things in this very narrow here and now.
But the day to day sort of ups and downs and swings,
it's like the weather.
Mean, you're okay you get an umbrella sometime.
Sometimes you take off your jacket.
But if you can keep your eye on the long Buick, not only
does that relieve stress, but it also allows you to
make better decisions.
The things that last, the things that are important
usually have to do with how do you behave.
How did you treat other people.
Did you work as hard as you could have.
Did you do your best.
The things that you have control over.
When I'm on my deathbed, the things I will remember will
be walking a four-year-old Malia to the park.
I'm not going to remember some headline, I think
that's helpful.
But that's just me.
It's mostly the Hawaii thing.
(laughter)
Female Speaker: What kind of legacy would to leave in the
African American community?
The President: It's hard for me to say what I've meant to
the African American community -- I can say what
Michelle's meant to the African American community.
(laughter)
Michelle's the bomb.
(laughter)
What concretely I can say is that the work this
administration has done has made a difference in the
lives of people who are struggling and those folks
are disproportionately people of color.
So whether it's the affordable care act and
making sure people have health care or its expanding
Pell grants or it's programs to deal with low-income
communities to help them rebuild and provide better
job training.
In each of those areas, there are a lot of people
who are better off than their lives would have been
because of the concrete actions that we took.
There's a second category of issues that have to do with
government action and are specifically related to
civil rights, voting rights.
We now have an outstanding civil rights division in the
Justice Department that is actively filing suits and
winning lawsuits to make sure people have the right
to vote.
To make sure that discriminatory practices are
rooted out.
That's another category.
I've put in that same category the work we have
been doing around criminal justice reform.
And reshaping how we do commutations and how we are
working with law enforcement around best practices
for policing.
All right so that's a whole category of issues.
And then there's just the cultural and physiological
issues and it's interesting and I think the impact may
be not just with black kids taken for granted that
somebody who looks like them can be president.
But their white peers take it for granted that somebody
that doesn't look like them can be president.
All of you are young enough that in some ways, it's
plausible to you maybe that race relations have
gotten worse.
But actually it's a testimony to how much better
they've gotten.
That this shocks you.
Evidence that there may be racial bias in our criminal
justice system.
You're hurt.
Whereas, 25, 30 years ago, that was a given.
So sometimes progress involves improvement but
then raising expectations.
Things are a lot better but now our expectations are a
lot higher.
You know, we got a long way to go when it comes to
racial issues.
You know, history can go backwards as well
as forwards.
But the overall trajectory I think is positive and the
caution I have for this cohort -- because there
probably is some self-selection going on.
You if you guys are interning here with Obama,
then you're probably -- you got certain, you are more
likely to have certain political views.
(laughter)
So I just want to caution all of you to make sure that
in wanting to improve race relations, you don't become
so rigid and sensitive in terms of your own views that
instead of opening up dialogue, you harden lines
and divisions.
All right, guys turn.
Yes sir, over here.
Male Speaker: How do you deal with knowing when to
compromise and how have you learned how to compromise
and kind a more or less stick to your guns'?
The President: Maybe my rule of thumb is if the issue
we're working on -- I've got a particular objective and
the compromise thwarts that objective then that's
a bad compromise.
If the compromise makes things better, but just not
as good as I think they need to be, then my instinct is
that's a good compromise.
And probably the best example of this is the
debate we had around healthcare.
Once we get the structure in place, it's like a starter
home and it would be nice if we had granite countertops
in the kitchen but we can't afford those yet.
There's no porch.
But it beats sleeping outside.
But I think I've been proven right on this.
Because I've got 20 million people with health insurance
that haven't had it before.
Now it's far from our ideal, but every single step in
social progress in this country has started with a
starter home.
The political process is in this country incremental.
Democracy of our sort require reform as a general
proposition and not revolution.
And that's okay.
There's nothing wrong with better.
Because you hold out for the best and that means that
whoever was going to help my better doesn't have health
care that year.
Or, isn't getting as much help on going to college as
they otherwise would have.
All right, well you guys have been great.
I always say this to all of you, even though it's
boilerplate I'm going to repeat it.
Don't get bored, don't get cynical.
You guys are the most privileged people at the
most prosperous, secure period in human history.
And so, no griping and no moping.
The possibilities of what you can do are enormous.
And that doesn't mean -- becoming president involves
a lot of luck.
Becoming Steve Jobs or Quentin Tarantino -- that
requires -- there are certain amount of breaks
that you get.
It's not because you are so much better than anybody else.
And being (inaudible) because you are better than
everybody else.
But a lot of times it's just happen stance or things
worked out.
But being useful and having a satisfying life and making
a contribution?
That is entirely within your control.
Orient yourself towards having an impact and making
a difference.
And you will.
And you'll be happy doing it.
All right?
What have I got here?
(laughter)
You've just been waiting for this.
Ah, this is so nice.
Look at this.
And like glitter on the sides?
(laughter)
You got help didn't you.
Your parents helped you.
(laughter)
It's just like the science projects.
This is so nice.
Well thank you everybody.
Female Speaker: Yeah.
Happy birthday almost.
The President: All right.
Almost.
Good luck everybody, you're going to do great.