Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama's Back to School Event

Speech was copied early Tuesday morning from the White House site. This may not match his actual remarks. As a side note, I appreciate and acknowledge that the White House uses a single space after the end of a sentence.

Autosummarizing the speech to 25 percent

I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

There were times when I missed having a father in my life. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school.

Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Autosummarizing the speech to 10 percent

I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Taking the 25 percent autosummarization and autosummarizing it to 10 percent

I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Mark Sanford

Using the autosummarize feature in MS Word, Mark Sanford's confession is reduced.



Autosummarized to 25%

I had a conversation with Gina Smith this morning when I arrived in Atlanta, and I told her about my love of the Appalachian Trail. And I used to organize hiking trips, actually, when I was in high school. It's going to hurt. In so doing, let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny and our four great boys, Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake, for letting them down. One of the primary roles, well before being a governor, is being a father to those four boys, who are absolute jewels and blessings, that I've let down in a profound way. And I apologize to them.

I would secondly say to Jenny, anybody who has observed her over the last 20 years of my life knows how closely she has stood by my side in campaign after campaign after campaign, in literally being my campaign manager and in the raising of those four boys and in a whole host of other things throughout the lives that we've built together.

I want to apologize to good friends. Tom Davis came over to the house. We called it Jurassic Park because it was the kids' dinosaur sheets and all kinds of different folks were living there in the campaign. I've let down a lot of people. That's the bottom line. Forgiveness is not an immediate process; it is, in fact, a process that takes time. I think that that is the bottom line of God's law, that it's not a moral, rigid list of do's and don'ts just for the heck of do's and don'ts. This press conference is a consequence.

I developed a relationship with a -- what started out as a dear, dear friend from Argentina. I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends like Tom Davis. I hurt a lot of different folks. You know, I'm committed to that process of walking through with Jenny, the boys, with the Tom Davises of the world, with the people of South Carolina, in -- in saying where do we go from here. I'm going to resign as chairman of Republican Governors Association. You know, if I think about this process, not only does it begin at a family level, it begins with the family of South Carolinians. And so that means me going one by one and town by town to talk to a lot of old friends across this state in -- in what I've done and, indeed, asking for their forgiveness.

Autosummarized to 10%

Everybody ready?
In so doing, let me first of all apologize to my wife Jenny and our four great boys, Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake, for letting them down. I want to apologize to good friends. Tom Davis came over to the house. I've let down a lot of people. That's the bottom line. Forgiveness is not an immediate process; it is, in fact, a process that takes time. I think that that is the bottom line of God's law, that it's not a moral, rigid list of do's and don'ts just for the heck of do's and don'ts. I hurt my wife. I hurt my boys. I hurt friends like Tom Davis. I hurt a lot of different folks. You know, I'm committed to that process of walking through with Jenny, the boys, with the Tom Davises of the world, with the people of South Carolina, in -- in saying where do we go from here. I'm going to resign as chairman of Republican Governors Association.

Obama press conference, March 24, 2009

From the transcript at the Washington Post, I copied President Obama's answers into a Word document, then autosummarized at 1% and at 10%. Then for the fun of it, I took the 10% autosummarization and autosummarized it to 1%. All right. OK. Working backwards...

• Autosummarized 1% of the autosummarized 10%:
  

  All right. Let's invest in preventive care. All right?

  
  
  
• Autosummarized to 1%
  

  All right. Here's what I do know: If we don't tackle energy, if we don't improve our education system, if we don't drive down the costs of health care, if we're not making serious investments in science and technology and our infrastructure, then we won't grow 2.6 percent, we won't grow 2.2 percent. The budget that we've put forward reflects the largest increase in veterans funding in 30 years. Let's invest in preventive care. All right?

  
  
  
  
  
• Autosummarized to 10%
  

  It's a strategy to create jobs, to help responsible homeowners, to restart lending, and to grow our economy over the long term.
  
  The first step we took was to pass a recovery plan to jump-start job creation and put money in people's pockets. We've already seen a jump in refinancing of some mortgages, as homeowners take advantage of lower rates. We invest in reform that will bring down the cost of health care for families, businesses and our government.
  
  All right. So we've got a regular mechanism whereby we deal with FDIC- insured banks. I think a lot of people understandably say, "Well, if we're putting all this money in there, and if it's such a big systemic risk to allow AIG to liquidate, why is it that we can't restructure some of these contracts? With respect to the American people, I think folks are sacrificing left and right. What I've said here in Washington is that we've got to make some tough choices. We've got to make some tough budgetary choices. What we can't do, though, is sacrifice long-term growth, investments that are critical to the future, and that's why my budget focuses on health care, energy, education, the kinds of things that can build a foundation for long-term economic growth, as opposed to the fleeting prosperity that we've seen over the last several years.
  
  We are going through an extraordinary crisis, but we believe that, taken -- if you take the steps that we've already taken, with respect to housing, with respect to small businesses, if you look at what we're doing in terms of increasing liquidity in the financial system, that the steps that we're taking can actually stabilize the economy and get it moving again.
  
  Well, I've emphasized repeatedly what I expect out of this budget. I've said that we've got to have a serious energy policy that frees ourselves from dependence on foreign oil and makes clean energy the profitable kind of energy.
  
  Our point in the budget is: Let's get started now. The bottom line is, is that I want to see health care, energy, education, and serious efforts to reduce our budget deficit.
  
  Point number two. The deficit is cut in half. Here's what I do know: If we don't tackle energy, if we don't improve our education system, if we don't drive down the costs of health care, if we're not making serious investments in science and technology and our infrastructure, then we won't grow 2.6 percent, we won't grow 2.2 percent. I mean, we haven't seen an alternative budget out of them.
  
  The biggest problem we have long term is Medicare and Medicaid. The budget that we've put forward reflects the largest increase in veterans funding in 30 years. So there are a whole host of veterans issues that I think every American wants to see properly funded, and that's what's reflected in our budget.
  
  One last point. Now, how do we -- how are we going to reduce health care costs? Let's invest in preventive care. Let's avoid steps that could result in protectionism, that would further contract global trade. As far as confidence in the U.S. economy or the dollar, I would just point out that the dollar is extraordinarily strong right now. And the reason the dollar is strong right now is because investors consider the United States the strongest economy in the world with the most stable political system in the world.
  
  Let's give them some relief, some help, 95 percent of American families."
  
  People are still going to be able to make charitable contributions. Right now, he gets 28 percent -- he gets to write off 28 percent. How can we make sure that we are investing in the infrastructure for the future that can put people back to work right away? Now, in the meantime, we've got to work very closely with the states to monitor and to help people who are still falling through the cracks. I think that, when it comes to domestic affairs, if we keep on working at it, if we acknowledge that we make mistakes sometimes, and that we don't always have the right answer, and we're inheriting very knotty problems, that we can pass health care, we can find better solutions to our energy challenges, we can teach our children more effectively, we can deal with a very real budget crisis that is not fully dealt with in my -- in my budget at this point, but makes progress.
  
  We've been in office now a little over 60 days. All right?