we tried our plan — and it worked. That's the difference. That's the choice in this election. That's why I'm running for a second term." - Meaning and context.">
Campaign speech, Oakland, California, Date: 2012-07-24, quoted in Tapper, Jake (2012-07-26), "Obama Now Partly Running On Bill Clinton’s Record — ‘Our Plan’", ABC News retrieved: 2012-08-03
• Partially quoted as "We tried our plan and it worked. That's the difference. That's the choice in this election. That's why I'm running for a second term." in Mitt Romney "It Worked" campaign ad (Date: 2012-07-26)

I'll cut out government spending that's not working, that we can't afford, but I'm also going to ask anybody making over $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rates they were paying under Bill Clinton, back when our economy created 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history and everybody did well. Just like we've tried their plan, we tried our plan — and it worked. That's the difference. That's the choice in this election. That's why I'm running for a second term.

— Barack Obama

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "I'll cut out government spending that's not working, that we can't afford, but I'm also going to ask anybody making over $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rates they were paying under Bill Clinton, back when our economy created 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history and everybody did well. Just like we've tried their plan, we tried our plan — and it worked. That's the difference. That's the choice in this election. That's why I'm running for a second term." in the context of "Campaign speech, Oakland, California, Date: 2012-07-24, quoted in Tapper, Jake (2012-07-26), "Obama Now Partly Running On Bill Clinton’s Record — ‘Our Plan’", ABC News retrieved: 2012-08-03
• Partially quoted as "We tried our plan and it worked. That's the difference. That's the choice in this election. That's why I'm running for a second term." in Mitt Romney "It Worked" campaign ad (Date: 2012-07-26)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Barack Obama" (Quotes, 2012) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 05, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Barack Obama

About Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017. Born in Hawaii, the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, he won the 2008 presidential election and was re-elected president in November 2012. A member of the U.S. Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Before becoming president, he represented the 13th district for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 and served as United States senator from Illinois between January 4, 2005 and November 16, 2008. While president, he was the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.