[corkoman]

If that’s a quote can you give the cite? Or is it your impression of something else Obama thought/said? In which case it shouldn’t be in quotes.

No - OblaBla said that or something very close to that. No quotation marks needed nor are we compelled to add a citation for each of his blatherings.

[edwinland]

Agreed. You don’t need quotation marks.

“A quotation is a word-for-word repetition of written or spoken language. Quotation marks directly before and after the material tell the reader these are the exact words of the source.”

So just leave them out next time you are paraphrasing someone and you’ll avoid this common error.