Photo: Mark Lyons/Getty Images
Elected 44th President of the United States:
On November 4, 2008, 47-year-old Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th President of the United States, after a hard-fought two-year presidential campaign. He was sworn in as President on January 20, 2009.Obama (D-IL) was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 2, 2004, after serving 7 years as an Illinois state senator.
He's the author of two best-selling books. Obama was named by Time magazine in 2005, 2007 and 2008 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Notable:
On February 10, 2007, Barack Obama declared his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic nomination for the presidency. Obama first rose to national prominence when he delivered an inspiring keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.On June 3, 2008, Obama accumulated enough Democratic convention delegates votes to become the presumptive party nominee for the presidential race.
In 2004, Sen. Obama signed a $1.9 million deal to author 3 books. The first, "The Audacity of Hope,", discusses his political convictions. His 1995 autobiography was a bestseller.
The Obama Persona:
Barack Obama is a independent-minded leader with an even-keel temperament, charismatic speaking skills and a knack for consensus-building. He's also a talented, introspective writer.His values are strongly shaped by his expertise as a Constitutional law professor and civil rights attorney, and by Christianity. While private by nature, Obama mingles easily with others, but is most comfortable addressing large crowds.
Obama is known for being unafraid to speak and hear hard truths when necessary. Although armed with shrewd political sensibilities, he's sometimes slow to recognize viable threats to his agenda.
Major Areas of Interest:
Sen. Obama's areas of special legislative interest have been in support for working families, public education, health care, economic growth and jobs creation, and ending the Iraq War. As an Illinois state senator, he worked passionately for ethics reforms and criminal justice reform.In 2002, Obama publicly opposed the Bush Administration's push for the Iraq War, but supported war in Afghanistan.
Senate Committees in the 110th Congress:
- Committee on Foreign Relations
- Subcommittee on African Affairs
- Subcommittee on International Economic Policy
- Subcommittee on Asians and Pacific Affairs
- Committee on Veterans' Affairs
- Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
- Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs
Practical, Progressive Thinking on the Issues:
In 2002, Barack Obama publicly opposed the Iraq War, and continues to call for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. He urges universal health care, and if elected president, promises implementation by the end of his first term.Barack Obama's voting record and stances as US Senator and Illinois State Senator reflect a "practical, common sense progressive" thinker who emphasizes increased support for teachers, college affordability, and restoration of meaningful federal support of veterans. Obama opposes privatization of Social Security.
Prior Experience:
Barack Obama served 7 years as an Illinois State Senator, resigning to assume U.S. Senate responsibilities. He also worked as a community organizer and a civil rights attorney. Obama was also a Senior Lecturer in Constitutional Law at University of Chicago Law School.After law school, he aggressively organized one of the largest voter registration drives in Chicago history to help Bill Clinton's 1992 election.
Personal Data:
- Birth - August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii
- Education - B.A. in international relations, 1983, Columbia University. J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was the first black Editor of the Harvard Law Review
- Family - Married on October 18, 1992 to Michelle Robinson, a Chicago native, also a Harvard Law School graduate. Two young daughters, Malia and Sasha.
- Faith - Christian, United Church of Christ
Growing Up Barack Obama:
Born Barrack Hussein Obama, Jr, son of a Kenya-born Harvard-educated economist and Ann Dunham, a caucasian anthropologist, was 2 years old when his father left them.His father (deceased in 1982) returned to Kenya, and only saw his son once more. His mother remarried, and moved Barack to Indonesia. He returned to Hawaii at age 10 to live with his maternal grandparents. He graduated from the respected Punahou School with honors. As a teenager, he scooped ice cream at Baskins-Robbins, and has admitted to dabbling in marijuana and cocaine. His mother died of cancer in 1995.
Memorable Quotes :
"You can't have No Child Left Behind if you leave the money behind.""I do agree that the Democrats have been intellectually lazy in failing to take the core ideals of the Democratic Party and adapting them to circumstances.... It's not just a matter of sticking in a quote from the Bible into a stock speech."
"There has yet to be a serious conversation about health care on the floor of the United States Senate."
"...as parents, we need to find the time and the energy to step in and find ways to help our kids love reading. We can read to them, talk to them about what they're reading and make time for this by turning off the TV ourselves. Libraries can help parents with this. Knowing the constraints we face from busy schedules and a TV culture, we need to think outside the box here - to dream big like we always have in America.
Right now, children come home from their first doctor's appointment with an extra bottle of formula. But imagine if they came home with their first library card or their first copy of Goodnight Moon? What if it was as easy to get a book as it is to rent a DVD or pick up McDonalds? What if instead of a toy in every Happy Meal, there was a book? What if there were portable libraries that rolled through parks and playgrounds like ice cream trucks? Or kiosks in stores where you could borrow books?
What if during the summer, when kids often lose much of the reading progress they've made during the year, every child had a list of books they had to read and talk about and an invitation to a summer reading club at the local library? Libraries have a special role to play in our knowledge economy." -- June 27, 2005 Speech to the American Library AssociationObama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He moved to Jakarta in 1967 where he lived for four years. At the age of 10, he returned to Hawaii and was raised by his maternal grandparents. After high school he attended first Occidental College and then Columbia University where he graduated with a degree in political science. Five years later he attended Harvard Law School and graduated magna cum laude in 1991.
Family Ties:
Father: Barack Obama, Sr. - a Kenyan native. He rarely saw his son after his divorce from Obama's Mother.Stepfather: Lolo Soetoro – an Indonesian geologist.
Mother: Ann Dunham – An anthropologist from Wichita, Kansas.
Wife: Michelle LaVaughn Robinson - a lawyner from Chicago, Illinois.
Children: Malia Ann and Sasha
Career Before the Presidency:
Upon graduating from Columbia University, Barack Obama worked first at Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group, a non-partisan political organization. He then moved to Chicago and became director of the Developing Communities Project. After law school, Obama wrote his memoir, Dreams from My Father. He worked as a community organizer along with teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years. He also worked as a lawyer during this same period. In 1996, Obama was elected to be the junior senator from Illinois.2008 Election:
Barack Obama began his run to be the Democratic nominee for president in February, 2007. He was nominated after a very close primary race against key opponent Hillary Clinton, wife of former president Bill Clinton. Obama chose Joe Biden to be his running mate. His main opponent was Republican contender, John McCain. In the end, Obama won more than the required 270 electoral votes. However, the exact electoral votes won will not be decided until the electors meet in December, and their votes are announced in January.Historical Significance:
Barack Obama is the first African-American to not only be nominated by a major party but also to win the presidency of the United States. He ran as an agent of change. His true impact and the significance of his presidency will not be determined for many years to come.|
 There has been unprecedented support for Mr Obama from all over the world Barack Obama made history on 4 November 2008 when he defeated Republican rival John McCain to become the first black president of the United States. He had already broken new ground in his White House campaign, as the first black candidate to become the presidential choice of either major US party. To many people, Mr Obama seemed to come from nowhere. Although he had served in the Illinois state senate for eight years, it was only in 2004 that he shot to national prominence, with a speech that stirred the Democratic National Convention. And it was only in the two years leading up to the election that his name, face and story became known beyond America. The senator clinched the Democratic nomination after a long and gruelling battle against former first lady Hillary Clinton - a contest that gripped the US from January to June 2008. In the course of campaigning, Senator Obama broke all records for fundraising, by harnessing the internet to collect huge numbers of small donations, as well as larger sums from corporate donors. He has also demonstrated the ability to gather crowds of 100,000 people or more to his rallies, and to generate a buzz seldom seen in US politics. Shortly after his presidential victory was confirmed, he addressed a cheering mass in his home city of Chicago. "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America," he said. Media darling Mr Obama, 47, electrified the 2004 Democratic National Convention in a speech about self reliance and high aspiration.
The son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas, he emphasised his personal history in a speech reflecting traditional American ideals of self-reliance and aspirations.
"Through hard work and perseverance my father got a scholarship to study in a magical place - America, which stood as a beacon of freedom and opportunity to so many who had come before," he said. After his landslide US Senate election victory in Illinois a few months later, he became a media darling and one of the most visible figures in Washington, with two best-selling books to his name. He won the early backing of talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who not only urged him to declare his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on her programme but appeared on the campaign trail with him. As a senator, Mr Obama established a firmly liberal voting record, but also worked with Republican colleagues on issues such as HIV/Aids-education and prevention. An early critic of the Iraq war, he spoke out against the prospect of war several months before the March 2003 invasion. His bid for the presidency was endorsed by such senior Republican figures as former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman for President George W Bush. Mrs Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, also rallied behind Mr Obama in the months after he won the nomination and campaigned on his behalf. Mrs Clinton was later given a major role in the new administration - being chosen to serve as secretary of state. International upbringing Mr Obama is named after his father, who grew up in Kenya herding goats but gained a scholarship to study in Hawaii. There the Kenyan met and married Mr Obama's mother, Ann, who was living in Honolulu with her parents.
When Mr Obama was a toddler, his father got a chance to study at Harvard but there was no money for the family to go with him. He later returned to Kenya alone, where he worked as a government economist, and the couple divorced. When Mr Obama was six, his mother married an Indonesian man and the family moved to Jakarta. Although his father and step-father were Muslim, Mr Obama is a Christian and attended secular and Catholic schools during the four years he lived in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country. He then moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend school. Mr Obama went on to study political science at Columbia University in New York, and then moved to Chicago where he spent three years as a community organiser. In 1988 he left to attend Harvard Law School, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. After Harvard, Mr Obama returned to Chicago to practise civil rights law, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination. He served in the Illinois state senate from 1996 to 2004. He is married to a lawyer, Michelle, and they have two young daughters, Malia and Sasha. Race The senator attended the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for almost two decades but broke away from it in May 2008 after controversial sermons by Trinity preachers hit the headlines.
The Rev Jeremiah Wright was quoted as saying the 9/11 attacks were like "chickens coming home to roost" and that God should damn America for treating black people as "less than human". Seeking to defuse the uproar, Mr Obama tackled the issue of race directly, calling on the US to move beyond its long history of racial inequality. "The anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races," he said. Mr Obama used to joke that people were always getting his name wrong, calling him "Alabama" or "Yo Mama". Now, as he waits to be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, it seems unlikely that many will continue to make such a mistake. | ||||
