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Barack Obama Facts
- President No.: 44th
- Served: 2009-present
- Party: Democrat
- From: Hawaii
- Married: Michelle Robinson in 1992
- Born: August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii
- Education: Occidental College, Columbia University, Harvard Law School
- Jobs Before President: Community organizer, Attorney, Professor, Author
- Height: 6 feet, 1 inch
- Population at time: 307,000,000
- Hobbies: Gym, reading, playing Scrable, American football, soccer
- Pets:Portuguese water dog called “Bo
- Transportation: Helicopter, airplane, car
- Communication Methods: Letters, phone (blackberry), email
Barack Obama Biography
Barack Obama is the current and 44th President of the United States. Born August 4, 1961, he is the first African American to be elected as President. Before entering politics he was a community organizer, attorney and college teacher. He then served as state Senator for Illinois then as a Senator for that state. Entering the race for President as an outsider against the expected Democrat nominee Hilary Clinton, he went on to secure nominated and then the Presidency against Republican John McCain. Many attribute his success to his grassroots support and campaign focussed on ‘change’. He assumed office shortly after the start of the biggest financial crisis in generations. His policies have been controversial, especially on health care reform, with a large right-wing ‘Tea Party’ movement against him. He has also alienated some of his supporters by failing to bring the ‘change’ they expected, such as by increasing troop levels in Afghanistan.
Early Life
Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to American mother Ann Dunham and Kenyan father Barack Obama, Sr. His parents had met just a year before Barack’s birth in a Russian language class, then married in February 1961. However they soon separated due to his father gaining a scholarship to Harvard, and they eventually divorced in 1964. For most of his childhood Barack did not know his father, who only visited in 1971 before being killed in an automobile accident eleven years later in 1982.
His mother married Lolo Soetoro, a student from Indonesia. The whole family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1967 following a recall of foreign students when Suharto came to power. Obama received his educated from six to ten in local schools there.
Obama moved back to Hawaii to attend school in 1971, living with his grandparents. His mother returned the following year, although went back to Indonesia in 1977 until 1994 a year before dying of cancer.
His teenage years were not without problems, taking alcohol and drugs such as cannabis and cocaine, which he would later describe as his ‘greatest moral failure’. In 1979 he began attending Occidental College in Los Angeles. In 1981 he transferred to New York’s Columbia University and majored in political science, graduating in 1983.
Community organizer and Law School
After a period working in New York, Obama became director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago. The project was organised by eight catholic churches on Chicago’s far South Side. By the end of his time working there the staff had increased from one to thirteen. The project included job training, tenants rights organisations and college preparation tutoring.
It is in the period, in 1988, that Obama first traveled to Kenya and met many of his relatives.
That same year he began a course at Harvard Law School and by the end of his first year was an editor of the Harvard Law Review then president a year later. After graduating, Obama returned to Chicago where he became an academic at the University of Chicago Law School and wrote the manuscript for his 1995 book Dreams From My Father. He stayed with the University of Chicago until 2004.
Political career
In 2006 Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate. He legislated for reforms in health care, welfare and increases in tax-credits and childcare subsidies. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2002. When the Democrats took control of the State Senate in 2003 he became the chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee.
In 2000 he attempted to run for the House of Representatives, but was defeated in the Democratic primary to incumbent Bobby Rush. In 2004 Obama stood for House of Senate, and won the primary in a landslide. The same year he gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, showing his quick rise within the party. He was elected in November with 70% of the vote.
Obama became the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus from the Senate. He was ranked one of the most liberal members of the Senate by surveys, and remained popular with a approval rating of 72%.
With the 2008 Presidential Election approaching, Obama announced his candidacy on February 10, 2007. He quickly became one of the front-runners in a campaign largely between himself and Hillary Clinton. Due in part to his ability to mobilise and fundraise from grassroots Democrats as well as his more liberal policies which appealed to Democratic voters he was able to win the nomination after Clinton announced she was backing him on June 7th 2008.
In the November 4th election Obama gained 52.9% of the popular vote, with his nearest rival Republican John McCain gaining 45.7%. In electoral college votes, he gained 365 to 173 that McCain received. Thus Obama became the United States’ first African-American president.
Presidency
After being inaugurated on January 20th 2009 Obama set about changing many of the policies of the previous administration. Executive orders were issued to close Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
Major changes in policies on global warming were also forthcoming, but the major issue of his Presidency so far has been Health Care. His initial project for universal health insurance received strong opposition from Republicans, leading to the setting up of the Tea Party campaign. The policy ultimately changed considerably from its original intent due to this, upsetting many Democrats who had hoped for universal health care as well as those Republicans opposed to any health care reform.
The second major issue of his Presidency is arguably the bail-out of the banks and the economic stimulus after the world-wide financial crisis. In 2009 a $787 billion economic stimulus package was announced and $11.5 trillion in loan guarantees and spending.
Speeches
- 2009 Inaugural Address
- 2010 State of the Union Address
- 2011 State of the Union Address
- 2012 State of the Union Address
Barack Obama Quotes
The pundits like to slice and dice our country into red states and blue states. Red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats. But I’ve got news for them, too.We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states.We coach Little League in the blue states and, yes, we’ve got some gay friends in the red states.
27th July 2004. Speech at Democratic National Convention, Boston.
