Barack Obama
|
 |
|
| Incumbent |
Assumed office
January 20, 2009 |
| Vice President |
Joe Biden |
| Preceded by |
George W. Bush |
|
In office
January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008 |
| Preceded by |
Peter Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by |
Roland Burris |
|
In office
January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 |
| Preceded by |
Alice Palmer |
| Succeeded by |
Kwame Raoul |
|
| Born |
August 4, 1961 (age 47)[1]
Honolulu, Hawaii[2] |
| Birth name |
Barack Hussein Obama II[2] |
| Nationality |
American |
| Political party |
Democratic |
| Spouse |
Michelle Obama (m. 1992) |
| Children |
Malia Ann (b.1998)
Natasha (Sasha) (b.2001) |
| Residence |
Chicago, IL (private)
White House, Washington, D.C.(official) |
| Alma mater |
Occidental College
Columbia University (B.A.)
Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Occupation |
Community Organizer
Lawyer
Author |
| Religion |
Christian[3], formerly United Church of Christ [4][5] |
| Signature |
 |
| |
|
Barack Hussein Obama II (pronounced /bəˈrɑːk hʊˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinoisfrom 2005 until he resigned following his election to the presidency. He wasinaugurated as President on January 20, 2009.
Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as acommunity organizer in Chicago prior to earning his law degree, and practiced as acivil rights attorney in Chicago before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama was elected to the Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004.
Early life and career
-
Barack Obama was born at the
Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children in
Honolulu,
Hawaii,
United States,
[6][7] to
Stanley Ann Dunham,
[8] a
European American from
Wichita,
Kansas,
[9][10][11] and
Barack Obama, Sr., a
Luo from
Nyang’oma Kogelo,
Nyanza Province,
Kenya. Obama’s parents met in 1960 in a
Russian language class at the
University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.
[12][13] The couple married on February 2, 1961.
[14]Obama’s parents separated when Obama was two years old, and they divorced in 1964.
[13] Obama’s father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.
[15]
After her divorce, Dunham married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. When Soeharto, a military leader in Soetoro’s home country, came to power in 1967, all students studying abroad were recalled and the family moved to Indonesia.[16] There Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, such as Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School, until he was ten years old.
He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn andStanley Armour Dunham, while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from high school in 1979.[17] Obama’s mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for five years, and then in 1977 went back to Indonesia, where she worked as an anthropological field worker. She stayed there most of the rest of her life, returning to Hawaii in 1994. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.[18]
Of his early childhood, Obama has recalled, “That my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind.”[19] In his 1995 memoir, he described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[20] He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana andcocaine during his teenage years to “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”[21] At the2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama identified his high-school drug use as his “greatest moral failure.”[22]
Some of his fellow students at Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star-Bulletinthat Obama was mature for his age, and that he sometimes attended college parties and other events in order to associate with African American students and military service people. Reflecting later on his formative years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: “The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear.”[23]
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College.[24] After two years he transferred in 1981 toColumbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations.[25] Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation[26][27] and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[28][29]
After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago, where he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman and Riverdale) on Chicago’s far South Side. He worked there for three years from June 1985 to May 1988.[28][30] During his three years as the DCP’s director, its staff grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000. His achievements included helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants’ rights organization inAltgeld Gardens.[31] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[32] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.[33]
Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[34]and president of the journal in his second year.[35] During his summers, he returned to Chicago where he worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[36] After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude[37][38] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[34]
Obama’s election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention[35] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations.[39] In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law Schoolprovided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book.[39] He originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir. In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months. The manuscript was finally published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.[39]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois’s Project Vote, a voter registration drive with a staff of ten and 700 volunteers; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, and led to Crain’s Chicago Businessnaming Obama to its 1993 list of “40 under Forty” powers to be.[40][41]
For twelve years, Obama served as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School teaching Constitutional Law. He was first classified as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996 and then as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004.[42] He also joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a twelve-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was anassociate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002.[28][43][44]
Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993.[28][45] He served from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of theWoods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project, and also from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of the Joyce Foundation.[28] Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challengefrom 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[28] He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.[28]
2008 Presidential campaign
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois.[102][103][104] The choice of the announcement site was symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic “House Divided” speech in 1858.[104] Throughout the campaign, Obama emphasized the issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence and providing universal health care.[105]
Obama stands on stage with his wife and two daughters just before announcing his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, Feb. 10, 2007.
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama’s campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations.[106][107][108] On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.[109]
A large number of candidates initially entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. After a few initial contests, the field narrowed to a contest between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton, with each winning some states and the race remaining close throughout the primary process.[110][111][112][113] On May 31, the Democratic National Committee agreed to seat all of the disputed Michigan and Florida delegates at the national convention, each with a half-vote, narrowing Obama’s delegate lead.[114] On June 3, with all states counted, Obama passed the threshold to become the presumptive nominee.[115][116] On that day, he gave a victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota. Clinton suspended her campaign and endorsed him on June 7.[117] From that point on, he campaigned for the general election race against Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee.
On August 23, 2008, Obama announced that he had selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[118]
At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Obama’s former rival Hillary Clinton gave a speech in support of Obama’s candidacy and later called for Obama to be nominated by acclamation as the Democratic presidential candidate.[119][120] On August 28, Obama delivered a speech to 84,000 supporters in Denver. During the speech, which was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide, he accepted his party’s nomination and presented his policy goals.[121][122]
After McCain was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, there were three presidential debates between Obama and McCain in September and October 2008.[123][124] In November, Obama won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote and a wide electoral vote margin. His election sparked street celebrations in numerous cities in the United States[125] and abroad.
Election victory
-
Obama meets with then-President George W. Bush in theOval Office on November 10, 2008.
On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the general election with 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 173[126] and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States.[127][128][129][130] In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Chicago’sGrant Park, Obama proclaimed that “change has come to America”.[131] On January 8, 2009, a joint session of the U.S. Congress certified the Electoral College votes, officially declaring that Obama was elected President.[132]
Presidency
-
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth President, and Joe Biden as Vice President, took place on January 20, 2009. The theme of the inauguration was “A New Birth of Freedom,” commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.[133]
In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda reversing President Bush’s ban on federal funding to foreign establishments that allow abortions (known as the Mexico City Policy and referred by critics as the “Global Gag Rule”),[134] changed procedures to promote disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act[135] directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq[136] and reducing the secrecy given to presidential records.[137] He also issued orders closingGuantanamo Bay detention camp ”as soon as practicable and no later than” January 2010.[138]
Political positions
-
A method that some political scientists use for gauging
ideology is to compare the annual ratings by the
Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) with the ratings by the
American Conservative Union (ACU).
[139] Based on his years in Congress, Obama has a lifetime average conservative rating of 7.67% from the ACU,
[140] and a lifetime average liberal rating of 90% from the ADA.
[141]
Obama was an early opponent of the Bush administration’s policies on Iraq.[142] On October 2, 2002, the day President George W. Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[143] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally in Federal Plaza,[144] speaking out against the war.[145][146] On March 16, 2003, the day Bush issued his 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq before the U.S. invasion of Iraq,[147] Obama addressed the largest Chicago anti-Iraq War rally to date in Daley Plaza and told the crowd that “it’s not too late” to stop the war.[148] Although Obama had previously said he wanted all the U.S. troops out of Iraq within 16 months of becoming President, after he won the primary, he said he might refine plans as further developments unfold.[149]
Obama stated that if elected he would enact budget cuts in the range of tens of billions of dollars, stop investing in “unproven” missile defense systems, not weaponize space, “slow development ofFuture Combat Systems,” and work towards eliminating all nuclear weapons. Obama favors ending development of new nuclear weapons, reducing the current U.S. nuclear stockpile, enacting a global ban on production of fissile material, and seeking negotiations with Russia in order to make it less necessary to have ICBMs on high-alert status.[150]
In November 2006, Obama called for a “phased redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq” and an opening of diplomatic dialogue with Syriaand Iran.[151] In a March 2007 speech to AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby, he said that the primary way to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons is through talks and diplomacy, although he did not rule out military action.[152] Obama has indicated that he would engage in “direct presidential diplomacy” with Iran without preconditions.[153][154][155] Detailing his strategy for fighting global terrorism in August 2007, Obama said “it was a terrible mistake to fail to act” against a 2005 meeting of al-Qaeda leaders that U.S. intelligence had confirmed to be taking place in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. He said that as president he would not miss a similar opportunity, even without the support of the Pakistani government.[156]
In a December 2005, Washington Post opinion column, and at the Save Darfur rally in April 2006, Obama called for more assertive action to oppose genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.[157] He has divested $180,000 in personal holdings of Sudan-related stock, and has urged divestment from companies doing business in Iran.[158] In the July–August 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs, Obama called for an outward looking post-Iraq War foreign policy and the renewal of American military, diplomatic, and moral leadership in the world. Saying that “we can neither retreat from the world nor try to bully it into submission,” he called on Americans to “lead the world, by deed and by example.”[159]
In economic affairs, in April 2005, he defended the New Deal social welfare policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and opposed Republican proposals to establish private accounts for Social Security.[160] In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Obama spoke out against government indifference to growing economic class divisions, calling on both political parties to take action to restore the social safety net for the poor.[161] Shortly before announcing his presidential campaign, Obama said he supports universal health care in the United States.[162] Obama proposes to reward teachers for performance from traditional merit pay systems, assuring unions that changes would be pursued through the collective bargaining process.[163]
In September 2007, he blamed special interests for distorting the U.S. tax code.[164] His plan would eliminate taxes for senior citizenswith incomes of less than $50,000 a year, repeal income tax cuts for those making over $250,000 as well as the capital gains and dividends tax cut,[165] close corporate tax loopholes, lift the income cap on Social Security taxes, restrict offshore tax havens, and simplify filing of income tax returns by pre-filling wage and bank information already collected by the IRS.[166] Announcing his presidential campaign’s energy plan in October 2007, Obama proposed a cap and trade auction system to restrict carbon emissions and a ten year program of investments in new energy sources to reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil.[167] Obama proposed that all pollution credits must be auctioned, with no grandfathering of credits for oil and gas companies, and the spending of the revenue obtained on energy development and economic transition costs.[168]
Family and personal life
-
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family. “It’s like a little mini-United Nations.” he said. “I’ve got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I’ve got relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher.”[169] Obama has seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father’s family, six of them living, and a half-sister with whom he was raised, Maya Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband.[170] Obama’s mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham[171] until her death on November 2, 2008, just before the presidential election.[172]In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother’s family history to possible Native Americanancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, president of the southern Confederacy during theAmerican Civil War.[173] Obama’s maternal and paternal grandfathers fought in World War II. Obama’s great-uncle served in the 89th Division that overran Ohrdruf,[174] the first Nazi camp liberated by U.S. troops.[175]
Besides his native English, Obama speaks Indonesian, at least on a colloquial level, which he learned during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[176] After the APEC summit in November 2008, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono related a telephone conversation with Obama in Indonesian to Indonesian media.[177]
Obama was known as “Barry” in his youth, but asked to be addressed with his given name during his college years.[178]
He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school’s varsity team.[180]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson, whom he later married, when he was employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[181] Assigned for three months as Obama’s adviser at the firm, Robinson joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests to date.[182] They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[183] The couple’s first daughter, Malia Ann, was born in 1998,[184] followed by a second daughter, Natasha (“Sasha”), in 2001.[185] Because of Michelle Obama’s employment with the University of Chicago, the Obama daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell Friends School.[186]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, in 2005 the family moved from a Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to their current $1.6 million house in neighboring Kenwood.[187] The purchase of the property was coordinated with Tony Rezko, a major political contributor to Obama, who later sold part of the adjacent lot to the Obamas. The transaction attracted media attention because of Rezko’s later indictment and subsequent conviction on political corruption charges for unrelated activities.[188][189]
In December 2007, Money magazine estimated the Obama family’s net worth at $1.3 million.[190] Their 2007 tax return showed a household income of $4.2 million—up from about $1 million in 2006 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[191]
Obama is a Christian whose religious views have evolved in his adult life. In The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that he “was not raised in a religious household.” He describes his mother, raised by non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as “non-practicing Methodists and Baptists”) to be detached from religion, yet “in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known.” He describes his father as “raised a Muslim,” but a “confirmed atheist” by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as “a man who saw religion as not particularly useful.” In the book, Obama explains how, through working with black churches as a community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand “the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change.”[192][193] He was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ in 1988 and was an active member there for two decades.[194][195]
While he has never been a heavy smoker, Obama has tried to quit smoking several times, including a well-publicized and ongoing effort which he began before launching his presidential campaign.[196] Obama has said he will not smoke in the White House.[197]
Cultural and political image
-
With his black Kenyan father and white American mother, his upbringing in Honolulu and Jakarta, and his
Ivy League education, Obama’s early life experiences differ markedly from those of African-American politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through participation in the
civil rights movement.
[198] Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is “black enough”, Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the
National Association of Black Journalists that the debate is not about his physical appearance or his record on issues of concern to black voters. Obama said that “we’re still locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be something wrong.”
[199]
Echoing the inaugural address of John F. Kennedy, Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: “I wouldn’t be here if, time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation.”[200] A popular catch phrase distilled the concept: “Rosa sat so Martin could walk; Martin walked so Obama could run; Obama is running so our children can fly.”[201]
Obama has been praised as a master of oratory on par with other renowned speakers in the past such as Martin Luther King, Jr.[202][203] His “Yes We Can” speech, which artists independently set to music in a video produced by will.i.am, was viewed by 10 million people on YouTube in the first month,[204] and received an Emmy Award.[205] University of Virginia professor Jonathan Haidtresearched the effectiveness of Obama’s public speaking and concluded that part of his excellence is because the politician is adept at inspiring the emotion of elevation, the desire to act morally and do good for others.[206] Obama used these communication skills in a series of weekly internet video addresses during his pre-inauguration transition period;[207] he has suggested he will make a series of broadcast and internet addresses similar to Franklin D. Roosevelt‘s famous fireside chatsthroughout his term as president to explain his policies and actions.[208]
Many commentators mentioned Obama’s international appeal as a defining factor for his public image.[209] Not only did several polls show strong support for him in other countries,[210] but Obama also established close relationships with prominent foreign politicians and elected officials even before his presidential candidacy, notably with then incumbent British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom he met in London in 2005,[211] with Italy‘s Democratic Party leader and then Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, who visited Obama’s Senate office in 2005,[212] and with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who also visited him in Washington in 2006.[213]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of both of his books; for Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[214]
In December 2008, Time magazine named Barack Obama as its Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it described as “the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments.”[215]
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