Barack Obama

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (born in Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party.

Obama grew up in culturally diverse surroundings. He spent most of his childhood in the majority-minority U.S. state of Hawaii and lived for four years in Indonesia. Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention while still an Illinois state legislator. Since announcing his candidacy in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War and implementing universal health care as campaign themes.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama co-sponsored the enactment of conventional weapons control and transparency legislation, and made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Obama's parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. His father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, then returned to Kenya, where he died in an auto accident when the younger Obama was twenty-one years old.

Education Review

The Washington Post Magazine looks at issues in learning, including gap years, elementary school homework, the military and education, and a lesson in low-tech.

washingtonpost.com Fri, 03 Aug 2007 18:33:26 EDT

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/03/AR2007080301748.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
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Former presidential candidate Gary Hart describes the book as Obama's "thesis submission" for the U.S. presidency: "It presents a man of relative youth yet maturity, a wise observer of the human condition, a figure who possesses perseverance and writing skills that have flashes of grandeur.

US$24.8 million of Obama's first quarter funds can be used in the primaries, the highest of any 2008 presidential candidate. He was overwhelmingly reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998 and 2002, officially resigning in November 2004, following his election to the U.S. Senate.

He flew his wife and two daughters from Chicago to join him in a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya. In Chapter 6 of the book, titled "Faith," Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household. In December 2006, Obama spoke at a New Hampshire event celebrating Democratic Party midterm election victories in the first-in-the-nation U.S. presidential primary state. "After graduating from Punahou, Obama studied at Occidental College for two years, then transferred to Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama co-sponsored the enactment of conventional weapons control and transparency legislation, and made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Its enthusiastic reception at the convention and widespread coverage by national media gave him instant celebrity status.

In 2003, Obama began his run for the U.S. Senate open seat vacated by Peter Fitzgerald.

In his preface to the 2004 revised edition, Obama explains that he had hoped the story of his family "might speak in some way to the fissures of race that have characterized the American experience, as well as the fluid state of identity—the leaps through time, the collision of cultures—that mark our modern life. He is among the Democratic Party's leading candidates for nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. But I've got news for them too. Addressing the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November 2006, Obama called for a phased withdrawal of troops and an opening of diplomatic dialogue with Iraq's neighbors, Syria and Iran. Since announcing his candidacy in February 2007, Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War and implementing universal health care as campaign themes. In it he recalls his childhood in Honolulu and Jakarta, college years in Los Angeles and New York City, and his employment as a community organizer in Chicago in the 1980s. Obama's campaign reported raising US$25.8 million between January 1 and March 31 of 2007. As an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases. 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. He has authored two bestselling books: a memoir of his youth entitled Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, a personal commentary on U.S. politics.