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.

[1]Obama's Focus: Early Primaries

Rejecting broader attacks on Clinton, Ill. senator to spend more time campaigning in N.H. and Iowa.

link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/29/AR2007092901540.html?nav=rss_email/components

[1] <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/29/AR2007092901540.html?nav=rss_email/components>

In January 2006, Obama joined a Congressional delegation for meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq. Obama has divested US$180,000 in personal holdings of Sudan-related stock, and he has urged divestment from companies doing business in Iran. Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (born in Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). In the same week, Zogby International reported that Obama leads all prospective Republican opponents in polling for the 2008 general election. " The audio book edition earned Obama the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. If elected, Obama would become the first non-white U.S. president.

His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in October 2006, three weeks before the 2006 midterm election. "He was an early opponent of Bush administration policies on Iraq.

In 1985, Obama moved to Chicago to direct a non-profit project assisting local churches to organize job training programs. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and weapons of mass destruction, as a strategic first defense against the threat of future terrorist attacks. He hired former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle's ex-chief of staff for the same position, and Karen Kornbluh, an economist who was deputy chief of staff to former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, as his policy adviser.