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.



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today's papers The Clean-Up Crew By Daniel Politi Posted Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008, at 6:17 AM ET The Washington Post leads with word that the decision to charge six Guantanamo detainees with planning the Sept. 11 attacks was partly due to the success that FBI and military interrogators had in extracting information from the men without the use of "coercive interrogating tactics." The 16-month effort to reconstruct the evidence against the men apparently yielded good information and convinced the Bush administration to go ahead with the prosecutions. The Wall Street Journal leads its world-wide newsbox with the capital charges filed against the detainees, which must be approved at the Pentagon. Prosecutors want to try the six together, but defense lawyers might request separate trials. USA Today leads with a poll that shows Democrats remain deeply divided about their choice for a nominee but most think they're both good candidates. For his part, Sen. John McCain is clearly the front-runner but almost half of Republican voters would rather have someone else. In a hypothetical match-up, McCain runs about even with both Democratic candidates, although Sen. Barack Obama does have a slight lead that is within the poll's margin of error. The New York Times leads with a look at how the credit crisis is spreading beyond subprime mortgages and is increasingly affecting people with good credit. Although nowhere near as severe as the problems in the subprime credit market, the number of prime mortgages that are past due or in foreclosure is at its highest level in at least 10 years, which could lead to even more losses in the financial industry. Meanwhile, problems are also popping up in other sectors for people with good credit, including auto loans and credit cards. The Los Angeles Times leads locally with word that the state's largest for-profit health insurer, Blue Cross of California, is sending copies of health insurance applications to doctors and asking them to tell the company if they come across any pre-existing medical information that it can use to cancel a patient's coverage. Physicians say they've never seen anything like it before, while the company insists it's standard practice and emphasizes that it's a voluntary program. To continue reading, click here. Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE \| READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Arts & Life Who Won the Writers' Strike, Anyway? News & Politics Hitchens: To Hell With the Archbishop of Canterbury Arts & Life How To Get a New Breed Into the Westminster Dog Show	Advertisement
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