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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Opinions Thursday, June 5, 2008

Quote of the Day

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.

» Who Said This?

Featured Opinions

David S. Broder
A Victor on His Heels
Obama limped into the nomination as a vulnerable and somewhat diminished politician.

Robert D. Novak
Playing for the No. 2 Spot
Talking about an unlikely dream ticket further slows the party unification process.

E.J. Dionne Jr.
Clinton, Conceding Little
Hillary Clinton talked her way out of the vice presidency on Tuesday night.

George F. Will
The Gas Prices We Deserve
The Saudis aren't the only ones refusing to pump more oil.

RePosted
The Assassination of Robert Kennedy
Forty years ago, The Post editorial board tried to make sense of his shooting and his legacy.

Dan Froomkin's White House Watch
Bush's Secret Iraq Deal
The president appears to be forging head on a multi-year security agreement with the Iraqi government.

Tom TOLES

Click on the image for the full-size cartoon.

Editorials

History Calls: Barack Obama's landmark nomination by the Democratic Party will have been well earned.

Exit, Sort of, Sen. Clinton: She made many mistakes -- but also won many votes.

From Terror to Hunger: Robert Mugabe turns from beating the people of Zimbabwe to starving them.

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His knowledge about his absent Luo father came mainly through family stories and photographs. An October 2005 article in the British journal New Statesman listed Obama as one of "10 people who could change the world. Speaking to an elderly Jewish audience during his 2004 campaign for U.S. Senate, Obama linked the linguistic roots of his East African first name Barack to the Hebrew word baruch, meaning "blessed. But I've got news for them too. Obama spoke out in June 2006 against making recent, temporary estate tax cuts permanent, calling the cuts a "Paris Hilton" tax break for "billionaire heirs and heiresses.

While in Israel, Obama met with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Obama's mother died of ovarian cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father. Supporters and critics have likened Obama's popular image to a cultural Rorschach test, a neutral persona on which people can project their personal histories and aspirations. The bill did not progress beyond committee and was never voted on by the Senate. Lugar and Obama inspected a Nunn-Lugar program-supported nuclear warhead destruction facility at Saratov, in southern European Russia. " During his first two and a half years in the Senate, Obama received Honorary Doctorates of Law from Knox College, University of Massachusetts Boston, Northwestern University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and Southern New Hampshire University. " Time magazine's Joe Klein wrote that the book "may be the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician.