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.



Now playing: *Slate V, a video-only site from the world's leading online magazine. Visit Slate V* at www.slateV.com.
today's papers Staying Alive By Justin Peters Posted Monday, June 2, 2008, at 3:41 AM ET The New York Times and the Washington Post lead and the Wall Street Journal, at least online, tops its worldwide news box with Sen. Hillary Clinton's resounding victory in Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary. Clinton, who took 68 percent of the vote, vowed that she would not exit the race before tomorrow's final primaries in Montana and South Dakota. The Los Angeles Times offleads Clinton and leads with a fire that damaged portions of the Universal Studios Hollywood backlot and theme park. USA Today leads news that national public transit usage reached record numbers in the first quarter of 2008. The ridership spike is straining the capacity of many cities' underfunded transit agencies. In all likelihood, Clinton's Puerto Rican victory will be remembered as little more than a souvenir of what was apparently a lovely vacation. Apparently disinclined to challenge the DNC's decision to award Sen. Barack Obama a portion of the vote from the disputed Michigan primary, her best shot at the nomination now seems to involve winning the popular vote and using that fact to lure superdelegates. Obama, approximately 47 delegates away from clinching the nomination, certainly doesn't sound concerned: He congratulated Clinton on her victory and said that she would be a "great asset" during the general election. To continue reading, click here. Justin Peters is a writer in New York, and the editor of Polite. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE \| READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Business & Tech Which Stocks Will Go Up If Obama Wins? No One Knows. Arts & Life The Sad Fate of Lindsay Lohan's Little Sister News & Politics Lift the Gag Order on Frank Rich	Advertisement
Ideas on how to make something better? Send an e-mail to newsletters@slate.com. Manage your newsletters on Slate Unsubscribe \| Newsletter Center \| Advertising Information Please do not reply to this message since this is an unmonitored e-mail address. If you have questions about newsletters, please go here. Copyright 2008 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC \| Privacy Policy Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive \| c/o E-mail Customer Care \|1515 N. Courthouse Rd. \| Arlington, VA 22201

But the big telephone and cable companies want to change the Internet as we know it. " He describes his Kenyan father as "raised a Muslim," but a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met, and his Indonesian step-father as "a man who saw religion as not particularly useful. 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. Through the fall of 2006, Obama had spoken at political events across the country in support of Democratic candidates for the midterm elections. "In 1988, while employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama met Michelle Robinson, who also worked there. His first bill was the "Higher Education Opportunity through Pell Grant Expansion Act. 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. Speculation intensified in October 2006 when Obama first said he had "thought about the possibility" of running for president, departing from earlier statements that he intended to serve out his six-year Senate term through 2010. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign student, with whom she had one daughter, Maya.

An October 2005 article in the British journal New Statesman listed Obama as one of "10 people who could change the world. " Replying to an Associated Press survey of 2008 presidential candidates' personal tastes, he specified "architect" as his alternate career choice and "chili" as his favorite meal to cook. On the role of government in economic affairs, Obama has written: "we should be asking ourselves what mix of policies will lead to a dynamic free market and widespread economic security, entrepreneurial innovation and upward mobility Z...Z we should be guided by what works. Lugar and Obama inspected a Nunn-Lugar program-supported nuclear warhead destruction facility at Saratov, in southern European Russia. "Writing about Obama's political image in a March 2007 Washington Post opinion column, Eugene Robinson characterized him as "the personification of both-and," a messenger who rejects "either-or" political choices, and could "move the nation beyond the culture wars" of the 1960s. " In December 2006, Obama joined Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) at the "Global Summit on AIDS and the Church" organized by church leaders Kay and Rick Warren.

President Bush signs the "Coburn-Obama" Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. In February 2007, standing before the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 U.S. presidential election.