Barack Obama
Barack Obama
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 Your Plan is My Plan Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008, at 6:20 AM ET The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsbox lead with the Iraqi government announcing it would favor a plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops that is similar to the timetable that Barack Obama has endorsed. After a few days of back-and-forth about what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said or didn't say to a German magazine, a spokesman said that "the Iraqi government believes the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal." There's little doubt that this was a big victory for Obama, particularly since it came on the same day as he met with Iraq's leaders and was widely received as a visiting head of state rather than a candidate. USA Today leads with the improving security situation in Iraq and notes there's been a sharp decline of insurgent attacks against convoys carrying U.S. supplies this year. Through June 2008, "there were only 93 attacks on about 6,100 logistics convoys," which represents an attack rate of about 1.5 percent when it had once been as high as 20 percent. The New York Times leads with new data that shows women have been getting out of the work force in large numbers, and the trend is likely to accelerate as the economy worsens. The last seven years marks the first time since 1960 that a period of economic recovery ended with a smaller percentage of women in the workplace than when it began. The Los Angeles Times leads with a look at increasing concerns that oil supply may be close to reaching a peak, which means prices could soon get much higher. It's an endless debate as there's no consensus on whether the world's oil supply is close to running out. But some say that, at the very least, the easy-to-reach oil could soon run out. If true, it would mean prices are likely to skyrocket as more money will have to be devoted to finding new sources of the precious black gold. 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 Business & Tech That Cell-Phone Popcorn Ad Is So Annoying News & Politics What Saudi Textbooks Really Teach About Jews News & Politics How Can Bush "Pre-emptively" Pardon Someone? | Advertisement  |
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