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 It's Biden By Ben Whitford Posted Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008, at 4:48 AM ET At about twenty to one this morning CNN's John King, rapidly followed by all the papers, confirmed from unnamed Democratic sources that Barack Obama had tapped Delaware's Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate. The not-quite-announcement - followed a couple of hours later, the LA Times reports, by the long-awaited text-message confirmation from the Obama camp - capped a day of high political drama, with Biden emerging as the last man standing after rivals Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana and Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia received thanks-but-no-thanks phone calls from Obama ahead of today's rally at the Old Statehouse in Springfield, Ill. The late-breaking news left the papers scrambling to reshuffle their front pages; early editions of the Washington Post had led on the apparent end of Russia's ten-day occupation of Georgia, where troops destroyed Georgian military installations before withdrawing from broad tracts of the country. The New York Times also initially led on the story, noting that Moscow will maintain pressure on Georgia and could formally recognize the independence of the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as early as next week. The Wall Street Journal fronts word that the Bush administration's landmark nuclear cooperation deal with Moscow appears to have stalled, a victim of heightened diplomatic tensions in the aftermath of the Georgian conflict. To continue reading, click here. Ben Whitford writes for the Guardian, Mother Jones and Newsweek. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE \| READ MESSAGES Also In Slate News & Politics How Dare John McCain Attack Arugula? Sports Don't Fall for the "Redeem Team" Hokum News & Politics Chatting With America's Warlord in Somalia	Advertisement
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