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 Get Ready to Rumble By Daniel Politi Posted Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2008, at 6:23 AM ET The Washington Post leads with word that U.S. and Pakistani officials are switching gears in their hunt for Osama bin Laden to focus more on the use of Predator drone spy planes in western Pakistan. No one has received reliable information on bin Laden's whereabouts since Dec. 2001. Hobbled by the continued lack of informants in Pakistan's tribal regions, officials are now concentrating on tracking down other al-Qaida leaders that could lead them back to the ultimate prize. The New York Times leads with, and the Wall Street Journal fronts, the increasing fears that Lehman Brothers might be on its last legs. Sparked by concern that a planned investment by a Korean bank would fall through, investors dumped Lehman's stock and erased almost half of the firm's value in one day. The WSJ leads its world-wide newsbox, and the WP and LAT front, word that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il may be seriously ill. No one is quite sure, but he didn't attend a parade to commemorate the country's 60^th anniversary yesterday, a date that is particularly important in Korean society. His absence lent credence to reports that the reclusive leader is having health problems and may have suffered a stroke. The Los Angeles Times leads with a look at how many top Democrats are doing what Democrats do best: worrying. There's a general concern that John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, which many expected to drag the Republican down, has effectively stolen Barack Obama's thunder. And now that Obama has started to aggressively criticize the Alaska governor, there are worries he could be helping the Republican ticket by increasing Palin's appeal among white, blue-collar voters, particularly women. USA Today leads with word that foreign investment could begin flooding to Iraq as the government has received requests for more than $74 billion in projects over the past five months. Only one project has actually broken ground as government approval has been difficult to obtain, and there are skeptics who say the final amount that will be spent will actually be much smaller. Still, investors, particularly from oil-rich monarchies in the region, insist they're ready to plow money into Iraq. 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 News & Politics What Happens if You Get Sucked Into a Black Hole? Health & Science Is Grandpa Bad for the Environment? Arts & Life The Diary of a 100-Year-Old Man	Advertisement
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President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October 2006, calling it "an important step toward immigration reform. Obama traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan in August 2005 with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He spent most of his childhood in the majority-minority U.S. state of Hawaii and lived for four years in Indonesia. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004, following public disclosure of child custody divorce records containing sexual allegations by Ryan's ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan. "I've quit periodically over the last several years.

In Dreams from My Father, he ties his maternal family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, president of the southern Confederacy during the American Civil War. He is a member of the Senate committees on Foreign Relations; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Veterans' Affairs; and the Congressional Black Caucus. " Film critic David Ehrenstein, writing in a March 2007 Los Angeles Times article, compares the cultural sources of candidate Obama's favorable polling among whites to those of "magical negro" roles played by black actors in Hollywood movies. In July 2005, Samantha Power, Pulitzer-winning author on human rights and genocide, joined Obama's team. Former presidential candidate Gary Hart describes the book as Obama's "thesis submission" for the U.S. presidency: "It presents a man of relative youth yet maturity, a wise observer of the human condition, a figure who possesses perseverance and writing skills that have flashes of grandeur. If elected, Obama would become the first non-white U.S. president. " In an October 2006 interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "Michelle will tell you that when we get together for Christmas or Thanksgiving, it's like a little mini-United Nations," he said. In her January 2007 Salon article asserting that Obama "isn't black," columnist Debra Dickerson writes: "lumping us all together Zwith ObamaZ erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving the appearance of progress. "Obama's rapid rise from Illinois state legislator to U.S.

Former presidential candidate Gary Hart describes the book as Obama's "thesis submission" for the U.S. presidency: "It presents a man of relative youth yet maturity, a wise observer of the human condition, a figure who possesses perseverance and writing skills that have flashes of grandeur. As an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases. In January 2006, Obama joined a Congressional delegation for meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq.