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 Back, Back, Forth, and Forth By Daniel Politi Posted Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008, at 6:28 AM ET In the least surprising news since Barack Obama's victory last week, the Treasury Department officially announced that it has switched gears and will no longer be using the $700 billion bailout package to buy toxic securities. Instead, the money will continue to be used to inject capital into financial institutions with a stepped up emphasis on efforts to loosen up the frozen consumer credit market. The Los Angeles Times deftly recognizes the no-duh aspect of the announcement and leads with an analysis while relegating the straight-up news story to its inside pages. "The surprise content of the announcement today is precisely zero," a finance professor tells the LAT. "This is not a change of policy, but a recognition of a policy that's already happened." The New York Times points out that, confusingly, the "program is still called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, but it will not buy troubled assets." At a news briefing yesterday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson emphasized that the consumer credit market "has for all practical purposes ground to a halt," which is "raising the cost and reducing the availability of car loans, student loans, and credit cards." The Washington Post puts this in perspective by pointing out average interest rates on car loans "almost doubled from July to September ... and borrowers were required to make much larger down payments, an average of $2,000 more down on a $20,000 car." USA Today points out that many were quick to criticize the Treasury's "herky-jerky approach, noting such changes were leading to reduced confidence that the government would help thaw frozen credit markets and prop up the economy." Indeed, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 4.7 percent yesterday. The Wall Street Journal notes that investors blamed the Treasury making for at least part of the decline, "as the bailout's widening focus underscores the depth of the economy's problems as well as new strains on the government's rescue net." 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 Lithwick: The Supreme Court's Deeply Goofy Free-Speech Case Has New-Media Guru Jeff Jarvis Gone Too Far? Good News: Another Guy Got His Mother-in-Law Pregnant	Advertisement
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