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 Barack the Builder By David Sessions Posted Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008, at 4:23 AM ET The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times all lead with President-elect Barack Obama's announcement on Saturday of a sweeping stimulus plan designed to create 2.5 million jobs by spending billions on infrastructure, education, and alternative energy. The plan is more expansive than anything Obama proposed during his campaign, and eclipses the last stimulus proposal attempted by President Clinton in 1996. Front page and A-section stories also analyze Obama's relationship with Hillary Clinton, who is all but guaranteed to become his secretary of state. The LAT sees Obama's two-year job proposal as "the latest indication that the president-elect has decided to use the transition period to influence events at a time of crisis, when the current administration appears powerless to stop a slide." All three papers highlight the fact that Obama's new plan is more aggressive and expensive than the one he proposed during the campaign, though the WP notes that Obama's address was vague on specifics and price tags. (The Post also projects that the package will cost "well over" $200 billion, which would be "bold" compared to previous presidents' similar plans.) The NYT and WP both consider the possibility that Republicans could block such an ambitious deficit-spending measure. To continue reading, click here. David Sessions is a former Slate* intern. He is currently the editor of* Patrol. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE \| READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Eric Holder Is the Right Man To Fix the Justice Department Why Do Movie Vampires Keep Changing All the Vampire Rules? 18 Million People Watch NCIS. Should You?	Advertisement
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He has authored two bestselling books: a memoir of his youth entitled Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, a personal commentary on U.S. politics. Obama traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan in August 2005 with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "In 1988, while employed as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley & Austin, Obama met Michelle Robinson, who also worked there.

Obama was sworn in as a Senator on January 4, 2005. Also during the first month of the 110th Congress, Obama introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act," a bill that caps troop levels in Iraq at January 10, 2007 levels, begins phased redeployment on May 1, 2007, and removes all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31, 2008. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%. Obama began podcasting from his U.S. Senate web site in late 2005. In July 2005, Samantha Power, Pulitzer-winning author on human rights and genocide, joined Obama's team. Finally, he spoke for national unity: The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. In the same week, Zogby International reported that Obama leads all prospective Republican opponents in polling for the 2008 general election. Obama encouraged "others in public life to do the same" to show "there is no shame in going for an HIV test.

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. His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in October 2006, three weeks before the 2006 midterm election. Through the fall of 2006, Obama had spoken at political events across the country in support of Democratic candidates for the midterm elections. " Speaking before the National Press Club in April 2005, Obama defended the New Deal social welfare policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt, associating Republican proposals to establish private accounts for Social Security with Social Darwinism. "After graduating from Punahou, Obama studied at Occidental College for two years, then transferred to Columbia University, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. The donations came from 104,000 individual donors, with US$6.9 million raised through the Internet from 50,000 of the donors. " At the Save Darfur rally in April 2006, he called for more assertive action to oppose genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. " Three months into his Senate career, and again in 2007, Time magazine named Obama one of "the world's most influential people. Obama's campaign reported raising US$25.8 million between January 1 and March 31 of 2007. Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party.