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 I Will Follow You By Daniel Politi Posted Monday, Nov. 10, 2008, at 6:51 AM ET The New York Times leads with word that a classified order issued in 2004 gave the U.S. military authority to carry out nearly a dozen of what the paper describes as "previously undisclosed attacks" against terrorist targets in Syria, Pakistan, and other countries. The order was signed by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and it gave the military the authority to attack al-Qaida targets anywhere in the world, with a specific emphasis on "15 to 20 countries" that were believed to be the prime destinations for militants in hiding. The Washington Post leads with, and almost everyone else fronts, news that China announced a $586 billion stimulus package that aims to prop up the country's slowing economy. The huge package, which some are comparing to the New Deal, could also help fight the effects of a global recession. The Los Angeles Times leads with a new study that found statin drugs can cut in half the risk of seemingly healthy people suffering a heart attack. The findings are bound to be a boom for statins, which millions of people already take to manage their cholesterol, as experts say that if this new treatment were widely adopted it could help prevent 50,000 heart attacks, strokes, and deaths each year. USA Today leads with the Sunday interview tour of President-elect Barack Obama's key advisers who said that passing a new stimulus package is one of the Democrat's main priorities. The aides also made it clear that Obama plans to move full steam ahead with his plan to repeal President Bush's tax cuts for those earning more than $250,000 while instituting new tax breaks that would save 95 percent of working Americans an average of $1,000 each. The Wall Street Journal also leads its world-wide newsbox with the president-elect's plans but focuses on how he is likely to quickly reverse some of Bush's executive orders, including the restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. 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 Does Religion Make You Nice? What Your Doctor Was Really Doing in Medical School Is It Sexist To Blame Palin for McCain's Loss?	Advertisement
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In January 2006, Obama joined a Congressional delegation for meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq. But in a December 2006 Wall Street Journal editorial headlined "The Man from Nowhere," former Ronald Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan advised Will and other "establishment" commentators to get "down from your tippy toes" and avoid becoming too quickly excited about Obama's still early political career. The New York Times described Obama as "the prize catch of the midterm campaign" because of his campaigning for fellow Democratic Party members running for election in the 2006 midterm elections. He was overwhelmingly reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998 and 2002, officially resigning in November 2004, following his election to the U.S. Senate. " In January 2007, Obama spoke at an event organized by Families USA, a health care advocacy group.

He used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years, Obama writes, to "push questions of who I was out of my mind. In 2000, he made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.

Obama encouraged "others in public life to do the same" to show "there is no shame in going for an HIV test. In the fall of 2002, during an anti-war rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza, Obama said: I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. Senator Paul Simon; the support of Simon's daughter; and political endorsements by the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times.

We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. In the fall of 2002, during an anti-war rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza, Obama said: I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. 55 million for candidates he supports and his own 2010 re-election fund. 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. The "Coburn-Obama Transparency Act" provides for a web site, managed by the Office of Management and Budget, listing all organizations receiving Federal funds from 2007 onward, and providing breakdowns by the agency allocating the funds, the dollar amount given, and the purpose of the grant or contract. Obama took an active role in the Senate's drive for improved border security and immigration reform. Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 from the state's 13th District in the south-side Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park.