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 Obama Country ByDaniel Politi Posted Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008, at 6:44 AM ET The polls were right. Barack Hussein Obama easily cruised to victory last night and made history by becoming the country's first African-American president. The first-term senator from Illinois was elected the 44^th president by beating John McCain in the key states that the candidates had spent months battling over, including Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, which voted for a Democrat for the first time since 1964. A few states are still too close to call, but a preliminary tally gave Obama 349 electoral votes to McCain's 144, far more than the 270 needed to win the White House. Democrats also won big in the congressional races, even as they appeared to fall short of the dream 60-vote majority in the Senate. In all, Democrats picked up five Senate seats with four key races still undecided and were on the path to pick up as many as 20 House seats. All the papers mention the historic aspect of Obama's candidacy in their banner headlines. USA Today points out that a mere "four decades ago, when Obama was 4 years old, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act to ensure blacks can vote." The Los Angeles Times calls Obama's victory "a leap in the march toward equality." The Washington Post points out that Obama is the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter to win more than 50 percent of the popular vote. The Wall Street Journal notes Obama is the first northern Democrat to be elected president since John F. Kennedy in 1960. The New York Times says the election amounted to "a national catharsis--a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama's call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country." 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 Six Ways Obama Can Show He'll Be a New Kind of President Sept. 24: The Day McCain Lost the Election Shafer: How To Speak Blitzerese	Advertisement
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Obama left for his third official trip in August 2006, traveling to South Africa and Kenya, and making stops in Djibouti, Ethiopia and Chad. He was a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004. The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists him as the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history and the only African American currently serving in the U.S. Senate. The first, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, was published after his graduation from law school and before entering politics. I'm opposed to dumb wars.

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. His opponent in the general election was expected to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan. 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. US$24.8 million of Obama's first quarter funds can be used in the primaries, the highest of any 2008 presidential candidate. Describing his working life in Illinois, and symbolically linking his presidential campaign to Abraham Lincoln's 1858 House Divided speech, Obama said: "That is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America. Obama's mother died of ovarian cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father. He entered Harvard Law School in 1988.