Barack Obama Will Never Be President

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Friday, May 1, 2009

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.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama

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
Souter Calls it Quits
By Daniel Politi
Posted Friday, May 1, 2009, at 6:44 AM ET

The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal's world-wide newsbox lead with late-breaking word that Justice David Souter plans to retire this summer, creating the first Supreme Court vacancy in President Barack Obama's administration. Souter, 69, was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, but quickly turned into one of the biggest disappointments for conservatives as he became a reliable member of the court's liberal wing. The vacancy will be the first for a Democratic president in 15 years, and everyone notes Obama will be under intense pressure to appoint a woman since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stands alone among the nine justices.

The New York Times off-leads the Souter news but leads with Chrysler filing for bankruptcy protection yesterday. Chrysler has now become "the first major American automaker to seek bankruptcy protection since Studebaker did so in 1933," details the paper. The WSJ specifies that it's the sixth-largest Chapter 11 filing. In what the NYT describes as "yet another extraordinary intervention into private industry by the federal government," President Obama announced a plan to create a new ownership structure for the automaker that would give the company a "new lease on life." Obama wasn't shy about pointing fingers, saying that the government was eager to avoid bankruptcy but its efforts were thwarted by a group of investment firms and hedge funds, which the president referred to as "a small group of speculators."

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Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com.

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Posted by Zephaniah Holwell at 4:09 AM  

He was also criticized by a rival pro-choice candidate in the Democratic primary and by his Republican pro-life opponent in the general election for having voted either "present" or "no" on anti-abortion legislation. You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%. Obama's campaign reported raising US$25.8 million between January 1 and March 31 of 2007. In 2003, Obama began his run for the U.S. Senate open seat vacated by Peter Fitzgerald. 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. Partnering first with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), and then with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Obama successfully introduced two initiatives bearing his name.

ABC News 7 (Chicago) reported Obama telling the students that "the U.S. will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its fundamental mission to eliminate Israel," and that he had conveyed the same message in his meeting with Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas. In early opinion polls leading up to the Democratic primary, Obama trailed multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes. Obama, who defines himself in The Audacity of Hope as "a Democrat, after all," has been criticized for his political actions by self-described progressive commentator David Sirota, and complimented for his "Can't we all just get along?" manner by conservative columnist George Will. 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. In the same week, Zogby International reported that Obama leads all prospective Republican opponents in polling for the 2008 general election. In August 2004, with less than three months to go before election day, Alan Keyes accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination to replace Ryan. In a public gesture aimed to encourage more Kenyans to undergo voluntary HIV testing, Obama and his wife took HIV tests at a Kenyan clinic. "Lugar-Obama" expands the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines.

In Chapter 6 of the book, titled "Faith," Obama writes that he "was not raised in a religious household. Obama was sworn in as a Senator on January 4, 2005. Speculation intensified in October 2006 when Obama first said he had "thought about the possibility" of running for president, departing from earlier statements that he intended to serve out his six-year Senate term through 2010.



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