Barack Hussein Obama ([1]) (born August 4 1961) is the junior
United States Senator from Illinois and a leading
candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election.[2][3]
The U.S. Senate Historical Office lists him as the fifth
African American Senator in U.S.
history, the third to have been popularly elected, and the only African American currently serving in the Senate.[4]
Obama was born in Honolulu to a Kenyan father and an
American mother. He lived most of his early life in the U.S. state of Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather. A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law
School, Obama worked as a community organizer, university lecturer, and civil rights lawyer before
running for public office and serving in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. After an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, he announced his campaign for U.S. Senate
in 2003.
The following year, while still an Illinois state legislator, Obama
delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention
in July.[5] He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004
with 70% of the vote.[6] As a
member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama co-sponsored
legislation for controlling conventional weapons and for promoting transparency in public life; in addition, he made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the 110th, and current, Congress, he has
sponsored legislation on lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for returned U.S.
military personnel.
Since announcing his presidential campaign in February 2007,
Obama has emphasized ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care as major priorities.[7] He married in 1992 and has two daughters. He has written two bestselling books: a memoir of his youth
titled Dreams from My Father, and The Audacity of Hope, a personal commentary on U.S. politics.[8]
Early life and career
- See also: Dreams from My
Father
Obama was born on August 4 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (born in Nyanza Province, Kenya, of Luo ethnicity) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas).[9] Throughout his early years, he was commonly known at home and school as "Barry".[10] Obama's parents met while both were attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student.[11] They
separated when he was two years old and later divorced.[12]
His father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, then returned to Kenya, where he died in an auto accident in 1982.[13] His mother married another foreign student, Lolo
Soetoro, and the family moved to Soetoro's home country of Indonesia in 1967.[14] Obama attended local schools in Jakarta
from ages 6 to 10, where classes were taught in the Indonesian language.[15][16] He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham,
while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade until his graduation in 1979.[17] Obama's mother died of ovarian
cancer a few months after the publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.[18]
In the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's American
middle class family. His knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in 1971, came mainly
through family stories and photographs.[13] Of
his early childhood, Obama writes: "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother
white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[19] The book
describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial
heritage.[20] He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind".[21]
After high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at
Occidental College for two years.[22] He then transferred to Columbia
University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international
relations.[23] Obama received his
B.A. degree in 1983, then worked at Business International Corporation and NYPIRG before moving to Chicago to take a job
as a community organizer.[24] As Director of the Developing Communities Project, he worked with low-income residents in Chicago's
Roseland community and the Altgeld
Gardens public housing development.[25] He entered
Harvard Law School in 1988.[26] In 1990, The New York Times reported his election as the Harvard Law Review's "first black president in its 104-year history".[27] He completed his J.D. degree
magna cum laude in 1991.[28] On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter
registration drive.[28] As an associate
attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community
organizers, discrimination claims, and
voting rights cases.[29] 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.[30]
State legislature
In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate to serve the state's 13th
District in the south-side Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park.[31] 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.[32] He was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998 and 2002, officially resigning
in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[33] As a state legislator, Obama gained bipartisan support for
legislation reforming ethics and health
care laws.[34] He sponsored a law enhancing
tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare
reform, and promoted increased subsidies for child care.[35] Obama also led the passage of legislation mandating
videotaping of homicide interrogations, and a law to monitor racial profiling by
requiring police to record the race of drivers they stopped.[35] During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, he won the endorsement of the
Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose president credited Obama for his
active engagement with police organizations in enacting death
penalty reforms.[36] He was criticized by rival
pro-choice candidates in the Democratic primary and by his Republican pro-life opponent in the general election for a series of "present" or "no" votes on late-term abortion and parental notification
issues.[37]
Keynote address at 2004 Democratic National Convention
- See also: 2004 Democratic National
Convention
Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic
National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, while still serving as a state
legislator.[38] After describing his maternal
grandfather's experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the
New Deal's FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama said:
No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change
in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain
open to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice.[39]
Questioning the Bush administration's
management of the Iraq War, Obama spoke of an enlisted Marine, Corporal Seamus Ahern from East
Moline, Illinois, asking, "Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us?" He
continued:
When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth
about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never
ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.[39]
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. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we
don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little
League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and
patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the
United States of America.[39]
The speech was Obama's introduction to most of America. Its enthusiastic reception at the convention and widespread coverage
by national media gave him instant celebrity status.[40]
Columnist Jimmy Breslin predicted Obama would run for President. [41]
Senate campaign
-
In 2003, Obama began his run for the U.S. Senate open seat vacated by Peter Fitzgerald. In early opinion polls leading up to the Democratic primary, Obama trailed multimillionaire businessman
Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes.[42] However, Hull's popularity declined following allegations of domestic abuse.[42] Obama's candidacy was boosted by an advertising campaign featuring images of the late
Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon; the support of Simon's daughter; and political endorsements by the
Chicago Tribune and Chicago
Sun-Times.[43][44] Obama received over 52% of the vote in the March 2004 primary, emerging 29%
ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.[45] His opponent in
the general election was expected to be Republican primary winner
Jack Ryan. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004, following
public disclosure of child custody divorce records containing sexual allegations by Ryan's
ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan.[46] 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.[47] A long-time resident of Maryland, Keyes
established legal residency in Illinois with the nomination.[48] Through three televised debates, Obama and Keyes expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion,
gun control, school vouchers,
and tax cuts.[49] In the
November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes's 27%, the largest electoral victory in Illinois
history.[50]
Senate career
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4 2005.[51] Although a newcomer to Washington, he recruited a team of
established, high-level advisers devoted to broad themes that exceeded the usual requirements of an incoming first-term
senator.[52] Obama hired Pete
Rouse, a 30-year veteran of national politics and former chief of staff to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, as his chief of staff, and economist Karen Kornbluh,
former deputy chief of staff to Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, as his policy
director.[53] His key foreign policy advisers include
Samantha Power, author on human rights and genocide, and former Clinton administration officials Anthony Lake and
Susan Rice.[54] Obama
holds assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign
Relations; Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs;
and Veterans' Affairs, and he is a member of the
Congressional Black Caucus.[55] Obama has consistently opposed the Iraq War.
109th Congress
Obama took an active role in the Senate's drive for improved border
security and immigration reform. In 2005, he
co-sponsored the "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" introduced by Sen. John McCain
(R-AZ).[57] He later added three amendments to the "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act", which passed the Senate in May 2006,
but failed to gain majority support in the U.S. House of
Representatives.[58] In September 2006, Obama
supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act, authorizing construction of
fencing and other security improvements along the Mexico–United States border.[59] President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act into law in October 2006,
calling it "an important step toward immigration reform."[60]
Partnering first with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), and then with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Obama successfully introduced two initiatives bearing his name. "Lugar-Obama" expands the Nunn-Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including shoulder-fired
missiles and anti-personnel mines.[61] 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.[62]
In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the "Democratic Republic of
the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act," marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama
as its primary sponsor.[63]
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and
Africa. In August 2005, he traveled to Russia, Ukraine, and
Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons, and
weapons of mass destruction as a first defense against potential
terrorist attacks.[64]
Following meetings with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq in January 2006, Obama visited Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian
territories. At a meeting with Palestinian students two weeks before
Hamas won the legislative
election, Obama warned that "the U.S. will never recognize winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its
fundamental mission to eliminate Israel."[65] He left for
his third official trip in August 2006, traveling to South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Chad. In a nationally televised speech at the University of Nairobi,
he spoke forcefully on the influence of ethnic rivalries and corruption in
Kenya.[66] The speech touched off a public debate
among rival leaders, some formally challenging Obama's remarks as unfair and improper, others defending his positions.[67]
110th Congress
In the first month of the newly Democratic-controlled 110th Congress,
Obama worked with Russ Feingold (D–WI) to eliminate gifts of travel on corporate jets
by lobbyists to members of Congress and require disclosure of
bundled campaign contributions under the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act", which was signed into law in
September 2007.[68] He joined Charles Schumer (D-NY) in sponsoring S. 453, a
bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls, as witnessed
in the 2006 midterm elections.[69] Obama's energy
initiatives scored pluses and minuses with environmentalists, who welcomed his
sponsorship with John McCain (R-AZ) of a climate
change bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds by 2050, but were
skeptical of his support for a bill promoting liquefied coal production.[70] Obama also introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act", a bill to cap troop levels in Iraq, begin phased
redeployment, and remove all combat brigades from Iraq before April 2008.[71]
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored with Kit Bond (R-MO) an amendment to the 2008 Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges, and calling for a review by the Government Accountability Office following reports that the procedure had been used
inappropriately to reduce government costs.[72] He sponsored
the "Iran Sanctions Enabling Act" supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry,[73] and joined Chuck Hagel
(R-NE) in introducing legislation to
reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. A provision from the Obama-Hagel bill was passed by
Congress in December 2007 as an amendment to the State-Foreign Operations appropriations bill.[74] Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide one year of job
protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.[75] After passing both houses of Congress with bipartisan majorities, SCHIP was vetoed by President Bush in early October 2007, a move Obama said "shows a callousness of priorities that is
offensive to the ideals we hold as Americans."[76]
Presidential campaign
-
Obama on stage with his wife and two daughters just before announcing his presidential campaign on
February 10,
2007.
[77]
In February 2007, standing before the Old State Capitol
building in Springfield, Illinois, Obama
announced his candidacy for the 2008 U.S. presidential
election.[2] 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."[78] Speaking at a Democratic National Committee meeting one week before the February announcement, Obama
called for putting an end to negative campaigning. "This can't be about who digs up
more skeletons on who, who makes the fewest slip-ups on the campaign trail," he said. "We owe it to the American people to do
more than that."[79]
Obama's campaign raised US$58 million during the first half of 2007, topping all
other candidates and exceeding previous records for the first six months of any year before an election year.[80] Small donors, those contributing in increments of less than $200,
accounted for $16.4 million of Obama's record-breaking total, more than for any other Democratic candidate.[81] His campaign reported adding 108,000 new donors through third quarter
fundraising, for a total of 365,000 individual contributors in the first nine months.[82] Amid concerns for his safety as the first black candidate seen as having a viable chance of being
elected president, the U.S. government assigned Secret Service protection
to Obama 18 months before the general election.[83]
With two months remaining before the Iowa Democratic caucuses and
New Hampshire Democratic primary, 2008, and national opinion
polls showing him trailing Hillary Clinton, Obama began directly charging
his top rival with failing to clearly state her political positions.[84] Campaigning in Iowa, he told the Washington Post that as the Democratic nominee he would
draw more support than Clinton from independent and Republican voters in the general
election.[85] At Iowa's Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner in November 2007, he expanded the theme, saying that his
presidency would "bring the country together in a new majority" to seek solutions to long-standing problems.[86] In January 2008, Obama won the Iowa caucus with 37.58% support, ahead of
29.75% for John Edwards and 29.47% for Clinton.[87] His Iowa lead was boosted by majority support from a record turnout of voters under 30 years old,
most of them first-time caucus goers.[88]
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