Obama Barack

American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004. A self-described “skinny kid with a funny name,” Obama is the child of a Kenyan man and an American woman. His parents met at the University of Hawaii where they were both students. When Barack was two, his father returned to Africa, and the young boy lived in Hawaii with his mother and grandparents. After his mother married an Indonesian, she took him with her when she moved to her new husband’s native country. Young Barack was sent back to Hawaii at age 10 to live with his grandparents. A few months after Baracks 21st birthday, he received a call from an aunt in Nairobi informing him of his fathers death. He traveled to Africa in an attempt to find his roots, a journey that is chronicled in his memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, published in 1995. Obama graduated in 1983 from Columbia University with a degree in political science and international relations. He worked in Chicagos inner city, helping church groups improve job-training, education and city services to the poor and then went on to law school at Harvard. In 1990, he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, the first African-American to capture that prestigious position. After graduating magna cum laude, he helped organize voter registration in Chicago, worked as a civil rights lawyer, and lectured on constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois General Assembly as a state senator. On 27 July 2004, he burst onto the national scene when he delivered a rousing keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. That year, on 2 November, Obama won election to the U.S. Senate by a wide margin. When he took the oath of office on 4 January 2005, Obama became the sole African-American in the Senate at the time and only the third in that body’s history. Obama married Michelle Robinson on 3 October 1992 and they have two daughters, Malia born on 4 July 1999 and Sasha born on 10 June 2001. He published his book The Audacity of Hope in 2006. As promised, Senator Obama made the announcement of his candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President on schedule on 10 February 2007, shortly after 10 AM CST in Springfield Illinois (one report gave 10:13 AM as the time). On the campaign trail he racked up an impressive number of primary and caucus wins. Exhibiting composure, thoughtfulness, a quick mind and self-deprecating humor, his debate performance earned kudos while his powerful oratory evoked comparisons to Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy. Along with his life story which he touted as a representation of the American dream, his emphasis on unity, hope and civility captured media and public attention. He became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party in Spring 2008, the actual nominee in Denver, Colorado on 27 August 2008 (by acclamation at 4:47 PM MDT according to the NY Times; 4:48 by PTs observation) and accepted the official nomination on 28 August 2008 in a speech that began around 8:15 MDT. Sadly his beloved grandmother died late in the evening of 2 November 2008 in Hawaii, two days before he was Read less