Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu,
Hawaii. His father was a black man (also named Barack
Obama) born in Africa and his mother was a white woman born
in Kansas.
Obama's father and his mother separated and divorced when
Obama was a young child. His mother remarried in 1967 when
Obama was 6 years old to a man named Lolo Soetoro.
His family moved to Soetoro's home country which was
Indonesia. Obama lived there until he was 10 years old when
he returned to live in Hawaii with his maternal
grandparents who raised him from then on.
Obama moved to Los Angeles for college. After two years he
transferred to Columbia University in New York City. Obama
graduated from Columbia in 1983.
Obama then moved to Chicago where he worked as a community
organizer for three years until the age of 27 when he moved
to Massachusetts so that he could attend Harvard Law
School. In 1990, during his second year, he was elected
President of the Harvard Law Review. He was the first black
person elected President of the Harvard Law Review. This
remarkable feat was widely reported upon. He graduated from
Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 1991.
He moved back to Chicago at that time and married Michelle
Robinson in 1992. They have had two daughters, the first
Malia Ann was born in 1998 and the second Natasha was born
in 2001.
Obama began teaching constitutional law at the University
of Chicago Law School in 1992 and continued doing so for 12
years. During this time he also directed the Illnois'
Project Vote which registered 150,000 African Americans in
the state.
In 1996 Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate. While a
State Senator Obama was able to gain support for ethics
reform and health care laws. Obama re-elected twice and
held the position until he was elected as one of Illinois
two US Senators in 2004.
In 2000 Obama unsuccessfully ran for congress. He lost in
the primary to Bobby Rush who is an African American
Democrat who has been a congressman since 1993. He is still
in the House today. Although they were rivals in 2000, Rush
has supported Obama in his run for the Senate in 2004 and
in his campaign for the Presidency in 2008.
In 2004 Obama easily defeated Republican Alan Keyes to
become a US Senator. In fact his 70% to 27% defeat of Keyes
set the all time record for margin of victory in a
statewide election in Illinois. The election between Obama
& Keyes was also noteworthy as it was the first Senatorial
election in US history in which the two major candidates
were both African Americans.
During that 2004 campaign Obama was selected by John Kerry
to be a keynote speaker at the Democratic National
Convention and the speech is considered to be greatly
responsible for his launch into the national consciousness.
His speech was so well received that he was immediately
considered to be a rising star in the Democratic party.
On February 10, 2007 Obama announced his candidacy for the
2008 Democratic nomination. At the time Hillary Clinton was
considered a huge favorite to win the nomination.
The race for the Democratic primary became a battle between
Obama & Clinton as the other challengers quickly fell by
the wayside. The battle continued on into June as Clinton
would not give in until the very end despite Obama's clear
mathematical advantage beginning in February.
In the general election Obama selected Joe Biden as his
Vice Presidential running mate and they faced Republican
John McCain who made a huge mistake by selecting the
unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate.
On November 4th Obama easily defeated McCain became the
first black person (biracial to be more accurate) to be
elected as President of the United States.
Barack Obama is scheduled to become the 44th President of
the United States on January 20, 2009.
----------------------------------------------------
Marvin J. Markus recommends that you get your information
on US Presidential elections at
http://www.ThePresidentialCandidates.us
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