Background

Barack Obama is currently in his first term as a junior U.S. Senator from Illinois within the Democratic Party. He is only the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history and the only one serving as of now. A civil rights lawyer, a community organizer, and a professor, Obama is presently seeking his Party's nomination for president of the United States in 2008.

Early Life

A young Barack Obama

Barack was born Barack Hussein Obama on August 4, 1961 to his white American mother, Ann Dunham and his Kenyan father, Barack Obama, Sr. Meeting at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Barack's parents separated when he was just two years old. His father attended Harvard University for a Ph.D. program before returning to Kenya; Barack saw him just once more before his father's death in a car accident when Barack was twenty-one years old. His mother Ann married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign student, having one daughter, Maya. The family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia in 1967 and Obama attended schools there from age six to ten. Returning to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Barack attended Punahou School from fifth grade until his graduation in 1979. During his childhood, he writes in his 1995 memoir Dreams of My Father (published just months before his mother's death from ovarian cancer), Barack used alcohol, marijuana and cocaine to fight his identity crisis resultant of his multi-racial upbringing. (Source: New York Times)

Dreams of My Father discusses Barack's childhood heavily

Upon graduation from Punahou, Barack attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, California for two years, then transferred to Columbia University in New York City where he pursued a political science major with an emphasis in international relations. Receiving his B.A. in 1983, Barack worked for a year at Business International Corporation as an editor of international financial information division in the publishing and advisory firm dedicated to assisting American companies in operating abroad. In 1985, putting law school on hold, Barack moved to Chicago and became a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods plagued with crime and high unemployment. With limited success, Obama realized the need for change at the high levels of the law and politics in order to see the benefits at the local level.(Source: Obama '08) Obama returned to the East coast in 1988 to attend Harvard Law School and three years later in 1991 he earned his J.D. law degree magna cum laude and was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. With his return to Chicago, Barack directed a voter registration drive and worked as an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland from 1993 to 1996 representing community organizers, discrimination claims, and voting rights cases. In addition, Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 to 2004.

• 1981: Transfers from Occidental College to Columbia University, graduated in 1983 with a B.A. in Political Science with an emphasis on International Relations
• 1985: Put law school on hold to work as a community organizer with a church based group in Chicago, Illinois
• 1988: Enters Harvard Law School
• 1991: Earns a J.D. law degree magna cum laude from Harvard
• 1993-1996: Worked as an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill & Galland, representing community organizers, discrimination claims and voting rights cases
• 1995: Barack's memoir Dreams of My Father is published, in which he admits to using alcohol, marijuana and cocaine to fight his identity crisis growing up (Source: New York Times)
• 1993-2004: Taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School

At the State Level

In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate for the 13th District in the south-side Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park. In 2000, Barack experienced defeat in his Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives against four-term incumbent Bobby Rush, yet, was re-elected by an overwhelming margin in 1998 and 2002 to the State Senate. In the Illinois Senate, Barack worked with both Democrats and Republicans to draft legislation on ethics and health care reform. Obama led the passage of an Illinois law mandating videotaping of homicide interrogations, and another that required police officers to record the race of the drivers they stopped as a measure in preventing racial profiling. Sponsoring a law enhancing tax credits for the working poor, Obama was crucial in negotiations over welfare reform and successfully increased child care subsidies. (Source: New York Times)

2004 Democratic National Convention

Obama delivering the 2004 Dem. Convention keynote

In 2004 at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, Obama delivered the keynote address. He touched on Bush's mishandling of the Iraq War, the necessity that every American child be given a chance, and, perhaps most notably, critiqued America's internal division: "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 in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America." (Source: Obama '08) The keynote address successfully launched the vibrant state Senator onto the national podium for the first time. He's yet to step down.

Going National

In 2003, Barack Obama began campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Peter Fitzgerald. Early in the Democratic primary, Obama had a lead on multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes. With support from all over Chicago, Obama received the nomination with over 52% of the vote in March 2004 primary, 29% ahead of the nearest Democratic rival. (Source: Chicago Tribune) In the general election, Obama faced Republican Alan Keyes, who had accepted his party's nomination after the previous candidate dropped out over a scandal. Keyes, who had for a long time lived in Maryland, legally became a resident in Illinois for the nomination. Topics such as stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers and tax cuts were on the debate list, and in November 2004, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes' 27%. Sworn in on January 4, 2005, Obama holds seats on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Veterans' Affairs, and is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Obama worked closely with Senator McCain in 2005

Since entering the Senate, Obama has been active in reaching across the aisle and working with Republican Congressmen. His first bill was the "Higher Education Opportunity through Pell Grant Expansion Act"; it proposed increasing pell grant awards for students from lower income families so that they could afford college, it failed to make it out of committee. In 2005, Barack co-sponsored Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" and added three amendments to Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-PA) "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act." Senator Obama also supported the Secure Fence Act, which authorized the construction of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border; it was signed into law by President Bush in October 2006. Partnering with Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), Obama successfully introduced legislation which expanded the earlier Nunn-Lugar legislation which sought to account for and dismantle Soviet unconventional weaponry; the Obama addition added conventional weapons to the list such as shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines. Later, with Sen. Tome Coburn (R-OK), came the Coburn-Obama Transparency Act which provides for an Office of the Management and Budget website detailing the government's spending of all taxpayers money. On December 22, 2006, President Bush signed into law Obama's first primary sponsored piece of legislation, the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act.

During the 110th Congress (2007-2009), Obama has thus far placed his crosshairs on political corruption. With Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), Obama strengthened restrictions on Congressional travel in corporate jets. With Charles Schumer (D-NY), Obama sponsored a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and automated phone calls that were rampanin the 2006 midterm elections. With Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Obama sponsored a climate change bill seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2/3 by 2050, pleasing environmentalists who later frowned on Barack's support for a bill promoting liquefied coal production. Obama also introduced the Iraq War De-Escalation Act, a bill which caps troop levels in Iraq at January 10, 2007 levels and removes all combat personnel from Iraq by March 31, 2008.

"The Audacity of Hope"

Obama released a second book in 2006

In February 2007 Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In May 2007, Obama became the first presidential candidate to be newly assigned Secret Service protection more than 18 months before a general election.The Rasmussen polling organization reported in May 2007 that 49% of Americans consider it "somewhat likely" or "very likely" that Obama will be elected. (Source: Rasmussen) Also in May and again two months later, Zogby International reported that Obama leads all prospective Republican opponents in polling for the 2008 general election. (Source: Zogby) If elected president in November 2008, Obama will be the first non-white president in the history of the United States. He is considered the runner up behind Hillary Clinton in the bid for the Democratic Convention's nomination.

Obama has authored two books, Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006); both titles were best-sellers. Barack and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, and live on Chicago's South Side where they attend Trinity United Church of Christ.

Professional Positions

• Community Organizer for Chicago's Roseland community and Altgeld Garden's public housing development, 1985 - 1988, 1992. (Source: The Nation)
• Editor, Harvard Law Review, Feb 1990 - 1991. (Source: Boston Globe)
• Civil Rights Lawyer, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, 1993 - 2004 (Source: LA Times)
• Professor, Constitutional Law, University of Chicago School of Law, 1992 - 2004. (Source: UoC, School of Law)
• Illinois State Senator for Hyde Park, Chicago, 1997 - 2004 (Source: Project Vote Smart)
• Junior Illinois Senator, 2005 - Present (Source: Barack Obama.com' link=)

Accomplishments

• Best Spoken Word Album, Grammy Award, 2006 & 2008;
• Chairman's Award, National Association for the Advancement Colored People, 2005;
• 100 most influential people in the world, Time Magazine, 2005;
• 10 people who will change the world, New Statesman, 2005;
• Harold Blake Walker Award, Christopher House, 2005;
• Rock the Nation Award, Rock the Vote, 2005;
• Outstanding Legislator Award, Campaign for Better Health Care and Illinois Primary Health Care Association,
• 1998; Best Freshman Legislator Award, Independent Voters of Illinois, 1997;
• Monarch Award for Outstanding Public Service, 1994; “
• 40 Under 40” Award, Crain's Chicago Business, 1993. (Source: Project Vote Smart)

Criticism

• Has been criticized for his lack of national political experience, a main talking-point made by his main Democratic opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
• The "Bitter" controversy over his remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser in describing Pennsylvania rural voters as being "bitter" due to economic woes and successive promises made by current and previous administrations, and, therefore, "they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them." His rivals, Sen. Clinton and Sen McCain, quickly deriding him and labeling him as an "elitist" and "out-of-touch" with the blue-collar working class.
• His presidential rivals have criticized him as being too "naive" in his message for change. On one particular campaign stop in Rhode Island, Clinton mocked Obama's speaking style and message of hope and change in a theatrical, sardonic display.
• Sen. Clinton has continued to criticize Obama and more specifically his policies of lacking "substance."
• He has been criticized by some conservatives and others of his refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin and was prominently brought to bare in the last live debate prior to the Pennsylvania primary on ABC where a video question was presented to Sen Obama and was asked by a woman from Pennsylvania named Nash McCabe on his refusal to do so.
• His losses in Ohio and Pennsylvania highlighted some difficulties in the Obama campaign efforts to woe the so called "blue collar white working class" demographic.
• His losses in all the states bordering Mexico highlighted his difficulties in courting the Hispanic vote. The large margins suggests to some that he will face a daunting task in getting these two demographics to vote for him in the fall.
• The Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy over his sermons denouncing America and other incendiary comments has continued to plague and haunt his campaign ever since it first made news earlier in March 2008. Since that time, he has been criticized for his soft and unwilling direct condemnation of him (Sen Obama has recently fully denounced and severed ties with his former Reverend). It mounted to questions of why he choose to stay at the church that the Rev. Wright preached at (Trinity United Church of Christ).
• Some conservatives, like Ann Coulter, has made prominent use of his middle name, "Hussein," to suggest a inexistent link between him and terrorists. He has been jeered in various conservative blogospheres by punctuating his middle name when introducing him (i.e. Sen. Barack HUSSEIN Obama, etc).
• Was criticized by a prominent gay news media, Philadelphia Gay New, in his unwillingness to give an interview with the gay press, declaring on their headline "Clinton talks: Obama balks."
• Joked by the media and others for his lack of bowling skills in a media event at the Pleasant Valley Recreation Center in Altoona, PA. He scored a 37 out of a possible 300.

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