BARACK HUSSAIN OBAMA
Barack Hussain Obama the candidate of Democratic Party has been elected as a 44th President of America on November 4, 2008. He defeated John McCain in the general election and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. He is also the first black President of U.S A.
In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Grant Park in Chicago, Obama proclaimed that “CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA.” Born in Hawaii, Obama will be the first U.S. President born outside the contiguous United States. He also will be fifth youngest President at a date of accession, and the first since Lincoln whose primary political base is Illinois.
Obama was born on August 4, 1961 at the Kap ‘Olani Medical Centre for Women and Children in Honolulu. His parents met in 1960 while attending, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student. The couple married on February 2, 1961; they separated when Obama was two year old and subsequently divorced in 1964. Obama’s father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982. His name was kept on the base of his father’s name. The meaning of Barack is fortunate in the regional language of Kenya.
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. Then he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political seal science with a specialization in international relations. Obama graduated with a B. A. from Columbia in 1983. After completing his graduation he worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.
In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months. The manuscript was finally published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father. It was the first book of Obama written by him.Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. At the end of his first year, he was selected, based on his grades and a writing competition, as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. In February 1990, in his second year, he was elected president of the Law Review, a full-time volunteer position functioning as editor-in-chief and supervising the Law Review’s staff of eighty editors. After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago. The publicity from his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations. In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book.
He is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in2000, he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate in January 2003, won a primary victory in March 2004, and was elected to the Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the votes to Keyes’s 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.
Obama was sworn as a senator on January 4, 2005. Obama was the fifth African-American Senator in U.S. history, and the third to have been popularly elected. He is the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus. CQ Weekly, a nonpartisan publication, characterized him as a ‘loyal Democrat” based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005-2007, and the National Journal ranked him as the “most liberal” senator based on an assessment of selected votes during 2007. In 2005 he was ranked sixteenth, and in 2006 he was ranked tenth. Obama resigned his senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period. His immediate successor will be named by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
On June 3, 2008 Senater Obama, along with Senater Thomas, R. Carper, Tom Coburn and John McCain introduced follow up legislation strengthening transparency and accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008. In December 2006 President Bush signed into Law the Democratic Republic of the Cargo Relief, Security and Democracy Promotion Act marking the first Federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor.
On February 10,2007Obama announced his candidacy for President Election of USA. infront of the Old State Capital Building in Spring field Illinois. A large number of candidates initially entered the Democratic Party Presidential Primaries. After a few initial contests the field narrowed to a contest between Obama and Senater Hillary Clinton, with each winning some states and with the race remaining nearly tied through the primary process.
On May 31, the Democratic National Committee agreed to seat all of the disputed Michigan and Florida delegates at the national convention, each with a half-vote, narrowing Obama’s delegate lead. On June 3, with all states counted, Obama passed the threshold to become the presumptive nominee. On that day, he gave a victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota. Clinton suspended her campaign and endorsed him on June 7. From that point on, he campaigned for the general election race against Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee. On August 23, 2008, Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Obama’s former rival Hillary Clinton gave a speech in support of Obama’s candidacy and later called for Obama to be nominated by acclamation as the Democratic presidential candidate. On August 28, Obama delivered a speech to the 84,000 supporters in Denver. During the speech, which was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide, he accepted his party’s nomination and presented his policy goals.
After McCain was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, polls indicated that he had closed the gap with Obama. There were three presidential debates between Obama and McCain in September and October2008. After the debates, Obama pulled ahead in national polls, and he won the vote in nearly all of the actively contested states.
On November4, 2008 the result of Presidential election was declared Obama got Electoral College votes 349 while McCain 162 only. Obama got 96% of the Black votes, 43% of the white votes, 78% of youth votes and the majority of almost every ethnic group and even Jews voted for him.
Obama met his wife Michelle Robinson in June 1989. Soon they began dating and engaged in 1991. They married on October 3, 1992. The couple’s first, daughter Malia Ann was born in 1998 and second daughter Natasha (Sasha) in 2001. Obama’s family is Christian (Protestant) by religion. Their residence is at Kenwood in Chicago. Obama is very fond c f playing basketball. He is non smoker. Obama has written two famous books Dreams from my father in 1995 and The Audacity of Hope in 2006.