Sunday, January 20, 2013

obama biography

Barack Obama

44th U.S. President

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States, in office since 2009. He is the first African American to hold the office. Wikipedia

Born: August 4, 1961 (age 51), Honolulu

Full name: Barack Hussein Obama II

Parents: Barack Obama Sr., Ann Dunham

Siblings: Maya Soetoro-Ng, George Obama, Mark Ndesandjo, More

Children: Natasha Obama, Malia Ann Obama

Education: Harvard Law School (1988 – 1991),

Synopsis

Born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii,

Barack Obama is the 44th and current president of the United States. He was a civil-rights lawyer and teacher

before pursuing a political career. He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996, serving from 1997 to 2004.

He was elected to the U.S. presidency in 2008,

CONTENTS

Synopsis

Early Life

Excelling in School

Law Career

Entry into Illinois Politics

U.S. Senate Career

2008 Presidential Election

First 100 Days

2010 State of the Union

Challenges and Successes

2012 Re-Election

QUOTES

"I guarantee you we will move this country forward. We will finish what we started. And we'll remind the world just why it is the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth."

– Barack Obama

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and won re-election in 2012 against Republican challenger Mitt Romney. President Obama continues to enact policy changes in response to the issues of health care and economic crisis.

Early Life

Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where her father worked on oil rigs during the Great Depression. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dunham's father, Stanley, enlisted in the service and marched across Europe in Patton's army. Dunham's mother, Madelyn, went to work on a bomber assembly line. After the war, the couple studied on the G.I. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program and, after several moves, landed in Hawaii.

Barack Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama Sr. grew up herding goats in Africa, eventually earning a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of college in Hawaii. While studying at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Obama Sr. met fellow student Ann Dunham, and they married on February 2, 1961. Barack was born six months later.

Obama did not have a relationship with his father as a child. When his son was still an infant, Obama Sr. relocated to Massachusetts to attend Harvard University, pursuing a Ph.D. Barack's parents officially separated several months later and ultimately divorced in March 1964, when their son was 2. In 1965, Obama Sr. returned to Kenya.

In 1965, Dunham married Lolo Soetoro, an East–West Center student from Indonesia. A year later, the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Barack's half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born. Several incidents in Indonesia left Dunham afraid for her son's safety and education so, at the age of 10, Barack was sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. His mother and sister later joined them.

Excelling in School

While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou Academy, excelling in basketball and graduating with academic honors in 1979.