Barack Obama

Barack Obama (born 04.08.1961)
Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States and is of the Democratic political party.

Barack Obama: Childhood
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents were American anthropologist Stanley Ann Dunham, and Kenyan governmental economist Barack Obama, Sr. They divorced in 1964.
After his father moved back to Kenya, Barack was only visited by him once before he died in a car accident in 1982.
When his mother remarried, they moved to his stepfather's home country of Indonesia where Barack went to language schools St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School and Besuki Public School, English-language Calvert School, and was also homeschooled by his mother.
He returned to Honolulu in 1971 to live with his grandparents and attended Punahou School where he graduated. He lived with his mother again when she returned for three years, but stayed with his grandparents when she went back to Indonesia.
He had a group of friends called the 'choom gang' with whom he hung around and smoked marijuana.
He attended Occidental College where he campaigned for the divestment from South Africa due to the apartheid. He later transferred to Columbia University studying political science and graduated with Bachelor of Arts.

Barack Obama: Career
Barack Obama became director of the church-based Developing Communities Project in Chicago after graduating where he helped set up a job training program, a college tutoring program and a tenants' rights program.
In 1988, he went to Harvard Law School and became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review which made national press and landed him with a publishing deal for his memoirs 'Dreams from My Father' which he released in 1995.
In 1991, he became a Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School while working on his book, before becoming a lecturer there for 12 years.
In 1992, he was a director for Illinois's Project Vote, and oversaw the registering of 150,000 out of 400,000 African Americans to vote in Illinois.
In 1996, he succeeded Alice Palmer as Illinois's 13th district State Senator. He supported a law for more tax credits for workers on a low income and a welfare reform. He was re-elected in 1998 and 2002 but lost the position for the 1st district.
In 2003, he became chairman of the Senate's Health and Human Services Committee and enforced the monitoring of racial profiling in the police force. He resigned from the Illinois Senate in 2004 after being elected to the US Senate.
He opposed George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq.
His election led to the reissue of his memoir, 'Dreams from My Father' and he delivered the keynote address at that year's Democratic National Convention which was extremely well-received. He resigned from the Senate in 2008.
After announcing that he was running for Presidency in 2007, he emphasized issues of ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence and providing health care for all.
In 2008, he won the presidency with 365 votes to 173 for John McCain and became the first African American president.
In 2011, he began his re-election campaign for 2012 with a video entitled 'It Begins with Us'. He was almost unopposed with other democrat candidates. At the Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton nominated Obama and Joe Biden as the Democratic candidates for president and vice president with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as their republican opponents.
In 2012, he won 332 electoral votes and was subsequently re-elected with 51% of the vote.
Throughout his Presidency, he has attempted to close the controversial detainment camp Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, he has signed a Hate Crimes Prevention Act, appealed for homosexual people to be allowed to join the Armed Forces and supported the legalisation of same-sex marriage.
In 2009, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Barack Obama: Personal life
Barack Obama married Michelle Robinson in 1992 and had two daughters; Malia Ann and Natasha. They have a Portuguese Water Dog named Bo, which they were given by Senator Ted Kennedy, and they live in Kenwood, Chicago.
He is a Christian.
He supports the baseball team, Chicago White Sox.
He plays basketball and he is left-handed.