Barack Obama
"I want to campaign the same way I govern, which is to respond directly and forcefully
with the truth"
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Barack Obama, democratic candidate for the U.S. presidential election 2008, was born
in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was born and raised
in a small village in Kenya, where he grew up herding goats with his father. Barack's
mother, Ann Dunham, grew up in small-town Kansas. Barack's parents met at the University
of Hawaii. His mother was a student there, and his father had won a scholarship that
allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams in America. Barack's father eventually
returned to Kenya, and Barack grew up with his mother in Hawaii, and for a few years
in Indonesia. Later, he moved to New York, where he graduated from Columbia University
in 1983. He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard in 1991, where he became
the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Soon after, he returned
to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer and teach constitutional law. Finally,
his advocacy work led him to run for the Illinois State Senate, where he served for
eight years. In 2004, he became the third African American since Reconstruction to
be elected to the U.S. Senate.
It has been the rich and varied experiences of Barack Obama's life -
In the Illinois State Senate, this meant working with both Democrats and Republicans to help working families get ahead by creating programs like the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which in three years provided over $100 million in tax cuts to families across the state. He also pushed through an expansion of early childhood education, and after a number of inmates on death row were found innocent, Senator Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.
In the U.S. Senate, he has focused on tackling the challenges of a globalized, 21st
century world with fresh thinking and a politics that no longer settles for the lowest
common denominator. His first law was passed with Republican Tom Coburn, a measure
to rebuild trust in government by allowing every American to go online and see how
and where every dime of their tax dollars is spent. He has also been the lead voice
in championing ethics reform that would root out Jack Abramoff-
As a member of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, Senator Obama has fought to help
Illinois veterans get the disability pay they were promised, while working to prepare
the VA for the return of the thousands of veterans who will need care after Iraq
and Afghanistan. Recognizing the terrorist threat posed by weapons of mass destruction,
he traveled to Russia with Republican Dick Lugar to begin a new generation of non-
Obama has written two bestselling books. The first, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, was published after his graduation from law school and before running for public office. In it he recalls his childhood in Honolulu and Jakarta, college years in Los Angeles and New York City, and his employment as a community organizer in Chicago in the 1980s.
His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in October 2006, three weeks before the 2006 midterm election. It was an immediate bestseller and rose to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list by early November 2006.
Barack Obama lives with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, on Chicago's South Side where they attend Trinity United Church of Christ.
