Barack Obama 
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| "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." [1] — Barack Obama |
Barack Hussein Obama II (born 1961, age 48) is the 44th and current President of the United States. A junior United States Senator from Illinois, he is the first African American to be nominated for President by a major political party and the first African American to be elected. Obama was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2009.
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| Barack Obama | |
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| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office January 20, 2009 | |
| Vice President(s) | Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | George W. Bush |
| In office January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by | Roland Burris |
Member of the Illinois State Senate
from the 13th district | |
| In office January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Alice Palmer |
| Succeeded by | Kwame Raoul |
| Born | August 4, 1961 (aged 48) Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A. |
| Political party | Democratic Party |
| Residence | Chicago, IL (private) White House, Washington, D.C. (official) |
| Alma mater | Occidental College Columbia University (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Profession | Community Organizer Attorney Politician |
| Religion | Christian [1] |
| Spouse | Michelle Obama (m. 1992) |
| Children | Malia Ann (b. 1998) Sasha (b. 2001) |
| Parents | Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham |
| Relations | • Lolo Soetoro (step-father) |
| Signature | 
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| Website | WhiteHouse.gov |
| This article is part of a series about
Barack Obama | |
Barack Obama elected 44th President of the United States on November 4, 2008 in Chicago.
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2. Born to a Kenyan father and a White American mother in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, specializing in international relations, from Columbia College in New York City in 1983. In 1988, he entered Harvard Law School and based on his grades and a writing competition, was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year. In February 1990, Obama became the first black president of the Law Review, an achievement that was widely reported. He then taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School for 12 years from 1992 to 2004. Obama also joined the law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland in 1993 until 2004.
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3. Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, serving three terms until 2004. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one. After this defeat, Obama formally announced his candidacy for the United States Senate in January 2003. In July 2004, he delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Drawing examples from U.S. history, Obama criticized heavily partisan views of the electorate and asked Americans to find unity in diversity. Broadcasts of his speech by major news organizations launched Obama's status as a national political figure and boosted his campaign for U.S. Senate. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.
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4. In February 2007, Obama announced his presidential campaign, and was formally nominated at the 2008 Democratic National Convention with Delaware senator Joe Biden as his running mate. Throughout the campaign, Obama emphasized the issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care, at one point identifying these as his top three priorities.[1] In the 2008 United States Presidential election, he won 53% of the popular vote to rival John McCain's 46% [1] to become the President-elect of the United States.
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5. In his first few days in office, Obama issued executive orders and presidential memoranda to:
- reverse President Bush's ban on federal funding to foreign establishments that allow abortions (known as the Mexico City Policy and referred by critics as the "Global Gag Rule"); [1]
- change procedures to promote disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act; [1]
- direct the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq; [1]
- reduce the secrecy given to presidential records; [1]
- close Guantanamo Bay detention camp "as soon as practicable and no later than" January 2010, and "Immediate Review of All Guantánamo Detentions". more... at Chronology
