Anacreon biography of barack obama
After the war, the couple studied on the G. Bill, bought a house through the Federal Housing Program, and after several moves, ended up in Hawaii. They married on February 2, , and Barack II was born six months later. As a child, Obama did not have a relationship with his father. When his son was still an infant, Obama Sr. Soon after, Obama Sr.
His mother and half-sister later joined them. Obama struggled with the absence of his father, whom he saw only once more after his parents divorced when Obama Sr. While living with his grandparents, Obama enrolled in the esteemed Punahou School. He excelled in basketball and graduated with academic honors in As one of only three Black students at the school, he became conscious of racism and what it meant to be African American.
He shares a mother with half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng and has five paternal half-siblings. According to Oprah Daily , he has maintained a warm and close relationship with half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. The two grew up together and both graduated from the Punahou School. So he really ended up being the man of the house. Obama entered Occidental College in Los Angeles in After two years, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, graduating in with a degree in political science.
After his undergrad studies, Obama worked in the business sector for two years. He moved to Chicago in , where he worked on the impoverished South Side as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities. He also visited relatives in Kenya and paid an emotional visit to the graves of his biological father, who died in a car accident in November , and his paternal grandfather.
The next year, he met with constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe. Their discussion so impressed Tribe that when Obama asked to join his team as a research assistant, the professor agreed. He graduated magna cum laude with his juris doctor from Harvard Law School in In , while still in law school, Obama joined the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin as a summer associate.
Anacreon biography of barack obama
There, he met Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer who was assigned to be his adviser. Initially, Michelle refused to date Barack, believing that their work relationship would make the romance improper. However, she relented not long after, and the couple fell in love. On October 3, , he and Michelle were married. Barack and Michelle welcomed two daughters several years later: Malia , born in , and Sasha , born in The couple has stated that their personal priority is their children.
During his years as a state senator, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to draft legislation on ethics, as well as expand health care services and early childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor. In , Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush.
Undeterred, he created a campaign committee in and began raising funds to run for a seat in the U. Senate in With the help of political consultant David Axelrod, Obama began assessing his prospects for a Senate win. Encouraged by poll numbers, Obama decided to run for the open U. Senate seat, vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. In the Democratic primary, he defeated multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes with 52 percent of the vote.
That summer, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized the importance of unity and made veiled jabs at the George W. Bush administration and the diversionary use of wedge issues. After the convention, Obama returned to his U. Senate bid in Illinois. His opponent in the general election was supposed to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, a wealthy former investment banker.
However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual deviancy allegations by his ex-wife, actor Jeri Ryan. That August, diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. He won 52 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, defeating both multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes.
After his original Republican opponent in the general election, Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race, the former presidential candidate Alan Keyes stepped in. It put the relatively unknown, young senator in the national spotlight. Senate since Reconstruction. During his tenure, Obama notably focused on issues of nuclear non-proliferation and the health threat posed by avian flu.
He partnered with another Republican, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana , on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. In August , Obama traveled to Kenya, where thousands of people lined the streets to welcome him. He published his second book, The Audacity of Hope , in October On February 10, , Obama formally announced his candidacy for president of the United States.
A victory in the Iowa primary made him a viable challenger to the early frontrunner, the former first lady and current New York Senator Hillary Clinton , whom he outlasted in a grueling primary campaign to claim the Democratic nomination in early June Obama chose Joseph R. Biden Jr. Biden had been a U. They worked to bring new voters—many of them young or Black, both demographics they believed favored Obama—to become involved in the election.
A year into his presidency, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his promise to promote world peace. Many thought this somewhat premature for occurring at the start of his presidency. In , he signed with Russia the New START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty which included a reduction in nuclear arms between the two countries; though in , relations between the two countries soured after the Russian invasion of the Ukraine caused Obama to initiate economic sanctions against Russia.
Obama pledged to end American troops involvement in Iraq and by could announce all troops would be leaving Iraq. Troops have remained in Afghanistan. In , Obama began a process to normalise relationship with Cuba after negotiations with Raul Castro. In , Obama became the first US president to visit Cuba, since Fidel Castro the long-time dictator of Cuba died in Nov.
In an era of increased partisanship, Obama has sought to rise above the political fray and present a vision of a united America, a country which transcends the division of race and politics. November Assuming office in Jan , Obama inherited an economy struggling to overcome the deepest recession since the s. The US recovery proved quicker than comparable economies in Europe, but growth was uneven — with low wage growth.
In , Obama also passed the Dodd—Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act , which sought to reform the banking and financial sector, in the aftermath of the credit crunch. See also: US Economy under Obama. Despite concerns about the economy, in , Obama was able to win re-election, defeating the Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
He was able to open diplomatic relations with Cuba. He attempted to nominate Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court but was unsuccessful in doing so. Obama left office in January and was succeeded by Republican Donald Trump. He now lives in Washington, D. He has ranked high in presidential opinion polls. He died in a motorcycle accident in Kenya in His mother was a white woman from Kansas named Ann Dunham , who was an anthropologist and died in , from uterine cancer.
He spent most of his childhood in Hawaii and Chicago , Illinois , although he lived in Jakarta , Indonesia with his mother and stepfather from age 6 to age Obama is one of 8 siblings. After taking time off as a community organizer, Obama went to law school at Harvard University. After law school, Obama worked for a law firm in Hyde Park , Chicago.
Obama has been married to Michelle Obama since She worked as a lawyer. They have two daughters, Malia Ann, who was born in [ 9 ] and Natasha "Sasha" , born in Obama promised his daughters that the family would get a dog if he was elected president. Kennedy, gave Obama one of his dogs, a Portuguese water dog named Bo. Obama has a half sister who is a teacher in Hawaii.
His father died from a car accident in Kenya. His mother died of ovarian cancer. His maternal grandmother died just before Obama won the election to become President. Obama worked for Alice Palmer , an Illinois state senator. In , she chose not to run for re-election so that she could run for U. Congress, [ 11 ] and Obama decided to run for her Illinois state senate seat.
Palmer lost her election for U. Congress, so she tried to keep her seat in the state senate, but she did not have enough time to meet the rules of the election. Obama's team said that she could not be on the ballot, and the election rule makers agreed. Obama won the election and became an Illinois state senator. While he was Illinois state senator, he wrote a law that required police to keep records on the race of people they stopped.
Judge and political teacher Abner J. Mikva taught Obama politics and became his mentor. During his early political career, Obama would make appearances and debate on Chicago Tonight. Obama ran for the U. He spoke on television. He was a U. Senator from to Obama won the presidential election of Obama's presidential campaign for the White House started in early June , when he defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.
Hillary Clinton was favored to win but Obama won many smaller state caucuses local party elections by having a lot of volunteers. He decided not to accept government money for his campaign so that he could accept more private money under Campaign finance reform in the United States. He raised the most amount of money ever for a presidential campaign.
Obama's campaign theme was that he was a man of hope and change. He was also against the war in Iraq. He was in favor of giving money to American car companies. He was in favor of sending more troops to Afghanistan. During the campaign, some people said that Obama's friends were Tony Rezko, a landlord, and former revolutionary Bill Ayers ; Obama said that they were not his friends.
Bush , something that John McCain said was not true. He ran with Joe Biden as his candidate for Vice President. He defeated McCain in the election on November 4 by a wide electoral majority of to , meaning that he won the most votes in enough states to send people to officially elect him. Obama announced he was running for president again in April , when he posted a video on his website.
Because he was already the president, there were very few other Democrats who tried to oppose him. He won the democratic nomination easily. Their opponents in the Republican party this time were Mitt Romney , who was running for president, and Paul Ryan , who was running for vice president. In the election on November 6, Obama and Joe Biden defeated Romney and Ryan by a majority of to electoral votes.
This meant that, even though it was still large, his majority was smaller than in In terms of the popular vote, Obama won When Obama was sworn in, the United States was battling a tough recession. He called the plan the stimulus bill. The stimulus bill funded many road projects, gave money to schools, gave tax credits to many Americans, and funded many science and research projects.
He continued the financial bailout that George W. Bush started, giving billions of dollars to car companies and banks so that they would not go bankrupt. He signed an act written by Barney Frank and Chris Dodd which would regulate Wall Street the financial industry to try to prevent another recession like this from happening again. Obama said he would change the health care system in the United States in order to make healthcare more affordable for Americans.