MAIN People in the News Barack Obama

With an historic, momentous win in the US presidential election — former Illinois senator Barack Obama has generated worldwide headlines for having been elected as the first African American president in U.S. history. His platform of unity, change, self determination and hope was defined by the catch phrase, "Yes, we can!" and statements such as "We are the change we have been waiting for...".

Most recently the only African American serving in the Senate, Obama first came to national prominence with a stirring speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, in which he called for an end to polarization along party lines, saying,"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America."

Obama's appeals for both national unification and international diplomacy made the attractive and charismatic orator the most popular grass-roots presidential candidate in a generation. Drawing support from the online population, his campaign netted millions in small donations. The outreach has continued after the election. It seems that Obama has the key to mobilizing the country as an online community organizer through his Change.gov site.

In the recent past, he has attracted thousands of residents from local U.S. communities on the campaign trail, and spread his message of hope with two books still on nationwide bestseller lists, "Dreams of My Father" (a 1995 memoir) and "The Audacity of Hope : Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" published in 2006.

Barack Obama Bios, News & Pictures | Barack Obama Quotes

Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii to a Kenyan father and white Kansas-born mother.

He later graduated from the local Punahou School before embarking on a political science degree at Columbia University.

Moving to Chicago, he helped organize local job training programs in poor neighborhoods. Later, Obama decided to return to school to pursue a law degree at Harvard, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, graduating magna cum laude in 1991.

His career in law began with a return to Chicago, working as a civil rights lawyer, then as a teacher of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Barack Obama first entered politics several years before, having run his first successful campaign to the Illinois state senate in 1996. Four years later, he made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives, but rebounded with reelection to the state senate in 2002, running unopposed.

It was in 2004 while running for an open seat in the U.S. Senate when Obama delivered the famous "Audacity of Hope" keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, and overnight became a national political figure. His subsequent landslide victory in November set the stage for a presidential run.

Obama formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007.

A year later, following a hard-fought primary battle against Hillary Clinton - the first woman presidential candidate - Obama claimed victory in clinching the Democratic nomination on June 3, the first black politician in U.S. history to do so. He faced Republican presidential nominee John McCain in the 2008 election in November and the result is history... the first African-American President of the United States of America.

Adding to a number of Barack Obama "firsts", his campaign is also noteworthy for revolutionizing the way presidential candidates raise donations — outspending rivals by raising millions in small donations from supporters via the Internet.

In June, the Obama campaign again illustrated its Web savvy by launching Fight The Smears that will attempt to answer charges brought against his campaign in daily blogs.

The following month, Obama embarked on a fact-finding mission to the Middle East, with stops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and enjoyed worldwide press coverage for his diplomatic afforest at ending the war there and bringing American troops home as soon as possible.

On the same trip, his last stop in Berlin brought international headlines after giving a speech in which Obama declared “The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand," signaling hope for strengthened cooperation between U.S. and Europe in the fight against terror organizations.

At rally on October 18, 2008 in the traditionally Republican leaning state of Missouri, Obama drew his largest crowd ever numbering an estimated 100,000 who gathered to here him speak under the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. A week later, AskMen.com named Obama the most influential man of 2008 according to an online reader poll.

Vice President Joe Biden

After months of speculation focused on Obama's "short list", Delaware Joe Biden was picked as Obama's vice presidential nominee. Others who picked up buzz were a list of VP possibilities that also included Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.

Widely known for his expertise on foreign affairs, Biden chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has joined Obama in his criticism of the war effort.

He is also regarded as a vocal proponent of women's issues and drafted the Violence Against Women Act which became law in 1994.

Personal life

Barack Obama has been married to Michelle Robinson Obama since 1992 and together they have two daughters, Malia (born 1999) and Sasha (born 2001).

Since the election of their father to the nation's highest office, the two girls have not unexpectedly become media darlings but have surprisingly taken their father's notoriety in stride.

His private grief suffered over the loss of his beloved grandmother in September, Obama made a sudden departure from the campaign trail to fly to the side of 85-year old Madelyn Dunham, who had fallen seriously ill in her home state of Hawaii. She passed away a day before Election Day 2008 and would never share in his historic, barrier-breaking victory as America's first African American to hold the nation's highest office.

America's First Puppy

With other important matters related to the transition of power from the George Bush administration, perhaps the biggest buzz about the new First Family was the speculation over the First Family pet. President-elect Barack Obama in his acceptance speech in November 2008 promised daughters that "you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House!"

Delivered, as promised on April 1, 2009, was a Portugeese water dog named Bo.

More about President Barack Obama around the Web:

Barack Obama.com

Meet Barack Obama

Barack Obama - Wikipedia

THE CANDIDATE - New Yorker magazine profile

BBC Profile : Barack Obama

Rolling Stone - Campaign '08 : The Radical Roots of Barack Obama

Barack Obama Quotes:

• If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. - Presidential acceptance speech, November 4, 2008.

• "We live in a culture that discourages empathy. A culture that too often tells us our principle goal in life is to be rich, thin, young, famous, safe, and entertained."

• "We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don't want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

• "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America - there's the United States of America."

• "As Americans, we can take enormous pride in the fact that courage has been inspired by our own struggle for freedom, by the tradition of democratic law secured by our forefathers and enshrined in our Constitution. It is a tradition that says all men are created equal under the law and that no one is above it."

• "What Washington needs is adult supervision."

• Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

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