Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (born August 4, 1961) is the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois. He received widespread media coverage for his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, delivered while he was still an Illinois State Senator. In November 2004, Obama won election to the United States Senate with over two-thirds of the vote. Obama is the third African American to be popularly elected to the United States Senate and the only African American currently serving in the Senate.


Early life and career

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Harvard University-educated economist Barack Obama, Sr., of Kenya, and Ann Dunham of Wichita, Kansas. At the time of Obama's birth, both his parents were students at the East-West Center of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Of his years in Hawaii, Obama has written, "The irony is that my decision to work in politics, and to pursue such a career in a big Mainland city, in some sense grows out of my Hawaiian upbringing, and the ideal that Hawaii still represents in my mind."

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father eventually returned to Kenya, and he saw his son only once more before his death in 1982. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro (d. Mar 2, 1993), another East-West Center student (MA Geography 1962) from Indonesia. In his early childhood, Barack used the name 'Barry'. The family then moved to Jakarta, where Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng was born. When Obama was ten he returned to Hawaii under the care of his grandparents, (Madelyn Dunham) and later his mother, for the better educational opportunities. He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, where he graduated with honors in 1978.

Upon finishing high school, Obama studied for two years at Occidental College, before transferring to Columbia College at Columbia University. There he majored in political science, with a specialization in international relations. Upon graduation, he worked for a year at Business International Corporation (now part of The Economist Group), a company that provided international business information to corporate clients. He then moved to Chicago, where he took up community organizing in the Altgeld Gardens housing project on the city's South Side.

He left Chicago for three years to study law at Harvard University, where he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude.

After law school, he returned to serving as a community organizer in Chicago. Obama organized an aggressive voter registration effort that registered over 100,000 voters and aided in the election of President Bill Clinton and Senator Carol Moseley Braun, the first African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Soon after, Obama joined the Chicago civil rights law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, and he became a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago.



State legislature

In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the south side neighborhood of Hyde Park, in Chicago. He served as chairman of the Public Health and Welfare Committee when the Democrats regained control of the chamber.

Obama helped to author a state Earned Income Tax Credit that provided benefits to the working poor. He also worked for legislation that would cover residents who could not afford health insurance, and helped pass bills to increase funding for AIDS prevention and care programs.

In 1999, Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush. Rush, a former Black Panther and community activist, charged that Obama hadn't "been around the first congressional district long enough to really see what's going on". Rush received 61% of the vote, while Obama received 30%.

After the loss, Obama rededicated his efforts to the state Senate. He authored a death penalty reform law under the guidance of former U.S. Senator Paul Simon. He also pushed through legislation that would force insurance companies to cover routine mammograms.

Reviewing Obama's career in the Illinois State Senate, commentators noted his ability to work effectively with both Democrats and Republicans, and to build coalitions. In his subsequent campaign for the U.S. Senate, Obama won the endorsement of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose officials cited his "longtime support of gun control measures and his willingness to negotiate compromises", this despite his support for some bills that the police union had opposed.


Keynote address

Obama was chosen to deliver a keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts.

His speech outlined his own family's pursuit of the American Dream, and his belief in a 'generous America'. His maternal grandfather, after serving in World War II, was the beneficiary of the New Deal's FHA and GI Bill and had high hopes for their daughter, because, as Obama said, "in a generous America you don't have to be rich to achieve your potential". But he charged that "we have more work to do" for people who are not able to realize the American Dream, maintaining that self responsibility is an important component and people "don't expect government to solve all their problems".

He criticized the Bush administration for not supporting troops in Iraq. He spoke of an enlisted Marine, Corporal Seamus Ahern from East Moline, Illinois, asking, "Are we serving Seamus as well as he was serving us?" He continued:

When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.

Finally he spoke for national unity: "Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America; there's the United States of America." Perhaps the most often quoted sound bite followed: "We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States, and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq, and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq."


Presidential ambitions

Obama's keynote speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention brought his speaking skill, unique personal story, and inclusive message before a national audience, fueling expectations that the energetic politician would some day run for U.S. President. Speculation on a 2008 presidential run intensified after his decisive U.S. Senate election win in November 2004, prompting Obama to tell reporters: "I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years". Asked again in a January 2006 television appearance on Meet the Press, Obama repeated his intention to finish his Senate term.

Nonetheless, Illinois senior U.S. Senator Dick Durbin has consistently urged Obama to consider running. A December 2005 article published in the The New Republic, reasoned that, with no incumbent president or vice president in the race, 2008 offers Obama his best chance at winning the presidency.

In September 2006, Obama's Senate primary opponent Daniel Hynes, in an open letter published in the Chicago Sun-Times, urged Democrats to draft Obama for the 2008 Presidential race.Also in September, Obama was the featured speaker at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's annual steak fry, a political event favored by presidential hopefuls in the lead-up to the Iowa caucus."What a wonderful reception; I’m going to have to come to Iowa again", the New York Times quoted Obama as saying before he began his speech.



Works

Obama's autobiography Dreams from My Father was published in 1995 and re-released in 2004 with a few new features. As of June 2005 the re-released paperback had been on The New York Times non-fiction best seller list for more than forty weeks. The audio book edition earned Obama a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album on February 8, 2006.

In December 2004, Obama made a $1.9 million deal for three books. The first, The Audacity of Hope, is to be published October 17th, 2006, and will discuss his political convictions. The second is a children's book to be co-written with his wife Michelle and their two young daughters, with profits going to charity. The content of the third book has not been announced.


Personal life

While working at a corporate law firm in the summer of 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson, then an associate attorney at the firm; they married in 1992. Michelle Obama is Vice President for Community and External Affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals. The couple have two daughters, Malia (born 1999) and Sasha (born 2001). The Obamas are members of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

Of his faith, Obama has said: "I have an ongoing conversation with God... I'm constantly asking myself questions about what I'm doing, why I am doing it."

                       

Courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama