Brief biography of barack obama
Biography of barack obama president: Barack Obama is the first Black president of the United States. Learn facts about him: his age, height, leadership legacy, quotes, family, and more.
He was elected as the junior Senator from Illinois in November While serving as U. He resigned his seat in the U. Senate on November 16, Domestic policy decisions dominated the first Days of the Obama administration. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which encourages fair pay for all workers and established new methods of protesting unfair paychecks, was the first signed legislation of the administration.
Among its other reforms, the Act strengthened Medicare and required the insurer to cover preventative screenings for cancer, diabetes, and blood pressure disorders. The Obama administration centered its foreign policy on drawing down the number of American forces stationed overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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On May 2, , President Obama announced to the nation that the United States had conducted an operation that resulted in the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. He attended the Punahou School, an elite private school where, as he wrote in his memoir, Dreams from My Father , he first began to understand the tensions inherent in his mixed racial background.
After two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, from which he graduated in with a degree in political science. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in Learn about the events surrounding the historical election of how Barack Obama became the Democratic presidential contender against Hillary Clinton and how he ultimately beat John McCain to become the first black president in U.
An excerpt from Barack H. Despite tight Republican control during his years in the state senate, Obama was able to build support among both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics and health care reform.
He helped create a state earned-income tax credit that benefited the working poor, promoted subsidies for early childhood education programs and worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases. Re-elected in and again in , Obama also ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the U.
House of Representatives seat held by the popular four-term incumbent Bobby Rush. As a state senator, Obama notably went on record as an early opponent of President George W. The former president and 24 other members of his administration weigh in on their proudest moments, their regrets and the belief that they left it all on the field. When Republican Peter Fitzgerald announced that he would vacate his U.
Senate seat in after only one term, Obama decided to run. He won 52 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, defeating both multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes.
He then went on to become the first African American to be elected president of the United States. His white mother was from Kansas ; his black father from Kenya , a country in Africa. He took office during the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression during the s, when one-fourth of all workers were unemployed and people traveled the country looking for food and work.
Many called the new crisis the Great Recession. With help from the Democrat-controlled Congress, Obama worked to improve the economy and ultimately added jobs for 75 straight months, the longest streak in American history.
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Anger spread when people felt left behind. The Democrats soon lost control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and Obama struggled to pass legislation. Obama wanted to change that. Although Republicans opposed the plan, saying it was too expensive for the government to fund, it was signed into law in And some people who had the insurance said it was just as expensive, or more expensive, than their previous plans which were no longer available to them.
The Affordable Care Act remains controversial today, with many people fighting against it. Although the economy continued to improve in the United States, Obama faced challenges in other countries.
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President George W. Their daughters, Malia and Sasha, were born in and , respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in , and then to the U. Senate in At the Democratic National Convention that summer, he delivered a much acclaimed keynote address. Some pundits instantly pronounced him a future president, but most did not expect it to happen for some time.
As an incoming president, Obama faced many challenges—an economic collapse, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the continuing menace of terrorism. Inaugurated before an estimated crowd of 1.
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Obama also pressed for a fair pay act for women, financial reform legislation, and efforts for consumer protection. In , Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In , he was reelected over former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney by to electoral votes.