Barack Obama
U.S. Senator
Barack Obama is a U.S. Senator from Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party. Obama has spoken often of his multicultural background: his father was from Kenya, his mother from Kansas, and they met at the University of Hawaii. After his parents divorced and his father returned to Africa, Obama stayed with his mother and was raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. He earned an undergraduate degree from Columbia University in 1983 and a law degree from Harvard in 1991. He then joined the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which specialized in civil rights legislation. He also lectured at the University of Chicago. He was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and then to the U.S. Senate in 2004, beating Republican candidate Alan Keyes. Obama shot to national fame after delivering the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic national convention. The speech established Obama as a rising star in the party and sparked talk of his own potential as a future presidential candidate. He published the personal memoir Dreams from My Father in 1995, and published a second book, The Audacity of Hope, in 2006. The title of the latter book was also the title of his 2004 keynote speech.
Extra credit: Obama married the former Michelle Robinson in 1992. They have two daughters: Malia (b. 1999) and Sasha (b. 2001)... Obama's father, Barack Obama Sr., was black; his mother, Ann Dunham, was white... Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles before completing his undergraduate degree at Columbia... Obama's Senate and campaign websites describe him as "the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review" and "the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected to the U.S. Senate." The previous African-American senators elected by popular vote were Edward Brooke (1967-79, from Massachusetts) and Carol Moseley-Braun (1993-99, from Illinois). Two other African-Americans were chosen by state senates to become U.S. Senators: Hiram Revels (1870-71, from Mississippi) and Blanche Bruce (1875-81, also from Mississippi).
who2.com
Barack Hussein Obama and the history of bad middle names in politics
Source: Slate
Author: David Wallis
Posted on 12.27.06 by Thomas L. Knapp
"Just days after Barack Obama mused about running for president, Republican strategist Ed Rogers winged the senator on Hardball. 'Count me down as somebody who underestimates Barack Hussein Obama,' sneered Rogers, carefully enunciating Obama's middle name -- a family moniker passed down from his Kenyan father and grandfather. Obama's camp, which had not hidden their man's middle name or bragged about it, cried foul. 'It wasn't a slip of the tongue, I know that,' Obama's communications director, Robert Gibbs, told Maureen Dowd. 'You can't solve Iraq with a campaign about people's middle names.' But you can't solve Iraq if your unfortunate middle name blocks your path to the White House, either." (12/27/06)
Link: slate.com |
