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. In addition to his election, the other highlight of for Obama was his wildly successful keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Obama also used the phrase as the title of his second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream , which became a national bestseller in the wake of his newfound national popularity.
I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A.
Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W. The Obama years were ones in which more people not only began to see themselves in the changing face of America, but to see America the way he always has — as the only place on Earth where so many of our stories could even be possible.
Through her four main initiatives, she has become a role model for women and an advocate for healthy families, service members and their families, higher education, and international adolescent girls education.
When people ask First Lady Michelle Obama to describe herself, she doesn't hesitate to say that first and foremost, she is Malia and Sasha's mom.
But before she was a mother — or a wife, lawyer, or public servant — she was Fraser and Marian Robinson's daughter. The Robinsons lived in a brick bungalow on the South Side of Chicago. Fraser was a pump operator for the Chicago Water Department, and despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at a young age, he hardly ever missed a day of work.
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. Obama later described how he struggled to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage with his own sense of self: "I noticed that there was nobody like me in the Sears, Roebuck Christmas catalog.
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. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law in After graduating from Columbia University as an undergrad, 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. It was during this time that Obama, who said he "was not raised in a religious household," joined the Trinity United Church of Christ. 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 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. In , Obama joined the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin as a summer associate, where he met his future wife Michelle. Obama met Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer who was assigned to be his adviser at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Not long after, the couple began dating.
On October 3, , he and Michelle were married. They moved to Kenwood, on Chicago's South Side. Barack and Michelle Obama welcomed two daughters several years later: Malia born and Sasha born He also taught constitutional law part-time at the University of Chicago Law School between and — first as a lecturer and then as a professor — and helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton's presidential campaign.
The work received high praise from literary figures such as Toni Morrison. It has since been printed in more than 25 languages, including Chinese, Swedish and Hebrew. The book had a second printing in and was adapted for a children's version. Obama's advocacy work led him to run for a seat in the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat in 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. As chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee, Obama worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases after a number of death-row inmates were found to be innocent. 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. Bush's push to go to war with Iraq. Obama was still a state senator when he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq during a rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza in October I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said.
Encouraged by poll numbers, Obama decided to run for the U. Senate open 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 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, actress Jeri Ryan.
In August , diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. In three televised debates, Obama and Keyes expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers and tax cuts.
In the November general election, Obama received 70 percent of the vote to Keyes' 27 percent, the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. With his win, Obama became only the third African American elected to the U.
Senate since Reconstruction. Sworn into office on January 3, , Obama partnered with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. Then, with Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, he created a website to track all federal spending. Obama also spoke out for victims of Hurricane Katrina, pushed for alternative energy development and championed improved veterans' benefits.
The work discussed Obama's visions for the future of America, many of which became talking points for his eventual presidential campaign.
Shortly after its release, the book hit No. In February , Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with former first lady and then-U. On June 3, , Obama became the Democratic Party's presumptive nominee after winning a sufficient number of pledged delegates during the primaries, and Clinton delivered her full support to Obama for the duration of his campaign.
His running mate, Delaware Senator Joe Biden , became vice president. Obama's inauguration took place on January 20, When Obama took office, he inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars and the lowest-ever international favorability rating for the United States. He had campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial reform, alternative energy and reinventing education and health care — all while bringing down the national debt. Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously.
During his inauguration speech, Obama summarized the situation by saying, "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met. Between Inauguration Day and April 29, , the Obama administration took action on many fronts.
In his first days in office, Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking equal pay.
Housing and credit markets were put on life support, with a market-based plan to buy U. Loans were made to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall Street. Obama cut taxes for working families, small businesses and first-time home buyers.
Obama undertook a complete overhaul of America's foreign policy. He lobbied allies to support a global economic stimulus package. He committed an additional 21, troops to Afghanistan and set an August date for withdrawal of nearly all U. In more dramatic incidents, Obama ordered an attack on pirates off the coast of Somalia and prepared the nation for a swine flu outbreak.
He signed an executive order banning excessive interrogation techniques and ordered the closing of the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba within a year a deadline that ultimately would not be met. As he did in , during his campaign for a second presidential term, Obama focused on grassroots initiatives.
Celebrities such as Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker aided the president's campaign by hosting fundraising events. And we'll remind the world just why it is that the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth.
Representative Paul Ryan. On November 6, , Obama won a second four-year term as president by receiving nearly five million more votes than Romney and capturing more than 60 percent of the Electoral College.
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