Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Danny (talk | contribs) at 09:56, 28 July 2004. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Barack Obama (born August 4, 1961) is a Democratic politician from Chicago, Illinois and only the third African-American to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. A state legislator and law professor, Obama is currently running for the United States Senate from the State of Illinois, which would be the highest elected office he would hold thus far. If successful, Obama would be only the third African-American senator since Reconstruction. In Swahili, the name Obama means "one who is led by God."

Hawai'i

Barack Obama was born at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawai'i on the island of O'ahu to economist Barack Obama, Sr. of Kenya and S. Ann Dunham of Kansas. Both his parents were students at the East-West Center at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. At the age of two, the couple were divorced and Obama's mother re-married to another East-West Center student from Indonesia. The family moved to Indonesia until Obama was ten, when he returned to Hawai'i to be raised by his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, on Beretania Street in downtown Honolulu. He was enrolled in the fifth grade at Punahou School, a prestigious academy that once taught the Hawaiian royal family, and got his first job at Baskin-Robbins on the corner of King and Punahou Streets. He graduated from Punahou School with honors. Obama returns annually to Hawai'i each Christmas to spend time with his grandmother and sister. Obama reflected on his years in Hawai'i and wrote, "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 Hawai'i still represents in my mind."

College

Upon finishing high school, Obama went on to study at Columbia University in New York City majoring in political science. He then moved to Chicago, Illinois and took up community organizing. He left Chicago briefly to study law at Harvard University where he became the first African-American editor of the internationally recognized publication Harvard Law Review. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law, Obama returned to his adopted hometown of Chicago in 1992 and was quick to organize an aggressive election effort for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign claiming to have registered over 100,000 voters. His talents gained him a seat at a local civil rights law firm and became a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Obama still serves as a professor there.

Politics

In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the south side of Chicago. He served as chairman of the Public Health and Welfare Committee. The Chicago Tribune called him "one of the General Assembly's most impressive members."

Regarded as a staunch liberal during his tenure in the legislature, he helped to author a state earned income tax credit providing benefits to the poor. He also pursued laws that extended health coverage to Illinois residents who could not afford insurance. Speaking up for leading gay and lesbian advocacy groups, he successfully passed bills to increase funding for AIDS prevention and care programs.

Obama's recent meteoric rise to national prominence owes as much to the missteps of his political opponents as to his own merits. In the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, he trailed Blair Hull before Hull was brought down by stories of alleged abuse of his then wife. In the 2004 Senate race, his early opponent was businessman and educator Jack Ryan. Ryan effectively withdrew from the race after a California court ruling opened files related to his 1999 divorce from actress Jeri Ryan, that alleged that Jack Ryan had forced his former wife to attend sex clubs, leaving Obama without an effective Republican rival. Prior to Ryan's embarassment, he was already trailing Obama in the polls (Illinois usually votes Democratic). Chicago Bears former coach Mike Ditka had considered running as a Republican to replace Ryan, but opted not to due to family and business considerations. Whoever is eventually chosen to run against Obama will have an uphill battle building recognition among voters while facing a candidate whom he or she will most certainly be behind in the polls.

Obama has so far deflected possible criticism of illegal drug use by his early admission of having used both marijuana and cocaine, in contrast to his opponents' handling of their own controversies. Also, he seems to have successfully branded himself as somewhat of a moderate, despite being one of the most outspoken liberal voices in the Illinois legislature. In addition, much outside (national and international, e.g. the The Economist for one) media appear to favor Obama for coverage, in effect anointing him already as Senator. As such, Obama's victory is generally considered a given, and Obama now spends much of his time supporting candidates down the Democratic ticket in Illinois.

Obama was chosen to deliver the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, causing many to speculate that he is a serious prospect for the presidency in the future, remarkable talk for someone who has never held even a state-wide office.

Resources

• Barack Obama Campaign Website
• Barack Obama Illinois State Senate Biography
• Barack Obama Illinois State Senate Website
• Barack Obama from the Open Directory Project

• Illinois politicians