Biography of Barack Obama

Birth Name Barack Hussein Obama II

Nickname Barry Bama Rock The One No Drama Obama Height 6' 1" (1.85 m) Mini Biography Barack Obama was born to a white American mother, Ann Dunham, and a black Kenyan father, Barack Obama Sr., who were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for Harvard, she and Barack stayed behind, and his father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where he was brought up largely by his grandparents. The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his grandmother worked in a bank - but Barack managed to get into Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly but, though he traveled around the world on official business for Kenya, he visited only once, when Barack was ten. Obama attended Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married Michelle Robinson, a fellow attorney. Eventually he was elected to the Illinois state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side. In 2004 Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran for President, and despite having only four years of national political experience, he won. In January 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, and the first African-American ever elected to that position. IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous Spouse Michelle Obama (3 October 1992 - present) 2 children Trade Mark When making informal public visits, often rolls up shirt sleeves and "joins in" on a job site. Passionate fiercely Idealistic speeches Distinctive clipped manner of Speaking Trivia His first name comes from the word that means "blessed by God" in Arabic. In the Kenyan town where his father was born, the long-brewed "Senator" brand of beer has been nicknamed "Obama." U.S. Senator from Illinois since 3 January 2005. Won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word for the CD version of his autobiography "Dreams From My Father" (2006). Lives in Hyde Park (Chicago). On "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993), he revealed that President George W. Bush nicknamed him "Bama" and "Rock". The movie he saw on his first date with Michelle Obama was Do the Right Thing (1989). Related to Park Overall. Has two daughters, Malia Obama (born in 1998) and Sasha Obama (born in 2001). Candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 US presidential election. Several celebrities including; Halle Berry, George Clooney, Sheryl Crow, Bob Dylan, Topher Grace, Macy Gray, Bruce Springsteen, Oprah Winfrey Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Hayden Panettiere, Zachary Quinto, Eddie Murphy and John Cleese support his 2008 presidential campaign. Robert De Niro gave his endorsement at the same rally where Barack was endorsed by Caroline and Ted Kennedy. Enjoys playing basketball and poker. At his wife's suggestion, he quit smoking before his campaign to win the Democratic nomination began. His paternal relatives still live in Kenya. Confessed teenage drug experiences in his memoirs "Dreams from My Father". One of his ancestors was Mareen Duvall, also an ancestor of actor Robert Duvall. Shares his surname with a small city in western Japan, which means "small shore" in Japanese. Plays basketball. Born to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982) and Ann Dunham (1942-1995), married from 1960 to 1965. Named one of Time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world" list in 2005 and 2007. Chosen as one of "10 people would change the world" by New Statesman magazine (2005). Won his second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "The Audacity of Hope" (2008). On June 3, 2008 he won the Montana primary election giving him enough delegates to become the first Black American presidential candidate to win a major political party's presumptive nomination for the office of President of the United States. Is a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan. More than 215,000 people attended his speech in Berlin on 24 July 2008. Has one half-sister, Maya, born to his mother and stepfather in 1970. Has his look-alike puppet in the French show "Les guignols de l'info" (1988). Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham died Sunday November 2, 2008 in the early evening in Honolulu from cancer. She was 86. Is the first African-American man to be elected President of the United States (November 2008). When elected President, he won the battleground states of Florida, Virginia and Colorado - all of which had voted Republican in 2004. Is the first American president to be born in Hawaii. Was the 27th lawyer to be elected American president. Was elected to be the 44th president of the Unites States of America on 4 November, 2008. As a child growing up in Hawaii, his classmates knew him as Barry. Presidential campaign slogan: "Change we can believe in". Is primarily of Kenyan, Irish, and English ancestry. Favorite movies are Casablanca (1942), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), The Godfather (1972), and The Godfather: Part II (1974). Is a fan of "The Wire" (2002). First ever US President to address a Muslim community at an inaugural speech. Shares the same birthday as long-time White House correspondent and journalism legend, Helen Thomas. On her 89th birthday (and his 48th), they celebrated by blowing birthday cupcakes together in front of the press corps. First United States Senator to be elected President since John F. Kennedy. October 2009, won the Nobel Peace Prize. Fourth US President to win a Nobel Peace Prize (2009) after Theodore Roosevelt (1906), Woodrow Wilson (1919) and Jimmy Carter (2002). Defended his decision not to issue a formal written statement on the death of controversial pop star Michael Jackson on 25 June 2009. Half-brother of Maya Soetoro-Ng. Brother-in-law of Konrad Ng. Merited a position in Time magazine's - The 100 Most Influential People in the World ("Leaders" category) - with an homage contributed by David Remnick (Issue: May 10, 2010). Received a gift of a Portuguese water dog from Senator Ted Kennedy and his wife Victoria. Because the particular breed is reportedly hypo-allergenic, the First Family and friends were highly unlikely to suffer any allergic reactions in the pet's presence. [2009] Obama's appearance on "The View" (1997) (29 July 2010) made him the first ever sitting US President to appear as a guest on a daytime TV talk show. Obama's birthplace of Hawaii makes him the first U.S. president not born in the continental United States. Brother-in-law of basketball player, coach and author Craig Robinson. Son of Barack Obama Sr.. The character of Matt Santos in 'The West Wing' is based on him. The first US President to be born after the Vietnam War started. Is a big fan of the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man and collected the comics as a youth. Counts "Homeland" (2011) as one of his favorite TV shows. First U.S. President to be personally presented with an Apple iPad 2 by Steve Jobs before it was officially released domestically. Personal Quotes [from keynote speech given at the 2000 Democratic party national convention] There's not a liberal America and a conservative America. There's the United States of America. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states, and have gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war, and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the United States of America. And it lives on in those Americans -- young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian and Native American, gay and straight -- who are tired of a politics that divides us and want to recapture the sense of common purpose that we had when John Kennedy was President of the United States of America. [regarding former President Bill Clinton's support for his wife--and Obama's opponent for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination--Hillary Rodham Clinton] Sometimes I don't know who I'm running against. [when asked whether he would call on Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton to release their tax returns, after Hilary loaned $5 million of her own money to her campaign] I'll just say that I've released my tax returns. That's been a policy I've maintained consistently. I think the American people deserve to know where you get your income from. But I'll leave it up to you guys to chase it down . . . I think we set the bar in terms of transparency and disclosure that has been a consistent theme of my campaign and my career in politics. In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. When I am this party's [Democratic party] nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq; or that I gave [George W. Bush] the benefit of the doubt on Iran; or that I supported Bush-Cheney [former VP Dick Cheney] policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like. And he will not be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or not it is okay for America to torture - because it is NEVER okay. That's why I am in it. As President, I will end the war in Iraq. We will have our troops home in sixteen months. I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus. I will finish the fight against Al Qaeda. And I will lead the world to combat the common threats of the 21st century - nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease. And I will send once more a message to those yearning faces beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time. Change is coming to America. In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know, we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations. In Washington, the call this the Ownership Society, and it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we're the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won't be the chump who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!" In America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams are not sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations. In Washington, we call this the Ownership society, and it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we're the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won't be the chump who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!" To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and the structural feminists and punk rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets. At night in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon, Eurocentrism and patriarchy. When we ground our cigarettes in the hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake, we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling constraints. We weren't indifferent or careless or insecure. We were alienated. Where Are They Now (November 2008) Elected the 44th President of the United States of America