barack obama

Early Life and Career

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, in the state of Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (1936–1982) (born in Rachuonyo District,Kenya Colony, British Empire) and Stanley Ann Dunham, known as Ann (1942–1995) (born in Wichita, Kansas, United States). Obama spent most of the early years of his childhood in Honolulu, where his mother completed college after his parents divorced. Obama started a close relationship with his maternal grandparents. His mother remarried in 1965, to Lolo Soetoro, from Indonesia. Two years later, she took Obama with her to Indonesia to reunite him with his stepfather. In 1971, he returned to Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents and attend Punahou School. Obama later educated at Occidental College, Columbia University, and Harvard Law School, and worked at various times as a community organizer, professor (Lecturer and Senior Lecturer) of constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, and authored his memoir Dreams from My Father before beginning his political career.
In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007, and in 2008, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was re-elected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013.
Early in his first term in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his presidency include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010; the Budget Control Act of 2011; and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to publicly support same-sex marriage and in 2013 his administration filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, ordered troop buildup and drawdown in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

Family and personal life

Michelle Obama, née Robinson, the wife of Barack Obama, was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois. She is a lawyer and was a University of Chicago Hospital vice-president. She is the First Lady of the United States. Barack and Michelle Obama have two daughters: Malia Ann born on July 4, 1998, and Natasha (known as Sasha , born on June 10, 2001.]They were both delivered by their parents' friend Dr. Anita Blanchard at University of Chicago Medical Center Sasha is the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. arrived as an infant in 1961.

Before his inauguration, President Obama published an open letter to his daughters in Parade magazine, describing what he wants for them and every child in America: "to grow up in a world with no limits on your dreams and no achievements beyond your reach, and to grow into compassionate, committed women who will help build that world."

While living in Chicago, the Obamas kept busy schedules, as the Associated Press reports: "soccer, dance and drama for Malia, gymnastics and tap for Sasha, piano and tennis for both. In July 2008, the family gave an interview to the television series Access Hollywood. Obama later said they regretted allowing the children to be included.

Malia and Sasha attend the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., the same school that Chelsea Clinton, Tricia Nixon Cox, and Archibald Rooseveltattended and that the grandchildren of Vice President Joe Biden attend. The Obama girls began classes there on January 5, 2009. While in Chicago, both attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory School.