Barack Obama Research Paper

Barack Obama On August 4th, 1961 in Honolulu, Barack Obama was born. Barack’s mother, Ann Dunham, lived in Wichita, Kansas during her life, while her father was employed on oil rigs in Great Depression time. After the Pearl Harbor attacks led by Japan, Ann’s father, Stanley Dunham joined United States Armed Forces under George Patton’s control and marched across Europe. Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Barack Obama Sr. lived his early years in Africa herding goats. One day he received a scholarship to attend college in Hawaii and was now able to leave Kenya and fulfill his dreams. During his studies at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Barack Sr. met classmate Ann Dunham, and they married on February 2nd, 1961. About half a year later soon to be president Barack Obama was born. During Obama’s childhood, he and his father were distant from each other. Soon after birth Barack Sr., moved to attend Harvard University in Massachusetts to earn a P.h.D. As time passed Barack’s parents grew distant and later divorced in March 1964, when Obama was 2. Abandoning his P.H.D in 1965, Obama Sr. left the United States and returned to Kenya.
Barack’s mother, Ann, remarried to a man named Lolo Soetoro, a student from Indonesia in 1965. After a year had passed, the new family relocated to Jakarta, Indonesia, where Maya Soetoro Ng, Barack’s half-sister, was born. At age 10 Barack was forced back to Hawaii due to several incidents that occurred in Indonesia that had his mother scared for his safety and education. When sent back to Hawaii, Barack moved in with his maternal grandparents. Soon after the move his mother and sister came to live with them as well.
During his time spent with his grandparents, Obama was enrolled in Punahou Academy and became a star in basketball and graduated with academic honors in 1979. Obama had a hard time considering the fact that his father was absent from his life, who he had only seen once after the divorce of his parents. Obama said, *1. "[My father] had left paradise, and nothing that my mother or grandparents told me could obviate that single, unassailable fact," he later reflected. "They couldn't describe what it might have been like had he stayed."
Ten years after his fathers visit, an accident occurred involving Barack Obama Sr. In 1981 he lost both legs in a serious car accident. Now trapped in a wheelchair, he was also let go from his job. Yet another year later tragedy struck once more. While traveling through Nairobi another car accident occurred, but this time Barack Obama Sr. did not walk away. The crash was fatal, Obama Sr. passed on November 24th, 1982. Barack Jr. was only 21 at the time of the crash and he recalled, *2 "At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me." When Barack’s high school years were over, he attended Occidental College located in Los Angeles for two years. After transferring to Columbia University in New York, he graduated with a political science degree in 1983. Obama moved to Chicago in 1985 where he worked as a community organizer on the South Side for residents with a low-income. During this time in Barack’s life he joined the Trinity United Church. He also took a trip to Kenya to visit relatives and his and his father’s grave. He remembered, *3 "For a long time I sat between the two graves and wept," Obama said "I saw that my life in America— the black life, the white life, the sense of abandonment I felt as a boy, the frustration and hope I'd witnessed in Chicago— all of it was connected with this small plot of earth an ocean away."
After leaving Kenya, in 1988 Obama entered Harvard School of Law.
As a year had passed, he met a woman named Michelle Robinson. She worked as an associate at the Chicago law firm and was an adviser for Obama while interning at the firm. Shortly after, they were dating and became a couple. On February 1990, Obama became the first African-American to be Harvard’s Law Review editor. A year later in 1991, he graduated from Harvard, and returned to Chicago. In Chicago he began practicing lawyer for civil rights and he joined the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also was a part time teacher at a law school in 1992. On October 3rd, 1992 he moved to Kenwood and were married. A few years passed and on 1998 their first daughter, Malia, was born. Three years later they welcomed second daughter Sasha, who was born in 2001. In 1996 Obama won a seat in the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat. During his time as a senator he had several accomplishments. For the working poor he created a state earned-income tax credit. He also worked with both Democrats and Republicans to expand health care services and child education programs for low income families, and also drafting legislation on ethics. Obama soon became chairman for the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee.
After an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives seat in 2000, he created a campaign committee in 2002, and raised funds for a seat in the 2004 U.S. Senate. With assistance from political consultant David Axelrod, Obama began assessment on the likelihood of his Senate win.
After the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Obama strongly disagreed with now former President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war against Iraq. While he was still state senator he spoke a resolution against using force on Iraq at rally in 2002. He stated,*4 "I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. "What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne." Even though his protests were quite persuasive, in 2003 the Iraq War began. After Republican Peter Fitzgerald left his U.S. Senate seat vacant, Obama was encouraged by poll numbers and decided to run. Barack had won the 2004 Democratic primary, defeating Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes by 52 percent vote. During that summer at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Obama was invited to deliver John Kerry’s keynote speech. He mainly spoke of the importance of unity.
On January 4th, 2005, Obama was sworn into office. During his time in office he collaborated with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a new bill. Obama also decided to track all federal spending with a new website and spoke to Hurricane Katrina victims. In October 2006 Obama published his second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. His work stated his thoughts and visions on the future of America. The book reached No. 1 on both the New York Times and Amazon.com best-seller lists not long after its release.
In February 2007, Obama’s announcement for his candidacy for 2008 Democratic presidential nomination reached newspapers nationwide. Almost a year later on June 3, 2008 Obama became a presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party. About five months later Republican nominee John McCain had lost and was defeated by Barack Obama. On November 4, 2008, Obama won the presidential election by 52.9 percent to 45.7 percent and from this day on was now known as the 44th President of the United States. Alongside with Obama, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, became Vice
President. On January 20, 2009 Obama took the oath of office and was inaugurated as president. As a fast four years had passed, President Obama was once again back on the ballot and running for a second term. He said, *5 "I guarantee you, we will move this country forward, We will finish what we started. And we'll remind the world just why it is the United States of America is the greatest nation on Earth." During the 2012, Mitt Romney ran as the Republican candidate with Vice President candidate U.S. Representative Paul Ryan. Luckily for Obama he won a second term on November 6, 2012 and didn’t have to pack his belongings from the White House. Obama had won 270 electoral votes (about 60 percent) and as well as popular vote by over a million ballots. In conclusion Obama worked very hard through his life to become what he is now. He achieved the title as the first African-American to become president and to win a second term as well.