Barack Obama may soon become the first African American President of the United States. He is the fifth African American ever to run for presidency. Obama is also the fifth African-American Senator in U.S. history and the only African-American currently serving in the Senate.
"The day I'm inaugurated, I think this country looks at itself differently, but the world also looks at America differently," he told an Iowa crowd. "Because I've got a grandmother who lives in a little village in Africa without running water or electricity; because I grew up for part of my formative years in Southeast Asia in the largest Muslim country on Earth."
Obama was born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Obama studied for two years at Occidental College, before transferring to Columbia University. There he majored in political science, with a specialization in international relations. Upon graduation, he worked for a year at newsletter publisher Business International (now part of The Economist Group), and moved to Chicago, where he was a community organizer in the Altgeld Gardens housing project on the city's South Side.
He left Chicago to study law at Harvard University, where he was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated magna cum laude. After law school, he returned to Chicago and organized an aggressive voter registration effort that registered over 100,000 voters and aided in the election of President Bill Clinton and Senator Carol Moseley Braun, the first African-American woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate. Soon after, he joined a local civil rights law firm, and he became a lecturer of constitutional law at the University of Chicago.
While working one summer at a corporate law firm in 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson, whom he married in 1992. Robinson is also a graduate of Harvard Law. They were the only two African-Americans in the law firm they worked in. They have two daughters: Malia Ann (born in 1999) and Natasha (born 2001).
POLITICAL CAREER
In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the south side neighbourhood of Hyde Park, in Chicago. He served as chairman of the Public Health and Welfare Committee when the Democrats regained control of the chamber. Regarded as a staunch liberal, but also "respected ... as a bipartisan dealmaker," during his tenure in the legislature, he helped to author a state Earned Income Tax Credit that provided benefits to the working poor. He also worked for legislation that would cover residents who could not afford health insurance. He successfully helped pass bills to increase funding for AIDS prevention and care programs. Obama also passed bills that put limits on racial profiling and put cameras in police interrogation rooms.
In 2000, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for Illinois' 1st Congressional district against incumbent Bobby Rush. Rush had suggested during the campaign that Obama "wasn't black enough" for the position. Rush received 61% of the vote, while Obama received 30%.
2004 SENATE RACE
In 2004, Obama ran for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated by Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. Obama squared off against Republican Alan Keyes, a former ambassador. Keyes had gained much attention as a conservative firebrand in his unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1996 and 2000. After a campaign in which Keyes called Obama's position on abortion, "the slave-holder's position", accused gays and lesbians of being "selfish hedonists", and claimed that Jesus would not vote for his opponent, Obama won handily in the general election, receiving 70% of the popular vote to Keyes's 27%.
FIRST MOVES AS A SENATOR
Obama was sworn in on January 4, 2005. He ranked 99th out of 100 Senators in terms of official seniority (greater seniority brings greater privileges in the Senate). Obama's first action in the Senate was to decline to be the Senate co-sponsor of a move to question Ohio's Electoral College votes following the 2004 presidential election. He then voted against the resolution.
Obama came to the Senate with a plan that resembled the career of another high-profile Senator's first term, Hillary Clinton. Obama's "Plan" called for him to focus his energies on his home state, and in spite of overtures from more liberal activists, to stay out of the spotlight. In the first few months Obama held 39 town hall meetings. However, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the picture of class and race that it exposed caused Obama to step into the national spotlight sooner than he expected. He said of his first year, "I could have been much more quiet this year than I have been and gotten away with it ... People would have explained it as, 'He is taking the Hillary model.'"
2008 PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Obama announced on January 16, 2007 that he would "create a presidential exploratory committee" as the first step towards his potential candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. On February 10, 2007, he announced in Springfield, Illinois that he would indeed seek the presidency in 2008.
At the time of going to press Barack Obama had won the Iowa Democratic caucuses - making history as the first black candidate to win an overwhelmingly white state. Obama's inspirational message of unifying America and "turning the page" on the toxic partisanship crippling Washington resonated strongly with Iowa Democrats and independents, who decided to take a flier on the eloquent young senator and gave him an 8-point victory.
"They said this day would never come," Obama said in a rousing victory speech. "But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do” It remains to be seen whether he can carry this momentum throughout the USA and truly make history.
