Barack Obama Biography

If there's an up-and-coming Democratic politician, it is no doubt Barack Obama. He made an immediate impression delivering the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic Convention, and things have moved steadily uphill since then, to the point of his name being mentioned often as a possible nomination for the 2008 presidential election along with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. and Kansas native Ann Dunham, who had met while at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They divorced when Obama was just two, with his father moving back to Kenya, and his mother later marrying an Indonesian and moving the family to Jakarta. After just a few years in Indonesia, Obama moved back to the United States, living with his maternal grandparents in Hawaii. He admits to being confused as a teenage boy, using marijuana and cocaine.Attending Occidental College and Columbia College, Obama later worked for a non-profit organization in Chicago. He moved on once again, leaving Chicago to attend Harvard Law School, earning his Juris Doctor degree magna cum laude. Returning to Chicago, Obama worked for a law firm, and also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois State Senate, and was named chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. While authoring laws requiring the police to videotape interrogations of death penalty candidates and requiring medical insurance to cover routine mammograms, Obama ran against Bobby Rush for the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost in the primary.Obama gained instant fame when delivering the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which later nominated John Kerry as the official Democratic nominee for the 2004 election. Speaking of his family's beginnings in both Kansas and Kenya, Obama then spoke against the war in Iraq and asked for unity in the United States. His words secured a win for him in November as a United States Senator.After he officially took office, the name Barack Obama continued to be on the tip of everyone's tongues, as he appeared in TIME magazine as one of the world's most influential people, and in the New Statesmen British journal as one of ten people that could change the world. He also received honorary doctorates from several universities, including Northwestern University and University of Massachusetts Boston. As for Obama's work in office, he sponsored legislature to help needy students obtain college grants, and supporting tighter legislation over immigrants. He also served on several Congressional delegations overseas, including one that was very personal to him, visiting South Africa and Kenya.With all of this special notice that Obama was receiving, there was widespread speculation that he would be making a run for president in 2008. Immediately after becoming senator in 2004, Obama stated he would in no way be seeking office as president in four years, yet by 2006, he told the Meet the Press audience that while he was admitting to thinking about running, he was focusing on the 2006 election. After that, he would be making a decision, and if the decision was to run, he would be letting the public know. In January of 2007, Obama announced to the American public that he is planning to run for president in 2008 and hopes to succeed George W Bush in the White House.Experts in tune with the political scene have said that Obama stand a much better chance of winning the election in 2008 when there will be no incumbent. Many people point to him as having an everyman image, due to the ethnic diversity within his own family. In December 2004, before he ever took office as a United States Senator, he signed a book deal worth $1.9 million for his life story. Clearly, this is a man with a very defined future in front of him.