Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4 1961. He attended a number of schools in Jakarta, Indonesia where his mother was working before settling at the Punahou School back in Honolulu, where he lived with his grandparents, from the fifth grade until he graduated from high school in 1979.
Having left high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles where he attended Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York where he majored in Political Science, specializing in International Relations. He graduated in 1983. For the next five years, Obama had a number of jobs both in New York City and then in Chicago.
In late 1988, Obama started studying at Harvard Law School and at the end of his first year, he was made editor of the Harvard Law Review. He graduated in 1991 with Magna Cum Laude.
Obama's election to become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention and lead to an advance for a book about race relations. The University of Chicago Law School gave Obama a fellowship and an office to work on his book, in an effort to recruit him to the faculty. The project was initially meant to take Obama one year to complete, but instead took much longer, eventually being published in 1995, under the title "Dreams From My Father."
He taught constitutional law for twelve years at the University of Chicago Law School.
Barack Obama as Illinois Senator
In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois senate. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for reforms on ethics and health care laws. Obama announced his candidacy for the US senate in January 2003 and received 52% of the vote. In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic Convention.
In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a US senator and was only the fifth African-American senator in US history.
In 2008, he was ranked as the eleventh most powerful senator by Congress.org.
Barack Obama and the Presidency of the United States
On February 10 2007, Obama announced that he would stand for the Presidency of the United States. His campaign focused heavily on the ending of the Iraq War, increasing the US's energy independence and providing universal healthcare. He defeated Senator Hilary Clinton, wife of ex-president Bill Clinton to become the Democratic Party's nomination for president. His Vice-Presidential Candidate was Joe Biden, the Senator of Delaware.
On November 4 2008, Obama won the presidential election against John McCain with 365 electoral votes to 173 votes and became the first African-American President of the United States.
Barack Obama will be inaugarated on 20 January 2009 as the 44th President of the United States. He is married to Michelle Obama and they have two children; Sasha and Malia Ann.
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