Barack Obama served as President of the United States for the 44th time. He is the first African-American to hold the office, having been born to a white American mother and a black Kenyan father. He served three terms in the Illinois Senate, representing the 13th District, and earned national recognition during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate. He was a prominent civil rights attorney before entering politics, having graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. He was elected to the United States Senate in 2004 and launched his presidential campaign in 2007. He went on to defeat Republican contender John McCain in the general election after gaining enough delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. In January 2009, he was sworn in as President of the United States, at a time when the country was reeling from the worldwide economic downturn. The stakes for the new president were great, and the duties he carried were enormous. He enacted various measures in the first few months of his presidency in attempt to stabilize the economy and increase growth. In addition, he substantially restructured America’s foreign strategy. In November 2012, Obama was re-elected to a second term as president.
Childhood and Adolescence
Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961, to Barack Obama, Sr. and Stanley Ann Dunham. His mother was an English-speaking white American, while his father was a black Kenyan. Barack’s parents divorced while he was a child.
Barack Obama was born while his mother was still a student, and he spent a few years with his maternal grandparents while his mother finished her education.
Barack Obama graduated from high school in 1979 and went to Occidental College in Los Angeles. He transferred to Columbia College, Columbia University in New York City, in 1981, to study in political science with a focus on international affairs. In 1983, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.
He worked as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and Altgeld Gardens communities from June 1985 to May 1988.
In the fall of 1988, he enrolled at Harvard Law School and graduated with a J.D. magna cum laude in 1991. He was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review when he was a student, and his election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review drew national notice. In 1992, he began working part-time as a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School, eventually rising to Senior Lecturer in 1996.
As a civil rights lawyer, he joined the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. From 1993 to 1996, he worked as an associate, then as a counsel from 1996 to 2004.
In 1996, he entered politics and won a Democratic primary for a seat in the Illinois State Senate. He sponsored legislation that enhanced low-income employees’ tax credits, negotiated welfare reform, and advocated for increased childcare subsidies. In 1998, he was re-elected, and then again in 2002.
In 2004, he chose to run for the United States Senate and won in an unexpected landslide in the March primary election. He became well-known after delivering the keynote message at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. On January 3, 2005, he was sworn in as a senator.
As a Senator, he introduced the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. He also co-sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act and a Defense Authorization Act amendment that added safeguards for military discharges due to personality disorders.
Barack Obama, an ambitious guy and a successful political figure in the United States, decided to run for President of the United States and declared his campaign in 2007. He was selected as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
On November 4, 2008, he defeated Republican presidential nominee John McCain in the United States presidential election. McCain received 173 electoral votes, while Obama received 365 electoral votes. Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, his running companion, was elected vice president.
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States. He took over at a time when the American economy was in shambles and the world was experiencing a severe recession.
He got right to work, adopting financial reforms to reduce the national debt while simultaneously focusing on the country’s education and health-care systems. His number one objective was to restore stability to the American economy, which had been battered by the global recession. He signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus program that includes increased federal spending on health care, infrastructure, education, and various tax breaks and incentives to assist the economy recover from the recession.
In his 2011 State of the Union Address, he emphasized the importance of innovation economics in making the United States more competitive globally. In the same year, he signed the Budget Control Act, which aimed to rein in government expenditure and prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.
Obama took office amid a politically tumultuous period and dealt with a number of military and security challenges during his term. He gave the go-ahead for an operation in Pakistan on what was thought to be the hideout of Osama bin Laden, al-founder. Qaeda’s On May 1, 2011, US Navy SEALs carried out an operation that ended in bin Laden’s killing and the capture of papers, computer drives, and CDs from the compound where he was hiding.
He backed same-sex marriages and battled for a woman’s right to make her own health decisions during his first term as president. He also reduced the cost of higher education for millions of students. All of these actions, together with his crucial role in helping the American economy recover from the crisis and combating terrorism, earned him widespread respect and popularity.
In the 2012 presidential election, Barack Obama ran against Mitt Romney, a Republican. On January 20, 2013, he was sworn in for a second term after winning the election. In his second term, he has advocated for complete equality for LGBT Americans as well as the normalization of US-Cuban relations.
Barack Obama’s presidency ended on January 20, 2017, just days after his successor, Donald Trump, was inaugurated, and he left office with a 60 percent approval rating. Obama is currently based in the United States capital of Washington, D.C.
Major Projects of Barack Obama
In order to encourage economic growth in the midst of the major global recession, he signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009. Within months, the number of jobs generated exploded, and unemployment claims began to decline. A total of nearly 3.7 million new private-sector jobs were created over the course of a year.
During Obama’s first term, he doubled renewable energy generation. He issued orders to all government agencies in 2009, requiring them to reduce their environmental consequences by 2020. Some of the goals envisioned to achieve lower environmental impacts over the next five years include a 30% reduction in fleet fuel use and a 26% increase in water efficiency. His main focus as president was on reviving the American economy during the crisis, and he signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (2010) to re-regulate the financial industry following the recession’s downturn.
He gave the go-ahead for the raid on Osama bin Laden‘s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, in May 2011. The famed terrorist who had managed to elude capture thus far was killed as a result of the operation.
He’s also recognized for his views on same-gender marriage and LGBT rights. On January 21, 2013, he gave his second inaugural address, in which he advocated for full equality for gays—the first time a president referenced LGBT rights or the word gay in an inaugural address. He believes that same-sex couples should be able to adopt children.
Achievements & Awards
He has won two Grammy Awards for Best Spoken Word Album. He won for the reduced audiobook editions of ‘Dreams from My Father’ (2006) and ‘The Audacity of Hope’ (2007). (2008).
Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 “for his outstanding efforts to improve international diplomacy and people-to-people cooperation.”
Obama was awarded Person of the Year by Time magazine twice, in 2008 and 2012.
Personal History and Legacy
Barack Obama met Michelle Robinson in 1989 while working as a summer associate at Sidley Austin, a Chicago law firm. The couple began dating in 1990 and married in 1992. Malia and Natasha, their two daughters, were born to them.
Estimated Net Worth
Barack Obama’s net worth is believed to be $70 Million.
Top 10 Barack Obama Facts You Didn’t Know
- Obama’s mother saw his potential as a child and told a friend that she thought he could be president of the United States when he grew up.
- When he was a young guy in love, he used to write poems.
- Barack is a Swahili name that means “fortunate one.”
- He had a pet ape named Tata when he was a little lad growing up in Indonesia.
- Obama admits to using narcotics as a youngster, including marijuana and cocaine.
- In high school, his basketball prowess earned him the nickname “O’Bomber.”
- He is a huge fan of comic books! He has read all of the Harry Potter books and is a huge fan of Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics.
- While residing in Indonesia, he tried numerous unusual meals such as dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper.
- His childhood nickname was “Barry,” and he was only addressed by his full name during his university years.
- He has four pairs of black size 11 shoes that are all the same.