Barack Obama Facts - 44th President of USA

Barack Hussein Obama II born August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Read these Barack Obama Facts who was the 44th President of the United States.


As the son of an American and a Kenyan, Obama is the first African American to hold this post. Obama is a Democratic Party politician and lawyer. From 2005 to 2008 he was a junior senator for Illinois in the United States Senate. In 2009 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Barack Obama Facts

Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (1936–1982), was from Nyang'oma Kogelo in Kenya and was Luo. Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham (1942–1995), came from Wichita, Kansas (USA), and had Irish, British and German ancestors. Obama's parents met while studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They married in Hawaii in 1961, when black-white marriages were banned in other parts of the United States.

In 1964 they got divorced. The father continued his studies at Harvard University. Obama last saw him when he was ten. On his father's side, he has three older and three younger half-brothers as well as the half-sister Auma, who studied in Germany.

The mother did a Ph.D. in anthropology and specialized in development issues, especially in the area of ​​small loans. She married an Indonesian and later oil manager and moved with him and her son Barack to Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1967, where Obama's younger half-sister Maya was born.

Barack Obama Education

Obama attended the Capuchin-run St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School from 1967 to 1970 and a state, multi-religious school in 1970/71. In 1971 he returned to Hawaii, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents, Madelyn (1922-2008) and Stanley Dunham (1918-1992).

They schooled him in the fifth grade of the renowned private Punahou School, which he graduated with honors in 1979. There he played first in the junior team and in 1972 in the first school team basketball.

Barack Obama Marriage

His future wife Michelle Robinson met Obama as a fellow student at Harvard Law School in 1988 and was her intern at the law firm she worked for after graduating.

The couple married in 1992 and have two daughters: Malia Ann and Natasha ("Sasha"). Michelle Obama served in the Chicago Public Administration until late 2008.

Barack Obama Career

In 2004, Obama, as the Democratic candidate for the US Senate, won a surprising 52 percent of the vote in their March primaries and has since been considered the new star of his party. Media consultant David Axelrod had put him in the election campaign in the tradition of Chicago's first African-American mayor Harold Washington and Senator Paul M. Simon.

The main election campaign was marked by scandals surrounding the Republican opponents: The first, Jack Ryan, resigned on June 25, 2004, the second, Alan Keyes, only rented a residence in Illinois from August 2004 and led a polarizing election campaign. Because of his secure lead in voter polls, Obama supported other Democratic candidates like Melissa Bean financially and with appearances.

On July 27, 2004, Obama gave a keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, which made John Kerry a US presidential candidate. In it he described his family history, which had founded his belief in the American dream, and finally pleaded for national unity:

“There is no such thing as a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is no black America and a white America and a Latino America and an Asian America - there is the United States of America. Critics would like to split our country into red and blue states: red states for Republicans and blue states for Democrats. But I have news for them too. We pray to an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We train the Little League in the blue states and yes we have some gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported it. We are a people

The speech made Obama known nationwide and earned him a lot of sympathies. From then on, he was considered to be the Democrat's most successful political climber and a possible future candidate for the presidency. He won the Senate election with 70 to 27 percent, the best result of a new candidate for the senatorial office, and the highest victory in a statewide election in Illinois.

Primaries

In the Democratic Party's primary campaign, after the first primary elections from March 2007, only Obama and Hillary Clinton remained, who fought a tough battle until June 7, 2008.

Obama's previous contact with entrepreneur Tony Rezko was criticized, after a two-year trial, he was convicted of various corruption crimes in Chicago in June 2008. He was a fundraiser for Obama and other Illinois politicians and is said to have enabled him to buy a house at a discount. There was no evidence of illegal activity.

Obama won the primaries in 29 of the 50 states. In Texas, where two votes were held, he won the caucuses after losing the primaries. He also won the District of Columbia, the Guam Territories, and the US Virgin Islands, as well as the overseas Democrats. Still, Hillary Clinton went head-to-head with him because she did better in most populous states.

On June 3, 2008, Obama achieved the necessary majority of delegates for a nomination as his party's presidential candidate. On June 7, Hillary Clinton publicly congratulated him on his victory and ended her campaign.

Then on August 23, 2008, Obama announced his selection of Joe Biden, the senior federal senator from Delaware, as a vice-presidential candidate.

On August 27, delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver nominated Obama by acclamation as their party's presidential candidate. The following day he accepted the nomination with a speech in front of 80,000 listeners at the party congress and in front of 37.5 million television viewers.

Main elections

According to an international poll in 22 countries in September 2008, Obama led against his Republican rival John McCain with an average of 49 to 12 percent: 9 percent in India, 58 percent in Germany, 82 percent in Kenya.

In some national polls, after Sarah Palin's nomination as McCain's runner-up (August 28, 2008), he was at times tied or slightly ahead. Since September 19, voter polls have consistently been predicting a head start for Obama.

Criticism found attempts by the Republican campaign team to cast doubt on Obama's character. Sarah Palin alleged on October 3, 2008, that he was dealing with terrorists. He was referring to the Weathermen co-founder Bill Ayers, who, as an education professor, had served on the board of directors of a charity for some time like Obama and other Republican politicians. Obama had repeatedly distanced himself from his actions and views.

On National Election Day, November 4, 2008, Obama and Joe Biden won a majority of 365 electoral college electors and 53 percent of the total vote, up from 173 electors and 46 percent for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

At the same time, the Democrats increased their majority in the Senate by at least seven to 58 seats compared to 41 seats for the Republicans, in the House of Representatives by 21 seats to 257 compared to 178 seats.

In addition to all the states that had voted for Democrat John Kerry with a majority in the previous presidential election in 2004, Obama also won a few states that voted for Republican George W. Bush re-election in 2004: including Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana, where previously for decades Republican candidates had been elected, as well as the important swing states of New Mexico, Ohio and Florida and an electoral district of Nebraska.

At the meeting of 538 electors on December 15, 2008, Obama received 365 votes and John McCain 173 votes. With that, Obama was elected US President. The 111th Congress officially established the election result at its first meeting on January 8, 2009.

In the main election campaign, the financial crisis had become the most important issue. Obama's election victory, which was foreseeable after the polls, was mainly attributed to the fact that most voters were more likely to trust him to solve it. In addition, there were high proportions of votes among strong minorities and first-time voters.

Read some more interesting Barack Obama Facts.

NICKNAME
Barry

BIRTH
Barack Hussein Obama was born August 4, 1961
in Honolulu, Hawaii

MOTHER
Ann Dunham (1942-1995)

FATHER
Barack Obama Sr.

MARRIAGE
Michelle Robinson October 18, 1992
in Chicago, Illinois

CHILDREN
Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha)

HOME
White House

EDUCATION
Occidental College, Columbia University, 1983
Harvard Law School, 1991

RELIGION
Christian

PRE-PRESIDENCY PROFESSION
Lawyer and Community organizer

MILITARY SERVICE
None

POLITICAL LIFE
Illinois State Senator (1997-2004)
US Senator (2005-2008)
United States President (2009-Present)

POLITICAL PARTY
Democrat

INAUGURATION
Inaugural Address on January 20, 2009, at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. at the age of 47

Inaugural Address on January 21, 2013, at the Capitol Building

Barack Obama Administration

PRESIDENCY
Serving first term (January 20, 2009-Present)

VICE PRESIDENT
Joseph Biden (2009-Present)

FIRST LADY
Michelle Obama (2009 - Present)

SECOND LADY
Dr. Jill Biden

SUPREME COURT APPOINTMENTS
Sonia Sotomayor (2009)
Elena Kagan (2010)

Barack Obama Cabinet

1st Term

SECRETARY OF STATE
Hillary Rodham Clinton

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Timothy F. Geithner

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Robert M. Gates

ATTORNEY GENERAL
Eric H. Holder Jr.

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
Kenneth L. Salazar

SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE
Thomas J. Vilsack

SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
Gary F. Locke

SECRETARY OF LABOR
Hilda L. Solis

SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Kathleen Sebelius

SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Shaun L.S. Donovan

SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
Raymond L. LaHood

SECRETARY OF ENERGY
Steven Chu

SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
Arne Duncan

SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Eric K. Shinseki

SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Janet Napolitano

Barack Obama Cabinet 2nd Term

SECRETARY OF STATE
John Kerry

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY
Timothy F. Geithner

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Robert M. Gates

ATTORNEY GENERAL
Eric H. Holder Jr.

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
Kenneth L. Salazar

SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE
Thomas J. Vilsack

SECRETARY OF COMMERCE
Gary F. Locke

SECRETARY OF LABOR
Hilda L. Solis

SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Kathleen Sebelius

SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Shaun L.S. Donovan

SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
Raymond L. LaHood

SECRETARY OF ENERGY
Steven Chu

SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
Arne Duncan

SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS
Eric K. Shinseki

SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY
Janet Napolitano