A President of the People, for the People and most loved by the People. Barack Obama, US President (2009-2017) is an exemplary role model.
Humble Beginnings
Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii. His parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. His mother Ann Dunham, was a white American from Kansas, and Barack Obama Sr., a black Kenyan. Obama’s father walked out on the family when Obama was only two years old. Soon after his mother remarried, Lolo Soetoro of Indonesia. Obama lived with them in Indonesia until he was sent away to his maternal grandparents in Hawaii to attend Grade V at the Punahou School.
He later attended Columbia University in New York City to major in political science. In 1988, Obama enrolled at Harvard Law School. After his first year at Harvard, during a summer internship at Chicago’s Sidley and Austin law firm Obama, he met Michelle Robinson, his soon wife-to-be.
The Complete Man
Barack Obama, the 44TH President of the United States of America and its first African American Commander-in-chief was also a Noble Laureate being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people”.
Beyond Presidency and Nobel Peace Award, Obama also published his autobiography, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, in 1995, in 25 languages. Later, the same in an audiobook version won him a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word album, 2006.
A Harvard school alumni, and their first elected African American editor of the Harvard Law Review 1990, Obama had miles to go…
Entry into Politics
Obama’s advocacy work as a civil rights lawyer and his active involvement in voter registration drives during Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, led him to run for a seat in the Illinois State Senate in 1996. As a Senator, he helped to draft the legislation on ethics, expanded health care services, increased early childhood education programs for the poor, created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor and last but not the least, Obama worked with law enforcement officials making videotaping of interrogations mandatory all capital cases to avoid innocent citizens going to the death row.
And so his popularity began to rise.
As a state senator, he continued to voice his opposition to President George W. Bush’s decision to go to war with Iraq, stating enormous costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.
In August 2004, in three televised debates, against Alan Keyes on subjects concerning stem cell research, abortion, gun control, school vouchers, and tax cuts, Obama held his ground voicing his concerns on every topic. His empathy for the common American got him 70 percent of the votes as opposed to Keyes’ 27 percent, in the November 2004 general elections, the largest ever electoral victory in Illinois history.
(Image Credits: New York Times
Sworn into office on January 3, 2005, Obama worked with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that aimed to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. Soon, Obama and Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma teamed up to design and create a website to track federal spending. Obama continued to work hard to support causes like alternative energy development and improving veterans’ benefits.
Obama served two terms as the President of America from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party who won a million hearts and placed among the upper tier of American presidents Barak Hussein Obama continues to live an American life with wife Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha.
Life Beyond the Limelight
No longer in the office of the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama not only continues as one of the most admired presidents of the US in American history but also remains the most admired man in America for a record 12th consecutive year (December 2019 Gallup poll).
