Barack Hussein Obama born
August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia
University andHarvard Law
School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law
Review.
He was a community
organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil
rights attorney and taught constitutional
law at University
of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th
District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfullyfor the United States House of Representatives in 2000.
In 2004, Obama received national attention
during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States
Senate with his victory in the March Democratic
Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election
to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary
Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential
nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine
months after his election, Obama was named the 2009
Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
During his first two years in office, Obama
signed into law economic
stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization,
and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in
his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to
as "Obamacare"; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection
Act; and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. In foreign policy,
Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased U.S. troop levels inAfghanistan,
signed the New START arms control treaty with
Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya in opposition toMuammar Gaddafi, and ordered the military
operation that resulted in the death
of Osama bin Laden. In January 2011, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party
lost a total of 63 seats; and, after a lengthy debate over federal spending and
whether or not to raise the nation's debt
limit, Obama signed the Budget
Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
Obama was reelected president in November 2012, defeating
Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. During
his second term, Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in
response to theSandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and has called for full
equality for LGBT Americans, while his
administration has filed briefs which urged the Supreme
Court to strike down the Defense
of Marriage Act of 1996 and California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. In
foreign policy, Obama ordered U.S. military involvement in Iraq in response to gains
made by the Islamic State in Iraq after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, and has sought
tonormalize U.S.
relations with Cuba.
Contents
Early life and career
Obama was born on August 4, 1961,[1] at Kapiʻolani Maternity &
Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][3][4] and would become the first
President to have been born in Hawaii.[5] His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, born in Wichita, Kansas, was of mostly English
ancestry.[6] His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang’oma
Kogelo, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University
of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on
scholarship.[7][8] The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961,[9][10] and separated when, in late
August 1961, Obama's mother moved with their newborn son to attend the University
of Washington in Seattle for one year. In the meantime,
Obama, Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962,
then left to attend graduate school at Harvard
University on a scholarship. Obama's parents divorced in
March 1964.[11] Obama Sr. returned to Kenya
in 1964 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971.[12] He died in an automobile
accident in 1982, his son being 21 years old at that time.[13]
In 1963, Dunham met Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian East–West Center graduate student in
geography at the University of Hawaii, and the couple were married on Molokai on March 15, 1965.[14] After two one-year
extensions of his J-1 visa, Lolo returned to Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen
months later by his wife and stepson in 1967, with the family initially living
in a Menteng Dalam neighborhood in the Tebet subdistrict of south Jakarta, then from 1970 in a wealthier
neighborhood in the Menteng subdistrict of central
Jakarta.[15] From ages six to ten, Obama
attended local Indonesian-language schools: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic
School for two years and Besuki Public School for one and a half years,
supplemented by English-language Calvert School homeschooling by his
mother.[16]
Obama with his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, mother Ann Dunham and grandfather Stanley
Dunham, inHonolulu, Hawaii
Obama returned to Honolulu in 1971 to live
with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley
Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college
preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high
school in 1979.[17] Obama lived with his mother
and sister in Hawaii for three years from 1972 to 1975 while his mother was a
graduate student inanthropology at the University of
Hawaii.[18] Obama chose to stay in
Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at Punahou when his mother and
sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 so his mother could begin anthropology
field work.[19] His mother spent most of
the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a PhD in
1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment forovarian cancer and uterine cancer.[20]
Of his early childhood, Obama recalled,
"That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black
as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."[8] He described his struggles
as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[21] Reflecting later on his
years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to
experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an
integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most
dear."[22] Obama has also written and
talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to
"push questions of who I was out of my mind".[23] Obama was also a member of
the "choom gang", a self-named group of friends that spent time
together and occasionally smoked marijuana.[24][25]
After high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles
in 1979 to attend Occidental
College. In February 1981, Obama made his first public speech,
calling for Occidental to participate in the disinvestment
from South Africa in response to that nation's policy of apartheid.[26] In mid-1981, Obama traveled
to Indonesia to visit his mother and half-sister Maya, and visited the families
of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.[26] Later in 1981, he
transferred as a junior to Columbia College, Columbia University in New York City, where he
majored in political science with a specialty in international
relations[27] and lived off-campus on
West 109th Street.[28] He graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts in 1983 and worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,[29] then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.[30][31] In 1985, Obama was among
the leaders of May Day efforts to bring attention to the New York City
Subway system, which was in a bad condition at the
time. Obama traveled to several subway stations to get people to sign letters
addressed to local officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and
was photographed at the City College subway station holding a sign protesting
the system's condition.[32]
Community organizer and Harvard Law School
Two years after graduating, Obama was hired
in Chicago as director of the Developing
Communities Project, a church-based community organization
originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West
Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side.
He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.[31][33] He helped set up a job
training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights
organization in Altgeld
Gardens.[34] Obama also worked as a
consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel
Foundation, a community organizing institute.[35] In mid-1988, he traveled
for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya,
where he met many of his paternal
relatives for the first time.[36][37] He returned to Kenya in
1992 with his fiancée Michelle and his half-sister Auma.[36][38] He returned to Kenya in
August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.[39]
Obama entered Harvard Law
School in the fall of 1988. He was selected as an
editor of the Harvard Law
Review at the end of his first year,[40] president of the journal in
his second year,[34][41] and research assistant to
the constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe while at Harvard for two years.[42] During his summers, he
returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[43] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude[44] from Harvard in 1991, he
returned to Chicago.[40] Obama's election as the first
black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media
attention[34][41] and led to a publishing
contract and advance for a book about race relations,[45] which evolved into a
personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams
from My Father.[45]
University of Chicago Law School and civil
rights attorney
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position
as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University
of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[45][46] He then taughtconstitutional
law at the University of Chicago Law School for
twelve years, first as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a Senior
Lecturer from 1996 to 2004.[47]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed
Illinois's Project Vote, a voter
registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer
registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered
African Americans in the state, leading Crain's
Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40
under Forty" powers to be.[48]
He joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill &
Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and
neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years
from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law
license became inactive in 2007.[49][50]
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards
of directors of the Woods
Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund
the Developing Communities Project, and of the Joyce Foundation.[31] He served on the board of
directors of the Chicago
Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and
chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[31]
Legislative career (1997–2008)
As Illinois State Senator (1997–2004)
Obama and others celebrate
the naming of a street in Chicago afterShoreBank co-founder Milton Davis in
1998
Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding
Democratic State Senator Alice
Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District,
which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park–Kenwood south to South Shore and west toChicago
Lawn.[51] Once elected, Obama gained
bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.[52] He sponsored a law that
increased tax credits for low-income workers,
negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[53] In 2001, as co-chairman of
the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported
Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at
averting home foreclosures.[54]
He was reelected to the Illinois Senate in
1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was
reelected again in 2002.[55] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.[56]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the
Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a
decade in the minority, regained a majority.[57] He sponsored and led
unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to
record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the
first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.[53][58] During his 2004 general
election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for
his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.[59] Obama resigned from the
Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.[60]
U.S. Senate campaign
County results of the 2004
U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Obama won the counties in blue.
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to
assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign
committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama
formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.[61]
Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's 2003
invasion of Iraq.[62] On October 2, 2002, the day
President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[63] Obama addressed the first
high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq
War rally,[64] and spoke out against the
war.[65] He addressed another
anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that "it's not too
late" to stop the war.[66]
Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter
Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley
Braun to not participate in the election resulted
in wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen
candidates.[67] In the March 2004 primary
election, Obama won in an unexpected landslide—which overnight made him a
rising star within the national
Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential future,
and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[68] In July 2004, Obama
delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention,[69]seen by 9.1 million viewers. His speech
was well received and elevated his status within the Democratic Party.[70]
Obama's expected opponent in the general
election, Republican primary winner Jack
Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[71] Six weeks later, Alan Keyes accepted the Republican
nomination to replace Ryan.[72] In the November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent
of the vote.[73]
As U.S. Senator from Illinois (2005–08)
Obama in his official
portrait as a member of the United States Senate
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3,
2005,[74] becoming the only Senate
member of the Congressional
Black Caucus.[75] CQ
Weeklycharacterized
him as a "loyal Democrat" based on analysis of all Senate votes from
2005 to 2007. Obama announced on November 13, 2008, that he would resign his
Senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his
transition period for the presidency.[76]
Legislation
Obama cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[77] He introduced two
initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction concept to conventional
weapons;[78] and the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act
of 2006, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a
web search engine on federal spending.[79] On June 3, 2008, Senator
Obama—along with Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain—introduced follow-up
legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending
Act of 2008.[80]
Obama sponsored legislation that would have
required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of
radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being
heavily modified in committee.[81] Regarding tort reform, Obama voted for the Class
Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which grants
immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretappingoperations.[82]
Obama and U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) visit a Russian
facility for dismantling mobile missiles (August 2005)[83]
In December 2006, President Bush signed into
law the Democratic
Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion
Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its
primary sponsor.[84] In January 2007, Obama and
Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed
into law in September 2007.[85] Obama also introduced two
unsuccessful bills: the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention
Act to criminalize deceptive practices in federal
elections,[86] and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007.[87]
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment
to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder
military discharges.[88] This amendment passed the
full Senate in the spring of 2008.[89] He sponsored the Iran
Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of
state pension funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed
committee; and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[90] Obama also sponsored a
Senate amendment to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing one year
of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related
injuries.[91]
Committees
Obama held assignments on the Senate
Committees for Foreign Relations, Environment and Public Works and Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.[92] In January 2007, he left
the Environment and Public Works committee and took additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions andHomeland Security and Governmental Affairs.[93] He also became Chairman of
the Senate's subcommittee on European Affairs.[94] As a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made official trips to Eastern Europe, the
Middle East, Central Asia and Africa. He met with Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a
speech at the University
of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the
Kenyan government.[95]
Presidential campaigns
2008 presidential campaign
Main
articles: United States presidential election, 2008, Barack Obama presidential primary campaign, 2008 and Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008
Obama stands on stage with
his wife and daughters just before announcing his presidential candidacy in Springfield,
Illinois, February 10, 2007
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his
candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building inSpringfield,
Illinois.[96][97] The choice of the
announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincolndelivered his historic "House
Divided" speech in 1858.[96][98] Obama emphasized issues of
rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and reforming the health care system,[99] in a campaign that
projected themes of hope and change.[100]
A large number of candidates entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to
a duel between Obama and Senator Hillary
Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining
close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady lead in
pledged delegates due to better long-range
planning, superior fundraising, dominant organizing in caucus states, and better exploitation of delegate
allocation rules.[101] On June 7, 2008, Clinton
ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[102]
On August 23, Obama announced his selection
of Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential
running mate.[103] Obama selected Biden from a
field speculated to include formerIndiana Governor and Senator Evan Bayh and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.[104] At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado,
Hillary Clinton called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in
his support.[105] Obama delivered his
acceptance speech, not at the center where the Democratic National Convention
was held, but at Invesco
Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75,000; the speech was
viewed by over 38 million people worldwide.[106][107]
During both the primary process and the
general election, Obama's campaign set numerous fundraising records,
particularly in the quantity of small donations.[108] On June 19, 2008, Obama
became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election
since the system was created in 1976.[109]
John McCain was nominated as the Republican
candidate, and the two engaged in three presidential debates in September and October
2008.[110] On November 4, Obama won
the presidency with 365 electoral
votes to 173 received by McCain.[111] Obama won 52.9 percent
of the popular vote to McCain's
45.7 percent.[112] He became the first African
American to be elected president.[113] Obama delivered his victory speech before hundreds of
thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.[114]
2012 presidential campaign
Main
articles: United States presidential election, 2012 and Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2012
Former Governor Mitt Romney
and President Barack Obama shake hands in the Oval Office on November 29, 2012,
following their first meeting since President Obama's reelection
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his
reelection campaign for 2012 in a video titled "It Begins with Us"
that he posted on his website and filed election papers with the Federal
Election Commission.[115][116][117] As the incumbent president
he ran virtually unopposed in theDemocratic Party presidential primaries,[118] and on April 3, 2012, Obama
had secured the 2778 convention delegates needed to win the Democratic
nomination.[119]
At the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte,
North Carolina, Obama and Joe Biden were formally nominated by
former PresidentBill Clinton,
as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice president in the
general election. Their main opponents were Republicans Mitt Romney, the former governor of
Massachusetts, and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.[120]
On November 6, 2012, Obama won 332 electoral
votes, exceeding the 270 required for him to be reelected as
president.[121][122][123] With 51.1 percent of
the popular vote,[124] Obama became the first
Democratic president since Franklin
D. Roosevelt to twice win the majority of the popular vote.[125][126] President Obama addressed
supporters and volunteers at Chicago's McCormick Place after his reelection and
said: "Tonight you voted for action, not politics as usual. You elected us
to focus on your jobs, not ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am
looking forward to reaching out and working with leaders of both parties."[127][128]
Presidency
See
also: Confirmations of Barack Obama's Cabinet and List of presidential trips made by Barack Obama
First days
Barack Obama takes the oath of office administered by Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr. at the
Capitol, January 20, 2009
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President took
place on January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued
executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to
develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.[129] He ordered the closing of
the Guantanamo
Bay detention camp,[130] but Congress prevented the
closure by refusing to appropriate the required funds[131][132][133] and preventing moving any
Guantanamo detainee into the U.S. or to other countries.[134] Obama reduced the secrecy
given to presidential records.[135] He also revoked President George W. Bush's restoration of President Ronald Reagan's Mexico City
Policy prohibiting federal aid to international
family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about
abortion.[136]
Domestic policy
The first bill signed into law by Obama was
the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the statute
of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[137] Five days later, he signed
the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to
cover an additional 4 million uninsured children.[138] In March 2009, Obama
reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem
cell research and pledged to develop "strict
guidelines" on the research.[139]
Obama delivering a speech at joint session of Congress with Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on February 24, 2009
Obama appointed two women to serve on the
Supreme Court in the first two years of his Presidency. Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May
26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6,
2009,[140] becoming the firstHispanic Supreme Court Justice.[141] Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama on May 10,
2010, to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, was confirmed on August
5, 2010, bringing the number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to
three, for the first time in American history.[142]
On September 30, 2009, the Obama
administration proposed new regulations on power plants, factories and oil
refineries in an attempt to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb global warming.[143][144]
On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes
Prevention Act, a measure that expands the1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated
by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or disability.[145][146]
On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act,
a reconciliation bill which ends the process of
the federal government giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally
insured loans, increases the Pell Grant scholarship award, and
makes changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[147][148]
In a major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama
announced a planned change in direction at NASA, the U.S. space agency. He ended plans for a return of human spaceflight to the moon and development of the Ares I rocket, Ares V rocket and Constellation
program, in favor of funding Earth science projects, a new rocket type,
and research and development for an eventual manned mission to Mars, and ongoing missions to the International
Space Station.[149]
LGBT Rights
On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, fulfilling a key
promise made in the 2008 presidential campaign[150][151] to end the Don't
ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and
lesbian people from serving openly in theUnited
States Armed Forces.[152]
President Obama's 2011
State of the Union Address focused on themes of
education and innovation, stressing the importance ofinnovation
economics to make the United States more competitive
globally. He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending, eliminating tax
breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans,
banning congressional earmarks,
and reducing healthcare costs. He promised that the United States would have
one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and would be 80 percent
reliant on "clean"
electricity.[153][154]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate
Obama had said in 1996 that he favored legalizing same-sex marriage;[155] but by the time of his run
for the U.S. senate in 2004, he said that while he supported civil unions and
domestic partnerships for same-sex partners, for strategic reasons he opposed
same-sex marriages.[156] On May 9, 2012, shortly
after the official launch of his campaign for reelection as president, Obama
said his views had evolved, and he publicly affirmed his personal support for
the legalization of same-sex marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president
to do so.[157][158]
During his second inaugural address on January 21, 2013,[128] Obama called for full
equality for gay Americans: "Our journey is not complete until our gay
brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law—for if we are
truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be
equal as well." This was a historic moment, being the first time that a
president mentioned gay
rights or the word "gay" in an inaugural
address.[159][160] In 2013 the Obama
administration filed briefs which urged theSupreme
Court to rule in favor of same-sex couples in the
cases of Hollingsworth
v. Perry (regarding same-sex marriage)[161] and United
States v. Windsor (regarding theDefense
of Marriage Act).[162]
White House advisory and oversight groups
On March 11, 2009, Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls, which forms part of
the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, having been established byExecutive
Order 13506 with a broad mandate to advise
him on issues relating to the welfare of American women and girls.[163] The Council is currently
chaired by Senior
Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett.[164] Obama also established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from
Sexual Assault through an official United States government
memorandum on January 22, 2014 with a broad mandate to advise him on issues
relating to sexual assault on college and university campuses throughout the
United States.[164][165][166] The current co-chairs of
the Task Force are Vice President Joe Biden and Jarrett.[165] The Task Force has been a
development out of the White House Council on Women and Girls and Office of the Vice President of the United States,
and prior to that, the 1994 Violence
Against Women Act that was first-drafted by Biden.[167]
Economic policy
Obama presents his first weekly address as President of the United
States on January 24, 2009, discussing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a
$787 billion economic
stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover
from the deepening worldwide recession.[168] The act includes increased
federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks
and incentives,
and direct assistance to individuals.[169]
In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, took further steps to
manage the financial
crisis, including introducing thePublic-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets,
which contains provisions for buying up to two trillion dollars in
depreciated real estate assets.[170] Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry[171] in March 2009, renewing
loans for General Motors andChrysler to continue operations
while reorganizing. Over the following months the White House set terms for
both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat[172] and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government
a temporary 60 percent equity stake in the company, with the Canadian
government taking a 12 percent stake.[173] In June 2009, dissatisfied
with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama called on his cabinet to accelerate
the investment.[174] He signed into law the Car
Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for
Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the economy.[175][176][177]
Spending and loan guarantees from the Federal
Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama
administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, but only $3 trillion
was spent by the end of November 2009.[178] Obama and the Congressional
Budget Office predicted the 2010 budget
deficit would be $1.5 trillion or
10.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the
2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or 9.9 percent of GDP.[179][180] For 2011, the
administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink to
$1.34 trillion, while the 10-year deficit will increase to
$8.53 trillion or 90 percent of GDP.[181] The most recent increase in
the U.S.debt ceiling to $17.2 trillion took
effect in February 2014.[182] On August 2, 2011, after a
lengthy congressional debate over whether to raise the nation's debt limit,
Obama signed the bipartisan Budget
Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforces limits on
discretionary spending until 2021, establishes a procedure to increase the debt
limit, creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to
propose further deficit reduction with a stated goal of achieving at least
$1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10 years, and establishes
automatic procedures for reducing spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if
legislation originating with the new joint select committee does not achieve
such savings.[183] By passing the legislation,
Congress was able to prevent a U.S. government default on its obligations.[184]
Employment statistics
(changes in unemployment rate and net jobs per month)
during Obama's tenure as U.S. President[185][186]
As it did throughout 2008, the unemployment
rate rose in 2009, reaching a peak in October at 10.0 percent and
averaging 10.0 percent in the fourth quarter. Following a decrease to
9.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, the unemployment rate fell to
9.6 percent in the second quarter, where it remained for the rest of the
year.[187] Between February and
December 2010, employment rose by 0.8 percent, which was less than the
average of 1.9 percent experienced during comparable periods in the past
four employment recoveries.[188] By November 2012, the
unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent,[189] decreasing to
6.7 percent in the last month of 2013.[190] During 2014, the
unemployment rate continued to decline, falling to 6.3 percent in the
first quarter.[191] GDP growth returned in the
third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of 1.6 percent, followed by a
5.0 percent increase in the fourth quarter.[192] Growth continued in 2010,
posting an increase of 3.7 percent in the first quarter, with lesser gains
throughout the rest of the year.[192] In July 2010, the Federal
Reserve noted that economic activity continued to
increase, but its pace had slowed, and chairman Ben Bernanke said the economic outlook
was "unusually uncertain".[193] Overall, the economy
expanded at a rate of 2.9 percent in 2010.[194]
The Congressional Budget Office and a broad
range of economists credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[195][196] The CBO released a report
stating that the stimulus bill increased employment by 1–2.1 million,[196][197][198][199] while conceding that
"It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have
existed in the absence of the stimulus package."[195]Although an April 2010 survey of members of
the National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in job
creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two years,
73 percent of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no
impact on employment.[200] The economy of the United
States has grown faster than the other original NATO members by a wider margin
under President Obama than it has anytime since the end of World War II.[201] The OECD credits the much
faster growth in the United States to the stimulus in the United States and the
austerity measures in the European Union.[202]
Within a month of the 2010
midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the
Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year
extension of the 2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment
benefits, and a new rate and exemption amount for estate
taxes.[203] The compromise overcame
opposition from some in both parties, and the resulting $858 billion Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization,
and Job Creation Act of 2010 passed with bipartisan
majorities in both houses of Congress before Obama signed it on December 17,
2010.[204]
In December 2013, Obama declared that growing income inequality is a "defining
challenge of our time" and called on Congress to bolster the safety net
and raise wages. This came on the heels of the nationwide
strikes of fast-food workers and Pope Francis' criticism of inequality and trickle-down
economics.[205]
Environmental policy
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an
offshore drilling rig at the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, causing a major
sustained oil leak. The well's operator, BP, initiated a containment and cleanup plan, and began
drilling two relief wells intended to stop the flow.
Obama visited the Gulf on May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet, and
again on May 28 and June 4. On May 22, he announced a federal investigation and
formed a bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a
review by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and concurrent
Congressional hearings. On May 27, he announced a six-month moratorium on new
deepwater drilling permits and leases, pending regulatory review.[206] As multiple efforts by BP
failed, some in the media and public expressed confusion and criticism over
various aspects of the incident, and stated a desire for more involvement by
Obama and the federal government.[207]
In July 2013, Obama expressed reservations
and stated he "would reject the Keystone XL
pipeline if it increased carbon pollution" or
"greenhouse emissions".[208][209] Obama's advisers called for
a halt to petroleum exploration in the Arctic in January 2013.[210] On February 24, 2015, Obama
vetoed a bill that would authorize the pipeline.[211] It was the third veto of
Obama's presidency and his first major veto.[212]
Health care reform
Obama signs the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act at the White House, March 23, 2010
Obama called for Congress to pass legislation
reforming health
care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top
legislative goal.[213] He proposed an expansion of
health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, to cap premium increases, and
to allow people to retain their coverage when they leave or change jobs. His
proposal was to spend $900 billion over 10 years and include a government
insurance plan, also known as the public
option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a main
component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care. It would also
make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny them coverage for pre-existing
conditions, and require every American to carry health coverage. The
plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on insurance companies that
offer expensive plans.[214][215]
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders
introduced a 1,017-page plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which
Obama wanted Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[213] After much public debate
during the Congressional summer recess of 2009, Obama delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he
addressed concerns over the proposals.[216] In March 2009, Obama lifted
a ban on using federal funds for stem cell research.[217]
Maximum Out-of-Pocket
Premium as Percentage of Family Income and federal
poverty level, under Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014
(Source: CRS)[218]
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill
featuring the public option was passed in the House.[219][220] On December 24, 2009, the
Senate passed its own bill—without a public option—on a party-line vote of
60–39.[221] On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed by the Senate
in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to 212.[222] Obama signed the bill into
law on March 23, 2010.[223]
The ACA includes health-related provisions to take effect over four
years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people
making up to 133 percent of the federal
poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[224] subsidizing insurance
premiums for people making up to 400 percent of the FPL ($88,000 for
family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket" payment for
annual premiums will be from 2 to 9.5 percent of income,[225][226] providing incentives for
businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and
denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health
insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and support
for medical research. According to White House and Congressional Budget Office
figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would have to pay would
vary depending on their income relative to the federal poverty level.[225][227]
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes,
fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in
high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare
Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and
fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[228] there is also a tax penalty
for those who do not obtain health insurance, unless they are exempt due to low
income or other reasons.[229] In March 2010, the
Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net effect of both laws will be
a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade.[230]
The law faced several legal challenges,
primarily based on the argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans
to buy health insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme
Court ruled by a 5–4 vote in National Federation of Independent Business v.
Sebelius that the Commerce Clause does not allow the
government to require people to buy health insurance, but the mandate was constitutional
under the US Congress's taxing authority.[231] In Burwell
v. Hobby Lobby the Court ruled that "closely-held"
for-profit corporations could be exempt on religious grounds under the Religious
Freedom Restoration Act from regulations adopted
under the ACA that would have required them to pay for insurance that covered
certain contraceptives.
Energy policy
Prior to June 2014, Obama offered substantial
support for a broadly based "All of the above" approach to domestic
energy policy which Obama has maintained since his first term and which he last
confirmed at his State of the Union speech in January 2014 to a mixed reception
by both parties. In June 2014, Obama made indications that his administration
would consider a shift towards an energy policy more closely tuned to the
manufacturing industry and its impact on the domestic economy.[232] Obama's approach of
selectively combining regulation and incentive to various issues in the
domestic energy policy such as coal mining and oil fracking has received mixed
commentary for not being as responsive to the needs of the domestic
manufacturing sector as needed, following claims that the domestic
manufacturing sector utilizes as much as a third of nation's available energy
resources.[233][234]
Gun control
On January 16, 2013, one month after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, President Obama signed
23 executive orders and outlined a series of sweeping proposals regarding gun
control.[235] He urged Congress to
reintroduce an expired
ban on military-style assault weapons, such as
those used in several recent mass shootings, impose limits on ammunition
magazines to 10 rounds, introduce background checks on all gun sales, pass a
ban on possession and sale of armor-piercing bullets, introduce harsher
penalties for gun-traffickers, especially unlicensed dealers who buy arms for
criminals and approving the appointment of the head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for the first time since
2006.[236]
2010 midterm elections
Main
articles: United States House of Representatives elections,
2010 and United States Senate elections, 2010
Obama called the November 2, 2010 election, where the
Democratic Party lost 63 seats in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[237] "humbling" and a
"shellacking".[238] He said that the results
came because not enough Americans had felt the effects of the economic
recovery.[239]
Cybersecurity and Internet Policy
On November 10, 2014, President Obama
recommended the Federal
Communications Commission reclassify broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service in order to
preserve net neutrality.[240][241]
On February 12, 2013, President Obama signed
Executive Order 13636, “Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.” The
Executive Order is designed to increase the level of core capabilities for our
critical infrastructure to manage cyber risk. It does this by focusing on three
key areas: (1) information sharing, (2) privacy, and (3) the adoption of
cybersecurity practices.[242]
Foreign policy
In February and March 2009, Vice President
Joe Biden and Secretary
of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas
trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia
and Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal
major changes from the policies of the preceding administration.[243] Obama attempted to reach
out to Arab leaders by granting his first interview to an Arab cable TV
network, Al Arabiya.[244]
On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to
the Muslim world, releasing a New Year's video message to the people and
government of Iran.[245][246] In April, Obama gave a
speech in Ankara, Turkey, which was
well received by many Arab governments.[247] On June 4, 2009, Obama
delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt calling for "A New Beginning" in relations between
the Islamic world and the United States and promoting Middle East peace.[248]
On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian
government's actions towards protesters following Iran's 2009 presidential election, Obama said: "The
violence perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn
it."[249] On July 7, while in Moscow,
he responded to a Vice President Biden comment on a possible Israeli military
strike on Iran by saying: "We have said directly to the Israelis that it
is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that
does not create major conflict in the Middle East."[250]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first
sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United
Nations Security Council.[251]
In March 2010, Obama took a public stance
against plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects
in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.[252][253] During the same month, an
agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing
the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by
about one-third.[254] Obama and Medvedev signed
the New START treaty in April 2010, and
the U.S. Senate ratified it in December
2010.[255]
In December 2011, Obama instructed agencies
to consider LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign
countries.[256] He criticized Russia's law
discriminating against gays in August 2013,[257] stopping short of
advocating a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics held in Sochi, Russia.[258]
In December 2014, Obama announced that he
intended to normalize relationships between Cuba
and the United States.[259]
Iraq
On February 27, 2009, Obama announced that
combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to
a group of Marines preparing for deployment to
Afghanistan. Obama said, "Let me say this as plainly as I can: by August
31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end."[260] The Obama administration
scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010,
decreasing troop's levels from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of
about 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011. On August 19, 2010, the last U.S. combat
brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat operations to counter-terrorism and the training,
equipping, and advising of Iraqi security forces.[261][262] On August 31, 2010, Obama
announced that the United States combat mission in Iraq was over.[263] On October 21, 2011
President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would leave Iraq in time to be
"home for the holidays".[264]
In June 2014, amid territorial gains made by
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant following the U.S.
withdrawal in 2011, Obama sent 275 troops to provide support and security for
U.S. personnel and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.[265]
War in Afghanistan
Early in his presidency, Obama moved to
bolster U.S. troop strength in Afghanistan.[266] He announced an increase to
U.S. troop levels of 17,000 in February 2009 to "stabilize a deteriorating
situation in Afghanistan", an area he said had not received the
"strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires".[267] He replaced the military
commander in Afghanistan, General David D.
McKiernan, with former Special Forces commander Lt. Gen. Stanley
A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's
Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency tactics
in the war.[268] On December 1, 2009, Obama
announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to
Afghanistan and proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date;[269] this took place in July
2011. David Petraeus replaced McChrystal in June
2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized White House personnel in a magazine
article.[270] In February 2013 Obama said
the U.S. military would reduce the troop level in Afghanistan from 68,000 to
34,000 US troops by February 2014.[271]
Israel
In June 2012, Obama said that the bond
between the United States and Israel is "unbreakable."[272] During the initial years of
the Obama administration, the U.S. increased military cooperation with Israel,
including increased military aid, re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli
Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy
Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military officials
of both countries.[273] The Obama administration
asked Congress to allocate money toward funding the Iron Dome program in response to the
waves of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.[274]
In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security
Council resolution condemning Israeli
settlements, with the United States being the only nation to do so.[275] Obama supports the two-state
solution to the Arab–Israeli
conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[276]
In 2013, Jeffrey Goldberg reported that, in Obama's
view, "with each new settlement announcement, Netanyahu is moving his
country down a path toward near-total isolation."[277]
War in Libya
In March 2011, as forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi advanced on rebels across
Libya, calls for a no-fly zone came from around the world, including Europe,
the Arab League,
and a resolution[278] passed unanimously by the
U.S. Senate.[279] In response to the
unanimous passage of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17, Gaddafi—who
had previously vowed to "show no mercy" to the rebels of Benghazi[280]—announced an immediate cessation of military
activities,[281] yet reports came in that
his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next day, on Obama's orders, the
U.S. military took part in air strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air
defense capabilities to protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[282] including the use of Tomahawk
missiles, B-2
Spirits, and fighter jets.[283][284][285] Six days later, on March
25, by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members, NATO took over leadership of the effort, dubbed Operation
Unified Protector.[286] Some Representatives[287] questioned whether Obama
had the constitutional authority to order military action in addition to
questioning its cost, structure and aftermath.[288][289]
Osama bin Laden
 
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President Barack Obama
along with members of the national security team, receive an update on Operation
Neptune's Spear, in the White
House Situation Room, May 1, 2011. See also:The
Situation Room (photograph)
Starting with information received in July
2010, intelligence developed by the CIA over the next several months determined
what they believed to be the location of Osama bin Laden in a large compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35
miles from Islamabad.[290] CIA headLeon Panetta reported this intelligence
to President Obama in March 2011.[290] Meeting with his national
security advisers over the course of the next six weeks, Obama rejected a plan
to bomb the compound, and authorized a "surgical raid" to be
conducted by United
States Navy SEALs.[290] The operation took place on
May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin Laden and the seizure of papers,
computer drives and disks from the compound.[291][292] DNA testing identified bin
Laden's body,[293] which was buried at sea
several hours later.[294] Within minutes of the
President's announcement from Washington, DC, late in the evening on May 1,
there were spontaneous celebrations around the country as crowds gathered
outside the White House, and at New York City's Ground
Zero and Times Square.[291][295] Reaction to the announcement was positive across party
lines, including from former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,[296] and from many countries
around the world.[297]
Iran Nuclear Talks
On September 27, 2013, Obama spoke on the
phone to Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, which included talk about resolving
the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.[298] By July 2014, Iran had
accepted the limits imposed on a nuclear deal,[299] and by April 2015, a
specific and comprehensively detailed nuclear outline had been agreed upon, in
which Obama referred to as “a historic understanding with Iran.”[300] The Iran nuclear outline is
an ongoing negotiation, but the White House is making all efforts to ensure
that Iran does not have access to nuclear weapons.[301]
Cultural and political image
See
also: International media reaction to the United States
presidential election, 2008 and International reactions to the United States
presidential election, 2012
Obama's first term
presidential portrait (2009)
Obama's family history, upbringing, and Ivy League education differ markedly
from those of African-American politicians who launched their careers in the
1960s through participation in the civil rights movement.[302] Expressing puzzlement over
questions about whether he is "black enough," Obama told an August
2007 meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still
locked in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be
something wrong."[303] Obama acknowledged his youthful
image in an October 2007 campaign speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if,
time and again, the torch had not been passed to a new generation."[304]
Obama is frequently referred to as an
exceptional orator.[305] During his pre-inauguration
transition period and continuing into his presidency, Obama has delivered a
series of weekly Internet video addresses.[306]
According to the
Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a
68 percent approval rating[308]before gradually declining for the rest of
the year, and eventually bottoming out at 41 percent in August 2010,[309] a trend similar to Ronald
Reagan's and Bill Clinton's first years in office.[310] He experienced a small poll
bounce shortly after Osama bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011. This bounce lasted
until around June 2011, when his approval numbers dropped back to where they
were previously.[311][312] His approval ratings
rebounded around the same time as his reelection in 2012, with polls showing an
average job approval of 52 percent shortly after his second inauguration.[313] Despite him dropping to
39 percent in his approval ratings in late-2013 due to the ACA roll-out,
he has climbed to 50 percent in late January 2015 according to the
Gallup Organization.[314] Polls show strong support
for Obama in other countries,[315] and before being elected
President he met with prominent foreign figures including former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair,[316] Italy's Democratic
Party leader and Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni,[317] and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[318]
In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western
Europe and the U.S. by Harris
Interactive for France 24 and the International
Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most respected world leader, as
well as the most powerful.[319] In a similar poll conducted
by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as
well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the
world out of the economic downturn.[320][321]
Obama won Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for abridged audiobook versions of Dreams
from My Father in February 2006 and for The Audacity of
Hope in February 2008.[322] His concession speech after the New Hampshire
primary was set to music by independent artists as the music video "Yes
We Can", which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in
its first month[323] and received a Daytime Emmy
Award.[324] In December 2008 and in
2012, Time magazine named Obama as its Person
of the Year.[325] The 2008 awarding was for
his historic candidacy and election, which Time described as "the steady
march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[326] On May 25, 2011, Obama
became the first President of the United States to address both houses of the UK
Parliament in Westminster Hall, London. This was only
the 5th occurrence since the start of the 20th century, of a head of state
being extended this invitation, followingCharles de Gaulle in 1960, Nelson Mandela in 1996, Queen Elizabeth
II in 2002 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.[327][328]
On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian
Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009
Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to
strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[329] Obama accepted this award
in Oslo, Norway on December 10, 2009, with
"deep gratitude and great humility."[330] The award drew a mixture of
praise and criticism from world leaders and media figures.[331][332][333][334][335][336][337] Obama's peace prize was
called a "stunning surprise" by The New York
Times.[338] Obama is the fourth U.S.
president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the third to become a Nobel
laureate while in office.[339]
Family and personal life
Obama posing in the Green
Room of the White House with wife Michelle and
daughters Sasha and Malia in 2009
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the
diversity of his
extended family: "It's like a little mini-United Nations",
he said. "I've got relatives who look like Bernie Mac, and I've got relatives who
look like Margaret Thatcher."[340] Obama has a half-sister
with whom he was raised (Maya Soetoro-Ng,
the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second husband) and seven
half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family—six of them living.[341] Obama's mother was survived
by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[342] until her death on November
2, 2008,[343] two days before his
election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in Ireland; he met with his
Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011.[344] In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's
family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil
War.[345]
Besides his native English, Obama speaks some basic Indonesian,
having learned the language during his four childhood years in Jakarta.[346][347] He plays basketball, a
sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team;[348] he is left-handed.[349]
Obama taking a shot during
a game on the White House basketball court, 2009
Obama is a supporter of the Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the
first pitch at the 2005 ALCSwhen he was still a senator.[350] In 2009, he threw out the
ceremonial first pitch at the all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[351] He is also primarily a Chicago Bears football fan in the NFL,
but in his childhood and adolescence was a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted
for them ahead of their victory in Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took
office as President.[352] In 2011, Obama invited the 1985
Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited
the White House after their Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the Space
Shuttle Challenger disaster.[353]
In June 1989, Obama met Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a
summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin.[354]Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser
at the firm, Robinson joined him at several group social functions, but
declined his initial requests to date.[355] They began dating later
that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were married on October 3, 1992.[356] The couple's first
daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[357] followed by a second
daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[358] The Obama daughters
attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to
Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private Sidwell
Friends School.[359] The Obamas have two Portuguese Water
Dogs, the first, a male named Bo, a gift from SenatorTed Kennedy.[360] In August 2013, Bo was
joined by Sunny, a female.[361]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the
family moved in 2005 from a Hyde Park,
Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in
neighboringKenwood, Chicago.[362] The purchase of an adjacent
lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the wife of developer, campaign donor
and friendTony Rezko—attracted media attention
because of Rezko's subsequent indictment and conviction on political corruption
charges that were unrelated to Obama.[363]
In December 2007, Money estimated the Obama
family's net worth at $1.3 million.[364] Their 2009 tax return
showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from about $4.2 million
in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of his books.[365][366] On his 2010 income of
$1.7 million, he gave 14 percent to non-profit organizations,
including $131,000 to Fisher
House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans' families,
allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving medical treatments.[367][368] As per his 2012 financial
disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10 million.[369]
Obama tried to quit smoking several times,
sometimes using nicotine
replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama said that he
had successfully quit smoking.[370][371]
Religious views
Obama is a Christian whose religious views
developed in his adult life.[372] He wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not
raised in a religious household". He described his mother, raised by
non-religious parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as
"non-practicingMethodists and Baptists"), as being detached from
religion, yet "in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I
have ever known." He described his father as a "confirmed atheist" by the time his parents met,
and his stepfather as "a man who saw religion as not particularly
useful." Obama explained how, through working with black churches as a community
organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand
"the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social
change."[373]
In January 2008, Obama told Christianity
Today:
"I am a Christian, and I am a devout Christian. I believe in the
redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I believe that faith gives
me a path to be cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[374] On September 27, 2010,
Obama released a statement commenting on his religious views saying "I'm a
Christian by choice. My family didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to
church every week. And my mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew,
but she didn't raise me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in
life, and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of
the kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters'
keeper, treating others as they would treat me."[375][376]
Obama met Trinity
United Church of Christ pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright in October 1987, and became
a member of Trinity in 1992.[377] He resigned from Trinity in
May 2008 during his first presidential campaign after some
of Wright's statements were criticized.[378] After a prolonged effort to
find a church to attend regularly in Washington, Obama announced in June 2009
that his primary place of worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at Camp David.[379]
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