Jeph howard biography of barack

Their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha Sasha , were born in and , respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate in and served there for eight years. In , he was elected by a record majority to the US Senate from Illinois and, in February , announced his candidacy for president. When President Obama took office, he faced very significant challenges.

The economy was officially in a recession, and the outgoing administration of George W. Bush had begun to implement a controversial "bail-out" package to try to help struggling financial institutions. In foreign affairs, the United States still had troops deployed in difficult conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the first two years of his first term, President Obama was able to work with the Democratic-controlled Congress to improve the economy, pass health-care reform legislation, and withdraw most US troops from Iraq.

After the Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in , the president spent significant time and political effort negotiating, for the most part unsuccessfully, with congressional Republicans about taxes, budgets, and the deficit.

Jeph howard biography of barack

The next year, he met with constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe. Their discussion so impressed Tribe that when Obama asked to join his team as a research assistant, the professor agreed. He graduated magna cum laude with his juris doctor from Harvard Law School in In , while still in law school, Obama joined the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin as a summer associate.

There, he met Michelle Robinson, a young lawyer who was assigned to be his adviser. Initially, Michelle refused to date Barack, believing that their work relationship would make the romance improper. However, she relented not long after, and the couple fell in love. On October 3, , he and Michelle were married. Barack and Michelle welcomed two daughters several years later: Malia , born in , and Sasha , born in The couple has stated that their personal priority is their children.

During his years as a state senator, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans to draft legislation on ethics, as well as expand health care services and early childhood education programs for the poor. He also created a state earned-income tax credit for the working poor. In , Obama made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.

House of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby Rush. Undeterred, he created a campaign committee in and began raising funds to run for a seat in the U. Senate in With the help of political consultant David Axelrod, Obama began assessing his prospects for a Senate win. Encouraged by poll numbers, Obama decided to run for the open U.

Senate seat, vacated by Republican Peter Fitzgerald. In the Democratic primary, he defeated multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes with 52 percent of the vote. That summer, he was invited to deliver the keynote speech in support of John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. Obama emphasized the importance of unity and made veiled jabs at the George W.

Bush administration and the diversionary use of wedge issues. After the convention, Obama returned to his U. Senate bid in Illinois. His opponent in the general election was supposed to be Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, a wealthy former investment banker. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June following public disclosure of unsubstantiated sexual deviancy allegations by his ex-wife, actor Jeri Ryan.

That August, diplomat and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan. With his win, Obama became only the third African American elected to the U. Senate since Reconstruction. Sworn into office on January 3, , Obama partnered with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Then, with Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, he created a website to track all federal spending. In February , Obama made headlines when he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. He was locked in a tight battle with then-U. He campaigned on an ambitious agenda of financial reform, alternative energy, and reinventing education and health care—all while bringing down the national debt.

Because these issues were intertwined with the economic well-being of the nation, he believed all would have to be undertaken simultaneously. When he took office at age 47, Obama inherited a global economic recession, two ongoing foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the lowest-ever international favorability rating for the United States. They are serious, and they are many.

They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met. Obama coaxed Congress to expand health care insurance for children and provide legal protection for women seeking equal pay. Housing and credit markets were put on life support, with a market-based plan to buy U. The government made loans to the auto industry, and new regulations were proposed for Wall Street.

Obama cut taxes for working families, small businesses, and first-time home buyers. He reached out to improve relations with Europe, China, and Russia and to open dialogue with Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. He lobbied allies to support a global economic stimulus package. He committed an additional 21, troops to Afghanistan and set an August date for withdrawal of nearly all U.

Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! The America around him was still racially segregated and divided. Large parts of his childhood were spent in the care of his grandparents in Hawaii, his mother having left America for a new husband and job in Indonesia. Barack Obama, despite the disadvantages that life threw at him, worked hard and eventually enrolled to study law at Harvard University.

After graduating with honours he settled in Chicago where he met Michelle Robinson. Like Barack Obama she was a young lawyer who was keen to address the racial disadvantages that were still present in American society. Following their marriage, and the arrival of two daughters, Barack Obama was elected as Illinois Senator and then as the 44th President of the United States of America.

He became the first African American to hold this role. To address the financial crisis he inherited, he passed a stimulus bill, bailed out the struggling auto industry and Wall Street, and gave working families a tax cut. In the foreign policy arena, Obama opened up talks with Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela and set a withdrawal date for American troops in Iraq.

No Americans were lost in the operation, which gathered evidence about Al-Qaeda. Barack Obama was re-elected for a second term in , beating out Republican Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan. The midterm elections proved challenging, as Republicans gained a majority in both houses of Congress. His second term was marked by several international events.

In , Obama came out strongly against the use of chemical weapons on civilians by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, avoiding a direct strike on Syria when al-Assad agreed to accept a Russian proposal that it relinquish its chemical weapons. Perhaps the defining moment of his international diplomacy was his work on the Iran Nuclear Deal , which allowed inspectors into Iran to ensure it was under the pledged limit of enriched uranium in return for lifting economic sanctions.

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