Barack Hussein Obama II (more commonly known as Barack Obama) is the current and 44th President of the United States of America. He assumed office on the 20th of January, 2009, and prior to him becoming the president he was the Senator of Illinois.
Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the 4th of August, 1961. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and has English, German and Irish ancestry. His father, Barack Obama Sr. was a Kenyan. His parents divorced in 1964, after which his father returned to Kenya to remarry. In 1982 he died in a car accident. Obama lived with his maternal grandparents throughout his childhood, during the 1970s. His mother, however, lived in Indonesia with her second husband. She returned to Hawaii in 1994, and she died of cancer one year later.
Obama came to New York City in 1981, when he underwent classes at the Columbia University. He obtained a major in political science, and specialized in international relations. He got his B.A. in 1983.
Obama’s legislative career began in 1996, when he was elected to the Illinois Senate. He was reelected in 1998, lost in 2000, then reelected in 2002. In 2004 he managed to win in a landslide, securing him a position within the United States Senate. He was sworn in as senator in early 2005, and he was to remain in office up until his presidential election in late 2008.
In early 2007, Obama announced he would candidate for the role of President of the United States, with Joe Biden (the Delaware Senator) as his vice president. In June 2008 he won the right to candidate on behalf of the Democratic Party, defeating opponent Hillary Clinton. Obama ran against republican John McCain in the presidential race, and on the 4th of November 2008, he won the presidency after winning 52.9% of the votes, as opposed to McCain’s 45.7%. Thus, he became the first African American to hold a presidential term.
Obama’s personal and family life have seen much exposure over the past few years, as you would expect from the President of the United States. He often jokes about the diversity in his family, saying that he has some relatives that resemble Bernie Mac (a popular African American actor), all the while he also has relatives that rather resemble Margaret Thatcher. Obama has lots of siblings, including a sister from his mother’s second marriage (Maya Soetoro-Ng). His maternal grandmother lived until 2008, two days before Obama was elected as President. Barack was known as “Barry” when he was young, but starting in college he asked to be referred to as Barack.
Due to the fact that he spent four years in Jakarta, Obama speaks fluent Indonesian. He is also an avid basketball players, and he has even played basketball with U.S. soldiers on a number of occasions.
All in all, Barack Obama is quite possibly the most exotic celebrity politician in the U.S., and one figure that will certainly go down in history as a great man.
