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Barack Obama

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Political People

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   Barack Obama
   Barack Obama
     __________________________________________________________________

   Junior U.S. Senator, Illinois
   Incumbent
   Assumed office
   January 3, 2005–
   Serving with Richard Durbin
   Preceded by Peter Fitzgerald
   Succeeded by Incumbent
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born August 4, 1961 (1961-08-04)
   Honolulu, Hawaii
   Political party Democratic
   Spouse Michelle Obama
   Religion United Church of Christ
   Signature

   Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961; IPA pronunciation: [bəˈɹɑk
   oʊˈbɑ.mə]), is the junior United States Senator from Illinois. The U.S.
   Senate Historical Office lists him as the fifth African American
   Senator in U.S. history and the only African American currently serving
   in the U.S. Senate.

   Obama served in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He launched his
   campaign for U.S. Senate in 2003. Midway through campaigning as the
   Democratic nominee, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004
   Democratic National Convention and became a nationally known political
   figure. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 with a
   landslide 70% of the vote.

   In February 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 U.S.
   presidential election. Recent polls of Democratic voters show him
   narrowing the gap with front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton ( D-
   NY). Media sources have identified him as "the first black person
   viewed as a possible winner." In campaign appearances, Obama has
   emphasized ending the Iraq War and implementing universal health care
   as leading issues.

Early life and career

   Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. (born in
   Nyanza Province, Kenya) and Ann Dunham (born in Wichita, Kansas). His
   parents met while both were attending the University of Hawaii at
   Manoa, where his father was enrolled as a foreign student. Obama's
   parents separated when he was two years old and later divorced. His
   father went to Harvard University to pursue Ph.D. studies, then
   returned to Kenya, where he died in a car accident when Obama was 21
   years old. His mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian foreign
   student, with whom she had one daughter. The family moved to Jakarta in
   1967, where Obama attended local schools from ages 6 to 10. He then
   returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents while
   attending Punahou School from 5th grade until his graduation in 1979.
   Obama's mother died of ovarian cancer a few months after the
   publication of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.

   In the memoir, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his
   mother's American middle class family. His knowledge about his absent
   Luo father came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his
   early childhood, Obama writes: "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." The book describes his struggles as
   a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial
   heritage. He used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage
   years, Obama writes, to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."

   After graduating from Punahou, Obama studied at Occidental College for
   two years, then transferred to Columbia University, where he majored in
   political science with a specialization in international relations. He
   received his B.A. degree in 1983, then worked for one year at Business
   International Corporation. In 1985, Obama moved to Chicago to direct a
   non-profit project assisting local churches to organize job training
   programs. He entered Harvard Law School in 1988. In 1990, The New York
   Times reported his election as the Harvard Law Review's "first black
   president in its 104-year history." He completed his J.D. degree magna
   cum laude in 1991. On returning to Chicago, Obama directed a voter
   registration drive. As an associate attorney with Miner, Barnhill &
   Galland from 1993 to 1996, he represented community organizers,
   discrimination claims, and voting rights cases. He was a lecturer of
   constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1993
   until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

State legislature

   Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 from the state's
   13th District in the south-side Chicago neighbourhood of Hyde Park. In
   2000, he made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S. House
   of Representatives seat held by four-term incumbent candidate Bobby
   Rush. He was overwhelmingly reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998
   and 2002, officially resigning in November 2004, following his election
   to the U.S. Senate. Among his major accomplishments as a state
   legislator, Obama's U.S. Senate web site lists: "creating programs like
   the state Earned Income Tax Credit"; "an expansion of early childhood
   education"; and "legislation requiring the videotaping of
   interrogations and confessions in all capital cases." Reviewing Obama's
   career in the Illinois Senate, a February 2007 article in the
   Washington Post noted his work with both Democrats and Republicans in
   drafting bipartisan legislation on ethics and health care reform.
   During his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, Obama won the endorsement of the
   Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, whose officials cited his "longtime
   support of gun control measures and his willingness to negotiate
   compromises," despite his support for some bills the police union had
   opposed. He was also criticized by a rival pro-choice candidate in the
   Democratic primary and by his Republican pro-life opponent in the
   general election for having voted either "present" or "no" on anti-
   abortion legislation.

Keynote address at 2004 Democratic National Convention

   Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic
   National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, while still serving as a
   state legislator. After describing his maternal grandfather's
   experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New
   Deal's FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama said:

     No, people don't expect government to solve all their problems. But
     they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a slight change in
     priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a
     decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open
     to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice.

   Questioning the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War, Obama
   spoke of an enlisted Marine, Corporal Seamus Ahern from East Moline,
   Illinois, asking, "Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us?"
   He continued:

     When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a
     solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about
     why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to
     tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never, ever go to war
     without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the
     respect of the world.

   Finally, he spoke for national unity:

     The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and
     Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats.
     But I've got news for them too. We worship an awesome God in the
     Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our
     libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue
     States and yes, we got some gay friends in the Red States. There are
     patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported the
     war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the
     stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

   The speech was Obama's introduction to most of America. Its
   enthusiastic reception at the convention and widespread coverage by
   national media gave him instant celebrity status.

Senate campaign

   In 2003, Obama began his run for the U.S. Senate open seat vacated by
   Peter Fitzgerald. In early opinion polls leading up to the Democratic
   primary, Obama trailed multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and
   Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes. However, Hull's popularity declined
   following allegations of domestic abuse. Obama's candidacy was boosted
   by an advertising campaign featuring images of the late Chicago Mayor
   Harold Washington and the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon; the support of
   Simon's daughter; and political endorsements by the Chicago Tribune and
   Chicago Sun-Times. Obama received over 52% of the vote in the March
   2004 primary, emerging 29% ahead of his nearest Democratic rival. His
   opponent in the general election was expected to be Republican primary
   winner Jack Ryan. However, Ryan withdrew from the race in June 2004,
   following public disclosure of child custody divorce records containing
   sexual allegations by Ryan's ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan. In August
   2004, with less than three months to go before election day, Alan Keyes
   accepted the Illinois Republican Party's nomination to replace Ryan. A
   long-time resident of Maryland, Keyes established legal residency in
   Illinois with the nomination. Through three televised debates, Obama
   and Keyes expressed opposing views on stem cell research, abortion, gun
   control, school vouchers, and tax cuts. In the general election held
   November 2, 2004, Obama received 70% of the popular vote to Keyes's
   27%.

Senate career

   Obama was sworn in as a Senator on January 4, 2005. He hired former
   Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle's ex-chief of staff for the same
   position, and Karen Kornbluh, an economist who was deputy chief of
   staff to former Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, as his policy
   adviser. In July 2005, Samantha Power, Pulitzer-winning author on human
   rights and genocide, joined Obama's team. Four months into his senate
   career, Time magazine named Obama one of " the world's most influential
   people," calling him "one of the most admired politicians in America."
   An October 2005 article in the British journal New Statesman listed
   Obama as one of "10 people who could change the world." During his
   first two years in the Senate, Obama received Honorary Doctorates of
   Law from Knox College, University of Massachusetts Boston, Northwestern
   University, and Xavier University of Louisiana. He is a member of the
   Senate committees on Foreign Relations; Health, Education, Labor and
   Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Veterans'
   Affairs; and the Congressional Black Caucus.

Legislation

   U.S. Senate bill sponsors Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama greet
   President Bush at the signing ceremony of the Federal Funding
   Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.
   U.S. Senate bill sponsors Tom Coburn ( R- OK) and Barack Obama greet
   President Bush at the signing ceremony of the Federal Funding
   Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

   Obama sponsored 152 bills and resolutions brought before the 109th
   Congress in 2005 and 2006, and cosponsored another 427. His first bill
   was the "Higher Education Opportunity through Pell Grant Expansion
   Act." Entered in fulfillment of a campaign promise, the bill proposed
   increasing the maximum amount of Pell Grant awards to help students
   from lower income families pay their college tuitions. The bill did not
   progress beyond committee and was never voted on by the Senate.

   Obama took an active role in the Senate's drive for improved border
   security and immigration reform. Beginning in 2005, he co-sponsored the
   "Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act" introduced by Sen. John
   McCain ( R- AZ). Obama later added three amendments to S. 2611, the
   "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act," sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter
   ( R- PA). S. 2611 passed the Senate in May 2006, but failed to gain
   majority support in the U.S. House of Representatives. In September
   2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act, authorizing
   construction of fencing and other security improvements along the
   United States–Mexico border. President Bush signed the Secure Fence Act
   into law in October 2006, calling it "an important step toward
   immigration reform."

   Partnering first with Sen. Richard Lugar ( R- IN), and then with Sen.
   Tom Coburn ( R- OK), Obama successfully introduced two initiatives
   bearing his name. "Lugar–Obama" expands the Nunn–Lugar cooperative
   threat reduction concept to conventional weapons, including
   shoulder-fired missiles and anti-personnel mines. The " Coburn-Obama
   Transparency Act" provides for a Web site, managed by the Office of
   Management and Budget, listing all organizations receiving Federal
   funds from 2007 onward, and providing breakdowns by the agency
   allocating the funds, the dollar amount given, and the purpose of the
   grant or contract. On December 22, 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.

   On the first day of the Democratic-controlled 110th Congress, in a
   column published in the Washington Post, Obama called for an end to
   "any and all practices that would lead a reasonable person to believe
   that a public servant has become indebted to a lobbyist." He joined
   with Sen. Russ Feingold ( D- WI) in pressuring the Democratic
   leadership for tougher restrictions regarding travel in corporate jets
   into S.1, the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act of 2007,
   which passed the Senate with a 96-2 majority. Obama joined Charles
   Schumer ( D- NY) in sponsoring S. 453, a bill to criminalize deceptive
   practices in federal elections, including fraudulent flyers and
   automated phone calls, as witnessed in the recent midterm elections.
   Obama's energy initiatives scored pluses and minuses with
   environmentalists, who welcomed his sponsorship with Sen. John McCain (
   R- AZ) of a climate change bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
   two-thirds by 2050, but were skeptical of Obama's support for a bill
   promoting liquefied coal production. Also during the first month of the
   110th Congress, Obama introduced the "Iraq War De-Escalation Act," a
   bill that caps troop levels in Iraq at January 10, 2007 levels, begins
   phased redeployment on May 1, 2007, and removes all combat brigades
   from Iraq by March 31, 2008.

Official travel

   Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) and
   Committee member Barack Obama at a Russian base, where mobile launch
   missiles are being destroyed by the Nunn–Lugar program.
   Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar ( R- IN) and
   Committee member Barack Obama at a Russian base, where mobile launch
   missiles are being destroyed by the Nunn–Lugar program.

   During the August recess of 2005, Obama traveled with Sen. Richard
   Lugar ( R- IN), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to
   Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The trip focused on strategies to
   control the world's supply of conventional weapons, biological weapons,
   and weapons of mass destruction, as a strategic first defense against
   the threat of future terrorist attacks. Lugar and Obama inspected a
   Nunn-Lugar program-supported nuclear warhead destruction facility at
   Saratov, in southern European Russia. In Ukraine, they toured a disease
   control and prevention facility and witnessed the signing of a
   bilateral pact to secure biological pathogens and combat risks of
   infectious disease outbreaks from natural causes or bioterrorism.

   In January 2006, Obama joined a Congressional delegation for meetings
   with U.S. military in Kuwait and Iraq. After the visits, Obama traveled
   to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. While in Israel,
   Obama met with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Obama also met
   with a group of Palestinian students two weeks before Hamas won the
   January 2006 Palestinian legislative election. ABC News 7 (Chicago)
   reported Obama telling the students that "the U.S. will never recognize
   winning Hamas candidates unless the group renounces its fundamental
   mission to eliminate Israel," and that he had conveyed the same message
   in his meeting with Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

   Obama left for his third official trip in August 2006, traveling to
   South Africa and Kenya, and making stops in Djibouti, Ethiopia and
   Chad. Obama flew his wife and two daughters from Chicago to join him in
   a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural
   western Kenya. Obama was greeted by enthusiastic crowds at his public
   appearances. In a public gesture aimed to encourage more Kenyans to
   undergo voluntary HIV testing, Obama and his wife took HIV tests at a
   Kenyan clinic. In a nationally televised speech at the University of
   Nairobi, Obama spoke forcefully on the influence of ethnic rivalries in
   Kenyan politics and corruption. The speech touched off a public debate
   among rival leaders, some formally challenging Obama's remarks as
   unfair and improper, others defending his positions.

Presidential campaign

   Obama supporters at campaign rally in Austin, Texas, on February 23,
   2007. Obama drew a crowd of over 20,000 attendees at this Austin
   appearance.
   Obama supporters at campaign rally in Austin, Texas, on February 23,
   2007. Obama drew a crowd of over 20,000 attendees at this Austin
   appearance.

   On February 10, 2007, in Springfield, Illinois, Obama announced his
   candidacy for the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He said:

     It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come
     together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the
     American people–where I came to believe that through this decency,
     we can build a more hopeful America. And that is why, in the shadow
     of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house
     divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams
     still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for
     President of the United States of America.

   The announcement followed months of speculation on whether Obama would
   run in 2008. Speculation intensified in October 2006 when Obama first
   said he had "thought about the possibility" of running for president,
   departing from earlier statements that he intended to serve out his
   six-year Senate term through 2010. Following Obama's statement, opinion
   polling organizations added his name to surveyed lists of Democratic
   candidates. The first such poll, taken in November 2006, ranked Obama
   in second place with 17% support among Democrats after Sen. Hillary
   Clinton ( D- NY) who placed first with 28% of the responses.

   Through the fall of 2006, Obama spoke at political events across the
   country in support of Democratic candidates for the midterm elections.
   In September 2006, he was the featured speaker at Iowa Senator Tom
   Harkin's annual steak fry, an event traditionally attended by
   presidential hopefuls in the lead-up to the Iowa caucus. In December
   2006, Obama spoke at a New Hampshire event celebrating Democratic Party
   midterm election victories in the first-in-the-nation U.S. presidential
   primary state. Addressing a meeting of the Democratic National
   Committee one week before announcing his candidacy, Obama called on
   Democrats to steer clear of negative campaigning:

     This is not a game. This can't be about who digs up more skeletons
     on who, who makes the fewest slip-ups on the campaign trail. We owe
     it to the American people to do more than that. We owe them an
     election where voters are inspired–where they believe that we might
     be able to do things that we haven't done before. We don't want
     another election where voters are simply holding their noses and
     feel like they're choosing the lesser of two evils. So we've got to
     rise up out of the cynicism that's become so pervasive and ask the
     people all across America to start believing again.

   In April 2007, Obama's campaign reported raising US$25.8 million
   between January 1 and March 31 of 2007. The donations came from 104,000
   individual donors, with US$6.9 million raised through the Internet from
   50,000 of the donors. US$24.8 million of Obama's first quarter funds
   can be used in the primaries, the highest of any 2008 presidential
   candidate.

Political advocacy

   On the role of government in economic affairs, Obama has written: "we
   should be asking ourselves what mix of policies will lead to a dynamic
   free market and widespread economic security, entrepreneurial
   innovation and upward mobility [...] we should be guided by what
   works." Speaking before the National Press Club in April 2005, Obama
   defended the New Deal social welfare policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt,
   associating Republican proposals to establish private accounts for
   Social Security with Social Darwinism. In a May 2006 letter to
   President Bush, he joined four other Midwest farming state Senators in
   calling for the preservation of a US$0.54 per gallon tariff on imported
   ethanol. Obama spoke out in June 2006 against making recent, temporary
   estate tax cuts permanent, calling the cuts a " Paris Hilton" tax break
   for "billionaire heirs and heiresses."

   Speaking in November 2006 to members of Wake Up Wal-Mart, a
   union-backed campaign group, Obama said: "You gotta pay your workers
   enough that they can actually not only shop at Wal-Mart, but ultimately
   send their kids to college and save for retirement." In January 2007,
   Obama spoke at an event organized by Families USA, a health care
   advocacy group. Obama said, "The time has come for universal health
   care in America [...] I am absolutely determined that by the end of the
   first term of the next president, we should have universal health care
   in this country." Obama went on to say that he believed that it was
   wrong that forty-six million Americans are uninsured, noting that
   taxpayers already pay over 15 billion dollars annually to care for the
   uninsured.

   He was an early opponent of Bush administration policies on Iraq. In
   the fall of 2002, during an anti-war rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza,
   Obama said:

     I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and
     without strong international support will only fan the flames of the
     Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of
     the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda. I am
     not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. You want a fight,
     President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda,
     through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of
     the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland
     security program that involves more than colour-coded warnings.

   Speaking before the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in November 2006,
   he said: "The days of using the war on terror as a political football
   are over. [...] It is time to give Iraqis their country back, and it is
   time to refocus America's efforts on the wider struggle yet to be won."
   In his speech Obama also called for a phased withdrawal of American
   troops starting in 2007, and an opening of diplomatic dialogue with
   Iraq's neighbors, Syria and Iran.

   Obama spoke about Iran's " uranium enrichment program" on March 2,
   2007, stating that Iran's government is "a threat to all of us," and
   that the US "should take no option, including military action, off the
   table." However, he stated that the US's "primary means" of relating to
   Iran should entail "sustained and aggressive diplomacy combined with
   tough sanctions."

   Obama began podcasting from his U.S. Senate web site in late 2005. He
   has responded to and personally participated in online discussions
   hosted on politically-oriented blog sites. In a June 2006 podcast,
   Obama expressed support for telecommunications legislation to protect
   network neutrality on the Internet, saying: "It is because the Internet
   is a neutral platform that I can put out this podcast and transmit it
   over the Internet without having to go through any corporate media
   middleman. I can say what I want without censorship or without having
   to pay a special charge. But the big telephone and cable companies want
   to change the Internet as we know it."

   During his first year as a U.S. senator, in a move more typically taken
   after several years of holding high political office, Obama established
   a leadership political action committee, Hopefund, for channeling
   financial support to Democratic candidates. Obama participated in 38
   fundraising events in 2005, helping to pull in US$6.55 million for
   candidates he supports and his own 2010 re-election fund. The New York
   Times described Obama as "the prize catch of the midterm campaign"
   because of his campaigning for fellow Democratic Party members running
   for election in the 2006 midterm elections. Hopefund gave US$374,000 to
   federal candidates in the 2006 election cycle, making it one of the top
   donors to federal candidates for the year.

   Obama has encouraged Democrats to reach out to evangelicals and other
   religious people, saying, "if we truly hope to speak to people where
   they’re at–to communicate our hopes and values in a way that’s relevant
   to their own–we cannot abandon the field of religious discourse." In
   December 2006, Obama joined Sen. Sam Brownback ( R- KS) at the "Global
   Summit on AIDS and the Church" organized by church leaders Kay and Rick
   Warren. Together with Warren and Brownback, Obama took an HIV test, as
   he had done in Kenya less than four months earlier. Obama encouraged
   "others in public life to do the same" to show "there is no shame in
   going for an HIV test." Before the conference, 18 pro-life groups
   published an open letter stating, in reference to Obama's support for
   legal abortion: "In the strongest possible terms, we oppose Rick
   Warren's decision to ignore Senator Obama's clear pro-death stance and
   invite him to Saddleback Church anyway."

Personal life

   Obama is joined on stage by his wife and two daughters before
   announcing his presidential campaign in Springfield, Illinois, on
   February 10, 2007.
   Obama is joined on stage by his wife and two daughters before
   announcing his presidential campaign in Springfield, Illinois, on
   February 10, 2007.

   Obama met Michelle Robinson in 1988 while employed as a summer
   associate at Sidley & Austin, the law firm where she also worked. They
   were married in 1992 at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. They
   have two daughters, Malia, born in 1999, and Natasha, born in 2001.
   Obama's wife and daughters reside in Hyde Park, Chicago.

   A theme of Obama's keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National
   Convention, and the title of his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope, was
   inspired by a sermon by Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of Obama's
   church. In the book, Obama describes his non-religious upbringing:

     I was not raised in a religious household. My maternal grandparents,
     who hailed from Kansas, had been steeped in Baptist and Methodist
     teachings as children, but religious faith never really took root in
     their hearts. My mother's own experiences as a bookish, sensitive
     child growing up in small towns in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas only
     reinforced this inherited skepticism. [...] My father was almost
     entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my
     mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had
     been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a
     confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.

   Obama writes that his religious convictions formed during his twenties,
   when, as a community organizer working with local churches, he came to
   understand "the power of the African American religious tradition to
   spur social change":

     It was because of these newfound understandings–that religious
     commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking,
     disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or
     otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved–that I was
     finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of
     Christ one day and be baptized. It came about as a choice and not an
     epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear. But
     kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt
     God's spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and
     dedicated myself to discovering His truth.

   Before announcing his presidential candidacy, Obama began a
   well-publicized effort to quit smoking. "I've never been a heavy
   smoker," Obama told the Chicago Tribune. "I've quit periodically over
   the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that
   in the stresses of the campaign I don't succumb. I've been chewing
   Nicorette strenuously."

Books authored

   Obama's 1995 book, Dreams from My Father, is a memoir of his youth and
   early career. The book was reprinted in 2004 with a new preface and an
   annex containing his 2004 Democratic Convention keynote speech. The
   audio book edition earned Obama the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Spoken
   Word Album. In December 2004, Obama signed a US$1.9 million contract
   for three books. The first, The Audacity of Hope, was published in
   October 2006. A Spanish translation will be published in June 2007. The
   second book covered under the publishing contract is a children's book
   to be co-written by his wife and daughters, with profits going to
   charity. The content of the third book has not been announced.

Cultural and political image

   Supporters and critics have likened Obama's popular image to a cultural
   Rorschach test, a neutral persona on which people can project their
   personal histories and aspirations. Obama's own self-narrative
   reinforces what a May 2004 New Yorker magazine article described as his
   " everyman" image. In Dreams from My Father, he ties his maternal
   family history to possible Native American ancestors and distant
   relatives of Jefferson Davis, president of the southern Confederacy
   during the American Civil War. Speaking to an elderly Jewish audience
   during his 2004 campaign for U.S. Senate, Obama linked the linguistic
   roots of his East African first name Barack to the Hebrew word baruch,
   meaning "blessed." In an October 2006 interview on The Oprah Winfrey
   Show, Obama highlighted the diversity of his extended family: "Michelle
   will tell you that when we get together for Christmas or Thanksgiving,
   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. We've got it all."

   Obama's rapid rise from Illinois state legislator to U.S. presidential
   candidate has attracted conflicting analyses among commentators
   challenged to align him with traditional social categories. In her
   January 2007 Salon article asserting that Obama "isn't black,"
   columnist Debra Dickerson writes: "lumping us all together [with Obama]
   erases the significance of slavery and continuing racism while giving
   the appearance of progress." Expressing a similar view, New York Daily
   News columnist Stanley Crouch wrote: "When black Americans refer to
   Obama as 'one of us,' I do not know what they are talking about." But
   in an October 2006 article titled "Obama: Black Like Me," British
   columnist Gary Younge describes Obama as "a black man who does not
   scare white people." Film critic David Ehrenstein, writing in a March
   2007 Los Angeles Times article, compares the cultural sources of
   candidate Obama's favorable polling among whites to those of " magical
   negro" roles played by black actors in Hollywood movies. Ehrenstein
   says these films are popular because they offer U.S. audiences a
   comfort for " white guilt."

   Writing about Obama's political image in a March 2007 Washington Post
   opinion column, Eugene Robinson characterized him as "the
   personification of both-and," a messenger who rejects "either-or"
   political choices, and could "move the nation beyond the culture wars"
   of the 1960s. Obama, who defines himself in The Audacity of Hope as "a
   Democrat, after all," has been criticized for his political actions by
   self-described progressive commentator David Sirota, and complimented
   for his "Can't we all just get along?" manner by conservative columnist
   George Will. But in a December 2006 Wall Street Journal editorial
   headlined "The Man from Nowhere," former Ronald Reagan speech writer
   Peggy Noonan advised Will and other " establishment" commentators to
   get "down from your tippy toes" and avoid becoming too quickly excited
   about Obama's still early political career. Agreeing with Obama's own
   assessment that "people project their hopes on him," Noonan attributed
   some of Obama's popularity to "a certain unknowability."

Works

     * Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and
       Inheritance, Times Books, 1995. Reprint edition, 2004; ISBN
       1-4000-8277-3
     * Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the
       American Dream, Crown, 2006. ISBN 0-307-23769-9. Summary at
       Wikisummaries.

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