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Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama was elected president on Nov. 4, 2008, becoming the first African-American to claim the highest office in the land, an improbable candidate fulfilling a once-impossible dream. A nation that in living memory struggled violently over racial equality will have as its next president a 47-year-old, one-term U.S. senator born of a Kenyan father and Kansan mother. He is the first president elected from Chicago and the first to rise from a career in Illinois politics since Abraham Lincoln emerged from frontier obscurity to lead the nation through the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.

Obama's resounding victory over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) repudiates an unpopular incumbent and an ongoing war, shifts national leadership to a new generation and provides dramatic proof to the world of the American ideal of opportunity for all.

Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii. He graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a political science degree, and he entered Harvard Law School in 1988. Obama published an autobiography in 1995--"Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance". He was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. In 2000, Obama ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but lost to incumbent Bobby Rush. In 2004, Obama won the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. That summer, he delivered the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. His opponent in the senate race was supposed to Jack Ryan. However, Ryan withdrew from the race amid sexual allegations by his ex-wife. Alan Keyes replaced Ryan on the ballot, and in the general election, Obama won easily, grabbing 70 percent of the vote. « Show less

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Dec 2, 2008 |Story| Baltimore Sun

Obama seeks governors' input on economy

The nation's governors met with President-elect Barack Obama today to help craft an economic stimulus plan that would include money for ready-to-go transportation projects and programs for the poor that have been stretched by increased demand. Several...

Tags: Executive Branch, Health Insurance, Local Elections, Republican Party, Sarah Palin

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| Newsday

Ebony magazine names Obama 'Person of the Year'

Tribune's The Swamp blog
Ebony magazine has chosen its first "Person of the Year.'' President-elect Barack Obama. If the election of the first African-American president does not stand out as a landmark event in the history of a magazine founded for African-American readers...

Tags: National or Ethnic Minorities, Newspaper and Magazine, Michelle Obama, Magazines, Books and Magazines

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| Hartford Courant

Rell Meets With President-Elect Obama

Associated Press
Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell says President-elect Barack Obama wished her luck in dealing with the state's growing budget deficit during his meeting with 41 of the nation's governors in Philadelphia. The governors talked with Obama and Vice President-...

Tags: Executive Branch, Joe Biden, Jodi Rell, Government, Regional Authority

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez won't seek re-election

Associated Press Writers
U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida, who has struggled to boost his approval ratings because of close ties to President George W. Bush, announced Tuesday he will not seek a second term in 2010. His seat was widely seen as vulnerable in two years, but...

Tags: Charity, George Bush, Mel Martinez

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| Los Angeles Times

Georgia Senate runoff could decide balance of power

Associated Press
Georgia voters had their hands on the balance of power in the next U.S. Senate in a runoff election today, one of two unresolved races that Democrats need to win to get a 60-seat majority impervious to GOP filibusters. Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby...

Tags: Executive Branch, Mike Huckabee, Referenda, Republican Party, Sarah Palin

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| Associated Press

Obama has bipartisan message for nervous governors

The Associated Press
President-elect Barack Obama pledged quick work Tuesday on an economic recovery plan to include tax cuts and increased federal spending, and told the nation's governors he wants their advice in designing it. "We intend to put tax cuts into the pockets of...

Tags: Executive Branch, Government, Regional Authority, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Local Elections

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Stop butchering English language

The American people are guilty of literally "murdering" the English language. What has happened to the use of proper grammar? I turn on the television, and every person reporting the news, and even people representing our government, make the same...

Tags: Boynton Beach

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Everyone loves Hillary

Everybody loves the anticipated appointment of Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state, from Ohio to Oregon to Okinawa to Oslo. Every government official knows that she will listen to their problems, as she has in the past in her visits to foreign...

Tags: Religious Festivals, Schools, Ramadan, Diplomacy, Terrorism

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Deadly blasts show Iraq remains volatile

Los Angeles Times
Bombers attacking Iraqi and U.S. security forces cut a deadly swath across Iraq on Monday, killing as many as 36 people, including 15 police cadets at a police academy in Baghdad. Also in the capital, an Iraqi army general escaped an assassination...

Tags: Wars and Interventions

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Despite Milk movie, gays still seek rights

Dianne Feinstein is not sure she'll ever be able to watch the movie Milk, even though she's in it. There is 1978 footage of a stricken Feinstein in the opening minutes of the new Gus Van Sant biopic of Harvey Milk, her colleague on the San Francisco...

Tags: Dianne Feinstein, Harvey Milk, Same-Sex Marriage, Gays and Lesbians, Jerry Brown

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Governors pressing Congress for help

The Associated Press
Facing severe cutbacks in state services as the recession deepens, the nation's governors pressed their case on Capitol Hill Monday, asking for at least $40 billion to help pay for health care for the poor and disabled. The governors are also pressing...

Tags: Executive Branch, Government, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, State Budgets

Dec 2, 2008 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Obama says choices promise 'vigorous debate' on policy

McClatchy Newspapers
The members of the national security team that president-elect Barack Obama named Monday are all strong-willed public servants who at times have vehemently disagreed with changes he proposes to U.S. national security policy. His future national...

Tags: United Nations, Jim Jones, Janet Napolitano, Diplomacy, NATO