Steffen Malek
Mr. Marlen
Gov.
January 14, 2009
United States President
Barack Obama
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. His parents met while both attending the University of Hawaii. They later married but it didn’t last long. The couple separated when Obama was two years old. Obama’s father died soon after in an automobile accident. Dunham decided to take her life to Indonesia. There, Obama attended local schools. After high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles. There, he attended a college with the name of Occidental College. He stayed there for two years then transferred to Columbia University in New York. As a child, Obama was referred to as “Barry” but later asked to be addressed by his given name. After for years at Columbia University, Obama moved to Chicago. He worked there as a director of a church-based project. Obama entered Harvard Law School in 1988. He had many accomplishments there, including being the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama graduated Harvard and went on to be elected to the Illinois Senate. He was elected in 1996 and succeeded senator Alice Palmer. February 10, 2007, Obama announced that he was running for president. He did it in front of the Old State Capitol, the same building where Abraham Lincoln gave his speech in 1858. All throughout the campaign Obama enforced issues including ending the war in Iraq. He also focused on
universal health care. A lot of democratic candidates entered the running but it was soon narrowed to just Obama and Clinton. After defeating Hilary, he gave a speech in St.Paul,
Minnesota. After that, Obama was to go against republican John McCain. In August of 2008 Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate. In September and October of 2008, there were three presidential debates that took place between Obama and McCain. Later, in November, Obama won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote. He became the first African American president in...