Obama's age. Retired in search. What is Barack Obama doing now? US presidential race and elections

Barack Hussein Obama II 44th President of the United States since January 20, 2009
Vice President: Joseph Biden
Predecessor: George W. Bush
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Senator from Illinois
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January 4, 2005 - November 16, 2008
Predecessor: Peter Fitzgerald
Succeeded by: Roland Burris
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Illinois Senator from the 13th Congressional District
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January 8, 1997 - November 4, 2004
Predecessor: Alice Palmer
Succeeded by: Kwame Raoul

Religion: Methodism
Birth: August 4, 1961 (age 54)
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Birth name: English Barack Hussein Obama II
Father: Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (1936-1982)
Mother: Stanley Ann Dunham (1942-1995)
Spouse: Michelle Obama (since 1992, b. 1964)
Children: daughters: Malia Ann (b. 1998)
Natasha (“Sasha”) (b. 2001)
Party: Democratic Party
Education: 1) Columbia University
2) Harvard University
Profession: Lawyer

Barack Hussein Obama II- current (since January 20, 2009) 44th President of the United States of America. Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (in advance) 2009. Before being elected president, he was a federal senator from Illinois. He was re-elected for a second term in 2012.

The first African American nominated for the presidency of the United States by one of the two major parties, and the first black president in the national history of heads of state, as well as a president with an African surname and a middle name of Arabic etymological origin. Obama is mulatto, but, unlike most black Americans, he is not a descendant of slaves, but the son of a student from Kenya and a white American woman (Stanley Ann Dunham).

A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was also the first African American editor of the university's Harvard Law Review. Obama also worked as a community organizer and civil rights lawyer. He taught constitutional law at the Chicago Institute of Legal Sciences from 1992 to 2004 and was simultaneously elected to the Illinois State Senate three times, from 1997 to 2004. After an unsuccessful run in 2000 for the US House of Representatives, he ran for the US Senate in January 2003. After winning the primaries in March 2004, Obama gave the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with 70% of the vote.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, he helped create laws to regulate conventional weapons and increase transparency in the use of state budget. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe(including Russia), the Middle East and Africa. While serving in the 110th Congress, he helped create laws relating to voter fraud, lobbying, climate change, nuclear terrorism and discharged US military personnel.

Obama announced his desire to run for president in February 2007 and in 2008, in the presidential primaries at the Democratic National Convention, he was officially nominated as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate along with his vice presidential candidate, Senator Joseph Biden from Delaware. In the 2008 presidential election, Obama beat the ruling party's candidate. Republican Party John McCain, gaining 52.9% of the popular vote and 365 Electoral College votes versus McCain's 45.7% and 173.

On October 9, 2009 received Nobel Prize peace with the wording "for extraordinary efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation between people."
In the 2012 presidential election, Obama beat Republican candidate Mitt Romney with 51.1% of the popular vote and 332 Electoral College votes to Romney's 47.2% and 206.

Childhood, education, early career
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents met in 1960 while studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. At the same time, during the election campaign in the United States, rumors circulated that Obama was born outside the United States, which would deprive him of the right to be elected to the presidency. On March 1, 2012, Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio announced that Barack Obama's birth certificate may be a computer-generated forgery; he made a similar statement regarding the military registration form filled out by the future president in 1980.

Father - Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (1936-1982) - Kenyan, son of a healer from the Luo people. The mission school paid for his studies in Nairobi and sent him to study econometrics at the University of Hawaii, where he organized the Foreign Students Association and became the top of his class. Mother - Stanley Ann Dunham (1942-1995) - was born on a military base in Kansas into a family of Christian Americans, but later became an agnostic. She is mainly English, Scottish, Irish and German origin; Barack Obama also has Cherokee ancestry through her mother, Madeleine Lee Payne. The surname Dunham itself belongs to the American aristocracy and comes from the pioneer settler Richard Singletary and his son Jonathan (1639/40-1724), who, for reasons that are not entirely clear, changed his surname to Dunham (family legend traces him back to the owners of Dunham Castle in Scotland, which allegedly in infancy, relatives were criminally deprived of their inheritance).

Stanley Ann was studying anthropology at the University of Hawaii when she met Obama Sr. Grandmother Madeleine Lee raised Obama for a long time, they were very attached to each other. Obama paused his presidential campaign to visit her in the hospital; Madeleine Lee Payne Dunham died on November 2, 2008.

Obama Sr.'s father and Dunham's parents were against the marriage, but they got married on February 2, 1961. Two years after Barack was born, his father went to continue his studies at Harvard, but Dunham and Obama Jr. soon returned to Hawaii. Barack's parents divorced in January 1964.

While studying at Harvard University, Obama Sr. met the American teacher Ruth Nidesand, with whom, after completing his studies in the United States, he went to Kenya. This was his third marriage, which produced two children. Upon returning to Kenya, he worked for an oil company and then received a position as an economist in the government apparatus. He last saw his son when he was 10 years old. In Kenya, Obama Sr. was involved in a car accident, as a result of which he lost both legs, and later died in another car accident.

Soon after the divorce, the mother met another foreign student, Indonesian Lolo Sutoro, married him and in 1967 left with him and little Barak for Jakarta. From this marriage, Barack had a half-sister, Maya. Barack's mother died of ovarian cancer in 1995.

In Jakarta, Obama Jr. studied in one of the public schools from 6 to 10 years old. After that, he returned to Honolulu, where he lived with his mother's parents until he graduated from the prestigious private school Panahou in 1979.

He described his childhood memories in his book “Dreams of My Father.” As an adult, he admitted to smoking marijuana and taking cocaine and alcohol in school, which he told voters at the Presidential Campaign Civic Forum on August 16, 2008, and described it as his lowest moral low point.

After high school, he studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years, and then transferred to Columbia University, where he specialized in international relations. By the time he received his bachelor's degree in 1983, Obama was already working at the International Business Corporation and the New York Research Center.

In 1985, when he moved to Chicago, he began working as a community organizer in disadvantaged areas of the city. In 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School, where in 1990 he became the first African-American editor of the university's Harvard Law Review.

Obama is left-handed.

Illinois State Senator
In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois State Senate.

He served as a senator from 1997 to 2004, representing the US Democratic Party: he was re-elected twice: in 1998 and 2002. As a senator, he collaborated with both Democrats and Republicans: he worked with representatives of both parties on programs to support low-income families through tax cuts; acted as a supporter of development preschool education, supported measures to tighten control over the work of investigative bodies.

In 2000, he attempted to run for election to the US House of Representatives, but lost the primaries to the incumbent black congressman Bobby Rush.

In 2004, he entered the race for nomination to one of the seats from Illinois in the US Senate. He won a convincing victory over six opponents in the primaries.

Washington Senate (2005-2008)
Sworn in as a U.S. Senator on January 4, 2005, becoming the 5th African American U.S. Senator in the nation's history.

At the end of August 2005, as part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, he flew to Russia to inspect Russian nuclear facilities together with Republican Senator Richard Lugar; During the trip on August 28, upon departure at Perm Bolshoye Savino airport, an incident occurred: the senators were detained for three hours due to their refusal to “comply with the demands of the border guards” to inspect the plane, which had diplomatic immunity. Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed regret “in connection with the misunderstanding that arose and the inconvenience caused to the senators.” In his book, Obama regarded the incident as one of the moments during his trip "that recalled the days of the Cold War."

While a senator, he visited the White House several times at the invitation of President George W. Bush.

The nonpartisan publication Congressional Quarterly characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on an analysis of all Senate votes from 2005-2007; National Journal recommended him as the "most liberal" senator based on an assessment of elected votes during 2007.

In 2008, Congress.org ranked him as the 11th most powerful senator.

Presidential race
Main article: United States presidential election (2008)
On February 10, 2007, in front of the old Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. The location was symbolic because it was there that Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic “House Divided” speech in 1858. Throughout the campaign, Obama advocated for a quick end to the Iraq War, energy independence and universal health care. His campaign slogans are "Change We Can Believe in" and "Yes We Can!" (The song Yes We Can, recorded by a number of famous artists using words from Obama's campaign speech, received great fame and a Webby Award).
During the first half of 2007, the Obama campaign raised $58 million. Small donations (less than $200) accounted for 16.4 million of that amount. The number set a record for presidential campaign fundraising in the first six months of the calendar year before an election. The size of the small portion of the donation was also quite significant. In January 2008, the campaign set another record with $36.8 million raised - greatest number ever collected by a presidential candidate in the Democratic primary.
Obama is the first and, as of 2012, the only US presidential candidate to refuse public funding of his election campaign.

Progress of the election campaign
Barack Obama became the unified Democratic candidate after she officially announced her withdrawal from the race on June 7, 2008 and supported Obama's candidacy. On June 25, 2008, 42nd US President Bill Clinton endorsed Obama for the first time, through spokesman Matt McKenna, declaring that he would do everything in his power to ensure that Barack Obama won the November 2008 US presidential election.

Primary elections
Obama won convincingly in states with high urbanization and education levels, but at the same time really hard hit by the 2008 crisis; The most difficult states for Obama were predominantly white states, such as West Virginia, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and others less affected by the crisis. Obama also won victories in traditionally Republican states (for example, Alaska and Mississippi, which have traditionally supported Republicans since 1980), and at the same time, in traditionally liberal states such as Washington and Minnesota and in some “flip” states.

On November 4, Obama secured the support of 338 of the 538 electors with the required 270 votes, which meant he would take office on January 20, 2009. At the same time, voter turnout reached a record of 64%.

Resonance in the USA and other countries
Obama received the fewest votes in the southern US; in Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, where up to 60% of those participating in the elections voted for McCain; and in one of these states, only one in ten white voters, according to exit polls, voted for Obama.
According to the Associated Press, in the United States, after Barack Obama won the presidential election, the number of cases of religious and racial intolerance has increased; Director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Mark Potok said: “There are a large number of people who feel that they are losing their usual way of life, that it is as if the country that their ancestors built has been stolen from them.”

Obama's victory caused euphoria in a number of countries around the world - a phenomenon called "Obamamania", the symptoms of which began to appear during the election campaign. Kenya and some other countries in Africa and the Middle East were especially susceptible to it.

Russian-American political scientist Nikolai Zlobin wrote in Vedomosti on January 28, 2009 about the Kremlin’s reaction to Obama’s victory: “The tone of Dmitry Medvedev’s speech to the Federal Assembly on November 5, 2008, as well as the belated and cold congratulations to Obama, indicated that Moscow I was not ready for Obama and was very disappointed.”

Activities as President-Elect
On November 10, 2008, he met with George W. Bush to discuss the state of affairs in the country and the world.

On November 11, 2008, he and his wife visited the White House, where he was received by President George W. Bush and his wife, which was presented by the US media as “the beginning of the transfer of power.”

November 17, 2008 met with Republican Senator John McCain; Together with the latter, he issued a statement proclaiming his intention to “begin a new era of reform” in Washington and “return prosperity” to American families.

On November 18, 2008, in a video address to participants in an environmental conference in Los Angeles, he condemned the current administration for “abandoning the leadership role” of the United States in conservation. environment; promised that he would allocate $15 billion annually for energy saving measures and would strive to reduce emissions greenhouse gases in the US in 2020 to 1990 levels. On the same day, the media reported unofficial information about his intention to appoint a black lawyer, Eric Holder, who was US Deputy Secretary of Justice under Clinton, to the post of Secretary of Justice in his future administration.

On November 24, 2008, he introduced several people on his “team of economic recovery advisors” (The President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board), who in the future should occupy important positions and develop the policy of the future administration regarding the global economic crisis.

On November 26, he announced the leadership of his team of economic advisers by the former chairman of the Federal reserve system USA (1979-1987) by Paul Walker.

On December 1, 2008, in Chicago, Senator Hillary Clinton was officially announced as a candidate for the post of US Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for the post of Secretary of Defense.

Presidency
Main article: Presidency of Barack Obama
First presidential term
Inauguration
Main article: Inauguration of Barack Obama

Barack Obama takes the presidential oath of office
On January 20, 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States at 12:05 EST (17:05 UTC) during an inauguration ceremony near the Capitol building; The ceremony attracted a record number of spectators - over a million people. The oath was taken on the Bible on which Abraham Lincoln swore at his inauguration. The first act of the President upon taking the oath of office was the proclamation of the Proclamation declaring January 20, 2009 “National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation.”

His speech called for a “new era of responsibility.”

According to CNN (January 21, 2009), the cost of Barack Obama's inauguration and inaugural festivities is the highest in US history: costs could exceed $160 million.

The next day, late in the evening, on the advice of constitutional lawyers, the White House, as a precaution, re-took the oath of the head of state, due to the fact that the day before there was an error in reading the text of the oath established by the US Constitution: Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Roberts mistakenly put the word “honestly” ( English faithfully) after the words “to serve as President of the United States.”

Activities during the first presidential term
On January 22, 2009, he signed an order to close the prison for suspected terrorists at the American military base at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) within a year.

On January 29, the US Congress supported the plan to stimulate the American economy proposed by the US President. The plan involves an injection of $819 billion. On February 10, the US Senate approved Obama's emergency anti-crisis plan at a cost of $838 billion. When implementing the plan, up to 4 million new jobs should be created in 2 years. The plan also contains provisions for direct investment in the healthcare, energy, and education sectors.

Barack Obama signs American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17.jpg
On February 17, Barack Obama sent an additional 17 thousand troops to Afghanistan, and also signed a $787 billion anti-crisis plan adopted by the US Congress in Denver (pictured).

On July 6-8, Barack Obama made an official working visit to Moscow. During the visit, bilateral agreements were signed, including on the transit of American military cargo to Afghanistan through Russian territory.

In 2010, Obama, despite Republican opposition, achieved the passage of a health care reform law.

In 2011, the US army, on Obama's orders, participated in the NATO intervention in Libya.

On April 4, 2011, Barack Obama confirmed his desire to run for a second presidential term, began raising money for the election campaign and announced the start of the presidential race.

Nobel Peace Prize
On October 9, 2009 he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Members of the Nobel Committee considered Obama's efforts "in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation between people" worthy of the award. Obama became the third US president, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, who received the Nobel Peace Prize while in office (it was also awarded to former President Jimmy Carter).

According to Obama himself, he has not yet earned this award. According to many experts, Obama received the award largely due to his promise to reduce nuclear arsenals, made in early 2009.

Iraq and Afghanistan
See also: Iraq War and War in Afghanistan (since 2001)
As a presidential candidate, Obama stated that the Iraq War was a mistake by the Bush administration and that Afghanistan should become the central front in the fight against terrorism, he stated that Afghanistan was “sliding into chaos and threatening to turn into a narco-terrorist state.” In mid-2008, he advocated that by the summer of 2009 there would be no American combat units left in Iraq. (It was noted that even at the stage of the pre-election internal party struggle for nomination as a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, supporters of the war in Iraq were grouped around Clinton (she herself voted for it in the Senate), and opponents were grouped around Obama.) He also said that on the first day after his inauguration he will give the order to end the war in Iraq. Immediately after coming to power, he revised his views on the timing of the end of the war, saying in February 2009 that military operations there would be completed in 18 months.

During 2009, Obama twice strengthened the American contingent in Afghanistan. In February, 17 thousand military personnel were sent there. In December, Obama announced the deployment of 30,000 more troops, while emphasizing that the United States is not interested in occupying Afghanistan. Currently, the American contingent in Afghanistan already numbers about 70 thousand troops, and after the arrival of reinforcements it will reach 100 thousand, which is comparable to the number of the Soviet contingent at the peak of the USSR war in Afghanistan (about 109 thousand people).

The escalation of US participation in hostilities in Afghanistan, as well as the stabilization of the situation in Iraq, led to the fact that if in 2008 American losses in Afghanistan were half as many as those in Iraq, then in 2009 the situation changed in a mirror image - in a year, twice as many people died in Afghanistan more soldiers than in Iraq. Overall, 2009 was the bloodiest year for American forces in Afghanistan since the start of the counterterrorism operation. During the first year and a half of Obama's presidency, as many American soldiers died in Afghanistan as during both of George W. Bush's presidential terms (from the start of the war in 2001 to the end of 2008). However, US casualties remain far below the annual Soviet casualties at the height of the 1979-1989 war.

Second presidential term
2012 presidential elections
Main article: United States presidential election (2012)

Obama and Vladimir Putin, 39th G8 summit, June 17, 2013.
Barack Obama announced his intention to seek a second presidential term on April 4, 2011. By officially launching his campaign a year and a half before the election, Obama became the first candidate to run for the 2012 US presidential election. The early start gave him the opportunity to break the campaign fundraising record. According to The New York Times, Obama managed to raise 934 million dollars. More than 200 million were spent on the maintenance of the campaign headquarters.

Obama was initially well positioned to win the presidential race due to the lack of a clear Republican frontrunner. However, “the lack of real changes, on the promise of which he came to power,” played against him. According to Obama supporters, the main role in the 2012 elections was played by the “smooth operation of the election machine,” and not by the enthusiasm of voters, as was the case in 2008.

Obama's opponent was Republican Mitt Romney. The intrigue of the elections continued until the last moment. As a result, Obama received a noticeable advantage in the electoral votes (303 versus 206 for Romney), but overall he was supported by about half of voters. Experts noted Obama's loss of support among independent voters and the need to take into account Republican positions on strategic issues.

Activities during the second presidential term
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cartoon: Obama and Edward Snowden
After the victory in the elections, instead of the expected calm, which made it possible to implement the tasks set by the president, negative events began to happen one after another, which led not only to a decrease in Barack Obama’s rating, but also to the emergence of talk about the “curse of the second term,” according to which “the majority American leaders elected for a second term, the second half of their reign was much worse than the first.” The situation surrounding the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, problems with the launch of healthcare reform and the operation of the healthcare.gov website, hesitation in decision-making around the situation with the chemical attack in Syria, information about the tax authorities allegedly oppressing right-wing organizations, secret access to telephone conversations journalists, the scandal surrounding Edward Snowden's revelations and other events led to a deterioration in the image of Barack Obama and a decrease in his popularity.

In 2013, Obama's ratings steadily declined by 1-2 percentage points every month. A CNN/ORC International poll conducted in November 2013 showed that Obama's number of supporters had dropped by 12% over six months, and more than half of those surveyed said they did not see the president as a decisive, strong leader and that he did not inspire confidence. In 2014, the situation worsened; in April and September, the degree of approval of Obama's activities reached its minimum - 51% of Americans had a negative attitude towards the president's course. According to a survey conducted from June 24 to June 30, 2014 by Quinnipiac University, 33% of survey participants considered Barack Obama the worst American president since World War II (28% said so for George W. Bush).

Political views and statements
In his book The Audacity of Hope (2006), he wrote: “From the very beginning of my work in the Senate, I was a consistent and sometimes very harsh critic of the policies of the Bush administration. I think tax breaks for wealthy citizens are not only ill-conceived, but also highly questionable from a moral point of view.”

Barack Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy.

The International Herald Tribune on November 16, 2008 wrote about his political views as they were articulated during the election campaign: “Obama has not defined himself in clear ideological terms, although his record and program are left of center.”

Obama spoke out in favor of allowing abortions, including abortions at later. During the discussion in the United States about the law prohibiting abortion using the so-called method. partial birth (en:Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act) wrote that if he were elected, he would tirelessly defend this method of abortion as a legitimate medical procedure. He also participated in the development of programs to prevent pregnancy among adolescents, including through the distribution of contraceptives and educational programs about sex education for teenagers.

November 18, 2008 reaffirmed its commitment to work towards significant goals to combat change global climate.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta on November 19, 2008 wrote: “For many believers, it was a surprise that a black Democrat, a defender of women’s right to abortion and a supporter of stem cell research, won a majority of the votes of religious voters.” The publication cited statistics from the Pew Research Center, according to which 53% of religious US residents voted for Barack Obama, 46% for John McCain; while four years ago, John Kerry lost to George W. Bush in the battle for the votes of religious Americans: 48% to 51%.

Immediately after Obama’s inauguration, political scientist Nikolai Zlobin noted: “The closer the day of transfer of powers from Bush to the new president of the country was, the more and more favorably and positively Barack Obama spoke about his predecessor. This is a stark change from Obama's highly critical anti-Bush rhetoric during the election campaign. It seems that this change in the new president’s public attitude towards his predecessor is largely due to the fact that as Obama delves into matters, becomes familiar with the real situation in which George Bush had to act and in which Obama himself will now have to act, the latter is increasingly began to understand that his predecessor pursued a fairly rational policy, taking into account all possible factors and restrictions.”

Speaking at Georgetown University on April 14, 2009, Barack Obama made the following argument in defense of the consumer society and explained the reason for government intervention in the free market:

“If all families and all businesses in America cut their expenses at the same time, then no one will spend money, the number of consumers will fall, which in turn will lead to new layoffs and the situation in the economy will deteriorate even more. That's why the government had to step in and temporarily increase spending to stimulate demand. This is exactly what we are doing now,” said the American president.

- “Obama sees light at the end of the tunnel”, Euronews TV channel
Mitt Romney accused Obama of supporting the idea of ​​income redistribution. Romney calls Obama voters "people who are unable to provide for themselves and live off the government."

According to Obama, he is a supporter of the idea of ​​a world without nuclear weapons.

In 2009, at a press conference in Japan, Obama twice avoided answering a direct question and refused to defend the advisability of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States.

Since at least 1996, he has been a supporter of the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States. At the same time, same-sex marriages did not exist in any country in the world in the 1990s, although same-sex civil partnerships were already registered in a small number of jurisdictions.

In 2016, US President Barack Obama said he was not competing with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Syria. During his speech at the US-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in California, he also called the Russian army “the second most powerful in the world.”

Criticism
The influential British newspaper The Times suggests that President Obama is not paying enough attention to foreign policy, as a result of which such not entirely democratic states as Russia, China and Iran strive to take a dominant place in the world. According to newspaper columnist Melanie Phillips, Obama's passive stance is having a detrimental effect on countries where compromise is perceived as defeat:

“The exclusion of military intervention is encouraging to those who see it as a sign of the West's willingness to endure anything. »
The erosion of the West's obligations to protect democracy and the borders of countries, according to Phillips, is clearly visible in the examples of Russia and China. These countries believe they can fill the vacuum by expanding their spheres of influence to eventually recreate lost empires, which could have disastrous consequences for freedom and democracy around the world.

Syria
Main article: Civil War in Syria
Former US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel accuses Obama of lacking a clear policy line regarding the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition. Thus, according to Hagel, on August 30, 2013, Obama refused to order a missile strike on Damascus, despite the fact that Syrian troops used poison gas against the opposition [approx. 1], that is, they crossed the “red line” previously announced by Obama himself. According to Hagel, the refusal to take decisive action at a critical moment dealt a crushing blow to the reputation of both President Obama himself and the United States as a whole.

List of works
In English
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. - Three Rivers Press, 1995. - ISBN 0307383415.
The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. - Crown Publishing Group / Three Rivers Press, October 17, 2006. - ISBN 0307237699.
Barack Obama in His Own Words. - PublicAffairs, March 27, 2007. - ISBN 0786720573.
National Urban League. The State of Black America 2007: Portrait of the Black Male / Foreword by Barack Obama. - Beckham Publications Group, April 17, 2007. - ISBN 0931761859.
Renewing American Leadership. - Foreign Affairs 86 (4), July-August 2007.
Barack Obama: What He Believes In - From His Own Works. - Arc Manor, March 1, 2008. - ISBN 1604501170.
Barack Obama, John McCain. Barack Obama vs. John McCain - Side by Side Senate Voting Record for Easy Comparison. - Arc Manor, June 13, 2008. - ISBN 1604502495.
Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise / Foreword by Barack Obama. - Three Rivers Press, September 9, 2008. - ISBN 0307460452.
In Russian
Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream = The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream / Trans. T. Kamyshnikova, A. Mitrofanova. - St. Petersburg: ABC-classics, 2008. - 416 p. - 25,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-395-00209-9.
Family and personal life
Main article: Barack Obama family
Since 1992, Barack Obama has been married to Michelle Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964), a practicing lawyer. They have two daughters - Malia Ann (born in 1998), Natasha (“Sasha”; born in 2001).

In Honolulu, the capital of the state of Hawaii.

His parents . Father - Barack Hussein Obama Sr. came to the United States from Kenya to study economics.

His mother, American Stanley Anne Dunham, studied anthropology. His parents separated when Barack was two years old. My father went to Harvard to continue his studies, and then went back to Kenya. Anne Dunham married again - to an Indonesian student.

In 1967, Barack Obama moved to Indonesia, and in 1980 he returned to Hawaii, where he graduated from private school. After high school, Obama attended Los Angeles Occidental College, from where he transferred to Columbia University, where he graduated in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations.

After graduating from college, Obama worked as a consultant for the Business International Corporation and then for the New York Public Interest Research Group.

In 1985, he moved to Chicago, where he worked in one of the church charity groups, helping residents of disadvantaged areas of the city.

In 1988, Barack Obama entered Harvard Law School.

After graduating, he returned to Chicago and worked in a law firm for nine years. At the same time, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.

In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate, where he represented the Democratic Party for eight years, from 1997 to 2004.

In 2004, he ran for the vacated U.S. Senate seat in Illinois and received 70% of the vote. Obama became the fifth black senator in US history.

On January 10, 2007, Democratic Senator Barack Obama officially announced the start of the race for the presidency of the United States.

His announcement of entering the presidential race was made in the capital of Illinois, Springfield. The place was symbolic, since it was here, in the Illinois Legislature, that the career of the youngest American senator, 45-year-old Barack Obama, began.

Obama spoke in front of the old State Capitol building, where almost 150 years earlier, in 1858, Lincoln delivered his famous “House Divided” speech, which spoke of the confrontation between the free North and the slave-owning South and the fact that, being divided, the country will not stand - it is impossible to be in a state of “half-slavery and half-freedom.” Obama’s choice of moment to enter the presidential marathon was also significant: there was exactly a year left before the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.

On August 27, 2008, the national convention of the US Democratic Party in Denver officially approved Senator Barack Obama from Illinois as a candidate for the presidency of the country.

On November 4, 2008, Obama won the US presidential election with the support of 338 of the 538 electors, with the required 270 votes.

He took the oath of office as President of the United States and became the first black head of state in American history.

Barack Obama was re-elected as president with 332 electoral votes, with 270 needed.

Barack Obama - . In 1995, he published his memoirs, “Dreams from My Father,” and in 2006, the book “The Audacity of Hope.” Both books became bestsellers. In November 2010, a 31-page children's book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, was published, which Obama wrote before he became head of state.

On October 9, 2009, the Nobel Committee announced US President Barack Obama as the recipient of the Peace Prize for his “extraordinary efforts” in strengthening international diplomacy to create a world without nuclear weapons.

Barack Hussein Obama Jr. is born. Barack's parents studied at the University of Hawaii, where they met. Barack Hussein Obama Sr. is a black Kenyan, Stanley Anne Dunham's mother is a white American. When Barack Obama was just born, his father left to continue studying economics. Due to financial difficulties, my father left on his own. Two years later, he moved to Kenya, where he was offered a government job. Long separations destroyed the family and the parents divorced.

When Barak was 6 years old, his mother remarried an Indonesian foreign student. Lolo Soetoro's stepfather moved his new family to Indonesia. Barack Obama stayed in Indonesia for four years.

Barak received his first education at one of the schools in Jakarta. After which he returned to his mother’s parents in Hawaii. In 1979, Obama graduated from the capital's privileged private school, Punahou. The name of the school was made by its graduates, including famous actors and athletes. During his studies, Barack Obama was fond of basketball. His team won the 1979 state championship. That same year, Obama Junior graduated from school, taking an honorable place in the lists of famous graduates. Much later, in 1995, Barack Obama admitted in his memoirs that he used marijuana and cocaine in school, which caused his academic performance to plummet.

Barack then entered Occidental College in , but soon transferred to Columbia University, from which he graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1983. It was here, at Columbia University, that Obama began to emerge as a politician. After university, Barack Obama worked for a year as an editor in the financial information department.

In 1985, Barack Obama moved to, where he got a job as a “social organizer” at one of the charitable church organizations. This work significantly influenced his political views. Helping the poor, the future president realized that the country needed changes, both in legislative framework, and in politics in general.

In 1988, Barack Obama sat down to his textbooks again. He begins to study law at Harvard. In 1990, he became the first black editor of the Harvard Love Review. This year, the New York Times will name him the first "black" president of the Harvard Lawyers' Club in the club's one hundred and four years of existence.

In 1991, after graduating, he returned to Chicago, where he practiced law. Its main feature was protecting the rights of victims of discrimination. During this time, he also worked on the Democratic staff and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago (1993-2004). In addition, Barak also worked part-time at the private law firm Miner, Barnhill and Galand.

Baraka became known for his liberal views; he was against the creation of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA). In addition, he always fought against racial discrimination and supported a system of universal health insurance.

The first book, “Dreams Inherited from Father,” will be published in 1995 and will bring Barack Obama great fame.

In 1996, Obama won election to the State Senate. A little later, in the Washington Post, Obama will be noted as a politician who managed to unite the goals of Republicans and Democrats. It was in Illinois that it began political career Barack Obama. From 1997 to 2004 – Obama was a representative of the Democratic Party.

In 2000, Obama ran for the House of Representatives for the first time. The attempt was doomed to failure. The election was won by former member of the Black Panther movement Bobby Rush. In , Barack Obama was one of the initiators of preschool education. He worked with Republicans and Democrats to develop government programs for the poor through tax cuts. Obama insisted on the need to tighten control over the activities of investigative agencies. In 2002, he spoke harshly of Bush's policies regarding the Iraq War.

In 2004, he entered the race for a seat in the US Senate. In the primaries, he successfully beat six opponents. In addition, the departure of one of his opponents from the Republicans played into Obama's hands. The reason for Jack Ryan's departure was a divorce scandal.

On July 29, 2004, Obama delivered his national convention address. Obama's speech was broadcast on television and brought considerable fame to the politician. In his speech, Barack Obama reminded Americans to return America to its status as a land of “open opportunity.” As an example, he used facts from the biography of his family. This appeal predetermined the outcome of the election, which Obama won by a margin of 70% to 27% over his opponent, Alan Keyes.

January 4, 2005 - Obama became the fifth African-American senator in US history. Obama worked with several committees at once: the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Environment, Veterans Affairs and public works.

In the Senate, Obama continues to cooperate with the Republican Party. Together with the Republicans, Barack Obama is working on changes to the legislative framework regarding transparency in government activities. In addition, Obama is visiting Russia with Republican Senator Richard Lugar. The purpose of the trip was to establish cooperation in the field of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. However, in the Senate, Obama always toe the liberal Democratic line. In addition, the senator showed considerable interest in questions about the development of alternative energy sources.

The senator quickly won the sympathy of the media and became one of the key figures in the capital. In the fall of 2006, forecasts regarding President Obama were made for the first time. And already in 2007 he became a dangerous competitor for Hillary Clinton. A committee was created in January to evaluate election forecasts. According to statistics, 15% of Democrats supported Barack Obama, and 43% supported Hilary Clinton. But already in June 2007, the gap between the candidates was only 3%.

In January 2007, a scandal erupted around Obama. Someone spread information that the senator studied in Indonesia at an Islamic school-madrasa, where representatives of the radical Muslim sect of Wahhabis taught. The information was refuted, but many began to distrust the running candidate.

On February 10, a rally was organized in Springfield, Illinois, at which Obama publicly announced for the first time that he was ready to enter the fight for the presidency. He promised the Americans that if he won, he would withdraw American troops from Iraq by the early spring of 2009. He also criticized the Bush administration for significant gaps and shortcomings in eliminating dependence on oil supplies, as well as in the educational system.

On February 13, another rally was held in the state, at which Obama recklessly accused Bush of the fact that people were dying in Iraq in vain. After which, Obama publicly apologized many times and made excuses for having expressed himself incorrectly. With his intention to end the war in Iraq, Barack Obama caused a storm of protest not only in the country, but also abroad. For example, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that Obama is following the plans of terrorists.

In February 2007, Obama was supported by the founder of the DreamWorks film company, David Geffin. Geffin has supported Bill Clinton in the past. Geffin announced that Hillary Clinton is not yet capable of uniting the nation in such a difficult time for the country. David Geffin initiated a campaign to collect donations in favor of Barack Obama; Hollywood celebrities raised $1.3 billion. But harsh statements towards Hillary Clinton undermined Obama's chances, after which the difference between the candidates reached 12% (24% of Democrats supported Obama, and 36% supported Clinton).

But there was another problem - Obama was African-American. This issue worried not only representatives of the white population, but also influential African-American figures. They did not see him as one of their own, since Obama's ancestors were never slaves and did not take part in uprisings for the rights of the African-American population. In addition, it turns out that Obama had slave owners in his family.

In 1992, Obama married lawyer Michelle Robinson Obama. They had two daughters: Malia and Sasha. According to the official biography, the couple are parishioners of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Barack Obama is the author of two famous books. In 1995, the memoir “Dreams from My Father” was published, and in 2006, the bestseller “The Audacity of Hope” was published. The audio version of the first edition broke all sales records and in 2006 Obama received a Grammy Award for the book.

Barack Obama Career: Party worker
Birth: USA" Honolulu, 4.8.1961
Barack Obama is the current President of the United States of America. Born August 4, 1961. Barack Obama was a US Senator from Illinois before being elected President on January 20, 2009. On January 4, 2005, Barack Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator, becoming the 5th African-American U.S. senator in the country's history. On February 10, 2007, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. On January 20, 2009, he was officially named the 44th President of America.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii. His parents met at the University of Hawaii. Father, black Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama Sr., came to the USA to study economics. His mother, white American Stanley Ann Dunham, studied anthropology. When Barack was still a baby, his dad went to Harvard to continue his studies, but did not take his family with him due to financial difficulties. When his son was two years old, Obama Sr. was the only one who went to Kenya, where he received a position as an economist in the government apparatus. He divorced his wife.

When Barack was six years old, Anne Dunham remarried, still to a foreign student, this time an Indonesian. Together with his mother and stepfather Lolo Soetoro, the boy went to Indonesia, where he spent four years. He studied at one of the public schools in Jakarta. Then he returned to Hawaii and lived with his mother's parents. In 1979 he graduated from the privileged private school Punahou School in Honolulu. During his school years, Obama's big hobby was basketball. He won the 1979 state championship as a member of the Punahaou team. In his memoirs, published in 1995, Obama himself recalled that in high school he used marijuana and cocaine, and his grades declined.

After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles, then transferred to Columbia University, where he graduated in 1983. After that, in 1985 he settled in Chicago and worked in one of the church charity groups. As a “social organizer” he helped residents of disadvantaged areas of the city. As reported on one of Obama's websites, his experience in philanthropy made him realize that changes in legislation and policy are needed to improve people's lives.

In 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School, where in 1990 he became the first black editor of the university's Harvard Law Review. In 1991, Obama graduated and returned to Chicago. Engaged in legal practice, mainly defending victims in court different types discrimination. In addition, he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School and worked on issues voting rights in a small law firm. Obama became known as a liberal, an opponent of the creation of NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Area, a fighter against racial discrimination, and a supporter of a system of universal health insurance.

Obama's political career began in the Illinois State Senate, where he represented the Democratic Party for eight years, from 1997 to 2004. In 2000, Obama attempted to run for election to the House of Representatives, but lost the primary to incumbent Congressman Bobby Rush, a former member of the Black Panther movement. In the state Senate, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans, working together on government programs to support low-income families through tax cuts. Obama has been a vocal advocate for early childhood education. He supported measures to tighten control over the work of investigative bodies. In 2002, Obama condemned the George W. Bush administration's plans to invade Iraq.

In 2004, Obama entered the race for one of the Illinois seats in the US Senate. In the primaries, he managed to win a convincing victory over six opponents. Obama's chances for a happy moment increased when his Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, was forced to withdraw his candidacy due to scandalous allegations brought against Ryan during his divorce proceedings.

On July 29, 2004, during the election campaign, Obama addressed the Democratic National Convention. His speech, which was broadcast on television, brought Obama wide fame in the United States. The senatorial candidate urged listeners to return to the roots of American society and once again build the United States as a country of “open opportunity”: he illustrated the ideal of open opportunity through the example of his own biography and the biography of his father.

In the Senate elections, Obama defeated Republican Alan Keyes by a large margin. He began his duties on January 4, 2005 and became the fifth black senator in US history. Obama served on several committees: Environment and Public Works, Veterans Affairs, and Foreign Relations.

As he previously did in the state Senate, Obama collaborated with Republicans on a number of issues, including work on government transparency legislation. In addition, together with the famous Republican Senator Richard Lugar, Obama visited Russia: the trip was dedicated to cooperation in the field of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In general, Obama voted in the Senate in accordance with the liberal line of the Democratic Party. He paid special attention to the idea of ​​developing alternative energy sources.

Senator Obama managed, in an unusual way, to win the sympathy of the press and become one of the most prominent figures in Washington. By the fall of 2006, observers already considered his nomination in the next presidential elections entirely possible. At the beginning of 2007, Obama was in second place behind Senator Hillary Clinton on the list of Democratic Party favorites. In January, Obama created an evaluation committee to prepare for the presidential election. As of early February 2007, 15 percent of Democrats were ready to come to Obama's rescue, and 43 percent of Clinton.

In January 2007, Obama faced scandalous accusations. Information began to spread in the press that while living in Indonesia, he allegedly studied at an Islamic school-madrassa, where representatives of the radical Muslim sect of the Wahabbits preached. These accusations were refuted, but left an important negative imprint on Obama's image.

On February 10, at a rally in Springfield, Illinois, Obama announced his entry into the presidential race. In case of victory, he promised to withdraw American troops from Iraq by March 2008. Along with the Iraq campaign, he criticized the Bush administration for insufficient progress in combating oil dependence and developing the education system. Soon, on February 13, at another rally, the one that took place in Iowa, Obama made a reckless statement. Criticizing Bush's Iraq policy, he said the lives of American troops killed in Iraq were "wasted." He had to repeatedly justify himself and explain that he had unsuccessfully expressed his thoughts. Obama's stance on Iraq and his plans to withdraw troops were critically received by Bush supporters not only in the United States, but also abroad. One of the American president's allies, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, announced that Obama's plans play into the hands of terrorists.

In February 2007, Obama was supported by David Geffen, one of the founders of the film company DreamWorks, and in the past the only prominent supporter of Bill Clinton. Geffin said that Hillary Clinton is an overly controversial figure and will not be able to unite Americans at a difficult time for the country. Together with other Hollywood celebrities, Geffin organized an event to raise donations in favor of Obama; the amount collected reached $1.3 billion. Geffin's harsh comments about Clinton were associated with a narrowing of the gap between the former first lady and Obama: at the end of February, the difference was 12 percent. 36 percent of Democrats were ready to vote for Clinton, and 24 percent for Obama.

One of vulnerabilities Obama's candidate was questioned about his affiliation with "African-Americans." As it turned out, some representatives of the black population, including the most influential representatives of this minority, were in no hurry to recognize Obama as one of their own. The fact is that, unlike a “real” American Negro, Obama is not a descendant of slaves brought to the American continent from West Africa. In addition, the senator did not have the opportunity to participate in the struggle for the rights of blacks, unlike most American black politicians. The situation worsened when, in early March 2007, the media reported that Obama's maternal family included slave owners.

Obama has been married to lawyer Michelle Robinson Obama since 1992. They have two daughters: Malia and Sasha. Official biographies report that Obama and his wife are parishioners of one of the Christian churches in Chicago, Trinity United Church of Christ.

Barack Obama is the author of two books: in 1995 he published a memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, and in 2006, the book The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream). The audio version of the first book won a Grammy Award in 2006. Both of Obama's books became bestsellers.

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Barack Hussein Obama Jr. (English: Barack Hussein Obama II, pronounced - American statesman and politician, 44th President of the United States of America (since January 20, 2009). Winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Before being elected president, he was a US Senator from the state of Illinois. Was re-elected to a second term in 2012. The first African American nominated for the post of President of the United States by one of the two major parties. Zodiac sign - Leo.

Childhood

Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961, in the city of Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents met in 1960 while studying at the University of Hawaii at Manoa; father - Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (1936-1982) - the son of a medicine man from the Luo people. The mission school paid for his studies in Nairobi and sent him to study econometrics at the University of Hawaii, where he organized the Foreign Students Association and became the top of his class.

Obama's mother, Stanley Anne Dunham (1942-1995), was born on a military base in Kansas into a Christian American family, but later became an agnostic. Obama's own religion is Protestantism.

Stanley Ann Dunham is of English, Scottish, Irish and German descent; Barack also has Cherokee ancestry through her mother, Madeleine Lee Payne. The surname Dunham belongs to the American aristocracy and is descended from the pioneer Richard Singletary and his son Jonathan (1639/40-1724), who for unclear reasons changed his surname to Dunham (family legend traces him to the owners of Dunham Castle in Scotland, which was criminally disinherited by relatives in infancy). Stanley Ann was studying anthropology at the University of Hawaii when she met Obama Sr.

Obama Sr.'s father and Dunham's parents were against the marriage, but they married on February 2, 1961. This was the second marriage of 25-year-old Kenyan Barack.

And on August 4, 1961, in the city of Honolulu, on the Hawaiian Islands, Obama Sr.’s fifth child was born, but his first from 18-year-old American Anne Dunham. Obama is mulatto, but, unlike most black Americans, not a descendant of slaves.

The young couple was happy, but their union lasted only 3 years. Two years after the birth of his son, his father went to continue his studies at Harvard, but Dunham and Obama Jr. soon returned to Hawaii. Barack's parents divorced in January 1964.

While studying at Harvard University, Obama Sr. met the American teacher Ruth Nidesand, with whom, after completing his studies in the United States, he went to Kenya. This was his third marriage, which produced two children. In total, my father was married 4 times.

Subsequently, the fate of Obama Sr. was tragic. At first, success awaited him - he worked for an oil company, and then received the position of senior economist in the Kenyan government office at the Ministry of Finance. For criticizing the economic actions of the country's president, Obama Sr. fell out of favor with him, and his career came to an end. Obama started drinking and fell into poverty. The last time he saw his son was when Barack was 10 years old. In Kenya, Obama Sr. was involved in a car accident, as a result of which he lost both legs.

After his parents' divorce, Barack Obama lived in Hawaii with his grandparents. His mother starred in explicit photo shoots, and therefore her parents disowned her. Grandmother Madeleine Lee raised the boy for a long time. Barak's grandfather, dissident and revolutionary; like Obama’s father, he fought against the existing political system in Kenya, but unsuccessfully. Hussein Onyango Obama's fight against British colonial policy in his country ended with torture, disability and two years in prison. Soon his grandson will spread this policy throughout the world...

Anne Dunham divorced her husband when he started having problems and remarried an Indonesian foreign student, Lolo Sutoro. In 1967, Anne went with him and little Barack to Jakarta. From this marriage, Barack had a half-sister, Maya.

Education, early career

In Jakarta, Obama Jr. attended public school from age 6 to 10. After that, he returned to Honolulu, where he lived with his mother's parents until he graduated from the prestigious private school Panahou in 1979.

In 1982, Obama Sr. died in a car accident. He left eight children from four wives. Obama described his childhood memories in his book “Dreams from My Father.”

Obama is left-handed. His autograph:

After high school, Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years and then transferred to Columbia University, where he majored in international relations. By the time he received his bachelor's degree in 1983, he was already working at the International Business Corporation and the New York Research Center.

In 1985, after moving to Chicago, Barack Obama worked as a community organizer in disadvantaged areas of the city.

In 1988, he entered Harvard Law School, where in 1990 he became the first African-American editor of the university's Harvard Law Review.

Obama taught constitutional law at the Chicago Institute of Legal Sciences from 1992 to 2004. He also worked as a civil rights attorney. At the same time, Obama met his future wife Michelle (born 1964).

In 1995, Barack's mother died of ovarian cancer.

Illinois State Senator

In 1996, Barack Obama was elected to the Illinois State Senate from the 13th Congressional District. His predecessor in this post was Alice Palmer, and his successor was Kwame Raoul.

Obama served as a senator from January 8, 1997 to November 4, 2004, representing the US Democratic Party: he was re-elected twice: in 1998 and 2002. As a senator, Obama worked with Democrats and Republicans: working with representatives of both parties on programs to support low-income families through tax cuts; acted as a supporter of the development of preschool education, supported measures to tighten control over the work of investigative bodies.

In 1998, Obama had a daughter, Malia Ann.

In 2000, Barack made an unsuccessful run for the US House of Representatives, but lost the primary to incumbent black congressman Bobby Rush.

In 2001, his second daughter Natasha (“Sasha”) was born.

In January 2003, B. Obama ran for the US Senate.

After winning the primary in March 2004, Obama delivered the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in July of that year. He entered the race for nomination to one of the Illinois seats in the US Senate. Obama won a landslide victory over six opponents in the primaries, gaining 70% of the vote. He was elected to the Senate in November 2004.

Obama, as a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, helped create laws to regulate conventional weapons and increase transparency in the use of government budgets. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Senate in Washington

Barack Obama was sworn in as a United States Senator on January 4, 2005, becoming the 5th African American Senator. His predecessor was Peter Fitzgerald and his successor was Roland Burris. The nonpartisan publication Congressional Quarterly characterized Obama as a "loyal Democrat" based on an analysis of all Senate votes from 2005-2007.

As part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, Obama flew to Russia to inspect Russian nuclear facilities along with Republican Senator Richard Lugar. During the trip on August 28, 2005, upon departure at Perm Bolshoye Savino airport, an incident occurred: the senators were detained for three hours due to their refusal to “comply with the demands of the border guards” to inspect the plane, which had diplomatic immunity. Later, the Russian Foreign Ministry expressed regret “in connection with the misunderstanding that arose and the inconvenience caused to the senators.” In his book, Obama regarded the incident as one of the moments during his trip "that recalled the days of the Cold War."

Political views and statements

As a senator, Obama visited the White House several times at the invitation of President George W. Bush. Barack was an early opponent of President George W. Bush's Iraq policy. In his 2006 book The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote: “From the beginning of my time in the Senate, I have been a consistent and sometimes harsh critic of the Bush administration's policies. I think tax breaks for wealthy citizens are not only ill-conceived, but also highly questionable from a moral point of view.”

While serving in the 110th Congress, Obama helped create laws relating to voter fraud, lobbying, climate change, nuclear terrorism and discharged US military personnel.

US presidential race and elections

Obama announced his bid for the presidency on February 10, 2007, in front of the Old Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. The location was symbolic; it was there that Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic “House Divided” speech in 1858. Throughout the campaign, Obama advocated for a quick end to the Iraq War, energy independence and universal health care. His campaign slogans are "Change We Can Believe in" and "Yes We Can!" (The song Yes We Can, recorded by a number of famous artists using words from Obama's speech, received great fame and a Webby Award).

During the first half of 2007, the Obama campaign raised $58 million. Small donations (less than $200) accounted for 16.4 million of that amount. The number set a record for presidential campaign fundraising in the first six months of the calendar year before an election. The size of the small portion of the donation was also quite significant.

In January 2008, the campaign set another record with $36.8 million, the most ever raised by a presidential candidate in the Democratic primary. Obama was formally nominated at the 2008 Democratic National Convention along with his running mate, Delaware Senator Joseph Biden.

Iraq War and War in Afghanistan

As a presidential candidate, Obama said the Iraq War was a mistake by the Bush administration and that Afghanistan should become a central front in the fight against terrorism. He stated that Afghanistan was “sliding into the abyss of chaos and threatening to turn into a narco-terrorist state.” In mid-2008, he advocated that by the summer of 2009 there would be no American combat units left in Iraq. At the stage of the pre-election internal party struggle for nomination as a presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, supporters of the war in Iraq were grouped around Clinton (she herself voted for it in the Senate), and opponents were grouped around Obama.

Progress of the election campaign

Barack Obama became the unified Democratic candidate after Hillary Clinton officially announced her withdrawal from the race on June 7, 2008 and supported Obama's candidacy. And on June 25, the 42nd US President Bill Clinton supported Obama for the first time, through official representative Matt McKenna, declaring that he would do everything in his power to ensure that Barack Obama won the presidential election.

Obama admitted that he smoked marijuana, took recreational drugs (cocaine) and alcohol in school, which he told the press and voters at the Citizens' Forum of the presidential campaign on August 16, 2008 and described this as his lowest moral failure.

Primary elections. Democratic primary results by state. (states that supported Obama are shown in lilac, Clinton in green)

Obama won convincingly in states with high urbanization and education levels, but at the same time really hard hit by the 2008 crisis; The most difficult states for Barack were the states in which the white population predominates, these are West Virginia and Florida. He won victories in the traditionally Republican states of Alaska and Mississippi, which have supported Republicans since 1980, as well as in the traditionally liberal states of Washington and Minnesota and in some flip states.

Obama interrupted his presidential campaign to visit his grandmother in the hospital, they were very attached to each other; Madeleine Lee Payne Dunham died on November 2, 2008.

On November 4, Obama secured the support of 338 of the 538 electors with the required 270 votes, which meant he came to power. At the same time, voter turnout reached a record of 64%. In the 2008 presidential election, Obama was ahead of the ruling Republican Party candidate John McCain, gaining 365 votes in the Electoral College (52.9% of the popular vote) against McCain's 173.

Resonance in the USA and other countries

Obama received the fewest votes in the southern US; in Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, where up to 60% of those participating in the elections voted for McCain; and in one of these states, only one in ten white voters, according to exit polls, voted for Obama.

According to the Associated Press, in the United States, after Barack's victory in the presidential election, the number of cases of religious and racial intolerance has increased. Director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Mark Potok said: “There are a large number of people who feel that they are losing their usual way of life, that it is as if the country that their ancestors built has been stolen from them.”

Obama's victory caused euphoria in a number of countries around the world - a phenomenon called "Obamamania", the symptoms of which began to appear during the election campaign. Kenya and other countries in Africa and the Middle East were especially susceptible to it.

Activities as President-Elect

On November 10, 2008, Obama met with George W. Bush to discuss the state of affairs in the country and the world. The next day, Obama and his wife visited the White House, where he was received by President George W. Bush and his wife, which was presented by the US media as “the beginning of the transfer of power.”

The International Herald Tribune on November 16, 2008 wrote about Obama's political views as he articulated them during the election campaign: "Obama has not defined himself in clear ideological terms, although his record and program are left of center." That same day, Obama resigned from his Senate position.

Obama spoke out in favor of allowing abortion, including late-term abortions. During a discussion in the United States about the law prohibiting abortion by the so-called partial birth method (en:Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act), he wrote that if he were elected, he would tirelessly defend this method of abortion as a legitimate medical procedure. He also helped develop programs to prevent teenage pregnancy, including through the distribution of contraceptives and sex education programs for teenagers.

On November 17, 2008, Obama met with Republican Senator John McCain; Together with the latter, he issued a statement proclaiming his intention to “begin a new era of reform” in Washington and “bring back prosperity” to American families. The next day, Obama reaffirmed his commitment to working toward significant goals to combat global climate change. And also in a video message to participants in an environmental conference in Los Angeles, he condemned the current administration for “abandoning the leading role” of the United States in preserving the environment; promised that he would allocate $15 billion annually to save energy and would strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2020 to 1990 levels. On the same day, the media reported unofficial information about his intention to appoint a black lawyer, Eric Holder, who was US Deputy Secretary of Justice under Clinton, to the post of Secretary of Justice in his future administration.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta on November 19, 2008 wrote: “For many believers, it was a surprise that a black Democrat, a defender of women’s right to abortion and a supporter of stem cell research, won a majority of the votes of religious voters.” The publication cited statistics from the Pew Research Center, according to which 53% of religious US residents voted for Barack Obama, 46% for John McCain; while four years ago, John Kerry lost to George W. Bush in the battle for the votes of religious Americans: 48% to 51%.

On November 24, 2008, Obama introduced several members of his “Team, Economic Recovery Advisory Board” (The President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board), who were expected to occupy important positions in the future and develop the future administration’s policy regarding the global economic crisis. On November 26, Obama appointed former Chairman of the US Federal Reserve (1979-1987) Paul Volcker to head his team of economic advisers.

On December 1, 2008, in Chicago, Obama officially announced Senator Hillary Clinton as a candidate for the post of US Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates as a candidate for the post of Secretary of Defense. That same year, Congress.org ranked Obama as the 11th most powerful senator.

Presidency of Barack Obama

On January 20, 2009, during an inauguration ceremony next to the Capitol building, Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States; The ceremony attracted a record number of spectators - over a million people. The oath was taken on the Bible on which Abraham Lincoln swore at his inauguration. The first act of the President upon taking the oath of office was the proclamation of the Proclamation declaring January 20, 2009 “National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation.”

In his speech, Obama called for a "new era of accountability."

According to CNN on January 21, 2009, the cost of Barack Obama's inauguration and inaugural celebrations is the highest in US history: the cost of its holding exceeded $160 million. The next day, late in the evening, on the advice of constitutional lawyers, in the White House, as a precaution, Obama re-took the oath of state as head of state, due to the fact that the day before there was an error in reading the text of the oath established by the US Constitution. Chief Justice Roberts mistakenly inserted the word “faithfully” after the words “to serve as President of the United States.”

Many believe that Obama is very similar in his parameters to the Antichrist, that is, to a man who comes at the end of times to take power over the world. All these statements would seem ridiculous. If not for one thing. This may seem incredible, but in the biography of the 44th President of the United States there really are many mystical coincidences that cannot be explained.

During the inauguration, Obama, by a strange coincidence, did not manage to take the oath on the Bible: he read the text incorrectly and stumbled.

The staff of the devout Mormon Mitt Romney were the first to notice that during his own inauguration, Obama was the only one who wore gloves. It would seem that there is nothing special about this. If you don’t remember the biblical legend that when the Antichrist is crowned, he will wear gloves to hide his claws. According to legend, the Antichrist must come from the tribe of Dan. From the point of view of the Orthodox tradition, and the general Christian one, the Antichrist must be born from a harlot from the tribe of Dan, from the lost descendants, from the lost Jewish tribes.

It is also curious, Obama’s opponents continue, that his name is translated from Hebrew as “Lightning from above.” In the Gospel of Luke this expression occurs: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

Activities as President

On January 22, 2009, Obama signed an order to close the prison for suspected terrorists at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) within a year.

Immediately after Obama’s inauguration, Russian-American political scientist Nikolai Zlobin noted: “The closer the day of the transfer of powers from Bush to the new president of the country was, the more and more favorable and positive Barack Obama spoke about his predecessor. This is a stark change from Obama's highly critical anti-Bush rhetoric during the election campaign. “...It seems that such a change in the new president’s public attitude towards his predecessor is largely due to the fact that as Obama delves into matters, becomes familiar with the real situation in which George Bush had to act and in which Obama himself will now have to act, the latter “I increasingly began to understand that his predecessor pursued a fairly rational policy, taking into account all possible factors and restrictions.”

And in Vedomosti on January 28, 2009, Zlobin wrote about the Kremlin’s reaction to Obama’s victory: “The tone of Dmitry Medvedev’s speech to the Federal Assembly on November 5, 2008, as well as the belated and cold congratulations to Obama, indicated that Moscow was not ready for Obama and I’m very disappointed.”

On January 29, 2009, the US Congress supported the plan to stimulate the American economy proposed by the president. The plan involved an injection of $819 billion.

As a presidential candidate, Obama said that on the first day after his inauguration he would give the order to end the war in Iraq. But immediately after coming to power, he revised his views on the timing of the end of the war, saying in February 2009 that military operations there would be completed in 18 months.

On February 9, 2009, US President Barack Obama held his first press conference. The next day, the US Senate approved Obama's $838 billion emergency response plan. When implementing the plan, up to 4 million new jobs should be created in 2 years. The plan also contained provisions for direct investment in the healthcare, energy, and education sectors.

On February 17, 2009, Obama sent an additional 17 thousand troops to Afghanistan, and also signed a $787 billion anti-crisis plan adopted by the US Congress in Denver.

The “first grandmother” of the United States, 72-year-old Marian Robinson, Obama’s mother-in-law, formerly worked as a secretary at a magazine selling useful household products. Since March 2009, she has lived permanently in the White House, and at the same time practices witchcraft - Santeria - one of the African varieties of the occult religion Voodoo.

Speaking at Georgetown University on April 14, 2009, Barack Obama made the following argument in defense of the consumer society and explained the reason for government intervention in the free market: “If all the families and all the firms in America cut their expenses at the same time, then no one would spend money, the number of consumers, which in turn will lead to new layoffs and the economic situation will worsen even more. That's why the government had to step in and temporarily increase spending to stimulate demand. This is exactly what we are doing now,” said the American president. (“Obama sees light at the end of the tunnel”, Euronews).

From July 6 to July 8, 2009, Barak made an official working visit to Moscow. During the visit, bilateral agreements were signed, including on the transit of American military cargo to Afghanistan through Russian territory.

Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which he received on October 9, 2009, with the wording “for extraordinary efforts in strengthening international diplomacy and cooperation between people.” Barack became the third US president, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize while in office (the prize was also awarded to former President Jimmy Carter).

In 2009, at a press conference in Japan, Obama twice dodged a direct question and refused to defend the wisdom of the United States atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

During 2009, Obama twice strengthened the American contingent in Afghanistan. In December, Obama announced the deployment of 30,000 more troops, while emphasizing that the United States is not interested in occupying Afghanistan. Currently, the American contingent in Afghanistan already numbers about 70 thousand military personnel, and after the arrival of reinforcements it reached 100 thousand, which is comparable to the number of the Soviet contingent at the peak of the USSR war in Afghanistan (about 109 thousand people).

The escalation of US participation in hostilities in Afghanistan, as well as the stabilization of the situation in Iraq, led to the fact that if in 2008 American losses in Afghanistan were half as many as those in Iraq, then in 2009 the situation changed in a mirror image - in a year there were deaths in Afghanistan twice as many soldiers as there are in Iraq. Overall, 2009 was the bloodiest year for American forces in Afghanistan since the start of the counterterrorism operation. During the first year and a half of Obama's presidency, as many American soldiers died in Afghanistan as during both of George W. Bush's presidential terms (from the start of the war in 2001 to the end of 2008). But U.S. casualties remain below the annual Soviet casualties at the height of the 1979-1989 war.

In 2010, Obama, despite Republican opposition, achieved the passage of a health care reform law.

On April 4, 2011, Barack Obama confirmed his desire to run for a second presidential term, began raising money for the election campaign and announced the start of the presidential race.

In 2011, the US army, on Obama's orders, participated in the NATO intervention in Libya. That same year, the Washington Post published a report that the president himself shared a strange fascination with Voodoo dolls. As it turned out, Obama has more than 250 magical dolls - Haitian, Hawaiian and Cuban. These dolls represent an invisible force that can intervene in human affairs at any time.

Obama is the first and, as of 2012, the only US presidential candidate to refuse public funding of his election campaign.

During the election campaign in the United States, rumors circulated that Barack was born outside the United States, this would deprive him of the right to be elected to the presidency. On March 1, 2012, Arizona Sheriff Joseph Arpaio announced that Barack Obama's birth certificate may be a computer-generated forgery; he made a similar statement regarding the draft registration form filled out by the future president in 1980.

In the 2012 presidential election, Obama beat Republican candidate Mitt Romney by 332 Electoral College votes (51.1% of the popular vote) to Romney's 206. Barack Obama was re-elected to a second term.

Mitt Romney accused Obama of supporting the idea of ​​income redistribution. Romney calls Obama voters "people who are unable to provide for themselves and live off the government." According to Obama, Romney is a supporter of the idea of ​​a world without nuclear weapons.

On August 1, 2014, a telephone conversation took place between the Presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama, in which they discussed the situation around Ukraine. Putin described Washington’s line of increasing sanctions pressure as counterproductive, causing serious damage to bilateral cooperation and international stability in general. The presidents agreed that the current state of affairs does not meet the interests of both states. In this context, an exchange of views took place on the prospects for Russian-American dialogue,” the Kremlin press service reported.