|
Barack Obama |
 |
|
44th
President of the United States |
|
Incumbent |
Assumed office
January 20, 2009 |
|
Vice President |
Joe Biden |
| Preceded by |
George W. Bush |
United States Senator
from
Illinois |
In office
January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008 |
| Preceded by |
Peter Fitzgerald |
| Succeeded by |
Roland Burris |
Member of the
Illinois Senate
from the 13th District |
In office
January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004 |
| Preceded by |
Alice Palmer |
| Succeeded by |
Kwame Raoul |
|
Personal details |
| Born |
Barack Hussein Obama II
August 4, 1961 (age 51)[1]
Honolulu,
Hawaii, U.S.[2] |
| Political party |
Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
Michelle Robinson (October 3, 1992–present) |
| Children |
Malia (born 1998)
Sasha (born 2001) |
| Residence |
White House (Official)
Chicago, Illinois (Private) |
|
Alma mater |
Occidental College
Columbia University (B.A.)
Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Profession |
Community organizer
Lawyer
Constitutional law
professor
Author |
| Religion |
Christianity[3] |
| Awards |
Nobel Peace Prize |
| Signature |
 |
| Website |
barackobama.com |
Barack Hussein Obama II (
i/bəˈrɑːk
huːˈseɪn
oʊˈbɑːmə/;
born August 4, 1961) is the
44th and
current
President of the United States. He is the
first
African American to hold the office.
Born in
Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of
Columbia University and
Harvard Law School, where he was president of the
Harvard Law Review. He was a
community organizer in Chicago before earning his
law degree. He worked as a
civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught
constitutional law at the
University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He
served three terms representing the 13th District in the
Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the
United States House of Representatives in 2000.
In 2004, Obama received national attention during his
campaign to represent Illinois in the
United States Senate with his victory in the March
Democratic Party primary, his
keynote address at the
Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the
Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007, and in
2008, after
a close primary campaign against
Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won sufficient delegates in the
Democratic party primaries to receive the presidential nomination.
He then defeated
Republican nominee
John McCain in the
general election, and was
inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later,
Obama was named the
2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He was
re-elected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee
Mitt Romney. He is the first Democrat since
Franklin D. Roosevelt to win two presidential elections with a
majority of the popular vote.
In his first term in office, his major domestic policy initiatives
included signing the
economic stimulus legislation in the form of the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the
Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act
of 2010 in response to the
2007–2009 recession in the United States; the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; the
Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; the
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010; and the
Budget Control Act of 2011. In foreign policy, Obama
ended U.S. military involvement in the
Iraq
War, increased troop levels in
Afghanistan, signed the
New
START arms control treaty with
Russia,
ordered
U.S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military
operation that resulted in the
death of Osama bin Laden. In May 2012, he became the first sitting
U.S. president to
publicly support legalizing
same-sex marriage.
Early life and
career
Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani
Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now
Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and
Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[2][4][5]
and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii.[6]
His mother,
Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in
Wichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry.[7]
His father,
Barack Obama, Sr., was a
Luo from
Nyang’oma Kogelo, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian
class at the
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign
student on scholarship.[8][9]
The couple married in
Wailuku on
Maui on February 2, 1961,[10][11]
and separated when Obama's mother moved with her newborn son to
Seattle,
Washington, in late August 1961, to attend the
University of Washington for one year. In the meantime, Obama, Sr.
completed his undergraduate
economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962, then left to attend
graduate school at
Harvard University on a scholarship. Obama's parents divorced in
March 1964.[12]
Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried; he visited
Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971.[13]
He died in an automobile accident in 1982.[14]
In 1963, Dunham met
Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian
East–West Center graduate student in geography at the University of
Hawaii, and the couple were married on
Molokai
on March 15, 1965.[15]
After two one-year extensions of his
J-1
visa, Lolo returned to
Indonesia in 1966, followed sixteen months later by his wife and
stepson in 1967, with the family initially living in a Menteng Dalam
neighborhood in the
Tebet subdistrict of south
Jakarta,
then from 1970 in a wealthier neighborhood in the
Menteng
subdistrict of central Jakarta.[16]
From ages six to ten, Obama attended local Indonesian-language schools:
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School for two years and
Besuki Public School from one and half years, supplemented by
English-language
Calvert School home schooling by his mother.[17]
In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal
grandparents,
Madelyn and
Stanley Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended
Punahou School, a private
college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation
from high school in 1979.[18]
Obama lived with his mother and sister in Hawaii for three years from
1972 to 1975 while his mother was a graduate student in
anthropology at the University of Hawaii.[19]
Obama chose to stay in Hawaii with his grandparents for high school at
Punahou when his mother and sister returned to Indonesia in 1975 to
begin anthropology field work.[20]
His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing
Lolo in 1980 and earning a PhD in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii
following treatment for
ovarian cancer and
uterine cancer.[21]
Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "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."[9]
He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social
perceptions of his multiracial heritage.[22]
Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity
that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of
mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for
the values that I hold most dear."[23]
Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol,
marijuana, and
cocaine
during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my
mind".[24]
Obama was also a member of the "choom gang", a self-named group of
friends that spent time together and occasionally smoked marijuana.[25][26]
At the 2008
Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama expressed regret for his
high-school drug use.[27]
Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend
Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public
speech, calling for Occidental to
divest from South Africa in response to its policy of
apartheid.[28]
In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister
Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India
for three weeks.[28]
Later in 1981, he transferred to
Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in
political science with a specialty in
international relations[29]
and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. He worked for a year at
the
Business International Corporation,[30]
then at the
New York Public Interest Research Group.[31][32]
Chicago community organizer and Harvard Law School
Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of
the
Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community
organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in
Roseland,
West Pullman, and
Riverdale on Chicago's
South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985
to May 1988.[32][33]
He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring
program, and a tenants' rights organization in
Altgeld Gardens.[34]
Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the
Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.[35]
In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks
and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his
paternal relatives for the first time.[36][37]
He returned to Kenya in 1992 with his fiancée Michelle and his sister
Auma.[36][38]
He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father's
birthplace, a village near
Kisumu
in rural western Kenya.[39]
In late 1988, Obama entered
Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the
Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,[40]
and president of the journal in his second year.[34][41]
During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an
associate at the law firms of
Sidley Austin in 1989 and
Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.[42]
After graduating with a
J.D.
magna cum laude[43]
from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.[40]
Obama's election as the
first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained
national media attention[34][41]
and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race
relations,[44]
which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in
mid-1995 as
Dreams from My Father.[44]
University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney
In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and
Government Fellow at the
University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.[44][45]
He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve
years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from
1996 to 2004—teaching
constitutional law.[46]
From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's
Project Vote, a
voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred
volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of
400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's
Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty"
powers to be.[47]
In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney
law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood
economic development, where he was an associate for three years from
1993 to 1996, then
of
counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2007.[48][49]
From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the
Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation
to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the
Joyce Foundation.[32]
He served on the board of directors of the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president
and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.[32]
Legislative career: 1997–2008
State Senator: 1997–2004
Obama was elected to the
Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator
Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which at that
time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from
Hyde Park –
Kenwood south to
South Shore and west to
Chicago Lawn.[50]
Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that
reformed ethics and health care laws.[51]
He sponsored a law that increased
tax
credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and
promoted increased subsidies for childcare.[52]
In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on
Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's
payday loan regulations and
predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home
foreclosures.[53]
Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating
Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was reelected
again in 2002.[54]
In 2000, he lost a
Democratic primary race for
Illinois's 1st congressional district in the
United States House of Representatives to four-term incumbent
Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.[55]
In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's
Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in
the minority, regained a majority.[56]
He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to
monitor
racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers
they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to
mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.[52][57]
During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police
representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police
organizations in enacting
death penalty reforms.[58]
Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his
election to the U.S. Senate.[59]
U.S. Senate
campaign
County results of the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois.
Counties in blue were won by Obama.
In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a
2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising
funds, and lined up political media consultant
David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy
in January 2003.[60]
Obama was an early opponent of the
George W. Bush administration's
2003 invasion of Iraq.[61]
On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the
joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,[62]
Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago
anti-Iraq War rally,[63]
and spoke out against the war.[64]
He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd
that "it's not too late" to stop the war.[65]
Decisions by Republican incumbent
Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor
Carol Moseley Braun to not participate in the election resulted in
wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen
candidates.[66]
In the March 2004 primary election, Obama won in an unexpected
landslide—which overnight made him a rising star within the
national Democratic Party, started speculation about a presidential
future, and led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father.[67]
In July 2004, Obama delivered the keynote address at the
2004 Democratic National Convention,[68]
seen by 9.1 million viewers. His speech was well received and elevated
his status within the Democratic Party.[69]
Obama's expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary
winner
Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004.[70]
Six weeks later,
Alan Keyes accepted the Republican nomination to replace Ryan.[71]
In the
November 2004 general election, Obama won with 70 percent of the
vote.[72]
U.S.
Senator: 2005–2008
Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 3, 2005,[73]
becoming the only Senate member of the
Congressional Black Caucus.[74]
CQ Weekly characterized him as a "loyal Democrat" based on
analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007. Obama announced on November
13, 2008, that he would resign his Senate seat on November 16, 2008,
before the start of the
lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for the
presidency.[75]
Legislation
Obama cosponsored the
Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.[76]
He introduced two initiatives that bore his name: Lugar–Obama, which
expanded the
Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional
weapons;[77]
and the
Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006, which
authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on
federal spending.[78]
On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama—along with Senators
Tom
Carper,
Tom
Coburn, and
John McCain—introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening
Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.[79]
Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant
owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but
the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified
in committee.[80]
Regarding
tort reform, Obama voted for the
Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the
FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which grants immunity from civil
liability to telecommunications companies complicit with
NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.[81]
Obama and U.S. Sen.
Richard Lugar (R-IN) visit a Russian facility for
dismantling mobile missiles (August 2005).
[82]
In December 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.[83]
In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet
provision to the
Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law
in September 2007.[84]
Obama also introduced
Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to
criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections,[85]
and the
Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007,[86]
neither of which was signed into law.
Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense
Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military
discharges.[87]
This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008.[88]
He sponsored the
Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension
funds from Iran's oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee;
and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism.[89]
Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the
State Children's Health Insurance Program, providing one year of job
protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related
injuries.[90]
Committees
Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for
Foreign Relations,
Environment and Public Works, and
Veterans' Affairs through December 2006.[91]
In January 2007, he left the Environment and Public Works committee and
took additional assignments with
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.[92]
He also became Chairman of the Senate's subcommittee on
European Affairs.[93]
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Obama made
official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and
Africa. He met with
Mahmoud Abbas before Abbas became
President of the Palestinian National Authority, and gave a speech
at the
University of Nairobi in which he condemned corruption within the
Kenyan government.[94]
Presidential
campaigns
2008
presidential campaign
Obama stands on stage with his wife and daughters just
before announcing his presidential candidacy in
Springfield, Illinois, February 10, 2007
On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of
the United States in front of the
Old State Capitol building in
Springfield, Illinois.[95][96]
The choice of the announcement site was viewed as symbolic because it
was also where
Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic
"House Divided" speech in 1858.[95][97]
Obama emphasized issues of rapidly ending the
Iraq
War, increasing
energy independence, and providing
universal health care,[98]
in a campaign that projected themes of "hope" and "change".[99]
A large number of candidates entered the
Democratic Party presidential primaries. The field narrowed to a
duel between Obama and Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton after early contests, with the race remaining
close throughout the primary process but with Obama gaining a steady
lead in pledged
delegates due to better long-range planning, superior fundraising,
dominant organizing in
caucus
states, and better exploitation of delegate allocation rules.[100]
On June 7, 2008, Clinton ended her campaign and endorsed Obama.[101]
On August 23, Obama announced his selection of
Delaware Senator
Joe
Biden as his vice presidential running mate.[102]
Biden was selected from a field speculated to include former
Indiana Governor and Senator
Evan
Bayh and
Virginia Governor
Tim
Kaine.[103]
At the
Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Hillary Clinton
called for her supporters to endorse Obama, and she and
Bill Clinton gave convention speeches in his support.[104]
Obama delivered his acceptance speech, not at the center where the
Democratic National Convention was held, but at
Invesco Field at Mile High to a crowd of over 75,000; the speech was
viewed by over 38 million people worldwide.[105][106]
During both the primary process and the general election, Obama's
campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity
of small donations.[107]
On June 19, 2008, Obama became the first major-party presidential
candidate to turn down
public financing in the general election since the system was
created in 1976.[108]
John McCain was nominated as the Republican candidate and the two
engaged in three
presidential debates in September and October 2008.[109]
On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365
electoral votes to 173 received by McCain.[110]
Obama won 52.9% of the
popular
vote to McCain's 45.7%.[111]
He became the first African American to be elected president.[112]
Obama delivered
his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in
Chicago's
Grant Park.[113]
2012
presidential campaign
On April 4, 2011, Obama announced his re-election campaign for 2012
in a video titled "It Begins with Us" that he posted on his website and
filed election papers with the
Federal Election Commission.[115][116][117]
As the incumbent president he ran virtually unopposed in the
Democratic Party presidential primaries,[118]
and on April 3, 2012, Obama had secured the 2778
convention delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.[119]
At the
Democratic National Convention in
Charlotte, North Carolina, former
President
Bill Clinton formally nominated Obama and
Joe
Biden as the Democratic Party candidates for president and vice
president in the general election, in which their main opponents were
Republicans
Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, and
Representative
Paul
Ryan of Wisconsin.[120]
On November 6, 2012 Obama won 332
electoral votes, exceeding the 270 required for him to be re-elected
as president.[121][122][123]
With 51% of the popular vote, Obama became the first Democratic
president since
Franklin D. Roosevelt to twice win the
majority of the popular vote.[124][125]
President Obama addressed supporters and volunteers at Chicago's
McCormick Place after his reelection and said: "Tonight you voted for
action, not politics as usual. You elected us to focus on your jobs, not
ours. And in the coming weeks and months, I am looking forward to
reaching out and working with leaders of both parties."[126]
Presidency
First days
The
inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President took place on
January 20, 2009. In his first few days in office, Obama issued
executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military
to develop plans to withdraw troops from
Iraq.[127]
He ordered the closing of the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp,[128]
but Congress prevented the closure by refusing to appropriate the
required funds.[129][130][131]
Obama reduced the secrecy given to presidential records.[132]
He also revoked President
George W. Bush's restoration of President
Ronald Reagan's
Mexico City Policy prohibiting federal aid to international family
planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about
abortion.[133]
Domestic policy
The first bill signed into law by Obama was the
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, relaxing the
statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits.[134]
Five days later, he signed the reauthorization of the State Children's
Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million
uninsured children.[135]
In March 2009, Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited
funding of
embryonic stem cell research and pledged to develop "strict
guidelines" on the research.[136]
Obama appointed two women to serve on the Supreme Court in the first
two years of his Presidency.
Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace
retiring
Associate Justice
David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009,[137]
becoming the first
Hispanic Supreme Court Justice.[138]
Elena Kagan, nominated by Obama on May 10, 2010, to replace retiring
Associate Justice
John Paul Stevens, was confirmed on August 5, 2010, bringing the
number of women sitting simultaneously on the Court to three, for the
first time in American history.[139]
On September 30, 2009, the Obama administration proposed new
regulations on power plants, factories and oil refineries in an attempt
to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to curb
global warming.[140][141]
On October 8, 2009, Obama signed the
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a
measure that expands the
1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes
motivated by a victim's actual or perceived
gender,
sexual orientation,
gender identity, or
disability.[142][143]
On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, a
reconciliation bill which ends the process of the federal government
giving subsidies to private banks to give out federally insured loans,
increases the
Pell Grant scholarship award, and makes changes to the Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act.[144][145]
In a
major space policy speech in April 2010, Obama announced a planned
change in direction at
NASA, the
U.S. space agency. He ended plans for a return of
human spaceflight to the
moon and
development of the
Ares I
rocket,
Ares V rocket and
Constellation program, in favor of funding Earth science projects, a
new rocket type, and research and development for an eventual manned
mission to Mars,
and ongoing missions to the
International Space Station.[146]
On December 22, 2010, Obama signed the
Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, fulfilling a key promise
made in the 2008 presidential campaign[147][148]
to end the
Don't ask, don't tell policy of 1993 that had prevented gay and
lesbian people from serving openly in the
United States Armed Forces.[149]
President Obama's
2011 State of the Union Address focused on themes of education and
innovation, stressing the importance of
innovation economics to make the United States more competitive
globally. He spoke of a five-year freeze in domestic spending,
eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and reversing tax cuts for the
wealthiest Americans, banning congressional
earmarks, and reducing healthcare costs. He promised that the United
States would have one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015 and
would be 80% reliant on "clean"
electricity.[150][151]
As a candidate for the Illinois state senate Obama had said in 1996
that he favored legalizing
same-sex marriage;[152]
but by the time of his run for the U.S. senate in 2004, he said that
while he supported civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex
partners, for strategic reasons he opposed same-sex marriages.[153]
On May 9, 2012, shortly after the official launch of his campaign for
re-election as president, Obama said his views had evolved, and he
publicly affirmed his personal support for the legalization of same-sex
marriage, becoming the first sitting U.S. president to do so.[154][155]
Economic policy
On February 17, 2009, Obama signed the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion
economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from
the
deepening worldwide recession.[156]
The act includes increased federal spending for health care,
infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and
incentives, and direct assistance to individuals,[157]
which is being distributed over the course of several years.
In March, Obama's Treasury Secretary,
Timothy Geithner, took further steps to manage the
financial crisis, including introducing the
Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains
provisions for buying up to $2 trillion in depreciated real estate
assets.[158]
Obama intervened in the
troubled automotive industry[159]
in March 2009, renewing loans for
General Motors and
Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing. Over the
following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies,
including the
sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker
Fiat[160]
and a
reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60%
equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government taking a 12%
stake.[161]
In June 2009, dissatisfied with the pace of economic stimulus, Obama
called on his cabinet to accelerate the investment.[162]
He signed into law the
Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for
Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the economy.[163][164][165]
Although spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and
the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations
totaled about $11.5 trillion, only $3 trillion had been spent by the end
of November 2009.[166]
However, Obama and the
Congressional Budget Office predicted that the 2010
budget deficit will be $1.5 trillion or 10.6% of the nation's gross
domestic product (GDP) compared to the 2009 deficit of $1.4 trillion or
9.9% of GDP.[167][168]
For 2011, the administration predicted the deficit will slightly shrink
to $1.34 trillion, while the 10-year deficit will increase to
$8.53 trillion or 90% of GDP.[169]
The most recent increase in the U.S.
debt ceiling to $16.4 trillion was signed into law on January 26,
2012.[170]
On August 2, 2011, after a lengthy congressional debate over whether to
raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the bipartisan
Budget Control Act of 2011. The legislation enforces limits on
discretionary spending until 2021, establishes a procedure to increase
the debt limit, creates a Congressional Joint Select Committee on
Deficit Reduction to propose further deficit reduction with a stated
goal of achieving at least $1.5 trillion in budgetary savings over 10
years, and establishes automatic procedures for reducing spending by as
much as $1.2 trillion if legislation originating with the new joint
select committee does not achieve such savings.[171]
By passing the legislation, Congress was able to prevent a
U.S. government
default on its obligations.[172]
As it did throughout 2008, the unemployment rate rose in 2009,
reaching a peak in October at 10.0% and averaging 10.0% in the fourth
quarter. Following a decrease to 9.7% in the first quarter of 2010, the
unemployment rate fell to 9.6% in the second quarter, where it remained
for the rest of the year.[175]
Between February and December 2010, employment rose by 0.8%, which was
less than the average of 1.9% experienced during comparable periods in
the past four employment recoveries.[176]
GDP growth returned in the third quarter of 2009, expanding at a rate of
1.6%, followed by a 5.0% increase in the fourth quarter.[177]
Growth continued in 2010, posting an increase of 3.7% in the first
quarter, with lesser gains throughout the rest of the year.[177]
In July 2010, the
Federal Reserve expressed that although economic activity continued
to increase, its pace had slowed, and Chairman
Ben Bernanke stated that the economic outlook was "unusually
uncertain."[178]
Overall, the economy expanded at a rate of 2.9% in 2010.[179]
The Congressional Budget Office and a broad range of economists
credit Obama's stimulus plan for economic growth.[180][181]
The CBO released a report stating that the stimulus bill increased
employment by 1–2.1 million,[181][182][183][184]
while conceding that "It is impossible to determine how many of the
reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus
package."[180]
Although an April 2010 survey of members of the
National Association for Business Economics showed an increase in
job creation (over a similar January survey) for the first time in two
years, 73% of 68 respondents believed that the stimulus bill has had no
impact on employment.[185]
Within a month of the
2010 midterm elections, Obama announced a compromise deal with the
Congressional Republican leadership that included a temporary, two-year
extension of the
2001 and 2003 income tax rates, a one-year
payroll tax reduction, continuation of unemployment benefits, and a
new rate and exemption amount for
estate taxes.[186]
The compromise overcame opposition from some in both parties, and the
resulting $858 billion
Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act
of 2010 passed with bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress
before Obama signed it on December 17, 2010.[187]
Health care reform
Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
at the White House, March 23, 2010
Obama called for
Congress to pass legislation reforming
health care in the United States, a key campaign promise and a top
legislative goal.[188]
He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the
uninsured, to cap premium increases, and to allow people to retain their
coverage when they leave or change jobs. His proposal was to spend
$900 billion over 10 years and include a government insurance plan, also
known as the
public option, to compete with the corporate insurance sector as a
main component to lowering costs and improving quality of health care.
It would also make it illegal for insurers to drop sick people or deny
them coverage for
pre-existing conditions, and require every American carry health
coverage. The plan also includes medical spending cuts and taxes on
insurance companies that offer expensive plans.[189][190]
On July 14, 2009, House Democratic leaders introduced a 1,017-page
plan for overhauling the U.S. health care system, which Obama wanted
Congress to approve by the end of 2009.[188]
After much public debate during the Congressional summer recess of 2009,
Obama delivered
a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 where he
addressed concerns over the proposals.[191]
In March 2009, Obama lifted a ban on using federal funds for stem cell
research.[192]
On November 7, 2009, a health care bill featuring the public option
was passed in the House.[193][194]
On December 24, 2009, the Senate passed its own bill—without a public
option—on a party-line vote of 60–39.[195]
On March 21, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act passed
by the Senate in December was passed in the House by a vote of 219 to
212.[196]
Obama signed the bill into law on March 23, 2010.[197]
The
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes health-related
provisions to take effect over four years, including expanding
Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133% of the
federal poverty level (FPL) starting in 2014,[198]
subsidizing insurance premiums for people making up to 400% of the FPL
($88,000 for family of four in 2010) so their maximum "out-of-pocket"
payment for annual premiums will be from 2 to 9.5% of income,[199][200]
providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits,
prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on
pre-existing conditions, establishing
health insurance exchanges, prohibiting annual coverage caps, and
support for medical research. According to White House and Congressional
Budget Office figures, the maximum share of income that enrollees would
have to pay would vary depending on their income relative to the federal
poverty level.[199][201]
The costs of these provisions are offset by taxes, fees, and
cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for those in
high-income
brackets, taxes on
indoor tanning, cuts to the
Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and
fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies;[202]
there is also a tax penalty for those who do not obtain health
insurance, unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons.[203]
In March 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the net
effect of both laws will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143
billion over the first decade.[204]
The law faced several legal challenges, primarily based on the
argument that an individual mandate requiring Americans to buy health
insurance was unconstitutional. On June 28, 2012, the Supreme Court
ruled by a 5–4 vote in
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius that the
Commerce Clause does not allow the government to require people to
buy health insurance, but the mandate was constitutional under the US
Congress's taxing authority.[205]
Gulf of
Mexico oil spill
On April 20, 2010, an explosion destroyed an offshore
drilling rig at the
Macondo Prospect in the
Gulf of Mexico, causing a
major sustained oil leak. The well's operator,
BP, initiated a
containment and cleanup plan, and began drilling two
relief wells intended to stop the flow. Obama visited the Gulf on
May 2 among visits by members of his cabinet, and again on May 28 and
June 4. On May 22, he announced a federal investigation and formed a
bipartisan commission to recommend new safety standards, after a review
by
Secretary of the Interior
Ken Salazar and concurrent Congressional hearings. On May 27, he
announced a 6-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits and
leases, pending regulatory review.[206]
As multiple efforts by BP failed, some in the media and public expressed
confusion and criticism over various aspects of the incident, and stated
a desire for more involvement by Obama and the federal government.[207]
2010 midterm
election
Obama called the
November 2, 2010 election, where the Democratic Party lost 63 seats
in, and control of, the House of Representatives,[208]
"humbling" and a "shellacking".[209]
He said that the results came because not enough Americans had felt the
effects of the economic recovery.[210]
Foreign policy
In February and March, Vice President Joe Biden and
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made separate overseas
trips to announce a "new era" in U.S. foreign relations with Russia and
Europe, using the terms "break" and "reset" to signal major changes from
the policies of the preceding administration.[211]
Obama attempted to reach out to Arab leaders by granting his first
interview to an Arab cable TV network,
Al
Arabiya.[212]
On March 19, Obama continued his outreach to the Muslim world,
releasing a New Year's video message to the people and government of
Iran.[213]
This attempt was rebuffed by the Iranian leadership.[214]
In April, Obama gave a speech in Ankara,
Turkey,
which was well received by many Arab governments.[215]
On June 4, 2009, Obama delivered a speech at
Cairo University in Egypt calling for "a
new beginning" in relations between the Islamic world and the United
States and promoting Middle East peace.[216]
On June 26, 2009, in response to the Iranian government's actions
towards protesters following
Iran's 2009 presidential election, Obama said: "The violence
perpetrated against them is outrageous. We see it and we condemn it."[217]
On July 7, while in Moscow, he responded to a Vice President Biden
comment on a possible Israeli military strike on Iran by saying: "We
have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and
resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create
major conflict in the Middle East."[218]
On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president
to
preside over a meeting of the
United Nations Security Council.[219]
In March 2010, Obama took a public stance against plans by the
government of Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to continue building Jewish housing projects in
predominantly Arab neighborhoods of
East Jerusalem.[220][221]
During the same month, an agreement was reached with the administration
of Russian
President
Dmitry Medvedev to replace the
1991
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number
of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about
one-third.[222]
The
New START treaty was signed by Obama and Medvedev in April 2010, and
was ratified by the
U.S. Senate in December 2010.[223]
On December 6, 2011, he instructed agencies to consider
LGBT rights when issuing financial aid to foreign countries.[224]
Iraq War
On February 27, 2009, Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq
would end within 18 months. His remarks were made to a group of
Marines preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. Obama said, "Let me
say this as plainly as I can: by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in
Iraq will end."[225]
The Obama administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be
completed by August 2010, decreasing troops levels from 142,000 while
leaving a transitional force of 35,000 to 50,000 in Iraq until the end
of 2011.[needs
update] On August 19, 2010, the last United States
combat brigade exited Iraq. Remaining troops transitioned from combat
operations to
counter-terrorism and the training, equipping, and advising of Iraqi
security forces.[226][227]
On August 31, 2010, Obama announced that the United States combat
mission in Iraq was over.[228]
On October 21, 2011 President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would
leave Iraq in time to be "home for the holidays".[229]
War in Afghanistan
Early in his presidency, Obama moved to bolster U.S. troop strength
in Afghanistan.[230]
He announced an increase to U.S. troop levels of 17,000 in February 2009
to "stabilize a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan", an area he said
had not received the "strategic attention, direction and resources it
urgently requires".[231]
He replaced the military commander in Afghanistan, General
David D. McKiernan, with former
Special Forces commander Lt. Gen.
Stanley A. McChrystal in May 2009, indicating that McChrystal's
Special Forces experience would facilitate the use of counterinsurgency
tactics in the war.[232]
On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional
30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan.[233]
He also proposed to begin troop withdrawals 18 months from that date.[234][needs
update] McChrystal was replaced by
David Petraeus in June 2010, after McChrystal's staff criticized
White House personnel in a magazine article.[235]
Israel
Obama referred to the bond between the United States and Israel as
"unbreakable."[236]
During the initial years of the Obama administration, the U.S. increased
military cooperation with Israel, including increased military aid,
re-establishment of the
U.S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy
Advisory Group, and an increase in visits among high-level military
officials of both countries.[237]
The Obama administration asked Congress to allocate money toward funding
the
Iron Dome program in response to the waves of
Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.[238]
In 2011, the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution
condemning Israeli settlements, with the United States being the only
nation to do so.[239]
Obama supports the
two-state solution to the
Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.[240]
War in Libya
In March 2011, as forces loyal to
Muammar Gaddafi advanced on rebels across Libya, calls for a no-fly
zone came from around the world, including Europe, the
Arab League, and a resolution[241]
passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate.[242]
In response to the unanimous passage of
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 on March 17,
Gaddafi—who had previously vowed to "show no mercy" to the rebels of
Benghazi[243]—announced
an immediate cessation of military activities,[244]
yet reports came in that his forces continued shelling Misrata. The next
day, on Obama's orders, the U.S. military took a lead role in air
strikes to destroy the Libyan government's air defense capabilities to
protect civilians and enforce a no-fly-zone,[245]
including the use of
Tomahawk missiles,
B-2 Spirits, and fighter jets.[246][247][248]
Six days later, on March 25, by unanimous vote of all of its 28 members,
NATO took
over leadership of the effort, dubbed
Operation Unified Protector.[249]
Some Representatives[250]
questioned whether Obama had the constitutional authority to order
military action in addition to questioning its cost, structure and
aftermath.[251][252]
Osama bin Laden
Starting with information received in July 2010, intelligence
developed by the CIA over the next several months determined what they
believed to be the location of
Osama bin Laden in
a large compound in
Abbottabad, Pakistan, a suburban area 35 miles from
Islamabad.[253]
CIA head
Leon Panetta reported this intelligence to President Obama in March
2011.[253]
Meeting with his national security advisers over the course of the next
six weeks, Obama rejected a plan to bomb the compound, and authorized a
"surgical raid" to be conducted by
United States Navy SEALs.[253]
The operation took place on May 1, 2011, resulting in the death of bin
Laden and the seizure of papers, computer drives and disks from the
compound.[254][255]
Bin Laden's body was identified through DNA testing,[256]
and buried at sea several hours later.[257]
Within minutes of the President's announcement from Washington, DC, late
in the evening on May 1, there were spontaneous celebrations around the
country as crowds gathered outside the White House, and at New York
City's
Ground Zero and
Times Square.[254][258]
Reaction to the announcement was positive across party lines,
including from former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush,[259]
and from many countries around the world.[260]
Cultural
and political image
Obama conducting the first completely virtual interview from
the White House in 2012
[261]
Obama's family history, upbringing, and
Ivy
League education differ markedly from those of African American
politicians who launched their careers in the 1960s through
participation in the
civil rights movement.[262]
Expressing puzzlement over questions about whether he is "black enough",
Obama told an August 2007 meeting of the
National Association of Black Journalists that "we're still locked
in this notion that if you appeal to white folks then there must be
something wrong".[263]
Obama acknowledged his youthful image in an October 2007 campaign
speech, saying: "I wouldn't be here if, time and again, the torch had
not been passed to a new generation."[264]
Obama is frequently referred to as an exceptional orator.[265]
During his pre-inauguration transition period and continuing into his
presidency, Obama has delivered a series of weekly Internet video
addresses.[266]
According to
the Gallup Organization, Obama began his presidency with a 68%
approval rating[267]
before gradually declining for the rest of the year, and eventually
bottoming out at 41% in August 2010,[268]
a trend similar to Ronald Reagan's and
Bill Clinton's first years in office.[269]
He experienced a small poll bounce shortly after the death of Osama bin
Laden, which lasted until around June 2011, when his approval numbers
dropped back to where they were prior to the operation.[270][271][272]
Polls show strong support for Obama in other countries,[273]
and before being elected President he met with prominent foreign figures
including
British Prime Minister
Tony Blair,[274]
Italy's
Democratic Party leader and Mayor of Rome
Walter Veltroni,[275]
and
French President
Nicolas Sarkozy.[276]
Obama talks with pub-goers as the First Lady draws a pint of
stout at the Ollie Hayes pub in
Moneygall, Ireland, in 2011
In a February 2009 poll conducted in Western Europe and the U.S. by
Harris Interactive for
France 24 and the
International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most
respected world leader, as well as the most powerful.[277]
In a similar poll conducted by Harris in May 2009, Obama was rated as
the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people
would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of the economic
downturn.[278][279]
Obama won
Best Spoken Word Album
Grammy Awards for abridged
audiobook versions of
Dreams from My Father in February 2006 and for
The Audacity of Hope in February 2008.[280]
His
concession speech after the New Hampshire primary was set to music
by independent artists as the music video "Yes
We Can", which was viewed 10 million times on YouTube in its first
month[281]
and received a
Daytime Emmy Award.[282]
In December 2008, Time magazine named Obama as its
Person of the Year for his historic candidacy and election, which it
described as "the steady march of seemingly impossible accomplishments".[283]
On October 9, 2009, the
Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the
2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen
international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".[284]
Obama accepted this award in
Oslo,
Norway on December 10, 2009, with "deep gratitude and great humility."[285]
The award drew a mixture of praise and criticism from world leaders and
media figures.[286][287]
Obama is the fourth U.S. president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
and the third to become a Nobel laureate while in office.
Family and
personal life
Obama posing in the
Green Room of the White House with wife Michelle and
daughters Sasha and Malia in 2009
In a 2006 interview, Obama highlighted the diversity of
his extended family: "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."[288]
Obama has a half-sister with whom he was raised (Maya
Soetoro-Ng, the daughter of his mother and her Indonesian second
husband) and seven half-siblings from his Kenyan father's family – six
of them living.[289]
Obama's mother was survived by her Kansas-born mother, Madelyn Dunham,[290]
until her death on November 2, 2008,[291]
two days before his election to the Presidency. Obama also has roots in
Ireland; he met with his Irish cousins in Moneygall in May 2011.[292]
In Dreams from My Father, Obama ties his mother's family history
to possible Native American ancestors and distant relatives of
Jefferson Davis,
President of the Confederate States of America during the
American Civil War.[293]
Obama was known as "Barry" in his youth, but asked to be addressed
with his given name during his college years.[294]
Besides his native English, Obama
speaks some basic
Indonesian, having learned the language during his four childhood
years in Jakarta.[295][296]
He plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high
school's varsity team;[297]
he is left-handed.[298]
Obama taking a shot during a game on the White House
basketball court, 2009
Obama is a supporter of the
Chicago White Sox, and he threw out the first pitch at the
2005 ALCS when he was still a senator.[299]
In 2009, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the
all star game while wearing a White Sox jacket.[300]
He is also primarily a
Chicago Bears football fan in the
NFL, but in his childhood and adolescence was a
fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and rooted for them ahead of their
victory in
Super Bowl XLIII 12 days after he took office as President.[301]
In 2011, Obama invited the
1985 Chicago Bears to the White House; the team had not visited the
White House after their
Super Bowl win in 1986 due to the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[302]
In June 1989, Obama met
Michelle Robinson when he was employed as a summer associate at the
Chicago law firm of
Sidley Austin.[303]
Assigned for three months as Obama's adviser at the firm, Robinson
joined him at group social functions, but declined his initial requests
to date.[304]
They began dating later that summer, became engaged in 1991, and were
married on October 3, 1992.[305]
The couple's first daughter, Malia Ann, was born on July 4, 1998,[306]
followed by a second daughter, Natasha ("Sasha"), on June 10, 2001.[307]
The Obama daughters attended the private
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. When they moved to
Washington, D.C., in January 2009, the girls started at the private
Sidwell Friends School.[308]
The Obamas have a
Portuguese Water Dog named
Bo,
a gift from Senator Ted Kennedy.[309]
Applying the proceeds of a book deal, the family moved in 2005 from a
Hyde Park, Chicago condominium to a $1.6 million house in
neighboring
Kenwood, Chicago.[310]
The purchase of an adjacent lot—and sale of part of it to Obama by the
wife of developer, campaign donor and friend
Tony Rezko—attracted media attention because of Rezko's subsequent
indictment and conviction on political corruption charges that were
unrelated to Obama.[311]
In December 2007,
Money estimated the Obama family's net worth at $1.3 million.[312]
Their 2009 tax return showed a household income of $5.5 million—up from
about $4.2 million in 2007 and $1.6 million in 2005—mostly from sales of
his books.[313][314]
On his 2010 income of $1.7 million, he gave 14% to non-profit
organizations, including $131,000 to
Fisher House Foundation, a charity assisting wounded veterans'
families, allowing them to reside near where the veteran is receiving
medical treatments.[315][316]
As per his 2012 financial disclosure, Obama may be worth as much as $10
million.[317]
Obama tried to quit smoking several times, sometimes using
nicotine replacement therapy, and, in early 2010, Michelle Obama
said that he had successfully quit smoking.[318][319]
Religious views
Obama is a
Christian whose religious views developed in his adult life. He
wrote in The Audacity of Hope that he "was not raised in a
religious household". He described his mother, raised by non-religious
parents (whom Obama has specified elsewhere as "non-practicing
Methodists and
Baptists"), as being detached from religion, yet "in many ways the
most spiritually awakened person that I have ever known". He described
his father as a "confirmed
atheist" by the time his parents met, and his stepfather as "a man
who saw religion as not particularly useful". Obama explained how,
through working with
black churches as a
community organizer while in his twenties, he came to understand
"the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social
change".[320]
In an interview with the evangelical periodical
Christianity Today, Obama stated: "I am a Christian, and I am a
devout Christian. I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ. I believe that that faith gives me a path to be
cleansed of sin and have eternal life."[321]
On September 27, 2010, Obama released a statement commenting on his
religious views saying "I'm a Christian by choice. My family
didn't—frankly, they weren't folks who went to church every week. And my
mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew, but she didn't raise
me in the church. So I came to my Christian faith later in life, and it
was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the
kind of life that I would want to lead—being my brothers' and sisters'
keeper, treating others as they would treat me."[322][323]
Obama met
Trinity United Church of Christ pastor Rev.
Jeremiah Wright in October 1987, and became a member of Trinity in
1992.[324]
He resigned from Trinity in May 2008 during his first presidential
campaign after
controversial statements by Wright were publicized.[325]
After a prolonged effort to find a church to attend regularly in
Washington, Obama announced in June 2009 that his primary place of
worship would be the Evergreen Chapel at
Camp David.[326]