Happy Birthday President Obama
On August 4, 1961 (54 years ago today), Barack Hussein Obama II was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. President Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree and he worked as a civil rights attorney 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. 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.
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, and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July. He was elected to the Senate in November. Halfway through his first term as a US Senator, he began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his election, Obama was named the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
During his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession. This included the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare". The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was also passed during his first term. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 was also passed as well.
In foreign policy, President Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War. He also increased U.S. 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. Despite these accomplishments, in November 2010, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats. After a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
Obama was re-elected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney. During his second term, Obama has promoted stronger gun control legislation in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and his administration filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama has continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan.
This year, the centerpiece of Obama's foreign policy has been an agreement on nuclear arms with Iran. In 2013, Obama's administration opened negotiations with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Negotiations took two years with numerous delays, with a deal being announced July 14, 2015. The deal, titled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saw the removal of sanctions in exchange for measures that would prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. While Obama hailed the agreement as being a step towards a more hopeful world, the deal drew strong criticism from Republican and conservative quarters, and from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Obama is prevented from seeking a third term in office. His presidency is scheduled to end on January 20, 2017. In May of this year it was announced that a site been selected for his Presidential Library. It will be built on the south side of Chicago. Here is a video of that announcement.
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, and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July. He was elected to the Senate in November. Halfway through his first term as a US Senator, he began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his election, Obama was named the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
During his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession. This included the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare". The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was also passed during his first term. The Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 was also passed as well.
In foreign policy, President Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War. He also increased U.S. 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. Despite these accomplishments, in November 2010, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats. After a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
Obama was re-elected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney. During his second term, Obama has promoted stronger gun control legislation in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and his administration filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama has continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan.
This year, the centerpiece of Obama's foreign policy has been an agreement on nuclear arms with Iran. In 2013, Obama's administration opened negotiations with Iran to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Negotiations took two years with numerous delays, with a deal being announced July 14, 2015. The deal, titled Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, saw the removal of sanctions in exchange for measures that would prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons. While Obama hailed the agreement as being a step towards a more hopeful world, the deal drew strong criticism from Republican and conservative quarters, and from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
President Obama is prevented from seeking a third term in office. His presidency is scheduled to end on January 20, 2017. In May of this year it was announced that a site been selected for his Presidential Library. It will be built on the south side of Chicago. Here is a video of that announcement.