Barack Obama Test

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Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the United States of America and a former Senator representing Illinois.

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• Family Background
• Political Career
• Life Events

Obama's parents separated when he was two years old and then divorced. Obama's father went to Harvard to pursue Ph.D. studies and then returned to Kenya. The young Barack Obama grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii, seeing his father only once more when he was ten-years-old, before moving to Los Angeles to begin his high-school and tertiary education.

Family Members

Father: Barak Obama

Barak Obama, Sr. was born of Luo ethnicity in Nyanza Province, Kenya. He grew up herding goats in Africa, eventually earning a scholarship that allowed him to leave Kenya and pursue his dreams of college in Hawaii. While studying at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Obama, Sr. met fellow student, Ann Dunham. They married on February 2, 1961. Barack was born six months later in Honolulu, Hawaii. He received a Masters degree in Economics from Harvard University, then returned to Kenya, where he became a finance minister before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.

Mother: Stanley Ann Dunham

Stanley Ann Dunham was born on November 29, 1942 in Wichita, Kansas. She married Barak Obama, Sr. on February 2, 1961 when she was eighteen-years-old. She gave birth to her first son, Barack Obama at the age of 18, on August 4, 1961. In 1967, following her divorce with her husband, Barak Obama Sr., she married Lolo Soetoro and the family moved to Jakarta, where Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng was born. Stanley Ann died ov ovarian cancer in 1995.

Early Life

Birth in Hawaii

Barack Obama and his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham in Hawaii

In August, 1961, the two major Honolulu newspaper, the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin published birth notices documenting the birth, in Honolulu, Hawaii, of a son to Mr. and Mrs. Barrack H. Obama" on August 4, 1961. Barack Obama was born August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii to Stanley Ann Dunham and Barak Obama.

Parents' Divorce

In 1963, Barack's father won a scholarship to study at Harvard, but didn't have the money to take his young family with him. In Jan. 1964 Barack's mother filed for divorce, citing "grievous mental suffering," according to court documents. However Stanley Ann did not speak ill of her ex-husband to her son Barack.

Life in Indonesia

In 1967, he moved with his mother and new stepfather to Jakarta, Indonesia. He attended a Catholic elementary school for two years, followed by an Indonesian public school for two years. At these schools, classes were taught in the Indonesian language. Media scrutiny revealed that the secular public school he attended was not a madrassa, which teaches Islam. On days off in observance of Islamic holidays he spent praying in a Mosque with his stepfather.

Life Back in Hawaii

Barak Obama Sr. with his son, Barack Obama in 1971

Afraid for his safety and his education, Barack's mother sent him back to Hawaii when he was 10 years old, to live with his maternal grandparents Madelyn Dunham and Stanley Dunham. She and Barack's half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng later joined them.

In 1971 Barak Obama Sr. sent word from Kenya that he wished to come to Hawaii to visit his son Barack Obama. His father stayed around for one month, speaking to his son's fifth-grade class and taking him to a Dave Brubeck concert, but never quite reestablished himself.

Tertiary Education

After high school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York, graduating in 1983 with a degree in political science.

After returning from Kenya and working as a community organizer in New York City and Chicago, Illinois, Obama enrolled at Harvard Law School in 1988. He became a member of the Harvard Law Review, which uses racial quotas, in 1989. He was then elected by popular vote as its first African American president in 1990, a story that was immediately promoted in the New York Times. He graduated magna cum laude with his J.D. in 1991, but did not serve in a clerkship. Federal clerkships are the typical post-graduate position for top law students.

Marriage to Michelle Robinson

In 1989 Obama met Michelle Robinson, an associate at Sidley & Austin law firm in Chicago. She was assigned to be Obama's adviser during a summer internship at the firm, and soon the couple began dating.

On October 3, 1992, Barack and Michelle were married by Reverend Jeremiah Wright at Trinity United Church of Christ.

Family Life

The newly married Barack and Michelle Obama moved to Kenwood, on Chicago's South Side, where they had two daughters: Malia (born July 4, 1998) and Sasha (born June 10, 2001).

Their two daughters currently attend Sidwell Friends School, a Quaker private school located in Washington, D.C. The school has been popular with past presidents and other high-ranking government personnel.

Employment

After law school, Obama returned to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer, joining the firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland. He also taught at the University of Chicago Law School, and helped organize voter registration drives during Bill Clinton's1992 presidential campaign.

Obama has described himself as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago. He held the position of Lecturer, an adjunct position, from 1992 to 1996. He held the position of Senior Lecturer from 1996 until his election to the senate in 2004.

Obama's advocacy work would later lead him to run for the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat, where he was elected in 1996.

Religion

In his autobiographical book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama wrote that he "was not raised in a religious household".

Speaking of his faith in an article in TIME Magazine in 2006, Obama stated,

"I [am not] sure what happens when we die, any more than I [am] sure of where the soul resides or what existed before the Big Bang."

During his time working as a community organizer for low-income residents in the Roseland and the Altgeld Gardens communities, Obama joined the Trinity United Church of Christ. Obama has stated that he became a Christian around 1987, stating in his address to the participants in the annual National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington on Feb. 5, 2009:

"I didn’t become a Christian until many years later, when I moved to the South Side of Chicago after college. It happened not because of indoctrination or a sudden revelation, but because I spent month after month working with church folks who simply wanted to help neighbors who were down on their luck – no matter what they looked like, or where they came from, or who they prayed to. It was on those streets, in those neighborhoods, that I first heard God’s spirit beckon me. It was there that I felt called to a higher purpose – His purpose.

...For it is only through common struggle and common effort, as brothers and sisters, that we fulfill our highest purpose as beloved children of God. I ask you to join me in that effort, and I also ask that you pray for me, for my family, and for the continued perfection of our union."

Obama also mentioned at the prayer-meeting that faith had always been a guiding force in his family’s life.

In 1988 Obama was baptized at the Trinity United Church of Christ.

References

Stand against the War in Iraq

Carl Davidson, Marilyn Katz, James Weinstein, Don Rose and other Chicago area radicals came together as Chicagoans Against War in Iraq in September 2002 to campaign against the war in Iraq.

On October 2 2002 Chicagoans Against War in Iraq organized the famous anti war rally in Federal Plaza Chicago, where Illinois State Senator Barack Obama first made his name as a strong opponent of the war. Some of the people around Davidson, later held a fundraiser for Obama when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2004.

He spoke at our first antiwar rally. He spent most of his speech detailing all the wars in history he supported, then finally made a distinction between just wars and 'dumb' wars, and going into Iraq, which was still six months down the road then, was a 'dumb war,' and he flatly opposed it. Good, that put him on our side, and some of us organized a fundraiser for him for his Senate race.

Support for "single payer" health care

While an Illinois State Senator, Barack Obama was a strong advocate of "single payer" health care-socialized medicine.

In 2003 Obama stated;

I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent—14 percent—of its gross national product on healthcare, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim’s talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out: a single-payer healthcare plan, universal healthcare plan.

2004 U.S. Senate campaign

While outside the Democratic Party mainstream, Obama was able to win his 2004 U.S. senate race by stitching together a coalition of socialist/communist dominated unions and "community organisations".

Obama has also received the backing of several independent Latino elected officials led by State Sen. Miguel del Valle, Rep. Cynthia Soto and Alderman Ray Colon. Alderman Joe Moore also backed Obama, as did USAction leader William McNary.

From the From the Communist Party USA paper Peoples Weekly World February 28th 2004;

The race for the Democratic nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois has boiled down to a three-person race, according to polls. Millionaire Blair Hull has a slight lead after pouring $18 million of his own money into an advertising blitz. State Sen. Barak Obama and State Controller Dan Hynes trail him, with a large undecided vote remaining. The primary will be held March 16.

At several campaign rallies across this city on Feb. 21, Obama said that after the presidential race, the Senate race in Illinois might be the most important. He noted the historic potential of his campaign, aside from helping break the Republican majority. If successful he would be only the third African American since Reconstruction elected to the U.S. Senate.

Of all the candidates, Obama can boast the most diverse support. While Hynes has the backing of the state AFL-CIO and the bulk of the Democratic machine, Obama has the support of several key unions including the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; Service Employees; Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees; the state American Federation of Teachers; Chicago Teachers Union and Teamsters Local 705, the second largest in the country. Obama has a 90 percent voting record on labor issues in the Illinois Senate.

In addition to widespread support in the African American community, Obama has also received the backing of several independent Latino elected officials led by State Sen. Miguel del Valle, Rep. Cynthia Soto and Alderman Ray Colon. Alderman Joe Moore from the North Side is also backing him.

Many progressive organizations have thrown their support to Obama, including the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters. In its endorsement, Citizen Action/Illinois praised Obama’s 96 percent voting record on consumer issues. President William McNary said Obama “will be a strong voice in Washington on behalf of working families.”

Supported by Council for a Livable World

The Council for a Livable World, founded in 1962 by long-time socialist activist and alleged Soviet agent, Leo Szilard, is a non-profit advocacy organization that seeks to "reduce the danger of nuclear weapons and increase national security", primarily through supporting progressive, congressional candidates who support their policies. The Council supported Barack Obama in his successful Senate run as candidate for Illinois.

References

The following are events that transpired during Obama's life that are relevant to his career.

Harvard

When Obama was named president of the Harvard Law Review, in 1990, he was profiled by, among others, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the Tribune, Vanity Fair, and the Associated Press.

Move to Chicago

When Barack Obama was 22 years old, just out of Columbia University, he took a $10,000-a-year job as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. "It was a shrewd move for a young black man with an interest in politics..."

The politician who truly set the stage for Obama's rise was also a South Side congressman Harold Washington, who was elected mayor of Chicago in 1983...In New York, Obama read about Washington's victory and wrote to City Hall, asking for a job. He never heard back, but he made it to Chicago just months after Washington took office....

Sidley Austin

Michelle Obama, Obama's wife

In 1988, Obama left for Harvard Law School, returning to Chicago twice for summer stints at élite law firms, including, after his first year, Sidley Austin-where he met Michelle Robinson, later Michelle Obama. He returned to Chicago permanently when he graduated, in 1991.

Saul Mendelson's memorial

Saul Mendelson

On March 29 1998 Barack Obama spoke at a memorial service for long time Chicago Socialist Party USA and Democratic Socialists of America member Saul Mendelson.

According to Chicago DSA leader Carl Shier;

At the memorial service held at the 1st Unitarian Church on South Woodlawn, speaker after speaker recounted Saul's contributions. The service was ably MC'd by a retired colleague, Bob Clark. I spoke first and was followed by Saul's friend Deborah Meier, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient who is now starting a new school in Boston. Amy Isaacs, National Director of the ADA, spoke of what Saul had meant on foreign affairs to the ADA.

Other speakers included Senator Carol Moseley Braun, Alderman Toni Preckwinkle, State Senator Barak Obama, Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie and a good friend from New York, Myra Russell. The concluding remarks were made by an old friend, Harriet Lefley, who is now Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami Medical School.

Deborah Meier was a former Trotksyite and Socialist Party USA comrade of Saul Mendelson's and a leader of Chicago and Boston DSA.

Amy Isaacs was national director of Americans for Democratic Action, which works closely with DSA.

Carol Moseley Braun was then a U.S. Senator with strong links to both DSA and the Communist Party USA. Barack Obama helped get her elected in 1992 and then took over her former Senate seat in 2004.

Alderman Toni Preckwinkle and Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, are both leftist Democrats with ties to Chicago's socialist community. Both endorsed Barack Obama in his successful 2004 bid for the United States Senate.

Harriet Lefley was a Trotskyite in the 1940s with Saul Mendelson.

Eulogies also came from Quinn Brisben, (Socialist Party USA presidential candidate 1976, 1992) and David McReynolds (Socialist Party USA presidential candidate 1980, 2000).

Both Brisben and McReynolds are also members of Democratic Socialists of America.

Obama probably knew Saul Mendelson through their mutual activities in the Independent Voters of Illinois Independent Precinct Organization (IVIIPO), an organization investigated by the FBI for communist infiltration in the 1940s.

Failed congressional run

In 1999, Obama challenged Bobby Rush, who has represented the South Side in Congress since 1992.

Rush had run against Daley in the 1999 mayoral primary, and Obama interpreted Rush’s defeat in that citywide race as a harbinger of his declining popularity in his congressional district.

Obama was financially outmatched. Although he raised about six hundred thousand dollars, sustained television advertising in Chicago cost between two hundred thousand and three hundred thousand dollars a week, according to Dan Shomon, Obama’s campaign manager at the time. A series of unusual events defined the race. A few months before the election, Rush’s twenty-nine-year-old son, Huey Rich, was shot and killed, which made the incumbent a figure of sympathy, and in the final weeks of the campaign Rush’s father died. Obama made a serious misstep when, visiting his grandmother in Hawaii, he missed a crucial vote on gun-control legislation in Springfield. Even worse, on the day of the vote a column by Obama about how the gun bill was “sorely needed” appeared in the Hyde Park Herald, under the headline “IDEOLOGUES FRUSTRATE GUN LAW.” Obama protested that his daughter was ill and unable to travel, and that he saw his grandmother, who lived alone, only once a year, but the press treated the trip as a tropical vacation.

Obama lost hugely-by thirty-one points. On Election Night, at the Ramada Inn where he had begun his political career, Obama hinted that he might leave politics. “I’ve got to make assessments about where we go from here,” he said. “We need a new style of politics to deal with the issues that are important to the people. What’s not clear to me is whether I should do that as an elected official or by influencing government in ways that actually improve people’s lives.”

Obama had misread the political dynamics of Rush’s unsuccessful mayoral campaign. According to Abner Mikva;

He thought he would get some help from Daley because Rush had run against Daley for mayor...He thought that Daley might use the opportunity to get even. That’s not the way the Daleys work. It’s not the way the machine works. When Barack went in to see the Mayor, whom he knew slightly, Daley said what his old man used to say: ‘Good luck!’ ”

Stand against the Iraq War

Barack Obama

When Chicagoans Against War on Iraq was organized in 2002, it began by organizinga Federal Plaza rally on October 2 that drew a politically significant line up of speakers, including U.S. Representatives and a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama.

According to Ryan Lizzathe idea for the rally came from Bettylu Saltzman and some friends, who, over Chinese food, had decided to stage the protest. Saltzman asked John Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicagoto speak, but he couldn’t make it. “He was one of the main people we wanted, but he was speaking at the University of Wisconsin that day,” Saltzman said.

Then she called her rabbi and then Barack Obama. Michelle answered the phone and passed the message on to her husband, who was out of town.

Saltzman also called Marilyn Katz, a leading member of Chicagoans Against War on Iraq Katz managed to get Jesse Jackson as a speaker and handled many of the organizing details.

Katz described what she felt the political mood was at the time of the rally. “Professors are being turned in on college campuses, Bush’s ratings are eighty-seven per cent,” she said.

Among my friends, there hasn’t been an antiwar demonstration in twenty years. There’s huge repression, Bush has got all this legislation. They’re talking about lists, they’re denying people entry into the country. . . . Bush’s numbers were tremendously high, but we had no choice. Unless we wanted to live in a country that was fascist.”

In his biography of Obama, David Mendell, noting that Obama’s speech occurred a few months before the official declaration of his U.S. Senate candidacy, suggests that the decision to publicly oppose the war in Iraq was a calculated political move intended to win favor with Saltzman.

But as Saltzman herself has said, “He was a Hyde Park state senator. He had to oppose the war!”

2004 U.S. Senate campaign

While outside the Democratic Party mainstream, Obama was able to win his 2004 U.S. senate race by stitching together a coalition of socialist/communist dominated unions and "community organisations".

Obama has also received the backing of several independent Latino elected officials led by State Sen. Miguel del Valle, Rep. Cynthia Soto and Alderman Ray Colon. Alderman Joe Moore also backed Obama, as did USAction leader William McNary.

From the From the Communist Party USA paper Peoples Weekly World February 28th 2004;

The race for the Democratic nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat in Illinois has boiled down to a three-person race, according to polls. Millionaire Blair Hull has a slight lead after pouring $18 million of his own money into an advertising blitz. State Sen. Barak Obama and State Controller Dan Hynes trail him, with a large undecided vote remaining. The primary will be held March 16.

At several campaign rallies across this city on Feb. 21, Obama said that after the presidential race, the Senate race in Illinois might be the most important. He noted the historic potential of his campaign, aside from helping break the Republican majority. If successful he would be only the third African American since Reconstruction elected to the U.S. Senate.

Of all the candidates, Obama can boast the most diverse support. While Hynes has the backing of the state AFL-CIO and the bulk of the Democratic machine, Obama has the support of several key unions including the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; Service Employees; Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees; the state American Federation of Teachers; Chicago Teachers Union and Teamsters Local 705, the second largest in the country. Obama has a 90 percent voting record on labor issues in the Illinois Senate.

In addition to widespread support in the African American community, Obama has also received the backing of several independent Latino elected officials led by State Sen. Miguel del Valle, Rep. Cynthia Soto and Alderman Ray Colon. Alderman Joe Moore from the North Side is also backing him.

Many progressive organizations have thrown their support to Obama, including the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters. In its endorsement, Citizen Action/Illinois praised Obama’s 96 percent voting record on consumer issues. President William McNary said Obama “will be a strong voice in Washington on behalf of working families.”

References

Radical Associates

Radical people associated with Barack Obama.

Radical Appointments

Radical people who have been elected to positions of power in the Obama Administration.

Affiliated Organizations

Discover Barack Obama's involvement with the following organizations:

Democratic Socialists of America

New Party

Communist Party USA

Committees of Correspondence

Labor Movement

ACORN & Project Vote

Other organizations...

Recent news

• Nov. 4, 2009: Service Employees International Union president Andrew Stern's name was one of the 110 on the White House visitor logs that President Obama released on Nov. 4, 2009.

External links

• Barack Obama official website
• White House website