Essays

The first Afro-American to be elected as the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Obama has done something that others could only dream of.   Eloquent speaker and a reformist who stressed on education and health reforms, it is difficult to put in words a man who has caught the imagination of millions across the world. The voice of large number of Americans who opposed the Iraq war, Obama went beyond the conventional thinking of U.S. and is truly courage personified.

Commonly called "Barry" throughout his childhood, Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4th 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama Sr. was of Luo ethnicity of Kenya. Hussein was their middle name as Barack Obama Sr. had adopted Islam though originally he was a Christian. Barack's mother, Ann Dunham was an American brought up in Kansas State- Barack Obama admitted that he struggled through his initial childhood years to find answers about his multicultural, multiracial heritage. As a child, he found difficult to accept such vast differences between his mother and father's skin color and it was hard for him to deal with this internal conflict.

Till his fourth grade he stayed in Indonesia; after which he moved with his grandparents to Honolulu, Hawaii. After high school/ Barack moved to Los Angeles and studied at the Occidental College and later at Columbia College in New York. He majored in Political Science with specialization in International relations in 1983. From 1985 to 1988, Obama worked to help blacks fight for their rights which taught him organizational skills. He was always good with words and was known for making speeches which people could emotionally connect to.

Barack Obama felt that law was a medium which could facilitate activism and community organization. So in late 1988, he entered Harvard Law School. In his second year at college, in 1990, he was elected as the president of law review. As he was the first black to be elected for this position, it was a widely reported and much publicized event.

Here Obama met his future wife Michelle, also a lawyer, and later married her in 1992. He finally graduated from Harvard in 1991; after which he again moved back to Chicago/where he practiced as a civil rights lawyer. Although he could have easily taken up a god job after Harvard but his values and mother's teachings had taught him to do something for the society and the less privileged ones. The publicity that he garnered at Harvard, because of his election as first black president of Harvard law review, led him to an offer by University of Chicago law school to write book on racial relations.

In 1992 elections, Obama had organized largest voter registration drives, Project Vote. in the history of Chicago. Obama's work led him to run for Illinois State Senate and he was finally elected in 1996. He strongly worked for ethics reforms and criminal justice reform. He went on to serve three terms in the Illinois State Senate, from the year 1997 to 2004.

Obama lost a primary run for U.S. House of Representatives in a very close fight in the year 2000. In the year 2003, he passed legislation to expand healthcare coverage to 70,000 children making Kidcare, State Children's Health Insurance program, permanent. The legislation also extended health insurance to uninsured parents, which added up to additional 84,000 parents.

Barack Obama came into national limelight with an inspiring speech at July 2004 Democratic National Convention where he spoke against the Bush administration's policies on Iraq war. His speech was the highlight of the convention and people who saw it knew that he was an emerging star. Obama is a great orator, and is often compared to Martin Luther King Jr. and John F Kennedy. Michelle and Barack had their first daughter, Malta Ann in 1998 and second daughter Natasha, known as Sasha in 2001. His second book, Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream was out in October 2006 and he won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for audio version of this book.

By middle of 2002, he started thinking about running for U.S. Senate and formally announced his candidacy in 2003 for U.S. Senate. On 2nd November 2004, he won the election by a great victory margin and was finally elected to the US Senate, following which he resigned from Illinois State Senate, Barack Obama became the fifth African American senator in the history to do so. Till 2006, Obama held minority appointments like Foreign relations, Environment and Public Works, Veteran's Affairs on Senate committees. Since 2007, he took additional major assignments of Committee of Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. While in U.S. Senate Foreign relations Committee, Obama visited Iraq to witness the war and even introduced a legislation to end the Iraq war Right through his career, he spoke about his opposition to the Iraq war and of providing universal health care, which he focused on even in the presidential campaign. Obama made efforts to correct the disparity that existed in the state of Illinois where veterans were receiving less disability benefits as compared to other states. As a result more disability claims specialists were hired for the regional office in Chicago and claims of veterans were re-examined. Education was his top priority during his Senate years. He also worked on to get black colleges eligible for grant money. Obama sponsored a number of bills in U.S. Senate, 136 in total, of which two of them have become law.

Obama declared his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination in February 2007 in Illinois. Of the large number of candidates who filed for nominations as presidential candidates, only two remained in the contest; Senator Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. On the 3rd of June 2008, Obama became the presumptive nominee, one who is assured of his nomination but not officially announced by the party. In August 2008, Barack Obama accepted the nomination and if was in race against the republican nominee, John McCain- On November 4, 2008, Obama won the presidential election by a big margin. He delivered his victory speech at Chicago's Grant Park in front of thousands of supporters. There were not only nationwide but worldwide celebrations on his victory.

His stance on ethics, stressing on government transparency, education as priority with his reform "No Child left behind" and providing affordable and accessible healthcare to all, made Barack Obama a favorite of many Americans. His novel ideas, materialized into vigorous campaigns made impossible possible and raised him to such a commendable stature.