Happy Birthday President Obama
On August 4, 1961 (63 years ago today), Barack Hussein Obama II was born, not in Kenya as some have claimed, but in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was the 44th 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 unexpected 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.
In 2015, the centerpiece of Obama's foreign policy was 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's presidency ended on January 20, 2017, when he attended the inauguration of President Donald Trump. In May of 2015 it was announced that a site been selected for his Presidential Library. It will be built on the south side of Chicago. In July of 2016 he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, strongly endorsing Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, who he described as being more qualified to be president than "me or Bill" (referring to the candidate's husband, former President Bill Clinton).
In February of 2017, Obama went on a holiday which included kite-surfing with billionaire Richard Branson. On March 2, 2017, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum awarded its annual Profile in Courage Award to Obama "for his enduring commitment to democratic ideals and elevating the standard of political courage." The following month, on April 24, 2017, Obama made his first public appearance out of office, at the University of Chicago aimed at the engagement with a new generation as well as an appeal for their participation in politics. On May 4, 2017, three days ahead of the French presidential election, Obama publicly endorsed Emmanuel Macron, stating: "He appeals to people’s hopes and not their fears, and I enjoyed speaking to Emmanuel recently to hear about his independent movement and his vision for the future of France." Macron went on to win the election. He has recently traveled to Europe, delivering a speech in Milan, Italy on May 9, 2017, at a food innovation summit. On May 25, 2017, he made a joint public appearance with Chancellor Angela Merkel. He was at Kensington Palace in England where he met with Prince Harry on May 27, 2017. He offered condolences following the Manchester Arena bombing that occurred five days earlier.
On June 1, 2017, after President Donald Trump announced his withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, Obama released a statement disagreeing with the decision. During an appearance at the Seoul conference on July 3, Obama said the Paris Agreement "will still be a critical factor in helping our children solve the enormous challenge in civilization."
On September 5, 2017, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. President Obama released a post on Facebook that was very critical of the decision. On September 7, 2017, Obama partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas communities.
Obama went on an international trip from November 28 to December 2, 2017, visiting China, India and France. In China, he delivered remarks at the Global Alliance of SMEs Summit in Shanghai and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. He then went to India, where he spoke at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit before meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over lunch. He also held a town hall for young leaders, organized by the Obama Foundation. He met with the Dalai Lama while in New Delhi and ended his five-day trip in France where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, former President Francois Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, later speaking at an invitation-only event on climate issues.
On October 31, 2017, Obama hosted the inaugural meeting of the Obama Foundation in Chicago. He plans to make the foundation to be the central focus of his post-presidency. He has also been working on a Presidential memoir, in a reported $65 million deal with Penguin Random House. As well, the Barack Obama Presidential Center is Obama's planned presidential library. It will be hosted by the University of Chicago and located in Jackson Park on the South Side of Chicago. In August 2018, the Chicago Park District began construction of the project, but it suspended in September. The District stated that construction will not restart before a dialogue with federal agencies confirms that work is appropriate. On June 11, 2019, a court granted judgement dismissing the lawsuit to block construction of the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park.
A package that contained a pipe bomb was sent to the Obama's home in Washington, D.C, on October 24, 2018. The package was intercepted by the Secret Service during routine mail screenings. Similar packages were sent to several other Democratic leaders. On October 26, 2018, Cesar Sayoc was arrested for the offense. On March 21, 2019, Sayoc pleaded guilty to 65 felony counts, including using weapons of mass destruction in an attempted domestic terrorist attack and was sentenced to 20 years in prison on August 5, 2019.
In 2019, Barack and Michelle Obama bought a home on Martha's Vineyard. On April 14, 2020, Obama endorsed his former vice president Joe Biden for president in the 2020 election. The following month, in May of 2020, Obama criticized President Trump for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, describing President Trump's response to the crisis as "an absolute chaotic disaster." Trump retaliated by accusing Obama of having committed "the biggest political crime in American history", though he refused to say what he was talking about, telling reporters "You know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody."
On May 16, 2020, Obama delivered two commencement speeches on behalf of the graduating youth who were not able to go to their physical graduation ceremonies due to the COVID 19 pandemic. He spoke about systemic racism and the coronavirus pandemic, and also on racism. He said "The fight for equality and justice begins with awareness, empathy, passion, even righteous anger. Don't just activate yourself online, change requires strategy, action, organizing, marching, and voting in the real world like never before".
In February of 2021, Obama started a podcast along with Bruce Springsteen. They call it "Renegades: Born in the USA." The subject matter of the podcast is described as "their backgrounds, music and their enduring love of America."
More recently, just last month, President Obama encouraged efforts that led to Joe Biden's withdrawal as a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Obama stated that Biden's path to winning re-election had "greatly diminished" following the first Presidential debate. Obama did praise Biden's work as president, saying that "Joe Biden has been one of America's most consequential presidents." He added that Biden would not have made the decision to withdraw as a candidate "unless he believed it was right for America." Obama later endorsed presumptive nominee and incumbent vice president Kamala Harris