Why He's No. 1

Barack Obama was the Democratic Party's 2008 presidential nominee. He was also a member of the U.S. Senate as a representative of Illinois. He was elected as the first African-American president on November 4, 2008.

Back Stage

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (born August 4, 1961) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. In his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his experiences growing up in his mother's American middle class family. His knowledge about his African father, who returned once for a brief visit in 1971, came mainly through family stories and photographs. Of his early childhood, Obama writes: "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." The book describes his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind". Questioning the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War, Obama spoke of an enlisted Marine, Corporal Seamus Ahern from East Moline, Illinois, asking, " Are we serving Seamus as well as he is serving us? " He continued: When we send our young men and women into harm's way, we have a solemn obligation not to fudge the numbers or shade the truth about why they're going, to care for their families while they're gone, to tend to the soldiers upon their return, and to never ever go to war without enough troops to win the war, secure the peace, and earn the respect of the world.



The speech was most Americans' introduction to Obama. Its enthusiastic reception at the convention and widespread coverage by national media gave him instant celebrity status. With two months remaining before the first electoral contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, and national opinion polls showing him trailing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama began directly charging his top rival with failing to clearly state her political positions. Campaigning in Iowa, he told the Washington Post that as the Democratic nominee he would draw more support than Clinton from independent and Republican voters in the general election.



Obama and Clinton split the first four DNC-sanctioned state contests, with Obama leading the popular vote in Iowa and South Carolina, and Clinton finishing first in New Hampshire and Nevada. His win in Iowa was boosted by majority support from a record turnout of voters under 30 years old, most of them first-time caucus goers. Heading into the February 19, 2008 primaries in Wisconsin and Hawaii, the Associated Press estimated Obama leading the competition for Democratic convention delegates by a margin of 1,280 to 1,218 for Clinton. I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a US occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of Al Qaeda. I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars. On March 16, 2003, the day Bush issued his 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Obama addressed the largest Chicago anti-Iraq War rally to date in Daley Plaza and told the crowd "It's not too late" to stop the war. Obama plays basketball, a sport he participated in as a member of his high school's varsity team. Before announcing his presidential candidacy, he began a well-publicized effort to quit smoking. " I've never been a heavy smoker, " Obama told the Chicago Tribune. "I've quit periodically over the last several years. I've got an ironclad demand from my wife that in the stresses of the campaign I do not succumb. I've been chewing Nicorette strenuously."



Replying to an Associated Press survey of 2008 presidential candidates' personal tastes, he specified "architect" as his alternate career choice and "chili" as his favorite meal to cook. Asked to name a "hidden talent," Obama answered: " I'm a pretty good poker player. " His second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, was published in October 2006, three weeks before the 2006 midterm election. It was an immediate bestseller and rose to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list by early November 2006. The Chicago Tribune credits the large crowds that gathered at book signings with influencing Obama's decision to run for president. Former presidential candidate Gary Hart describes the book as Obama's "thesis submission" for the U.S. presidency: "It presents a man of relative youth yet maturity, a wise observer of the human condition, a figure who possesses perseverance and writing skills that have flashes of grandeur." Reviewer Michael Tomasky writes that it does not contain "boldly innovative policy prescriptions that will lead the Democrats out of their wilderness," but does show Obama's potential to "construct a new politics that is progressive but grounded in civic traditions that speak to a wider range of Americans." An Italian edition was published in April 2007 with a preface by Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome and leader of Italy's Democratic Party.



Obama was the junior United States Senator from Illinois from 2005 until he resigned following his election to the presidency. Won his second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "The Audacity of Hope" (2008). Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham died Sunday November 2, 2008 in the early evening in Honolulu from cancer. She was 86. Is the first African-American man to be elected 44th President of the United States (November 2008). He was inaugurated as President on January 20, 2009.

Forcaste

Barack Obama's presidential ambitions originated in a third-grade essay and blossomed into a list of growing accomplishments. The first African-American to be a presidential nominee, Barack Obama was also the first black president of the Harvard Law Review and hence the first black president of the United States. Thanks to his public service in the Illinois and U.S. Senate, Barack Obama was twice recognized by Time as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world, and was included by New Statesman on their list of 10 people who could change the world. Now that he's president, we think this is only the beginning.