President Obama
Barack Obama is the United States of America’s 44th president. He was born on 4th August, 1961 to a Kenyan father in Hawaii, his mother was from Kansas. He was brought up in a humble background, living with his grandmother who was initially working in the secretarial pool before getting promoted to the middle management level at a local bank and his grandfather who was personnel in Patton’s army. His college education was mainly financed through student loans and scholarships. He even took up a job as an organizer in communities that had become devastated due to local steel plants’ closure in an attempt to rebuild them.
He got a call to Harvard Law School, becoming president of the institution’s law review; the first president who was African-American! After graduating, he joined University of Chicago to teach constitutional law. This did not reduce his enthusiasm for his community; he was actively involved in most of its activities, even championing the increase in voter registration in Illinois to more than 150, 000 prior to the 1992 election. His first election to the senate happened in 1996 where he became a senator in Illinois State senate. His major achievements included the establishment of a major ethics reform of the time, health care expansion, and the realization of tax cuts for working families.
Getting elected to the country’s senate in the year 2004, Obama ensured the world’s most lethal weapons were locked up, brought about transparency in government organs through online tracking of federal expenditure and also ensured the passing of a very important lobbyist reform in America’s history. When he became president, Obama strived hard to restore back economic security to the middle class and also increased employment opportunities. He assented to law an economic plan that saw America’s economic growth restored, saw the creation of new jobs and saved previous ones and also enabled America survive the depression.
While readying himself for his future, Obama engaged in writing and running and was a much disciplined jogger. What really bothered him most of the time was some kind of internal struggle within him concerning his identity racially. He tried very much to search for his real identity. He is even seen in interviews responding to questions concerning his identity after he gained confidence in who he was. He admits that his father was a black man who hailed from Kenya and his mother was white and was from Kansas. He even shows his appreciation for diversity and equal treatment of all peoples when he discusses his wife Michelle, whom he says is a black American with slaves and slave-owners’ blood, saying further that this kind of inheritance even passes to their two daughters.
No one had anticipated that the United States, a nation dogged by past social injustices such as racial inequality would one day have a 47 year old African American as president. He became America’s 44th President on 04 November, 2008, after which he was sworn in as the nation’s president on 20 January, 2009. It can be said by analysts that his story represents the American story. His middleclass upbringing, uniquely mixed values, a belief in education, hard work and a strong family as the vital elements in achieving greatness fit well in the American scenario.
Despite several people brandishing Barrack Obama’s campaign as purely racial, he still managed to acquire convincing wins in various states. He even got commanding victories in a number of states that were deemed to have the whitest of the whole population in the US. At one point, he is even subjected to criticisms due to his pastor’s views; views that could have further widened the racial divide in the nation. Rev. Jeremiah Wright put Obama on a collision course with most of his critics due to his statement that culminated into a serious controversy. Putting his professed ideals and values to the fore, Obama criticized Rev. Wright’s statement, exonerating himself from blame in the process. He condemned the sentiments, basing his views on his background as well as politics.
As president, Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for extraordinary efforts in strengthening cooperation between diverse peoples and fostering international diplomacy. Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as his running mate in the August Democratic Convention enabled him to defeat the Republican nominee in the general election that was held in November. This showed his shrewdness in political matters. The books he wrote from his personal memoirs were later nominated in the Grammy awards and both won awards for being the best spoken word album. This is evidence of his intellectual abilities as well as his unique ability in communication.
Apart from the vast achievements and evidence of his intelligent political maneuvers, president Obama has had a number of challenges that have shaped him to what he is and some that have made a number of people change their attitude towards him. One such occurrence was the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that left critics mudslinging him. Another controversial step that he undertook was to declare his support for same sex marriages that has had conservatives criticize him. However, his strategies with regard to transparency in governance, ethics, and prioritizing education continue to make him a darling among Americans.
