The student newspaper of Bucks County Community College

The Centurion

The student newspaper of Bucks County Community College

The Centurion

The student newspaper of Bucks County Community College

The Centurion

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Obama’s vision

Elected as the 44th president of the U.S. in 2008, Barak Obama has already made history be becoing the country’s first African-American leader.

The unique background of Obama cannot be understated; he was born from a white mother and Kenyian father and raised by his white grandparents.

His presidencey has not come without obstacles, as he faced an unprecidented employment crisis as soon as he took office in January 2008.

The national debt reached $16 trillion on Sept. 4, 2012. The national debt has increased $5.4 trillion since Obama took office in 2009.

President Obama was born on Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is the son of Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr.

His parents divorced in March of 1964, but his mother soon remarried in 1966. He and his mother moved to Indonesia in 1967 to live with his new stepfather.

Obama lived in Indonesia for four years before moving back to Honolulu in 1971 to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College, and two years after transferred to Columbia University and graduated in 1983 with a degree in political science.

In 1985, Obama was offered to move to Chicago to become the director of the Developing Communities Project, a project in which helped lower income residences of cities of South Side Chicago such as Roseland and Altgeld Gardens.

He helped set up many programs for these residences such as job training programs, college tutoring programs and a tenant rights program in Altgeld Gardens.

In 1988, Obama was accepted to Harvard Law School where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review in his second year at Harvard.

After his first year, Obama returned to Chicago for the summer and interned at the law firm of Sidley Austin, where he met his wife, Michelle Robinson.

Michelle was assigned to be his advisor at the law firm and always declined date offers until later that summer when the couple started dating.

Obama graduated Harvard Law in 1991, with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude, or with great honors.

Soon after graduation, he returned to Chicago to practice civil-rights law as well as becoming a teacher of law at the University of Chicago Law School, where he taught for 12 years. He also directed Illinois’ Project Vote, which registered unregistered African Americans in the state.

In 1991, Obama proposed to Michelle and they were soon married on Oct. 3, 1992.

Obama was elected into the republican controlled Illinois Senate in 1996 and served until 2004. He was reelected in 1998 and in 2002.

In 2000, Obama suffered his first and only political loss when running for the US House of Representatives for Illinois’s first congressional district.

In 2004, he resigned from State Senator to become a U.S. Senator.

In July of 2004, while running for the U.S. Senate, Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

In November of that same year, Obama won the election with 70 percent of the vote against republican candidate, Alan Keyes.

Obama was sworn into the U.S. Senate on Jan. 3, 2005 until 2008, when he left to focus on his presidential candidacy.

In February of 2007, Obama announced he would be running for president.

In the Democratic primary, he went up against Senator Hillary Clinton. The race remained close until Clinton ended her campaign on June 7, 2008 and endorsed Obama as the Democratic candidate.

August of 2007, Obama selected Delaware Senator, Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.

The two of them ran against Arizona Senator and presidential candidate, John McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Senator, Sarah Palin.

On Nov. 4, Obama won the election with 365 electoral votes, McCain only had 173. Obama also won 52.9 percent of the popular vote over the Arizona Senator.

Heading into presidency, he inherited the two ongoing foreign wars, a global economic recession and the lowest international favorability rating for the U.S. in history.

In his first 100 days in office, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or the Stimulus bill was passed in order to save and create jobs. It also gave loans to the automobile industry, assisted the unemployed and cut taxes for middle class families, small businesses and first-time home buyers.

He also expanded foreign affairs between the U.S. and countries such as Europe, China, and Russia. He also started to communicate more with Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Ten months after being sworn into office, Obama won the Noble Peace Prize. According to the Noble Peace Prize press release, he won the prize for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.

Throughout Obama’s four years in office, he had some challenges as well as some victories.

In 2010, he initiated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare.” The main purpose of the act was to decrease the number of uninsured Americans as well as reduce the overall cost of healthcare.

He helped repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which prevented openly gay troops from serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, in Sept. 2011.

Obama was also a part of decision making process of Operation Neptune Spear, the operation in which a team of U.S. Navy SEALs killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

If reelected, Obama intends to expand on many of the inititives he set forth while instituting new ways to help grow the economy

• Economy: Plans to create jobs and keep U.S. manufacturing alive by eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and creating incentives for businesses to bring jobs back to America.

Also, he wants to provide tax cuts for the middle and working class Americans, while raising taxes for earning-incomes over $250,000 annually.

He also wants to strategize ways to protect and strengthen Social Security for all Americans.

• Foreign Policy: His plan includes a withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afganistan by 2014 while strengthening military partnership and alliances.

Also, apply stricter standards for domestic oil exploration.

Obama’s education strategy consists of investing in community colleges and career-training programs.

He plans to expand the post 9/11 GI Bill in order to veterans and service members can get a college education.

He supports the jobs of educators and is calling for incentives to keep the best educators in the classrooms.

Also, he wants the states flexibility to create their own ambitious plans for reform, relieving them of restrictive No Child Left Behind mandates.

• Healthcare: He has banned insurance company discrimination of patients by pre-existing conditions through the Affordable Care Act. His goal is to lower healthcare costs and guarantee more choices.

Also, he plans to strengthen medicare for current and future generations.

• Immigration: Obama’s blueprint includes an increase to border security while upholding the DREAM act.