Most pundits are declaring
the 2008 election an
ultimatum on “change”
versus “experience.”
Democratic Sen. Barack
Obama is the symbol of this
change. But, who is
Obama?
Just one year ago, Obama
was considered an afterthought.
He was said to be
too inexperienced and
without enough political
clout within the party to
take the nomination over
New York Sen. Hillary
Clinton. Despite these odds
Obama used his opposition
to the Iraq War and his
ideas of a “new
Washington” to score a
decisive victory in the Iowa
caucus. He used the media
coverage that goes along
with a win in Iowa to catapult to a victory in the primary.
Obama turned 47 just last month, born in Honolulu, HI, on Aug. 4, 1961. His
parents, a Kenyan man and American woman from Kansas, divorced when he
was just 2. Obama wouldn’t see his father again until he was 10. It would be
the only time that he would ever see his father, as he died in 1982 in an automobile
accident. His lack of relationship with his father is a hardship that he
says shaped who he is today.
Obama was raised by his mother and grandparents. He bounced around
from Hawaii to Indonesia until graduating from high school. Obama has
admitted that in his youth he experimented with marijuana, cocaine and alcohol.
He described these explorations as his “greatest moral failure.”
Upon graduation, he attended Occidental College for two years before transferring
to Columbia University in NYC. Then he moved to Chicago to begin
work as a community organizer where he is credited with helping to increase
the budget of the organization he worked for while helping build new homes
for those in need.
Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School
from 1992-2004. In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois Senate, from Illinois’ 13th
district. He gained bi-partisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and
health care laws. He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income
families and promoted increased health care for children.
In 2004, Obama ran for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois and received more
than 52 percent of the vote in the March primary, winning the nomination by
29 percent over the next closest rival.
Since being elected, Obama has fought for cleaner energy policies with the
Energy Policy Act of 2005. He also sponsored legislation, along with
Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold, to broaden the Honest Leadership and Open
Government Act.