Barack Obama Gossip

Barack Obama is a famous American politician, currently the Illinois junior United States Senator. As of early 2007, Barack Obama is the only African American in the Senate, and he is the fifth African American Senator in history. Having become nationally known since his impressive speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he has recently announced his candidacy for President of the United States and is seeking the nomination of the Democratic party. While he is not the first African American to run for President, he is popularly considered to be the first African American contender with a strong possibility of winning election.
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961. His father was Kenyan and his mother was from Kansas. Barack Obama's parents separated when he was two; his mother remarried to an Indonesian foreign student and they moved to Jakarta, Indonesia. Barack Obama went to the first half of elementary school in Indonesia; through the rest and during his high school years he lived with his grandparents in Hawaii. Later he would major in political science at Columbia University and receive his bachelor's degree. After graduating from Columbia, he worked for a year in the private sector and for a non-profit organization that helped provide job training to the poor. In 1988, Barack Obama went to Harvard Law School, two years later becoming the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After three years at Harvard Law he received a J.D. degree and went on to teach constitutional law and work for a civil rights law firm before entering politics.
In 1996, Barack Obama became an Illinois State Senator. Four years later in 2000 he ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost to incumbent Bobby Rush. After his loss he focused on the Illinois State Senate, where in 2002 he ran without opposition. In 2004, he ran for an open seat in the United States Senate. Before this election, Barack Obama gave a galvanizing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. This speech made him an instant national celebrity. He went on to win his 2004 U.S. Senate race in a landslide victory. In the years since then, Barack Obama has taken many trips abroad as part of Congressional delegations and with Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as of February 10, 2007 has officially announced his candidacy for the 2008 Presidential election. As of early 2007 he is considered one of the lead runners, in competition with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.