Barack Hussein Obama II (or Jr.), known as Barack Obama, he was the 44th president of the United States (2009-2017).
His government was marked by the economic crisis of 2008, scandals involving espionage, but also a fight for greater equality between genders and races.
He was re-elected in 2013 and ended his term in 2017.
Biography
Barack Obama delivers his last speech to the US Congress, in 2016.
Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was Kenyan and his mother was American and they met while studying at university.
The union didn't last long and the parents divorced when Obama was two years old. Later, the mother would marry another university colleague, of Indonesian nationality, and go with him to Jakarta. There, Obama would study in public schools until returning to Hawaii in 1971 where he would be raised by his maternal grandparents.
University Career and Politics
Obama studied Political Science at Columbia University and later would major in law at Harvard. He was the first African-American editor of Harvard Law Review course student magazine.
While pursuing his university studies he became involved in various community and volunteer work. It helped prepare students to enter university, enter the workforce, or defend tenants' rights. He would also campaign to improve conditions on the New York subway.
He was a professor at the University of Chicago and has also worked in Chicago law firms. In 1997 he ran for the Democratic Party in the Illinois State Senate elections where he was re-elected until 2004. This year, he won a seat in the United States Senate.
A rising star in the Democratic Party, in 2004 he was invited to give the keynote address at the Convention. There he won a good part of the coreligionists and became known to the general public.
presidential election
In 2008, Obama announced that he would run in the primaries that would choose the Democratic Party candidate in the US presidential election. In this way he had to defeat several opponents within the party and mainly Hillary Cliton, former first lady and former senator.
The debate was intense and fierce, but Obama knew how to win over the Democrats with his charisma. In any case, the 2008 elections had already entered American history by confronting for the first time a black candidate and a white woman.
Once over the stage within his party, Obama faced the Republican John McCain, the Republican candidate. A seasoned politician and Vietnam War veteran, McCain was the perfect contrast to Obama's youth and apparent inexperience.
After eight years of republican government under George W. Bush, who led the country into an unresolved war in the Middle East, American voters opted for the novelty and elected the first black president in its history.
Read more about Iraq war.
Barack Obama takes office as president in January 2009. Next to it, First Lady Michelle Obama and the couple's daughters.
Obama Administration (2009-2017)
- It sanctioned the law that required every American citizen to have health insurance and that insurance companies could no longer refuse people with pre-existing or congenital conditions. The law was passed in 2009 and was dubbed the Obamacare;
- in 2011, American troops managed to locate and kill the leader of the al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden
- managed to rebuild the American economy;
- named the first woman of Hispanic descent to the Supreme Court in 2009,
- passed the federal law approving same-sex marriage in 2015;
- signed and defended the entry of the United States into the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015;
- approved the law whereby companies with more than 100 employees should detail the payment of their subordinates, guaranteeing equal pay for men and women, in 2016;
- was the first American president to attempt a serious rapprochement policy with Cuba and to visit it in 2016.
Negative points
- Despite the efforts, the Republicans put up all sorts of barriers and the prison at Guantanamo (Cuba) was not closed;
- American soldiers remain in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Syria War;
- although it is the first African American in the presidency, the American black population continues to be heavily discriminated against and has been the victim of several murders committed by the police;
- WikiLeaks scandal revealed secret documents about the 2010 Iraq War;
- publication of documents by former CIA agent Edward Snowden proving that the US government was spying on 35 world leaders in 2013;
- failed to establish a policy to control the purchase, sale and ownership of weapons. Many massacres were registered in schools, but the worst of them occurred in a disco in Orlando, where 50 people died and 53 were injured in 2016;
- there was no immigration reform and his government ended with nearly 3,000,000 immigrants deported. There are 11,000,000 undocumented people in the US.
Obama was succeeded in the presidency by the Republican Donald Trump.
Curiosities
- He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and won a Grammy in 2006 for the narration of the autobiographical book "Sonhos do Meu Pai";
- the brazilian artist Vik Muniz painted portrait of him;
- was the first American president to be born in Hawaii;
- in 2008, still presidential candidate, he gave a speech in Berlin that drew thousands of people, winning the world public opinion.
read more:
- U.S
- Racism
- Cuban revolution
- September 11th
- osama bin laden
