Barack Hussein Obama was born in early august in Honolulu, Hawaii. He herded goats with with his father, Barack Obama Sr., who although was reared by Muslims, became an atheist at some point. Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham moved to Hawaii, where she met Obama’s father, after Her father bought a house there.

Obama’s parents separated when he was two years old, and later divorced. When Barack was ten years he went to live with his maternal grandparents, and later, his mother (who died in 1995 of ovarian cancer).

Obama describes his difficulties of adjusting to his multiracial heritage in his adolescent and teenage years, admitting to his usage of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine.
Obama entered Harvard law school in 1988. 20 years later he was elected first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school, Obama forwarded to Chicago to become a civil rights lawyer. He also helped organize voter registration drives. In 1996 he was elected Illinois State Senate.

In 2000, Obama ran for the U.S. house of Representatives seat held by four-term candidate Bobby Rush. Following the 9/11 attacks, he became an early opponent of President Bush’s push to war in Iraq. "I am not opposed to all wars. I'm opposed to dumb wars," he said. "What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfolitz and other arm-chair, weekend warriors in this Administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne."

In early 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for the 2008 democratic presidential nomination. On November 4th, 2008 he defeated Republican nominee John McCain for the position of president. He is the first African American president, and the 44th president of the United states.

Click here, to read the opinions of my classmates about this president.

Background: Laura, UK
Research: Qari, USA

http://www.biography.com/featured-biography/barack-obama/bio3.jsp

Photo: <http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BarackObamaportrait.jpg> {{PD-USGov-Congress}}