BARACK OBAMA

A Biography of Barack Obama

Political Career
In 1996, Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate for
the 13th District which covered a span of Chicagos
south side. While Senator, Obama gained bipartisan
support. He approved a law increasing tax credits for
low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and
approved increased subsidies for childcare. Obama also
supported reforming ethics and health care laws. In
January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois
Senates Health and Human Services Committee. He
approved and led a unanimous passage of legislation to
monitor racial profiling. After that, Illinois became the
first state to mandate videotaping homicide
interrogations. During Obamas 2004 election campaign
for U.S. Senate, police representatives gave Obama
credit for enacting the death penalty reforms. Obama
later resigned from the Illinois Senate in November of
2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.

Barack Obama's Leadership and

Character Traits

Integrity
Integrity is the act of keeping to your personal morals
or ethics. Malcom Friedberg wrote about who he thinks
Barack Obama is and why he thought he should be
president:
.that's the man I want to run my country: the man
who has the courage to do what's best for all of us, and
not to compromise because it provides him with some
short-term gain. Show me the man that will risk losing
the election because he won't compromise his values,
and I'll show you the man that deserves the right to be
called the President of the United States of America.
Respect
President Obama, before he was even named the 2008
Democratic Candidate for President, supported
diplomacy as the first measure to be taken in response
to any suspicious activity. In particular,
Obama supported the re-initiation of diplomatic action
with Iran. He opposed the bill that would regard the
Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group,
thereby allowing the president to position troops in
Iran, which could be interpreted as military action
against the Iranians. This shows that the President

respects all organizations, regardless of their history or

relationships and that his first thought when
approaching foreign organizations, is diplomacy.
Fairness
The introductory paragraph to the Obama
Administration's tax plan states: Barack Obamas tax
plan delivers broad-based tax relief to middle class
families and cuts taxes for small businesses and
companies that create jobs in America, while restoring
fairness to our tax code and returning to fiscal
responsibility. Fairness is an especially important trait
for any leader because a good leader must treat
everyone with equality, regardless of race, gender or
social status. For more information, refer to the Obama
tax plan.
Citizenship
Citizenship is the character of an individual viewed as a
member of society or their behaviour in terms of the
duties, obligations, and functions of a citizen. President
Obama demonstrated very eloquent citizenship when
he worked as a community organizer in the south side
of Chicago:
In June 1985, Obama moved to Chicago, where he
was hired as director of the Developing Communities
Project (DCP), a church-based community organization
originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater
Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman and Riverdale) on
Chicago's far South Side. He worked there as a
community organizer from June 1985 to May

1988. During his three years as the DCP's director, its

staff grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget
grew from $70,000 to $400,000. He helped set up a job
training program, a college preparatory tutoring
program, and a tenants' rights organization. Obama
also worked as a consultant and instructor for a
community organizing institute.
The positive changes that occurred during Obama's
management display his self-motivation in the
community that he was a part of at that time.
Caring
In my opinion, one of the most difficult tasks that
any world leader will face is balancing time with their
two major obligations; the population that they are
leading and their actual family. There's no hiding the
strong bonds between the members of the Obama
family; the family reserves time for a sit-down
dinnertime every night. Barack Obama is certainly a
family man; he's seen in public all of the time with his
loving family.
Additionally, Barack Obama is committed to
creating universal health care in America. This shows
that the health of the individual American is one of his
top priorities.
Confidence
With the 2009 inauguration, Mr. Obama inherited two
wars, one of the worst economic disasters in American
history, and a multi-trillion dollar debt. President
Obama has displayed that he knows how to inspire
confidence in people, and he will have to if the United

States is going to make it out of

these challenges intact. President Obama attacks the
economic recession daily, creates new plans to counter
the U.S. debt, and has already put his troop withdrawal
and distribution plans into action. The American people
must know that the government is working hard so that
they can gain trust in the Federal government once
again. Obama knows the true meaning of leadership:
to encourage the American people to act for a common
purpose because they want to. Here is a phrase that
President Obama used in one of his recent speeches:
"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust
ourselves off, and begin the work of remaking America"
He has certainly held true to his word on this quote. To
help to alleviate the recession, he has spent more
money in his first sixty days than in an entire term of
any other president. Obama hasn't just talked about
plans of rebuilding America, he has acted on them.
Americans are gradually investing more and more trust
in their government as each crisis is dealt with.
Mindful Decision making
A deliberate decision of Mr. Obama was to surround
himself with people that don't necessarily agree with
his views. This way, the President will gain different
perspectives on difficult issues. If his cabinet were to
contain people that constantly agree with him, he could
make purely 'Obama' choices all of the time, and the
right decision might not always be made- nobody's
perfect.

Barack Obama has shown his decisiveness through the

innumerable times he has taken action in just about the
sixty days that he has spent in the White House.
THANK YOU.
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