Barack Obama

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Barack Obama

44th President of the United States

In office
January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017

Vice President Joe Biden

Preceded by George W. Bush

Succeeded by Donald Trump

Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on European

Affairs
 In office
January 3, 2007 – November 16, 2008

Preceded by George F. Allen

Succeeded by Jeanne Shaheen

United States Senator

from Illinois

In office
January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008

Preceded by Peter Fitzgerald

Succeeded by Roland Burris

Member of the Illinois Senate

from the 13th district

In office
January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004

Preceded by Alice Palmer

Succeeded by Kwame Raoul

Personal details

Born Barack Hussein Obama II

August 4, 1961 (age 57)

Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.

Political party Democratic

 Michelle Robinson (m. 1992)
Spouse(s)

 Malia
Children
 Sasha

Parents  Barack Obama Sr.

 Ann Dunham

Relatives Obama family

Education Occidental College

Columbia University (BA)

Harvard Law School (JD)

Awards Nobel Peace Prize (2009)

Profile in Courage Award(2017)

Signature

Website  Office of Barack and Michelle Obama

 Obama Foundation

 White House Archives

This article is part of

a series about
Barack Obama

 Political positions
 Electoral history

 Early life and career

 Family
 Public image

Pre-presidency

 Illinois State Senator

 2004 DNC keynote address
 U.S. Senator from Illinois
44th President of the United States

 Presidency
 Timeline

Policies

 Economy
 Energy
 Foreign policy
o Obama Doctrine
o Foreign trips
 Pardons
 Social
 Space
Appointments
 Cabinet
 Judges

First term

 Campaign for the Presidency

 2008 general election
 Primaries
 Transition
 1st inauguration
 First 100 days
 Affordable Care Act
 Iraq Withdrawal
 Death of Osama bin Laden

 Timeline: '09
 '10
 '11
 '12

Second term

 Reelection campaign
  2012 general election
 Reactions
 2nd inauguration
 Immigration executive action
 Iran deal
 Cuban thaw

 Timeline: '13
 '14
 '15
 '16
 '17

Post-presidency

 Planned Library
 Obama Foundation
 One America Appeal

 Dreams from My Father

 The Audacity of Hope
 Nobel Peace Prize

 v
 t
 e

Part of a series on

New Democrats
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People[hide]

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 Evan Bayh
 Joe Biden
 John Carney
 Tom Carper
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 Bill Clinton
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 Gerry Connolly
 Jim Davis
 Susan Davis
 Cal Dooley
 John Edwards
 Harold Ford Jr.
 Al From
 Dick Gephardt
 Al Gore
 Bob Graham
 Jim Himes
 John Kerry
 Ron Kind
 Mary Landrieu
 Rick Larsen
 Joe Lieberman
 Blanche Lincoln
 Will Marshall
 Jim Moran
  Sam Nunn
 Barack Obama
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Barack Hussein Obama II (/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/ ( listen);[1] born August 4, 1961) is an
American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009, to
January 20, 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to assume
the presidency and previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois (2005–2008).
Obama was born in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii, two years after the territory was admitted to the
Union as the 50th state. Raised largely in Hawaii, he also spent one year of his childhood in
the State of Washington and four years in Indonesia. After graduating from Columbia University in
1983, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago. In 1988, he enrolled in Harvard Law School,
where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating, he became
a civil rights attorney and a professor, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law
School from 1992 to 2004. He represented the 13th district for three terms in the Illinois Senate from
1997 to 2004, when he ran for the U.S. Senate. He received national attention in 2004 with his
March primary win, his well-received July Democratic National Convention keynote address, and his
landslide November election to the Senate. In 2008, he was nominated for president a year after his
campaign began and after a close primary campaign against Hillary Clinton. He
was elected over Republican John McCain and was inaugurated on January 20, 2009. Nine months
later, he was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, accepting the award with the caveat that
he felt there were others "far more deserving of this honor than I".
During his first two years in office, Obama signed many landmark bills into law. The main reforms
were the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often referred to as "Obamacare", shortened as
the "Affordable Care Act"), the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and
the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009 and Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of
2010 served as economic stimulus amidst the Great Recession. After a lengthy debate over the
national debt limit, he signed the Budget Control and the American Taxpayer Relief Acts. In foreign
policy, he increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, reduced nuclear weapons with the United
States–Russia New START treaty, and ended military involvement in the Iraq War. He
ordered military involvement in Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi; Gaddafi was killed by
NATO-assisted forces, and he also ordered the military operation that resulted in the deaths of
Osama bin Laden and suspected Yemeni Al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki.
After winning re-election by defeating Republican opponent Mitt Romney, Obama was sworn in for a
second term in 2013. During this term, he promoted inclusiveness for LGBT Americans. His
administration filed briefs that urged the Supreme Court to strike down same-sex marriagebans as
unconstitutional (United States v. Windsor and Obergefell v. Hodges); same-sex marriage was
fully legalized in 2015 after the Court ruled that a same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional
in Obergefell. He advocated for gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School
shooting, indicating support for a ban on assault weapons, and issued wide-ranging executive
actions concerning climate change and immigration. In foreign policy, he ordered military
intervention in Iraq in response to gains made by ISIL after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, continued
the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, promoted discussions that led to the
2015 Paris Agreement on global climate change, initiated sanctions against Russia following
the invasion in Ukraine and again after Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections,
brokered a nuclear deal with Iran, and normalized U.S. relations with Cuba. Obama left office in
January 2017 with a 60% approval rating and currently resides in Washington, D.C. Since then, his
presidency has been favorably ranked by historians and the general public.[2][3] He also had a high
global approval rating, and the United States' reputation saw a dramatic upward shift during his
presidency.[4]