U.S. Senator Barack Obama

To learn about Barack Obama's stands on imporant issues, you should visit the official site of his 2008 presidential bid. Below are some interesting facts about the Illinois senator that reveal insight into his character.

1. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, raised there (and, for a few years, in Jakarta, Indonesia), and moved to New York to attend Columbia University. In addition to his Columbia degree, he also earned a law degree from Harvard, where he was the first African American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review.

2. Obama served eight years as a state senator in Illinois, and in 2004 was elected U.S. Senator representing Illinois. He is only the third African American since Reconstruction to be elected U.S. Senator.

3. Barack Obama's first big exposure on a national level occured in 2004 when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He delivered a speech entitled "The Audacity of Hope," an address that was widely hailed as passionate and inspiring, and many felt he upstaged the better-known politicians at the convention, namely the supposed star, nominee John Kerry.

4. His wife, Michelle Obama, is also a lawyer, having graduated from Harvard Law School in 1988. She met Barack while both worked at the law firm of Sidley and Austin. She went on to work in public service for the City of Chicago, and currently is the vice president of community and external affairs for the University of Chicago Hospitals.

5. The cultural significance of Obama's multiracial upbringing (his mother, Ann Dunham, was a white woman from Kansas, MO, while his father, Barack Obama, Sr. was a black from Kenya) was a focus of his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.

6. Barack Obama has openly admitted experimenting with alcohol, marijuana and cocaine as a teenager. Since his admissions in Dreams from My Father, he has been repeatedly asked what impact the drug use might have on his political ambissions. In 2006, he told The New Yorker, "Oh, look, you know, when I was a kid, I inhaled. Frequently. That was the point. You know, it’s, it’s not something I make light of. It's something that I wrote actually about in my first book, and it was reflective of the struggles and confusion of a teen-age boy. And in that sense, I think, the vast majority of Americans understand that teenage boys are frequently confused." (Source)

7. Obama's schooling as a child has recently been the subject of controversy. Fox News recently reported that Obama was schooled at a madrassa school financed by Muslim extremists. In Dreams of My Father, Obama describes his schooling in Indonesia as "2 years at a Muslim school, 2 years at a Catholic school." Obama's critics have pointed to his Muslim schooling as a point of concern, that he may be a closeted Muslim, but his website asserts that he attends the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

8. Barack Obama has refused to accept contributions from lobbyists or special interests. When he discovered that $50,000 in funds to his campaign came from lobbyists, the money was returned. Obama's spokesman stated, "Giving back these donations is part of our best efforts to ensure we stay true to our commitment to not take money from federal lobbyists."

9. Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Spoken Word Recording for the audio version of his book, Dreams from My Father.

10. Barack Obama is trying to quit smoking. In his recent appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, he said he has been planning to stop smoking for years, joking that this was the ideal, low-stress time for him to attempt to kick the habit, just as the 2008 presidential primaries are ramping up.

SUBMIT THIS ARTICLE TO...

Submit U.S. Senator Barack Obama to Digg.com

Bookmark U.S. Senator Barack Obama at StumbleUpon

Bookmark U.S. Senator Barack Obama at Reddit

U.S. Senator Barack Obama

Gadgets & Tech

Real Tron Lightcycle + Other Concepts
10 Ways Videogames are Good for You
Crazy Stun Guns & Safety Gadgets
10 Strange Weapons in History
10 Best Audio Podcasts

Science & Nature

10 Biggest Explosions
Nicotine
Birds and the Bees
Cigarettes
Black Holes

People