Date of Birth
4 August 1961,
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Birth Name
Barack Hussein Obama II
Nickname
Barry
Bama
Rock
The One
No Drama Obama
Height
6' 1" (1.85 m)
Mini Biography
Barack Obama was born to a white American mother,
Ann Dunham, and a black Kenyan father,
Barack Obama Sr.,
who were both young college students at the University of Hawaii. When
his father left for Harvard, she and Barack stayed behind, and his
father ultimately returned alone to Kenya, where he worked as a
government economist. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil
manager and moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. He later recounted
Indonesia as simultaneously lush and a harrowing exposure to tropical
poverty. He returned to Hawaii, where he was brought up largely by his
grandparents. The family lived in a small apartment - his grandfather
was a furniture salesman and an unsuccessful insurance agent and his
grandmother worked in a bank - but Barack managed to get into Punahou
School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly
but, though he traveled around the world on official business for Kenya,
he visited only once, when Barack was ten.
Obama attended
Columbia University, but found New York's racial tension inescapable. He
became a community organizer for a small Chicago church-based group for
three years, helping poor South Side residents cope with a wave of
plant closings. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became
the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned
down a prestigious judicial clerkship, choosing instead to practice
civil-rights law back in Chicago, representing victims of housing and
employment discrimination and working on voting-rights legislation. He
also began teaching at the University of Chicago Law School, and married
Michelle Robinson, a fellow attorney. Eventually he was elected to the
Illinois state senate, where his district included both Hyde Park and
some of the poorest ghettos on the South Side.
In 2004 Obama was
elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, representing Illinois, and he
gained national attention by giving a rousing and well-received keynote
speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008 he ran
for President, and despite having only four years of national political
experience, he won. In January 2009, he was sworn in as the 44th
President of the United States, and the first African-American ever
elected to that position. Obama was reelected to a second term in
November 2012.
IMDb Mini Biography By:
Anonymous
Spouse
Trivia
His first name comes from the word that means "blessed by God" in Arabic.
In the Kenyan town where his father was born, the long-brewed "Senator" brand of beer has been nicknamed "Obama."
U.S. Senator from Illinois since 3 January 2005.
Won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word for the CD version of his autobiography "Dreams From My Father" (2006).
Lived in Hyde Park in Chicago.
On
"Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993), he revealed that President
George W. Bush nicknamed him "Bama" and "Rock".
The movie he saw on his first date with
Michelle Obama was
Do the Right Thing (1989).
Related to
Park Overall.
Has two daughters,
Malia Obama (born in 1998) and
Sasha Obama (born in 2001).
Candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 US presidential election.
Several celebrities including;
Halle Berry,
George Clooney,
Sheryl Crow,
Bob Dylan,
Topher Grace,
Macy Gray,
Bruce Springsteen,
Oprah Winfrey Tom Hanks,
Scarlett Johansson,
Hayden Panettiere,
Zachary Quinto,
Eddie Murphy and
John Cleese support his 2008 presidential campaign.
Robert De Niro gave his endorsement at the same rally where Barack was endorsed by Caroline and Ted Kennedy.
Enjoys playing basketball and poker.
At his wife's suggestion, he quit smoking before his campaign to win the Democratic nomination began.
His paternal relatives still live in Kenya.
Confessed teenage drug experiences in his memoirs "Dreams from My Father".
One of his ancestors was Mareen Duvall, also an ancestor of actor
Robert Duvall.
Shares his surname with a small city in western Japan, which means "small shore" in Japanese.
Plays basketball.
Born to
Barack Obama Sr. (1936-1982) and
Ann Dunham (1942-1995) married from 1961 to 1965.
Named one of Time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world" list in 2005 and 2007.
Chosen as one of "10 people would change the world" by New Statesman magazine (2005).
Won his second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for "The Audacity of Hope" (2008).
On
June 3, 2008 he won the Montana primary election giving him enough
delegates to become the first Black American presidential candidate to
win a major political party's presumptive nomination for the office of
President of the United States.
Is a die-hard Chicago White Sox fan.
More than 215,000 people attended his speech in Berlin on 24 July 2008.
Has one half-sister, Maya, born to his mother and stepfather in 1970.
Has his look-alike puppet in the French show
"Les guignols de l'info" (1988).
Barack
Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Payne Dunham died Sunday November 2, 2008
in the early evening in Honolulu from cancer. She was 86.
Is the first African-American man to be elected President of the United States (November 2008).
When
elected President, he won the battleground states of Florida, Virginia
and Colorado - all of which had voted Republican in 2004.
Is the first American president to be born in Hawaii.
Was the 27th lawyer to be elected American president.
Was elected to be the 44th president of the Unites States of America on 4 November, 2008.
As a child growing up in Hawaii, his classmates knew him as Barry.
Presidential campaign slogan: "Change we can believe in".
Is primarily of Kenyan and English ancestry.
Favorite movies are
Casablanca (1942),
Lawrence of Arabia (1962),
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975),
The Godfather (1972), and
The Godfather: Part II (1974).
Is a fan of
"The Wire" (2002).
First ever US President to address a Muslim community at an inaugural speech.
Shares the same birthday as long-time White House correspondent and journalism legend,
Helen Thomas. On her 89th birthday (and his 48th), they celebrated by blowing birthday cupcakes together in front of the press corps.
First United States Senator to be elected President since
John F. Kennedy.
October 2009, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Fourth US President to win a Nobel Peace Prize (2009) after
Theodore Roosevelt (1906),
Woodrow Wilson (1919) and
Jimmy Carter (2002).
Defended his decision not to issue a formal written statement on the death of controversial pop star
Michael Jackson on 25 June 2009.
Half-brother of
Maya Soetoro-Ng.
Brother-in-law of
Konrad Ng.
Merited
a position in Time magazine's - The 100 Most Influential People in the
World ("Leaders" category) - with an homage contributed by
David Remnick (Issue: May 10, 2010).
Received a gift of a Portuguese water dog from Senator
Ted Kennedy
and his wife Victoria. Because the particular breed is reportedly
hypo-allergenic, the First Family and friends were highly unlikely to
suffer any allergic reactions in the pet's presence. [2009]
Obama's appearance on
"The View" (1997) (29 July 2010) made him the first ever sitting US President to appear as a guest on a daytime TV talk show.
Obama's birthplace of Hawaii makes him the first U.S. president not born in the continental United States.
Brother-in-law of basketball player, coach and author
Craig Robinson.
Son of
Barack Obama Sr..
The character of Matt Santos in 'The West Wing' is based on him.
The first US President to be born after the Vietnam War started.
Is a big fan of the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man and collected the comics as a youth.
Counts
"Homeland" (2011) as one of his favorite TV shows.
First U.S. President to be personally presented with an Apple iPad 2 by
Steve Jobs before it was officially released domestically. Obama is frequently seen using Apple devices.
Notable
for being the first United States President to participate in social
media. He is the first President to have a personal Facebook page and a
Twitter account, and the first President to hold Q&A sessions via
those forums and YouTube. He is also the first sitting President to own
and use an iPod, Blackberry (custom made for security purposes), and
iPad.
His daily newspapers are The New York Times, The Wall Street
Journal, and The Washington Post. He claims to not watch cable TV news
stations.
Introduced the 50th anniversary television broadcast of
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962).
Can speak Indonesian to a certain degree, having lived in Indonesia for a number of years during his childhood.
The TV presidential election campaign commercial for Obama featured,
Carl Reiner,
Garry Marshall,
Larry Gelbart,
Valerie Harper,
Danny DeVito,
Rhea Perlman,
Jerry Stiller and
Anne Meara (slogan: "This Ain't Funny, it's a serious election. Don't vote out of fear, vote for hope - Vote for Obama").
Was a classmate of
Hill Harper's at Harvard Law School.
First United States President to be elected twice with over 50% of the popular vote since
Ronald Reagan and the first Democratic President elected as such since
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
First
two-term President to take the Oath of Office four times. The first
time, during his televised first inauguration, Chief Justice John
Roberts made a mistake while reading the Oath of Office, which Obama
repeated to avoid embarrassment. A few days later, he called Roberts
into his office to do it again, and this time read it correctly. By law,
the President is sworn in at noon on January 20. In 2013, the month and
date fell on a Sunday, but to comply with the Blue Law (no work on
Sunday), he was sworn in privately in the Oval Office, and then again
publicly the next day. The two before him that were sworn in on Monday,
January 21st, were
Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 and
Ronald Reagan in 1985.
One of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World (2013).
Personal Quotes
[from keynote speech given at the 2004 Democratic party national
convention] There's not a liberal America and a conservative America.
There's the United States of America. We worship an awesome God in the
blue states, and we don't like federal agents poking around our
libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states,
and have gay friends in the red states. There are patriots who opposed
the war, and patriots who supported it. We are one people, all of us
pledging allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, all of us defending the
United States of America.
And it lives on in those Americans --
young and old, rich and poor, black and white, Latino and Asian and
Native American, gay and straight -- who are tired of a politics that
divides us and want to recapture the sense of common purpose that we had
when John Kennedy was President of the United States of America.
[regarding former President
Bill Clinton's support for his wife--and Obama's opponent for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination--
Hillary Rodham Clinton] Sometimes I don't know who I'm running against.
[when asked whether he would call on
Bill Clinton and
Hillary Rodham Clinton
to release their tax returns, after Hilary loaned $5 million of her own
money to her campaign] I'll just say that I've released my tax returns.
That's been a policy I've maintained consistently. I think the American
people deserve to know where you get your income from. But I'll leave
it up to you guys to chase it down . . . I think we set the bar in terms
of transparency and disclosure that has been a consistent theme of my
campaign and my career in politics.
In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.
When
I am this party's [Democratic party] nominee, my opponent will not be
able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq; or that I gave [
George W. Bush] the benefit of the doubt on Iran; or that I supported Bush-Cheney [former VP
Dick Cheney]
policies of not talking to leaders that we don't like. And he will not
be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or
not it is okay for America to torture - because it is NEVER okay. That's
why I am in it. As President, I will end the war in Iraq. We will have
our troops home in sixteen months. I will close Guantanamo. I will
restore habeas corpus. I will finish the fight against Al Qaeda. And I
will lead the world to combat the common threats of the 21st century -
nuclear weapons and terrorism; climate change and poverty; genocide and
disease. And I will send once more a message to those yearning faces
beyond our shores that says, "You matter to us. Your future is our
future. And our moment is now."
This time we want to talk about
the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and
white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native
American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells
us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us
are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids,
they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st
century economy. Not this time.
Change is coming to America.
In
America, we have this strong bias toward individual action. You know,
we idolize the John Wayne hero who comes in to correct things with both
guns blazing. But individual actions, individual dreams, are not
sufficient. We must unite in collective action, build collective
institutions and organizations.
In Washington, the call this the
Ownership Society, and it is especially tempting because each of us
believes we will always be the winner in life's lottery, that we're the
one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won't be the chump
who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!"
In America, we have this
strong bias toward individual action. You know we idolize the John Wayne
hero who comes in to correct things with both guns blazing. But
individual actions, individual dreams are not sufficient. We must unite
in collective action, build collective institutions and organizations.
In
Washington, we call this the Ownership society, and it is especially
tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in
life's lottery, that we're the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or
at least we won't be the chump who Donald Trump says: "You're fired!"
To
avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The
more politically active black students. The foreign students. The
Chicanos. The Marxist professors and the structural feminists and punk
rock performance poets. We smoked cigarettes and wore leather jackets.
At night in the dorms, we discussed neocolonialism, Franz Fanon,
Eurocentrism and patriarchy. When we ground our cigarettes in the
hallway carpet or set our stereos so loud that the walls began to shake,
we were resisting bourgeois society's stifling constraints. We weren't
indifferent or careless or insecure. We were alienated.
(visiting Ireland) My name is Barack Obama of the Moneygall O'Bamas. And I've come to find the apostrophe we lost along the way.
Hopefully,
more and more people will begin to feel their story is somehow a part
of the larger story of how we're going to reshape America in a way that
is less mean spirited and more generous. I mean I really hope to be a
part of the transformation of this country.
I'm not interested in
the suburbs. The suburbs bore me. And I'm not interested in isolating
myself. I feel good when I'm engaged in what I think are the core issues
of the society, and those issues to me are what's happening to poor
folks in this society.
It's crucial that people don't see my
election as a sign of progress in the broader sense that we don't sort
of point to a Barack Obama any more than you point to a Bill Cosby or a
Michael Jordan and say "Well things are hunky dory".
To that
extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren
court, it wasn't that radical. It didn't break free from the essential
constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the
Constitution, or at least as it's been interpreted and Warren court
interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a
charter of negative liberties, Says what the states can't do to you.
Says what the Federal government can't do to you, but doesn't say what
the Federal government or the state government must do on your behalf,
and that has shifted and one of the, I think, tragedies of the civil
rights movement was, um, because the civil rights movement became so
court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the
political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are
able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you
bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from
that.
Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the
Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for
their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators
built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing
legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere
political correctness or reverse racism.
You go into these small
towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the
jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And
they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush
administration, and each successive administration has said somehow
these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. And it's
not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or
antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment
or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
It's
great to be here this evening in the vast, magnificent Hilton ballroom,
or what Mitt Romney would call a little fixer-upper.
You know,
Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples.
There have been times where Michelle and I have been sitting around the
dinner table and we're talking about their friends and their parents and
Malia and Sasha, it wouldn't dawn on them that somehow their friends'
parents would be treated differently. It doesn't make sense to them and
frankly, that's the kind of thing that prompts a change in perspective.
(May 9, 2012)
I have to tell you that over the course of several
years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I
think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed
monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids
together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or
sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel
constrained, even now that Don't Ask Don't Tell is gone, because they
are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I've
just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go
ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get
married. (May 9, 2012)
I believe the majority of gun owners would
agree we should do everything possible to prevent criminals and
fugitives from purchasing weapons. And we should check someone's
criminal record before they can check out a gun seller. A mentally
unbalanced individual should not be able to get his hands on a gun so
easily. These steps shouldn't be controversial. They should be common
sense.
We can't continue to sustain a situation in which some
countries are maintaining surpluses, others massive deficits and there
never is the kind of adjustment with respect to currency that would lead
to a more balanced growth pattern.
My image of Onyango, faint as
it was, has always been of an autocratic man - a cruel man, perhaps. But
I had also imagined him an independent man, a man of his people,
opposed to white rule... What Granny had told us scrambled that image
completely, causing ugly words to flash across my mind. Uncle Tom.
Collaborator. House nigger.
The only way my life makes sense is if
- regardless of culture, race, religion, tribe - there is this
commonality, these essential human truths and passions and hope and
moral precepts, that we can reach out beyond our differences. If that is
not the case, then it is pretty hard for me to make sense of my life.
That is the core of who I am.
[on election night, November 4,
2008] This is your victory. I will ask you to join in the work of
remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221
years - block by block, brick by brick, callused hand by callused hand.
[on
the political choice as he sees it in 2012] This isn't a matter of
who's more patriotic or who is more empathetic toward people or who is
nicer. It's a hardheaded assessment of what makes our economy grow. And
the facts are on my side in this argument.
Part of the reason that
our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and
argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because
we're hardwired not to think clearly when we're scared.
What I
wake up determined to accomplish every single day is making the best
decisions I can. And the only thing then to guide you is what you
genuinely think is best for the country. Because if you start trying to
guess what's going to be most politically advantageous or try to game
all that stuff out, you'll get lost very quickly.
We can't drive
our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at
all times... and then just expect that other countries are going to say
OK. That's not leadership. That's not going to happen.
I do think at a certain point you've made enough money.
If
you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There
was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create
this unbelievable American system that we have allowed you to thrive.
Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business - you
didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen.
Governor Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later.
As
President of our country and Commander-in-Chief of our military, I
accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I
will always defend their right to do so.
If you can't beat your
opponent's ideas, you distort those ideas and maybe make some up. If you
don't have a record to run on, than you paint your opponent as someone
people should run away from.
[on Donald Trump's refusal to trust
the validity of the President's personal documents] This all dates back
to when we were growing up together in Kenya.
I've always believed
that education begins at home, with parents who take responsibility -
who read to their kids, set limits on the TV and instill a lifelong love
of learning. But there is no substitute for a good school or the
teacher who stands in front of the classroom.
[to the crowd at the 2013 Presidential Inauguration] I want to look out one more time. I'm not going to see this again.
The
truth is that we have steadily become a more diverse and tolerant
country that embraces people's differences and respect people who are
not like us. That's a profoundly good thing. That's one of the strengths
of America.
[on the 2012 campaign trail] If you buy into the
cynicism that the change we fought for isn't possible, well, change will
not happen. Other voices will fill the void: lobbyists and special
interests, the people with ten million dollar checks who are trying to
buy this election.
[on Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma)] The people
of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like Tom representing them in
Washington - someone who speaks his mind, sticks to his principles and
is committed to the people he was elected to serve. Each of us still
hopes the other will see the light. But in the meantime, we'll settle
for being friends.
[ at the 2009 White House Correspondents
Dinner] Mother's Day is a tough holiday for Rahm Emanuel because he's
not used to saying the word 'day' after 'mother'.
AK-47s belong in
the hands of soldiers and not in the hands of crooks. They belong on
the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.
[on
Nelson Mandela]
I had read his writings and speeches and understood this was somebody
who believed in the basic principle I just talked about - treating
people equally. He was willing to sacrifice his life for that belief.
He's a personal hero, but I don't think I'm unique in that regard. He's a
hero for the world. If and when he passes from this place, one thing we
all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the
ages.
Don’t Be Limited By a Lack of Faith
Don’t believe that lie. My dad came from the poorest of families.
His parents were cotton farmers, and they lost everything in the Great
Depression. My grandmother worked 14 to 15 hours a day washing people’s
clothes, earning 10 cents an hour.
Maybe you came from a family like my dad’s, where they didn’t have
much. Perhaps you hail from a long line of divorce, failure, depression
or mediocrity. You need to say, “Enough is enough. I’m going to start
believing God for bigger and better things.”
“Yes, but Joel, it’s been a rough year. I’ve gone through so many disappointments. I’ve lost a lot of good things.”
Bill
Gates founded Microsoft in 1976 when he formed a contract with MITTS
(Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) to develop a basic
operating system for their new microcomputers. In the early days Bill
Gates would review every line of code. He was also involved in several
aspects of Microsoft’s business such as packing and sending off orders.
