Biography:

Barack Obama was born to an American mother, Ann Dunham, and a Kenyan father, Barack
Obama Sr. They were both college students at the University of Hawaii. When his father left for
Harvard, they both stayed behind. Barack's mother remarried an Indonesian oil manager and
moved to Jakarta when Barack was six. Later, he returned to Hawaii where he stayed with 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. Barack got into
Punahou School, Hawaii's top prep academy. His father wrote to him regularly, but since he was
traveling around the world on official business for Kenya, he only visited once, when Barack
was ten.

Obama attended Columbia University. He became a community organizer for a small Chicago
church-based group for three years. He then attended Harvard Law School, and in 1990 became
the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. He turned down judicial
clerkship, instead choosing to practice civil-rights law in Chicago. He also began teaching at the
University of Chicago Law School. He married Michelle Robinson, an attorney. Then he was
elected Illinois state senate.

In 2004, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat representing Illinois. He gained
national attention by giving a speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In 2008
he ran for President and having only four years of 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.

What is their position and how long have they served:

Barack is President of the United States. He has served for about 1 year, and 264 days.

Interesting facts:
His first name comes from the word that means "blessed by God" in Arabic.
As a child growing up in Hawaii, his classmates knew him as Barry.
He was the 27th lawyer to be elected American president.
He is the first United States Senator to be elected President since John F. Kennedy.

What do they do in their position:

The President can sign or veto a law, preventing it from becoming law unless two-thirds of both
houses of Congress vote to override the veto. The President can make treaties with foreign
nations with the approval of the senate. The president can have the power to pardon, and (with
the consent of the Senate) appoint Supreme Court justices and federal judges.