Barack Obama's presidential ambitions originated in a third-grade essay and blossomed into a list of growing accomplishments.

The first African-American to be a presidential nominee, Barack Obama was also the first black president of the Harvard Law Review and hence the first black president of the United States. Thanks to his public service in the Illinois and U.S. Senate, Barack Obama was twice recognized by Time as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world, and was included by New Statesman on their list of 10 people who could change the world. Now that he's president, we think this is only the beginning. A best-selling author, Barack Obama has penned numerous books, including Dreams from My Father, The Audacity of Hope and Barack Obama in His Own Words. Each one was well-received, winning him Grammy Awards for the audio versions of his books for Best Spoken Word Album. Obama's policy decisions to date have addressed a global financial crisis and have included changes in tax policies, legislation to reform the United States health-care industry, foreign policy initiatives, and the phasing out of detention of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. While Obama's opponents debate the success he's had in these endeavors, one thing's for sure -- no man would find his job easy. Read more: http://www.askmen.com/celebs/men/business_politics/barackobama/#ixzz1lfybj6yz

Barack Hussein Obama II was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Due to an early parental divorce and his mother's new marriage, Barack Obama's spent the bulk of his elementary school years in Indonesia. One of his most notable moments came in third grade when he wrote an essay about his desire to be president to make others happy. Upon his return to Hawaii, high school was a more challenging experience for Barack Obama. While he played on the school basketball team and embraced the cultural variety of his peers, he struggled with identity issues and briefly experimented with drugs. In recollection, Barack Obama considers his past drug use to be his biggest personal mistake. After graduating from Honolulu's Punahou School, Barack Obama headed to California and attended Occidental College for two years before transferring to Columbia University where he completed a B.A. degree in 1983, majoring in political science Read more: http://www.askmen.com/celebs/men/business_politics/barackobama/#ixzz1lg8XHsWY

barack obama in chicago and at harvard Living in Chicago from 1985 until 1988, Barack Obama served as the Developing Communities Project's director, a challenging role that had him encouraging minorities with underprivileged backgrounds to make positive changes in their lives. Barack Obama's influence clearly made a difference in the organization, as the budget grew exponentially and the staff increased tenfold during his time there. In 1988, Barack Obama moved to Boston to attend Harvard Law School. In his second year, he broke new ground with his election as the president of the Harvard Law Review, the first African-American to win that title. As a result of his success at Harvard, the University of Chicago Law School invited him to take a faculty job and facilitated the writing of his first book, Dreams from My Father. The book would also earn Barack Obama a Grammy Award for its recording as a spoken word album. barack obama in the illinois and u.s. senate At the University of Chicago Law School, Barack Obama worked as a lecturer for 12 years beginning in 1992, but he was also working toward a career in political office. After working as a civil rights and economic developing litigator, Barack Obama gained election into the Illinois Senate in 1996 where he would stay for eight years. A few of his notable political choices were tax benefits in the low-income sector and financial assistance for childcare. After declaring his intention to run in 2003, Barack Obama officially joined the U.S. Senate in 2004 after winning 52% of the vote. He was selected as the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention and, as a senator, he was instrumental in many bills, including two that were named after him: Lugar-Obama was an update of a previous bill designed to dismantle nuclear weapons in the previous Soviet Union, and the other bill, the Coburn-Obama Transparancy Act, provided the public with means to see which organizations were receiving government money. barack obama runs for president At the Old State Capitol building where Abraham Lincoln once spoke, Barack Obama declared his intention to run for U.S. President in early 2007. Within the first six months of the year, his campaign earned $58 million in donations - a new record. In the first month of 2008, Barack Obama earned another $36.8 million, which was also a new monthly record for candidates in the midst of the Democratic primaries.

Over the course of the Democratic race, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton fought a tough battle that saw them splitting votes until June, when Barack Obama finally earned enough delegates to win status as a presumptive nominee. He made it official at the Democratic National Convention in August. After selecting Senator Joe Biden as his running mate, Barack Obama subsequently went head-to-head against John McCain and Sarah Palin in the official race for the U.S. Presidency. barack obama becomes president of the united states of america After one of the most politically charged, controversial and entertaining races in U.S. history, Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States of America, and in December 2008, he was named Time's Person of the Year. President Obama wasted no time after his inauguration. Minutes after the administration of the Oath of Office, Obama enacted a pay freeze for Senior White House Staff making more than $100,000 per year due to the economic crisis. Two days later, Obama signed one of the most groundbreaking orders of his presidency to date -- an executive order announcing the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp within a year and a prohibition on using torture and other illegal coercive techniques, such as waterboarding, during interrogations and detentions. Obams's presidency has been marked by his use of social media to involve the public. His video addresses are mostly available on YouTube, a policy compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats, and the administration launched a website to explain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. During his transition to presidency, he maintained the website Change.gov, on which he wrote blog posts to readers and uploaded video addresses by many of the members of his new cabinet. In October 2009, Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." On March 25, 2010, Obama signed his most controversial reform legislation into law, a landmark health-care reform of the private health insurance market, that aimed to provide better coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and improve prescription-drug coverage in Medicare. barack obama runs for reelection

On April 4, 2011, President Barack Obama formally announced he will be running again for president in November 2012. His 2012 campaign is expected be bigger with even more funding than his initial run, which set records in 2009. No longer the rookie politician, and with some voters disillusioned with him, Obama will face serious competition in what promises to be a tough battle for the presidency.
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