Man in the News: Barack Obama

• Source: Xinhua
• [22:49 November 15 2009]
• Comments

On Nov. 4, 2008, he made history as the first African-American president-elect in the United States and gained unprecedented high popularity with his promise of bringing the country "change we can believe in."

In the first 100 days of his presidency, he signaled some major departures from the previous administration, ordering the close of the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, mapping the strategy to end the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and reaching out to the world that has been fed up with the US unilateralism.

On every Saturday morning, he appeared in a video clip posted on the White House website to deliver the routine weekly national address rather than over radio. This is seen as only a tip of iceberg compared to his whole strategy to employ modern technology in building a more transparent and accessible government.

He would suprise Americans by occasionally showing up in a humble fast food restaurant outside Washington, D.C., eating burgers with his sleeves wrapped and taking out more for his White House staff.

That man is Barack Obama.

Obama is a husband, father, career statesman, Democratic Party leader and public icon. But above all, he is the American leader who is steering the country through multiple domestic and global challenges.

EARLY LIFE

Obama's life tells a different story from previous presidents. He was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a Kenyan father and a white mother from the state of Kansas, in the US heartland.

Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983. Two years later, he moved from New York to Chicago, Illinois, and worked as a community organizer in a poor African-American area for three years, when he realized involvement at a higher level was needed to bring true improvement to such communities.

Obama then attended Harvard Law School and was elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he returned to Chicago where he practiced civil rights law and taught the Constitution at the University of Chicago.

During the period, Obama met his wife, Michelle Robinson. They married on Oct. 3, 1992. and have two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha.