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Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama is an American politician who occupied the nation's 44th presidency between 2009 and 2017, becoming the first African American to hold that position.

Office
44th President of the United States (as of 2026-09-05)[1]
Term
January 20, 2009 – January 20, 2017 (as of 2026-09-05)[2]
Party
Democratic Party (as of 2026-09-05)[1]
Preceded by
United States Senator from Illinois (2005–2008) (as of 2026-09-05)[1]
Education
B.A., Columbia University (1983); J.D., Harvard Law School (1991) (as of 2026-09-05)[2]
Running mates
Joe Biden (2008, 2012) (as of 2026-09-05)[1]
Awards
Nobel Peace Prize (2009) (as of 2026-09-05)[1]
Presidential library
Obama Presidential Library, administered by NARA (as of 2026-09-05)[4]

Early life and education

According to Miller Center, University of Virginia, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.[2] According to the Miller Center, his parents consisted of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father.[2] He grew up in Hawaii before attending college.[2]

Obama earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1983.[1][2] Before entering Harvard Law School in 1988, he worked as a community organizer in Chicago.[1] He received his J.D. from Harvard in 1991.[2] Obama became the first Black person to lead the Harvard Law Review.[1]

Between 1992 and 2004, Obama was a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.[1]

Illinois politics

In 1996, voters elected Obama to the Illinois Senate's 13th district, where he held a state senate seat from 1997 through 2004.[1] In 2000, he was defeated by incumbent Bobby Rush in a U.S. House contest for Illinois's 1st congressional district.[1]

Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts.[5]

C-SPAN: Barack Obama Speech at 2004 DNC Convention The opening of the C-SPAN recording of Obama's keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

United States Senator

Obama won a record majority when elected to the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 2004.[2] Obama represented Illinois in the U.S. Senate from 2005 to 2008.[1]

2008 presidential campaign

In February 2007, Obama declared his intention to seek the presidency.[2] Following a primary contest with Hillary Clinton, he secured the Democratic nomination in 2008.[1] He chose Joe Biden to join his ticket.[1]

On March 18, 2008, Obama delivered a speech titled 'A More Perfect Union' in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[6]

Barack Obama: 'A More Perfect Union' (Full Speech) The opening of the recording of Obama's 'A More Perfect Union' speech posted to his YouTube channel.

Obama defeated Republican nominee John McCain and running mate Sarah Palin in the 2008 presidential election.[1]

Presidency

Obama held the 44th U.S. presidency from 2009 to 2017, the office number recorded by the Miller Center.[1][2] His inauguration occurred on January 20, 2009, and his term concluded on January 20, 2017.[2]

He became the first African American to occupy the U.S. presidency.[1] Obama belongs to the Democratic Party.[1]

Domestic policy

To address the Great Recession, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law.[1] While serving as president, he signed the Affordable Care Act into law.[1] He additionally signed the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act into law.[1]

Obama became the first incumbent U.S. president to openly endorse same-sex marriage.[1] In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he supported gun control legislation.[1]

Foreign policy and military actions

During his presidency, Obama supervised the conclusion of the Iraq War and initiated a plan to remove occupying U.S. forces from Iraq.[1][3] Following the 2011 U.S. departure and ISIL's subsequent gains, he later directed U.S. military action in Iraq.[1] According to Wikipedia contributors, he directed the 2011 intervention in Libya to carry out United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973.[1]

According to Wikipedia contributors, Obama directed Operation Neptune Spear, resulting in the death of Osama bin Laden.[1] He endorsed the Paris Agreement on climate change and issued an executive order restricting carbon emissions.[1] He negotiated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a nuclear agreement with Iran.[1] He established normalized relations with Cuba while in office.[1]

According to Wikipedia contributors, Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine and subsequent interference with the 2016 U.S. elections.[1]

Judicial appointments

Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court; Sotomayor was the first Hispanic American to serve on the court.[1] In 2016, Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court.[4]

Re-election and post-presidency

In the 2012 presidential election, Obama defeated the Republican ticket of Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan.[1] Following his departure from office, he stayed engaged in politics and backed Biden's winning 2020 bid for the presidency.[1]

Nobel Peace Prize

Obama received the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his international diplomatic efforts.[1] By the Nobel Foundation's account, he had been in office for less than eight months when the prize was awarded.[3]

The Nobel Committee highlighted Obama's exceptional work in bolstering diplomacy and relations among nations, while stressing his goal of eliminating nuclear weapons.[3] According to the Wikipedia article, the choice to give Obama the 2009 Peace Prize was met with both approval and criticism.[1]

Books and writings

According to Wikipedia contributors, Obama has written three books: Dreams from My Father (1995), The Audacity of Hope (2006), and A Promised Land (2020).[1]

Archives and online presence

The National Archives and Records Administration oversees the Obama Presidential Library.[4]

Historical assessments

According to Wikipedia, historians and political scientists place Obama near the top in retrospective assessments of U.S. presidents.[1]

  1. Obama graduated from Columbia University with a B.A.[1][2]
  2. Obama enrolled at Harvard Law School.[1]
  3. Obama completed his J.D. at Harvard; he had become the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review.[1][2]
  4. Obama married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson.[2]
  5. Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School.[1]
  6. Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate for the 13th district.[1]
  7. Obama served as an Illinois state senator.[1]
  8. Obama lost a U.S. House race in Illinois's 1st congressional district to incumbent Bobby Rush.[1]
  9. Obama won election to the U.S. Senate from Illinois with a record majority.[2]
  10. According to C-SPAN, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.[5]
  11. Obama delivered the 'A More Perfect Union' speech in Philadelphia.[6]
  12. Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States.[2]
  13. Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; by the Nobel Foundation's account, he had been in office for less than eight months.[1][3]
  14. Obama defeated Republican nominee Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan to win re-election.[1]
  15. Obama's presidency ended.[2]

Moments

  1. C-SPAN: Barack Obama Speech at 2004 DNC Convention The recording published by C-SPAN, from the start.
  2. Barack Obama: 'A More Perfect Union' (Full Speech) The recording published by Barack Obama, from the start.

References

  1. Wikipedia: Barack Obama, Wikipedia contributors (accessed 2026-09-05)user_generated
  2. Barack Obama: Life in Brief, Miller Center, University of Virginia (accessed 2026-09-05)primary
  3. Barack H. Obama: Facts, The Nobel Prize (accessed 2026-09-05)primary
  4. Obama Presidential Library, U.S. National Archives (accessed 2026-09-05)primary
  5. 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address (video), C-SPAN, 2008-08-18 (accessed 2026-09-05)self
  6. A More Perfect Union (video), Barack Obama, 2008-03-18 (accessed 2026-09-05)self

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About this page

About this living person: this page was drafted by an AI model from the sources listed below and checked by two model passes and a deterministic evidence check. No named human has reviewed it yet, so it is a draft and search engines are asked not to index it. Claims about Barack Obama are carried only where the cited sources carry them, and anything contested is attributed rather than asserted. If you are the subject of this page, or you find an error, the “Suggest a change” link is how to say so, and a named person answers.

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Status
Published and revised continuously; this version is the one described here.
Published
6 September 2026
Last updated
6 September 2026 — see what changed
Sources
Rewritten by Heartipedia’s AI from a cited fact sheet of the Wikipedia article “Barack Obama”, as it stood on 2026-09-05, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; substantially modified. The link goes to the live article, which is the version Wikipedia asks readers to use.
Licence
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