BY: J. H. C

Childhood and Family  With a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas President.  Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, He was raised with help from his grandfather, who served in Patton's army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to middle management at a bank.

A Hard Childhood  His parents were divorced.  Obama struggled with the absence of his father, who he saw only once more after his parents divorced, in a brief 1971 visit.  His father lost his leg in a car accident, and died in another car accident.  Obama, Jr. was 22 years old when he received the news of his father's passing. "At the time of his death, my father remained a myth to me," Obama said.

Education  He went on to attend law school, where he became the first African—American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he returned to Chicago to help lead a voter registration drive, teach constitutional law at the University of Chicago, and remain active in his community

Obama in the News  April 18, 2011  To support his own plan for reducing the nation's looming deficit, President Barack Obama is taking his message to the people. He will be holding a series of public meetings this week to share his vision for trimming the deficit by $4 trillion over the next twelve years. "To restore fiscal responsibility, we all need to share in the sacrifice—but we don't have to sacrifice the America we believe in," Obama told the nation in his weekly address last Saturday.