1. President Barack Obama

2. Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to his parents Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham.

3. Obama in high school. After high school, Barack studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years. After those two years, Obama transferred to Columbia University in New York. He graduated in 1983 with a degree in political science.

4. In 1988, Barack entered Harvard law school. In February of 1990, he was elected the first African-American editor of the Harvard Law Review. After law school he went to Chicago to practice as a civil rights lawyer.

5. In 1996 Obama ran for Illinois State Senate as a Democrat. During these years, Obama worked with Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics, expanded health care services, and early childhood education programs for the poor.

6. In 2000 he made an unsuccessful Democratic primary run for the U.S House of Representatives seat held by Bobby Rush. Obama was an early opponent of President George W. Bush’s push to war with Iraq. At the time Obama was still a senator when he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq.

7. In the November 2004 general election, Obama got 70% of the vote to Alan Keyes 27%, which was the largest electoral victory in Illinois history. He was the third African-American elected to the U.S senate since reconstruction.

8. In 2007, Barack Obama ran for President and was able to celebrate a major victory against John McCain. After Obama won the Iowa caucus, his first words were “They said this day would never come.”

9. Obama’s inauguration was held on January 20, 2009. This event was “about as close to a royal coronation as American government gets.” This day symbolizes new beginnings, rights of change. During the inauguration, the vice-president, Joe Biden, will take his oath first.

10. Barack Obama has a plan to get the American economy back on track by creating new jobs. He is going to provide a tax cut for working families. Obama and Biden also want to provide tax relief for small business’ and business start-ups.

11. Obama also plans to reform the no child left behind act. He believes that “teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests.“ He plans to invest in early childhood education to provide support to parents and their children. They also want to help cover the costs of college tuition.

12. Obama strongly feels that the war in Iraq needs to end. He is going to “responsibly” take our troops out of Iraq. Obama has been against the war since it started in 2002.

13. Obama and Biden are going to work hard to see that everyone, rich or poor, has health insurance. “These improvements will reduce administrative costs and health care inefficiencies such as duplicative testing and medical errors, which in turn will reduce costly medical malpractice lawsuits.”

14. Part of Barack Obama’s inauguration speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-zjho9SPgA