| Source Notes: |
Date and place from
media sources including Obama’s IL General Assembly webpage. Various times
of birth have been circulated or posted. A time of 1:06 PM was provided by
Fran McEvoy who told PT she couldn’t remember who gave it to her. She said
that the person reportedly obtained the time from Obama and wished to remain
anonymous. McEvoy adamantly denied that she heard it from Obama at a
"shout-out" in NH as reported in the Andrew Mangino article in the NY
Observer online of July 24, 2007. PT has received e-mails or seen postings
listing 9:51 AM, 10:02 AM, 1:15 PM, 2:10 AM, 6:10 AM, “1-3 AM,” and “Virgo
rising,” but these times have either been acknowledged to be speculation,
rectification or otherwise not traceable to an original or reliable source. |
Biography
American lawyer, civil rights
activist, politician and Presidential hopeful in the 2008 campaign.
A self-described “skinny kid with a funny name,” Obama is the child of a
Kenyan man and an American woman. His parents met at the University of
Hawaii where they were both students. When Barack was two, his father
returned to Africa, and the young boy lived in Hawaii with his mom and
grandparents. After his mother married an Indonesian, she took him with
her when she moved to her new husband’s native country. Young Barack was
sent back to Hawaii at age 10 to live with his grandparents.
A few month's after Barack's 21st birthday, he received a call from an
aunt in Nairobi informing him of his father's death. He traveled to
Africa in an attempt to find his roots, a journey that is chronicled in
his memoir, "Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,"
published in 1995.
Obama graduated in 1983 from Columbia University with a degree in
political science and international relations. He worked in Chicago's
inner city, helping church groups improve job-training, education and
city services to the poor and then went on to law school at Harvard. In
1990, he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, the first
African-American to capture that prestigious position. After graduating
magna cum laude, he helped organize voter registration in Chicago,
worked as a civil rights lawyer, and lectured on constitutional law at
the University of Chicago Law School. In 1996, he was elected to the
Illinois General Assembly as a state senator. On July 27, 2004, he burst
onto the national scene when he delivered a rousing keynote address at
the Democratic National Convention in Boston, MA. That year, on November
2, Obama won election to the U.S. Senate by a wide margin. When he took
the oath of office on January 4, 2005, Obama became the sole
African-American in the Senate at the time and only the third in that
body’s history.
Obama married Michelle Robinson in 1992 and they have two daughters,
Malia born in 1999 and Sasha born in 2001. He published his book “The
Audacity of Hope” in 2006.
The Senator from Illinois announced the formation of a presidential
exploratory committee on January 16, 2007 vowing to make a more complete
statement on February 10, 2007. As promised, Senator Obama made the
announcement of his candidacy for the Democratic Party’s nomination for
President on schedule (February 10, 2007), shortly after 10 AM CST in
Springfield IL (one report gave 10:13 AM as the time). On the campaign
trail he has racked up an impressive number of primary and caucus wins.
Exhibiting composure, thoughtfulness, a quick mind and self-deprecating
humor, his debate performance earns kudos while his powerful oratory has
evoked comparisons to Martin Luther King, Jr. and John F. Kennedy. Along
with his life story which he touts as a representation of the American
dream, his emphasis on unity, hope and civility have captured media and
public attention.
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