Barack Hussein Obama

Barack Hussein Obama
44th President of the United States From: January 20, 2009-Present
Vice President	Joe Biden
Predecessor	George W. Bush
Successor	Incumbent (no successor)
U.S. Senator from Illinois From: January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008
Predecessor	Peter Fitzgerald
Successor	Roland Burris
Information
Party	Democrat
Spouse(s)	Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama
Religion	Claims to be Christian

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th President of the United States and the controversial recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Overcoming a short political career, Obama defeated Republican nominee John McCain for the presidency in 2008, campaigning on promises of "hope" and "change". In effect, that change has been an embrace of socialism and liberal policies. Barack Obama has been widely criticized by the American business community and others for his anti-business policies that are killing American jobs during a period of high unemployment. Trend forecaster Gerald Celente indicates that Obama administration's response to the the failed American economy is more war and the creation of misleading economic statistics.

Under President Obama's management of the economy, the United States Government's credit rating has, for the first time in it's history, been downgraded from AAA to AA+, and poverty has increased markedly. By and large his policies to combat the recession, unemployment, slow growth, the deficit, and expanding national debt, have failed. Also on the domestic front, Obama passed an expensive health care bill in 2009 with no bipartisan support and 34 Democrats dissenting. In foreign policy Obama has escalated the Afghanistan War and, against his own Defense Secretary's advice, attacked Libya - a possible violation of the War Powers Act. After he announced the killing of September 11th mastermind and terrorist Osama bin Laden, the U.S. State Department warned of the increased risk to the lives and safety of Americans around the world. Bin Laden's death had negligible impact on Obama's approval ratings.

Early life

Main article : Early life and career of Barack Hussein Obama

See also : Barack Obama's Muslim Heritage

Obama was born in Hawaii to Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. - who had married just six months prior - on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The couple divorced in 1964. Barack Obama Sr. was not a citizen of the United States. Dunham remarried Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian student. When Obama was six, Soetoro returned to Indonesia, and Dunham and Obama followed. He spent four years in Indonesia before returning to Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents, Madelyn and WW2 veteran Stanley Armour Dunham. He would later attend Occidental College, Columbia University and then Harvard University for law school, where he would become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. It is disputed whether Obama was actually born in the United States, many people believing him to have been born in Kenya.

Illinois State Senate career

File:O-2002-antiwar-rally-davidson.jpg

Obama speaking at the October 2002 rally in Chicago organized by Carl Davidson. "[H]e is a brutal man who butchers his own people," nevertheless Obama opposed "dumb wars".

In 1995 Obama openly sought and obtained the endorsement of the Marxist New Party in his quest to be elected to the Illinois State Senate. He became the Democrat nominee and ran unopposed to win the election. Obama entered the Illinois Senate promising change to a corrupt system. He mixed often radical votes with more pragmatic agreements. Possibly one of his most radical votes was against requiring medical care for aborted children who survive the procedure - in fact the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council ascribed him a 100% rating for his consistently pro-choice votes. He was criticized for using the statehouse as a stepping stone for a more illustrious career: Steven J. Rauschenberger, a Republican, said prior to Obama's election as president: “He is a very bright but very ambitious person who has always had his eyes on the prize, and it wasn’t Springfield. If he deserves to be president, it is not because he was a great legislator.”

The statehouse was majority Republican, so the Senator was sometimes forced to compromise. He formed allegiances across party lines to pass campaign finance reform that banned most gifts by lobbyists, prohibited spending campaign money for legislators’ personal use and required electronic filing of campaign disclosure reports. Obama also helped pass a so-called “driving-while-black bill”, which required the police to collect data on the race of drivers they stopped as a way to monitor racial profiling.

Obama established himself as a chief spokesperson in opposition to the War on Terror during an October 2002 rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago organized by veteran Maoist and webmaster of Progressives for Obama, Carl Davidson.

Radical foundation and connection to William Ayers

Main article: Radical roots of Barack Hussein Obama

In 1995 a cadre of like minded individuals gathered in the home of Weather Underground (WUO) terrorists Bernardine Dohrn and William "Bill" Ayers. Dohrn, along with Carl Davidson, are veterans of guerrilla warfare training in Cuba prior 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Ayers and Dohrn have taken credit for, and never denied, bombing the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and the State Department.

Ayers and Dohrn used their celebrity status among leftists to launch Obama's career. Ayers, Dohrn and Jeff Jones are authors of Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism, the title taken from The Sayings of Mao Zedong. The book declares "we are communist men and women." Ayers later jokingly, publicly admitted to ghostwriting Obama's book, Dreams From My Father and Obama was to appoint several openly avowed Maoists to prominent White House and Executive Branch positions.

U.S. Senate career

See also: Barack Obama:U.S. Senate (2004-2008)

Senator Barack Obama

Following a failed campaign for the U. S. House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004 against Republican candidate Jack Ryan. He won the seat after Chicago media outlets The Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV; together with candidate Jack Ryan's Republican Primary opponents, sought and obtained the release of the confidential and personally embarrassing records in his California divorce from actress Jeri Ryan, forcing him to end his campaign. Ryan was replaced by the out-of-state candidate Alan Keyes. Obama won over Keyes 70% to 27% in the general election. Obama spent very little time in the Senate - "frustrated by his lack of influence and what he called the 'glacial pace' ... [he began] running for president even as he was still getting lost in the Capitol’s corridors."

Obama frequently used the filibuster to obstruct the operations of government, voted against the minimum wage and debt ceiling increases, and recieved more than $126,000 in campaign contributions from Fannie Mae. The National Journal ranked him the most liberal senator in 2007.

Presidential Election

Main article: Barack Hussein Obama 2008 Presidential campaign

Democrats began calling for an Obama candidacy after liberals lauded his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech.

Campaign to be the Democratic nominee

The race for the Democratic ticket originally seemed Hillary Clinton's to lose, but was ultimately a close race between Clinton and Obama. Clinton would take a slim advantage in the popular vote, while Obama would carry significantly more states and territories. Obama's advantage with super-delegates over Clinton was about 2-to-1. Obama was able to attract the support of liberals by pointing out that he had come out against the Iraq War "from the beginning" whereas Clinton had voted in favor of the war in 2002.

Campaign for the Presidency

Obama campaigned against Senator John McCain in the general election. To the chagrin of Clinton supporters, he selected Senator Joe Biden to be his running mate, whereas McCain selected Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. The Obama and Biden ticket would win the election, and Obama would become the nation's first African American president.

Jeremiah Wright

See also: Barack Obama and Liberation Theology

One major dilemma that arose for Obama during his campaign was his connection to his preacher Jeremiah Wright. Obama and his wife (raised a Baptist) were members of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, a chruch that embraced black liberation theology and its emphasis on empowering so-called "oppressed groups" against "establishment forces". This denomination was the first in America to ordain gays as ministers. Church pastor Jeremiah Wright had been making inflammatory comments and posting his sermons online for sale. These include the statement "G-d damn America," and in describing the September 11th attacks, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost." In addition, Rev. Wright blamed America saying "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic."

In April 2008, after 20 years in the church, candidate Obama made public statements poised to set him at odds with the man who conducted his wedding and baptized his children. With the negative publicity persisting, a month later Obama ended the friendship, left Wright's church, and blamed the media. Obama claimed “It’s not fair to the other members of the church who seek to worship in peace...", and distanced himself from Wright's sermons as "a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in the truth."

Presidential career

Has been hobbled by fanatical tea party jerks

See also

• Political positions of Barack Obama
• Barack Obama and uncharitableness