Portal:Illinois/Selected biography/1

Barack Obama (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000. He was elected to the United States Senate from Illinois in 2004.

Obama resigned his Senate seat after winning the Presidential election of 2008. Nine months after his election, he was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In foreign policy, Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In his second term Obama promoted domestic policies related to gun control and called for full equality for LGBT Americans. In foreign policy, Obama ordered U.S. military involvement in Iraq in response to gains made by the Islamic State in Iraq and took steps to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba. (Read more...)