Barack Hussein Obama Il

oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August
4, 1961) is the 44th and
current President of the
United States . He is the first
African American to hold
the office. Obama
previously served as a
United States Senator from
Illinois, from January 2005
until he resigned following
his victory in the 2008
presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii,
Obama is a graduate of
Columbia University and
Harvard Law School, where
he was the president of the
Harvard Law Review. He
was a community organizer
in Chicago before earning
his law degree. He worked
as a civil rights attorney in
Chicago and taught
constitutional law at the
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.
Following an unsuccessful
bid against the Democratic
incumbent for a seat in the
United States House of
Representatives in 2000,
Obama ran for the United
States Senate in 2004.
Several events brought him
to national attention
during the campaign,
including his victory in the
March 2004 Illinois
Democratic primary for the
Senate election and his
keynote address at the
Democratic National
Convention in July 2004. He
won election to the U.S.
Senate in Illinois in
November 2004. His
presidential campaign
began in February 2007,
and after a close campaign
in the 2008 Democratic
Party presidential primaries
against Hillary Rodham
Clinton, he won his party's
nomination. In the 2008
presidential election, he
defeated Republican
nominee John McCain, and
was inaugurated as
president on January 20,
2009. In October 2009,
Obama was named the
2009 Nobel Peace Prize
laureate .
As president, Obama signed
economic stimulus
legislation in the form of
the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009
and the Tax Relief,
Unemployment Insurance
Reauthorization, and Job
Creation Act of 2010 . Other
domestic policy initiatives
include the Patient
Protection and Affordable
Care Act , the Dodd–Frank
Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act,
the Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Repeal Act of 2010 and the
Budget Control Act of
2011 . In foreign policy, he
ended the war in Iraq,
increased troop levels in
Afghanistan, signed the
New START arms control
treaty with Russia, ordered
US involvement in the 2011
Libya military intervention ,
and ordered the military
operation that resulted in
the death of Osama bin
Laden. In April 2011,
Obama declared his
intention to seek re-
election in the 2012
presidential election.