Barack Obama

Barack Obama > Personal

Family man. Best-selling author. Believer. Senator. Presidential hopeful. All of these tags, and many others to be sure, identify the man who will likely serve as the first truly viable African-American candidate for the presidency. Peering into his college career, Obama admits to feelings of racial displacement that caused him turn to drinking, dabbling in drugs and to basketball as emotional outlets. However, he balanced this with immersing himself in the classics of African-American literature — James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Malcolm X. As for any presidential run, Obama must first win the endorsement -his wife, Michelle Obama. Her take on it all? “Politics is a completely unappealing way to live your life,” she announces with trademark bluntness.
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Senator Obama makes his first trip to the important presidential primary state of New Hampshire. Greeted by sold-out, capacity crowds wherever he went, Obama noted that, “Politics is not a sport,” and went on to deride the political culture in Washington as one that is too focused on gamesmanship and self-aggrandizement for the powerful. “[Politics] is about who we are as a people…and what we believe in…and what we’re willing to do.”
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Senator Obama hams it up with his wife, Michelle, and Oprah on her show. Oprah has officially endorsed the senator as her man in 2008, Senator Obama was more interested in talking about how he balances his commitment to his family with his service to Illinois and the nation. He says, “If my wife thinks that I'm a solid guy and if my daughters know that I love them and want to spend time with them, then that is probably the most important reward that I receive." Expounding on the post-racial nature of his family, he relates that, “…when we get together for Christmas or Thanksgiving, it’s like a mini-United Nations. I’ve got relatives who look like Bernie Mac and relatives who look like Margaret Thatcher. We’ve got it all.”
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Who says you can’t be a regular, tailgatin’, brusky-chuggin’, bratwurst-gnawin’, football fan while also being a United States Senator? If anyone has spoke such blasphemy, Barack Obama isn’t buying it. Watch the master at work as he champions Medicare reform by day and roots it hard for Da Bears on Monday Night.
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“There’s been a little fuss about me lately.” Senator Obama reports to New Hampshire to claim his award for Political Understatement of the Year. After joking about the hype and admitting to being suspicious of it (he says his wife Michelle is “baffled” by it), he provides some clarity as to why it might exist. “I actually think that the reason I am getting so much attention right now has less to do with me and more to do with you. I think to some degree I have become the shorthand, or a symbol, or a stand-in, for now, of a spirit that says, ‘We are looking for something different. We want something new."
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Much to the chagrin of Jay Leno, Senator Obama reveals that he has committed to announcing his candidacy for president on none other than The Food Network. In other news, Barack tells Jay that after appearing at Rick Warren’s megachurch and on The Tonight Show, he will be jetting home to Chicago to catch his daughter’s performance as a mouse in her school’s production of The Nutcracker.
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"Do not worship our society’s 'money culture.' Go out and immerse yourselves in the collective action that is needed to push our country forward." That is Senator Obama’s message to college students around the country, as displayed in his commencement address at Knox College in 2005. He tells us that, “Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. It’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you will realize your true potential." That is all well and good, but the last time I tried to hitch my wagon to anything, my oxen couldn't ford the river and we all drowned.

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Cheat Sheet

Education

Candidate At a Glance

Name:	Barack Obama
Age:	45
Hometown:	Chicago, IL
Education:	BA Columbia University, JD Harvard Law School
Marital Status:	Married
Children:	Two
Political Party:	Democratic
Current Job:	Senator, Illinois

Websites of Interest:

•	Obama Senate Site
•	Campaign Site
•	Students for Barack Obama
•	Run Obama
•	Wikipedia

Contributors: Paul Perry, American University '07;
Mike Simmons, Amherst College '06