Barack Hussein Obama,born on August 4,1961,is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2008 United States presidential election.
Obama is the first African-American to be nominated by a major American political party for president and became the first African-American president in American history on November 4,2008.A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School,where he became the first black person to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review,Obama worked as a community organizer and practiced as a civil rights attorney before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.He taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S.House of Representatives in 2000,he announced his campaign for the U.S.Senate in January 2003.After a primary victory in March 2004,Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004.He was elected to the Senate in November 2004 with 70 percent of the vote.
As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress,he helped create legislation to control conventional weapons and to promote greater public accountability in the use of federal funds.He also made official trips to Eastern Europe,the Middle East,and Africa.During the 110th Congress,he helped create legislation regarding lobbying and electoral fraud,climate change,nuclear terrorism,and care for returned U.S.military personnel.Obama announced his presidential campaign in February 2007,and was formally nominated at the 2008 Democratic National Convention with Delaware senator Joe Biden as his running mate.
On February 10,2007,Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield,Illinois.Throughout the campaign,Obama has emphasized the issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War,increasing energy independence,and providing universal health care.And he promised “change” in the campaign course.
Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation's first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself."Change has come," he declared to a huge throng of cheering supporters.
The Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen.John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio,Florida,Virginia,Iowa and more.
---------From Chinadaily
這是中國日報上的,我以前用過,感覺挺好的