President Obama: term of office. When does Obama's term end? What does Barack Obama do after his presidency? Obama's full name

Barack Hussein Obama II(English) Barack Hussein Obama II), better known as Barack Obama, is the Democratic President of the United States elected in November 2008. He will assume the presidency of the country in January 2009, becoming the first black head of state in US history. Before being elected to office, Obama served as a senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008. After 2004, he was one of the most popular Democratic politicians in the United States.

Biography

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii. His parents met at the University of Hawaii. Father, black Kenyan Barack Hussein Obama Sr., came to the United States to study economics. His mother, white American Stanley Ann Dunham, studied anthropology. When Barack was still an infant, his father went to continue his studies at Harvard, but due to financial difficulties he did not take his family with him. When his son was two years old, Obama Sr. went alone to Kenya, where he received a position as an economist in the government apparatus. He divorced his wife.

When Barack was six years old, Anne Dunham remarried, again to a foreign student, this time an Indonesian. Together with his mother, half-sister and stepfather Lolo Soetoro, the boy went to Indonesia, where he spent four years. He studied at one of the public schools in Jakarta. Then he returned to Hawaii and lived with his mother's parents. In 1979 he graduated from the privileged private school Punahou School in Honolulu. A school that is proud of its famous alumni - actors and athletes. IN school years Obama's big hobby was basketball. He won the 1979 state championship as a member of the Punahaou team. In the same 1979, Barack Obama graduated from high school, and is now an honorary last place in the lists of famous graduates of this school. In his memoirs, published in 1995, Obama himself recalled that in high school he used marijuana and cocaine, and his grades declined.

After school, Obama studied at Occidental College in Los Angeles, then transferred to Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1983, where Obama began to emerge as a politician and public figure. With a Bachelor's degree, Barack Obama began working for a large International Business Corporation as a financial information editor. Obama worked there for a year, his first job out of college.

After that, in 1985, he settled in Chicago and worked in one of the groups church charity. As a “social organizer” he helped residents of disadvantaged areas of the city.

In 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School, where in 1990 he became the first black editor of the university's Harvard Law Review.

After graduating, he returned to Chicago and worked for nine years in a law firm that specialized in protecting civil liberties. In addition, Obama worked at the headquarters of the Democratic Party, taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, and worked on issues voting rights in the small law firm of Miner, Barnhill and Galand. Obama became known as a liberal, an opponent of the creation of NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Area, a fighter against racial discrimination, and a supporter of a system of universal health insurance.

Political career Obama's run began in the Illinois Senate, where he represented the Democratic Party for eight years, from 1997 to 2004.

In 2000, Obama attempted to run for election to the House of Representatives, but lost the primaries to the incumbent black congressman Bobby Rush - former member the Black Panther movement.

In the state Senate, Obama worked with both Democrats and Republicans, working together on government programs to support low-income families through tax cuts. Obama was a strong supporter of development preschool education. He supported measures to tighten control over the work of investigative bodies. In 2002, Obama condemned the George W. Bush administration's plans to invade Iraq.

In 2004, he ran for election to a vacant seat in the US Senate and was able to get 70 percent of the vote. In the primaries, he managed to win a convincing victory over six opponents. Obama's chances of success increased when his Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, was forced to withdraw his candidacy due to scandalous allegations brought against Ryan during the divorce proceedings. Obama became the fifth black senator in US history.

US presidential election (2008)

On February 10, 2007, in front of the old Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. The location was symbolic because it was there that Abraham Lincoln gave his historic “House Divided” speech in 1858. Throughout the campaign, Obama advocated for a quick end to the Iraq War, energy independence and universal health care. His campaign slogans are “Change We Can Believe in” and “Yes We Can!” Obama is the first (and only) presidential candidate to refuse public funding of his election campaign.

Barack Obama became the unified Democratic candidate after Hillary Clinton officially announced her withdrawal from the race on June 7, 2008 and supported Obama's candidacy. On June 25, 2008, the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, supported Obama for the first time, through official representative, Matt McKenna, declaring that he would do everything in his power to ensure that Barack Obama won the US presidential election in November 2008.

In the November 4 election, Obama secured 51 percent of the popular vote and more than 300 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Turnout in the election was about 64 percent, the highest in the United States in the last hundred years. Obama declared victory after the results of the vote were announced in the key states of Ohio and Pennsylvania. In his speech, the first black US president in history declared that “Change has come to America.”

Personal life

Since 1992, Obama has been married to lawyer Michelle Robinson Obama (born 1967). They met at Harvard Law College. They have two daughters: Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha (Natasha, born 2001, in the press she is often called Sasha).

Barack Obama is the author of two books: in 1995, he published a memoir, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, which was originally intended to be a work on Obama's legal practice. In 2006, Obama released a second book: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. The audio version of the first book won a Grammy Award in 2006. Both of Obama's books became bestsellers.

In 2008, a sensational event occurred in the United States of America - an African American became the president of this country for the first time. Barack Hussein Obama. The Democrats, losing their authority, needed a messiah, and they found him in the person of the young, energetic Barack Obama.

Barack Hussein Obama took to the national political stage with a call for fraternal philanthropy, saying he wanted to leave this world a better place. He opposed the war in Iraq and for this, already as President of the United States, in 2009 he received Nobel Prize peace.

However, Barack Obama's two terms at the head of the United States brought not peace, but a sword, conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, provoked by unsuccessful and successful attempts to seize power, the removal of undesirable leaders, Barack Obama's anti-Russian policy, which led to increased tension between countries, in general, It is no coincidence that the Americans chose Donald Trump, who promised to get along with Vladimir Putin, restore relations with Russia and make America great again, but within the States themselves, and not with the help of color revolutions around the world.

Barack Obama in childhood while playing baseball in Hawaii

If we talk about the economy, and at the beginning of Barack Obama’s reign there was a global crisis, then during the eight years of his rule, the US national debt almost doubled - from $10.63 trillion in 2009 to 19.7 trillion by the fall of 2016. According to IMF estimates, the US national debt amounts to 107.5% of the country's GDP, while in 1998-2007 it averaged 60.7%.

Barack Obama's childhood and education

Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. The future president's parents met and married in 1961 while studying at the University of Hawaii. Obama's mother, Stanley Anne Dunham, studied anthropology, and his father, Barack Hussein Obama Sr., studied econometrics. Obama's grandparents were unhappy with their daughter's choice, believing that she should not have married the son of a Luo medicine man. And they were right. Two years after little Obama was born, his father left to continue his studies at Harvard. He soon divorced Anne, and after his departure, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. saw his son only once, when he was 10 years old. Obama Sr. died in Kenya in car accident in 1982.

Barack Obama Sr. with his son at Honolulu airport (Photo: en.wikipedia.org)

Barack Obama has many brothers and sisters on his father's side, and after his mother's new marriage to Indonesian Lolo Sutoro, he had a sister, Maya. The boy lived with his mother and stepfather in Jakarta. Like a wise woman, despite the divorce, Anne told her son a lot about the Kenyan people and the talents of Obama Sr. She claimed that Barack owed his abilities to his father. While living in Jakarta, Anne Dunham became convinced that Barack Hussein would not be able to receive a quality education there. She took the boy to her parents, and they gladly accepted him and gave him a decent education. Having a mixed background and living in a white family, the boy did not burden himself with racial issues. He didn't even think about his Kenyan relatives. Hawaii has a predominantly Asian population. Even with Kenyan roots, Barack did not experience the misfortunes that befell real African Americans whose ancestors survived slavery. However, Barack Obama still claimed to be persistent genetic connections with African Americans. When Obama decided to publish a book about his “black” life (“Dreams Inspired by My Father”), one of the publishers turned him down, commenting on the refusal with the words: “Well, you haven’t experienced suffering...”.

Anne Dunham with her second husband Lolo Soetoro, their daughter, Maya and Barack Obama, at their home in Jakarta

Barack Obama's mother separated from her Indonesian husband and went with her daughter to Honolulu to live with her parents. Barack was already studying at Punahou School, where he was preparing to enter a prestigious college. He read a lot, played sports, and became a champion among schools in basketball, as he was a tall young man (Barack Obama’s height is 185 cm). But the problems of adolescence did not escape him either; there are slippery places in the biography of Barack Hussein Obama. In his youth, he began to smoke marijuana and drink alcoholic beverages, which drove his grandmother into despair. But soon these problems disappeared. Intelligence prevented him from sliding down.

Barack Obama (third from left, top row) with classmates at Punahou School in Honolulu.

At school, all the teachers considered Barack Hussein Obama to be a capable young man. The traits of a real fighter appeared in his character - both in sports and in studies. He grew up ambitious and purposeful. Failures only made him want to succeed. He received a scholarship to continue his studies at Occidental College (Los Angeles). Barack got carried away there youth policy, felt like a speaker and a leader. Having high erudition, he could captivate the crowd with his performances. Soon, as part of a student exchange, Obama went to Columbia University in New York. The young student led a very ascetic lifestyle, studied hard, became interested in philosophy, read the works of Nietzsche and Melville, and carefully studied the Bible. It was thanks to Columbia University that he actually became a different person.

Municipal service

After graduation, Barack Obama received a bachelor's degree in political science and began working for the prestigious Business International Corporation, which published newsletters on global trade and economics, as well as consulting for international and American companies. Obama did an excellent job as editor and research assistant in the International Financial Information Department. But he gladly accepted an invitation from Chicago city official Jerry Kellman to work in the predominantly black Far South Side neighborhood. It was here that Barack Obama encountered a new environment - cynical, illiterate and unfair. Barak aspired to work as an organizing official, but his elite language was not perceived by people embittered by poverty. Then he began to imitate their slang and tried to help them overcome difficulties. And then Barack Obama realized that he should improve his legal education. In 1988, he entered Harvard and graduated from Harvard Law School with excellent grades.

Barack Obama's political career

As is usually written in biographies of the future president, Barack Obama burst into politics with a “mad pace.” He listened carefully to the ideas of the Republicans, although he himself was a Democrat, believing that any thoughts should be listened to. He spontaneously sympathized with African Americans, and this was evident in his work. Barack Hussein became involved in politics, declaring that he wanted to help the offended.

Barack Obama before performing at Face the Nation in Chicago, 2007 (Photo: AP/TASS)

The aspiring politician was not trusted by his dark-skinned fellow tribesmen, they did not understand his cultural language, and did not consider him a real black. Obama had to defeat strong rivals who had already proven themselves in politics. But Barack Obama was helped by his character traits: lust for power, self-confidence and even intransigence. And each of these properties was exacerbated by incredible pressure on the individual, as it was associated with his career as a politician. Obama knew how to convince the listener and made sure to fulfill the promises he made. Gradually his authority increased.

The young politician became a federal senator from Illinois - the 5th African-American senator in US history.

Feeling his political strength, on February 10, 2007, in Springfield in front of the old Illinois State Capitol, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States. It was a symbolic place. In 1858, it was here that Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic “House Divided” speech. In his program, Obama advocated for the unification of nations, universal health care, and energy independence. His campaign slogans are “Yes, we can!” (Yes We Can) and “Change We Can Believe In.” And they believed him. Electoral turnout reached a record 64%, and on November 4, 2008, with the support of 338 of 538 electors, Barack Hussein Obama became President of the United States.

Inauguration of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, January 20, 2009 (Photo: Zuma/TASS)

During his presidency, he worked closely with leading European countries. He often met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Presidents Sarkozy and Hollande. Barack Obama argued that such US-EU cooperation was “vital” to maintaining order in the world. However, the alliance was overshadowed by the actions of American intelligence services, which even wiretapped European leaders. Angela Merkel personally called the US President: “Such methods are unacceptable between allies,” the Chancellor was indignant.

Barack Obama's victory caused euphoria in many countries, especially in Kenya and other countries in Africa and the Middle East. People hoped for positive changes with his arrival. But these hopes were not realized. Barack Obama, who opposed the American military presence in Iraq before the elections, changed his mind after moving to White House, and in February 2009 sent 17 thousand US troops to Afghanistan. 2009 was the bloodiest year for the US Army in Afghanistan since the start of the counterterrorism operation.

Then, new centers of bloodshed appeared in North Africa, in the Middle East and even in Ukraine. This was facilitated by a whole series of “color revolutions”, inspired and supported by the US State Department and Barack Obama personally. As Senator Alexei Pushkov noted, “it was not under Bush, but under Obama, that a bloody massacre began in Yemen, with no end in sight. And not under Bush, but under Obama, the so-called IS * arose, established itself and gained a foothold in Iraq and Syria, with which Obama refused to wage a real fight for almost two years.”

US President Donald Trump with his wife Melania and former US President Barack Obama with his wife Michelle (from left to right) after the inauguration ceremony of the 45th US President D. Trump in the Capitol (Photo: AP/TASS)

Barack Hussein Obama left office with a rating of 58 percent, below that of George H. W. Bush when he left office in 1993. Barack Obama served as President of the United States from January 20, 2009 to January 20, 2017, and the world clearly did not become a better place during that time.

* « Islamic State» (IS, ISIS) decision Supreme Court RF dated December 29, 2014 recognized terrorist organization and its activities in Russia are prohibited.

During the first six months of the presidency Donald Trump, which were marked by a series of accusations and revelations that threatened the head of the United States with potential impeachment, his predecessor was somewhat forgotten.

Meanwhile, the 44th President of the United States Barack Obama On August 4, 2017, he celebrated his 56th birthday. According to the canons of world politics, his age is almost young, however, having spent two terms in the White House, Obama has exhausted the limit of being in the presidential chair.

Social guarantees for the “first person”: pension, treatment, security and state funeral

Barack Obama became the fifth living retired US president. His “colleagues” are much older - George Bush Sr. celebrated his 93rd birthday in June 2017, Jimmy Carter Will be 93 years old in October Bill Clinton one of these days it will hit 71, and George W. Bush celebrated his 71st birthday in July.

Like all his predecessors, Obama is endowed with a whole range of benefits guaranteed by law.

In March 2016, Barack Obama ensured that pension payments to former US presidents would increase by 17.9 percent from 2017. Thus, Obama's annual pension is about 240 thousand dollars a year, and tax is also charged on this amount.

In addition to the pension, the state pays the ex-president the costs of maintaining administrative and technical personnel, transport and postal expenses, as well as other needs, including food.

During the first 30 months from the moment of resignation, Obama will be paid an amount to maintain a team of assistants. It's about about 96 thousand dollars a year.

A retired president is entitled to Secret Service protection. The security of “retirees” is carried out by the same people who are responsible for the security current head states.

Until 1997, the Secret Service was assigned to the ex-president for life, but now he retains this right only for the first 10 years from the date of resignation.

The former first lady has the same security rights, but only if she does not succeed her spouse. The children of the ex-president are considered specially protected persons until they reach adulthood.

The ex-president and members of his family have the right to free treatment in military hospitals. They receive this benefit in accordance with the special instructions of the US Secretary of Defense. In case of death former first his widow retains the right to medical care.

The funeral of the ex-president is organized at the expense of the state, but 56-year-old Barack Hussein Obama, apparently, is not eager to rush into it.

Vacation in Polynesia and a new house next to the Russian attache

So what has Obama been doing for the last six months?

Having handed over matters to Trump, the ex-president and his wife went to French Polynesia, where they spent a long vacation. Obama had an active holiday - kitesurfing, delighting his billionaire friend Richard Branson, as well as a Hollywood star Tom Hanks.

After swimming and sunbathing, Obama made his way to New York, where he and his daughter attended a play on Broadway. The ex-president did not make any loud statements while on vacation, enjoying the fact that he did not have to express his point of view on any matter.

After leaving the White House, contrary to expectations, Obama did not return to Chicago, where his career began. He and his family decided to stay in Washington, at least until youngest daughter Sasha will not graduate from school.

In May 2016, Barack Obama rented a mansion near Kalorama Park, a 15-minute drive from the White House. The territory on which the mansion is located is 2800 square meters, and the house itself has an area of ​​760 square meters. The house has 9 living rooms and 8 bathrooms, on the territory there is a garden, lawn for grilling and space for a vegetable garden that he loves to work with Michelle Obama. In the area where the family of the 44th president settled, five former presidents lived before him. Obama pays $22,000 a month to rent the mansion. The only disadvantage of this house is that the office of the defense attache of the Russian Embassy in the USA is located nearby. However, unlike Trump, no one suspects Obama of working for Russia yet.

Discussion with Merkel and rafting in Indonesia

First public speaking Barack Obama, after his resignation, took place on April 24, 2017 - it was a meeting with students at the University of Chicago. The topic of the speech was the involvement of young people in politics.

From this moment on, the ex-president alternates tourist trips with public performances.

On May 9, Obama gave a speech on food security and climate change in Milan, on May 25, along with Angela Merkel took part in a discussion in Berlin, where in the presence of citizens they discussed the migration crisis, the fight against terrorism and disarmament, and on June 6, the ex-president made a report at the Montreal Chamber of Commerce.

In May, Obama also received the Deutscher Medienpreis (German Prize in Funds). mass media) in Baden-Baden, play golf in Scotland, where he also took part in a charity dinner organized by the Hunter Foundation.

In June, taking his wife and daughters, Obama traveled to Indonesia, where on the island of Bali he took up rafting by rafting down the Ayung River. The next day, the Obama family visited the ancient temples of Tirta Empul and Borobudur. Obama, who spent four years in Jakarta as a child, also visited the city and spoke to the local public.

Obama's Memoirs Expect Financial Record

All these events, however, do not answer the question of how Barack Obama sees his future. Experts have little doubt that the 44th president, following the example of his predecessors, will write memoirs. It is possible that work on them is already underway.

Obama was predicted to work in Silicon Valley and the role of special envoy for the peaceful resolution of conflicts (Obama’s “colleague” Jimmy Carter, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for this, did an excellent job in the role of “peacemaker”). But so far the 44th president is in no hurry to make a choice.

What is certain is that Barack Obama is not in danger of financial difficulties. And it's not just about the state pension.

Experts believe that the memoirs of the 44th US president could break the record set by Bill Clinton, who earned $15 million from such a book. The potential of Obama's memories is estimated at 20-30 million dollars.

Another stable source of income for retired presidents is fees for lectures and speeches. For example, Bill Clinton earned $40 million from lectures in his first six years as former head of the United States. IN best years Clinton earned up to $250,000 for one lecture abroad. George Bush Sr.'s income is somewhat more modest - he receives from 50 to 75 thousand dollars for one speech.

Considering Obama's popularity around the world and the fact that he became the first African-American to hold the post of US President, the 44th occupant of the White House is quite capable of surpassing Clinton's results in this category.

Barack Obama's grandfather was in prison. My father was married 4 times. The mother starred in explicit photo shoots, and therefore her parents disowned her. Obama's mother-in-law practices witchcraft. And the birth certificate of the future president was forged. True biography and the story of the life and development of Barack Obama is truly amazing. At least in that, strictly speaking, it is not rigidly fixed anywhere.

It is known that on August 4, 1961, in the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, a black boy was born to two students - 25-year-old Kenyan Barack Obama Sr. and 18-year-old American Anne Dunham. This is Barack’s second marriage and fifth child, but Dunham’s first. Although their parents are against this relationship, now the young couple is happy. They do not yet know that their union will last only 3 years, and their son will see his father only once, when he is 10 years old.

Subsequently, the fate of Obama Sr. would be tragic. First he will be successful - he will start working in an oil company, and then become a senior economist at the Ministry of Finance of Kenya. However, then, for criticizing the economic actions of the country's president, he will fall out of favor, and his career will come to an end. Obama will start drinking and fall into poverty. Later he would be in a car accident in which he would lose both legs, and in 1982 he would be in another one in which he would die. He would have eight children from four wives.

Anne Dunham divorces her husband when he starts having problems and remarries. After his parents' divorce, 10-year-old Barack Obama lives in Hawaii with his grandparents. My grandfather, a dissident and revolutionary, like Obama’s father, fought against the existing political system in Kenya and was also not very successful. Hussein Onyango Obama's fight against British colonial policy in his country ended with torture, disability and two years in prison. Little did he know then that his grandson would soon spread this policy throughout the world...

Living with his grandparents, Obama attends a private school. He smokes marijuana, drinks alcohol and soft drugs, which he later admits to the press.

The "first grandmother" of the United States, 72-year-old Marian Robinson, formerly worked as a secretary at a magazine selling useful household products. Since March 2009, she has lived permanently in the White House, and at the same time practices Santeria, one of the African varieties occult religion Voodoo.

In 2011, the Washington Post reported that strange hobby The president himself shares the Voodoo dolls. As it turned out, Obama has more than 250 magical dolls - Haitian, Hawaiian and Cuban. These dolls represent an invisible force that can intervene in human affairs at any time.

Many believe that Obama is very similar in his parameters to the Antichrist, that is, to a man who comes at the end of times to take power over the world
All these statements would seem ridiculous. If not for one thing. This may seem incredible, but in the biography of the 44th President of the United States there really are many mystical coincidences that cannot be explained.

During the inauguration, Obama, by a strange coincidence, managed to take the oath on the Bible - he read the text incorrectly and stumbled.
The staff of the devout Mormon Mitt Romney were the first to notice that during his own inauguration Barack Obama was the only one who wore gloves. It would seem that there is nothing special about this. If you don’t remember the biblical legend that when the Antichrist is crowned, he will wear gloves to hide his claws.

In addition, according to legend, the Antichrist must come from the tribe of Dan. But from the point of view of the Orthodox tradition, and the general Christian one, the Antichrist must be born from a harlot from the tribe of Dan, from the lost descendants, from the lost Jewish tribes.

It is also curious, Obama’s opponents continue, that his name is translated from Hebrew as “Lightning from above.” In the Gospel of Luke this expression occurs: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

I wonder why we are learning all these facts about the Obama family only now - at the beginning of the next presidential campaign? REN TV documentaries tried to figure this out as part of the “Special Project” - “Who Rules the World.”

Barack Hussein Obama- The forty-fourth President of the United States, who took office at the end of 2008. In January 2017, he was replaced by Donald John Trump. Over the years of his presence in this position, Barack managed to attract the attention of almost all the people in the world, and now many are wondering how old Obama is?

The 44th president became the first African American to be nominated for such a position, and then the first in national history who received it. Despite this, Barack Obama is a mulatto, that is, he comes from a combination of Caucasian and Negroid races. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was a white woman and an American anthropologist.

Origin of Barack Obama

The first years of the life of the future president were inextricably linked with Hawaiian Islands. There, while studying in Manoa, his parents met, and a little later, in Honolulu, Obama himself was born. However, during his election campaign, many tried to prove the fact that the potential president was born outside American territory.

An Arizona sheriff claimed that many of Barack's documents were fictitious and that he had altered the data using a computer. In particular, this concerned his birth certificate and military service records. If this information were confirmed, Obama would not be able to apply for such a post.

Barak's father is a member of the Nilotic Luo people, who now number about 3.5 million people. He came to Hawaii through assignment at a missionary school. The connection with Anne Dunham added Baraka, in addition to African, Scottish, German and Irish roots. It is believed that Barack Obama's ancestors included the Cherokee Indian people, also called Cherokee.

Despite parental prohibition, Anne and Obama got married, two years later Baraka was born, and about a year later they divorced. The reason for this was his father’s meeting with Ruth Nidesand while he was leaving to continue his studies at Harvard. Obama's mother was not left alone for long. Three years later, she married an Indonesian and gave birth to the future president’s sister named Maya.

Youth and entry into the Senate

For four years, Barack Obama studied at a public school in Jakarta. Then he returned to his hometown, where he ended up in the prestigious institution "Panehou", from which he graduated. During this period he did not disdain bad habits, such as smoking marijuana, using cocaine and drinking alcoholic drinks. Barak did not hide all this from voters, calling them difficult times"low moral decline."

Upon completion of his studies, Obama went to Los Angeles College, but soon changed it to Columbia University, where he began studying international relations. This specialization allowed Barak to become part of a huge business corporation while still studying.

Two years after graduation, he moved to Chicago, where he became a community organizer. He later studied law at Harvard, where he became the first African American to become an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Shortly thereafter, Barack Obama was elected to the Senate. He worked with both Democrats and Republicans, focusing special attention the issue of low-income families, preschool education and control of various bodies. In this post, he made his first attempt to enter the US House of Representatives.

Development of political activity

After losing a seat in the House to Bobby Rush, Obama began to compete for a position in the US Senate. He succeeded, and a year later future president became the fifth African American to hold such a position. Around this time, Barak visited Russia to study nuclear facilities. The trip ended unsuccessfully due to the inspection that the border guards wanted to arrange for the plane with diplomatic immunity.

Obama left his seat in the Senate several years later, having previously visited George W. Bush's White House and received the title of "loyal Democrat" and "most liberal" senator. At the same time, Barack announced his candidacy for the presidency.

Interesting fact: for such a statement, Obama chose the place where Abraham Lincoln once delivered one of his most famous speeches, “A House Divided.”

In his campaign, Barak focused on the imminent end of the Iraq War, energy and health issues. He became the only candidate who did not use government funding - all the money came from voluntary donations.

The self-destruction of candidate Hillary Clinton in favor of Barack, as well as the open support of Bill Clinton, played a huge role in the victory. Obama's position was somewhat shaky in states with small numbers of African Americans, but most of the population supported him. In a number of countries, especially African and Middle Eastern ones, this event led to a kind of “Obamamania.”

First term

How many years did it take Barack Obama to become president? This number is approaching fifty. Already at an age, the president put a huge amount of effort into a variety of political activities.

One of his first decisions was to close the prison for those accused of events at the Guantanamo military base. After this, Barak created a plan to invest in various areas and create more jobs.

Shortly after signing the anti-crisis plan, he flew to Moscow to create an agreement on the transit of military cargo to Afghanistan. Subsequently, contrary to Republican opinion, he passed a health care reform law. Another year later, Obama became part of the military intervention in civil war in Libya.

When elected for a second term, Barack began to say that Bush had mistakenly started the war in Iraq, and that it was necessary to fight terrorism on the territory of Afghanistan. Although Obama previously stated that he would end the Iraq War immediately after his inauguration, he did not do so over the next few years.

As a result of such decisions, twice as many soldiers died in Barack's first year as president than during both terms of George W. Bush's administration. Since there were no positive changes that the president promised, this made his reappointment somewhat difficult.

Second term

If Barack Obama received his first appointment due to the inspiration of voters, then the second, as he himself said, was the result of “the precise work of the election machine.” Despite his victory, the decline in popular support was obvious.

In the United States, there is a belief about a kind of “second term curse.” Many believe that all re-elected presidents immediately begin to cope with their responsibilities much worse. For Obama, the “curse” manifested itself in many different negative situations at once. Among them:

• A series of Muslim protests spread across the world due to a film trailer.
• Significant problems with the start of healthcare reform and the operation of the entire healthcare system.
• Uncertain position regarding events Syrian war, in particular - Chemical attacks in Ghouta.
• Rumors of harassment of legal organizations.
• Secret wiretapping of journalists' conversations.
• Information received from former CIA employee, Edward Joseph Snowden.

At the same time, other negative events occurred, which steadily decreased the rating of the 44th president. A few more years later, more than half of Americans had a negative perception of Barack Obama's performance. A little later, in one study, he was named the worst president, and in this title he beat out George W. Bush.

How old is Obama?

After the election of Donald Trump, former US President Obama had to decide what to devote his later life. According to information from The New York Times, he can get into high tech.

Barack Obama is now 55 years old. He was born on August 4th, so in a few months, in 2017, he will turn 56 years old. Most likely future career former president will be directly connected to Silicon Valley.