This article will answer every question you have about Barack Obama. Below are some of the frequently asked questions about him/her.
- What does Barack do for a living?
- Who are Barack’s parents and siblings?
- What are Barack’s interests and hobbies?
- Is Barack married or does he have a girlfriend?
- Does Barackhave any children?
- Where is Barack now?
- How tall is Barack?
- How much money does Barack earn?
- What is Barack’s net worth?
N/B: Please read the entire post to have all your questions answered.
Who is Barack Obama?
Barack Obama (Barack Hussein Obama II) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States between 2009 and 2017. He was the first black-American president of the US. Obama is a member of the Democratic Party. Between 2005 and 2008, Obama served as an Illinois state senator. Between 1997 and 2004 as the senator and the US senator from Illinois between 2005 and 2008.
Barack served as a civil rights attorney and an academic, teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. He gathered national attention after winning the March Senate primary in 2004. In 2008, Obama was in a primary campaign against Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party nominated him for president.
Obama won over, John McCain a Republican Nominee in the general election. He was inaugurated on 20th January 2009 alongside Joe Biden. Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
How Old Is Barack Obama?
Obama was born on August 4, 1961. He is 61 years of age as of 2022. Barack shares his birthday with celebrities like Billy Bob Thornton, Daniel Dae Kim, Abigail Spencer, Cole Sprouse, Dennis Lehane, Alberto Gonzales, and Dylan Sprouse, among others.
Barack Obama Family
Who Are Barack Obama’s Parents?
Obama was born at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was born to a Kenyan father and an American mother. His mother, Ann Dunham was an American anthropologist who specialized in the economic anthropology and rural development of Indonesia. His father, Barack Obama Sr. was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Kenya.
Obama’s parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and his father was on scholarship. They tied knots on 2nd February 1961, Wailuku, Hawaii but his mother was already pregnant. Obama’s parents divorced in 1964 and his father returned to Kenya and married a third wife. He worked for the Kenyan government as an economic analyst.
who Are Barack Obama’s Siblings?
Obama has a half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng from his mother’s side and Auma Obama from his father’s side. He additionally has half-brothers from his father’s side Malik Obama, Mark Ndesandjo, David Ndesandjo, and George Hussein Onyango Obama.
Barack Obama Education
Obama joined his stepfather in Indonesia at the age of 6 years. He attended St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Elementary School for two years and Sekolah Dasar Negeri Menteng 01 for one and a half years. Living there helped him to speak Indonesian fluently. Obama relocated to Honolulu to live with his grandparents in 1971, Stanley Dunham and Madelyn. He enrolled at Punahou School—a private college preparatory school—with the aid of a scholarship from fifth grade until he graduated from high school in 1979.
Between 1972 and 1975, Obama lived with his mother and half-sister in Hawaii. After his mother returned to Indonesia, he chose to remain there. During his teenage era, Obama abused alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine.
Obama relocated to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College on a full scholarship after graduating from high school in 1979. He transferred to Columbia University in New York City as a junior in 1981. There he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations and in English literature. Obama graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a 3.7 GPA.
Barack enrolled at Harvard Law School in the fall of 1988despite an offer of a scholarship to Northwestern University School of Law. He graduated with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude in 1991 from Havard.
Barak Obama Wife
Obama lived with Sheila Miyoshi Jager, in the 1980s while he served as a community organizer in Chicago. He proposed to her twice but Sheila and her parents turned him down. However, this relationship was made public in May 2017 after his presidency.
Obama met Michelle Robinson in June 1989 while serving as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. Michelle was assigned as Obama’s adviser at the firm for three months. However, she declined his request to date. The duo began dating later that summer and engaged in 1991. The couple tied knots on 3rd October 1992.
Does Barack Obama have Children?
Michelle suffered a miscarriage and underwent in vitro fertilization to conceive their children. Obama’s first daughter, Malia Ann was born in 1998. His second born Natasha (“Sasha”) was born in 2001. Obama’s daughters attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. The girls started at the Sidwell Friends School in January 2009.
How TallI Is Barack Obama?
Adding to his well-built body, Obama stands at a height of 1.87 meters in stature.
Barack Obama Career
Obama began his career as a civil rights attorney in 1993. He served with Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development until 1996. He then joined the counsel from 1996 to 2004. Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago between 1994 and 2002.
From 1995 to 2002, he served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. He additionally served as the founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999. His law license became inactive in 2007.
Illinois Senate
In 1996, Obama succeeded Senator Alice Palmer from Illinois’s 13th District. He gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws. Obama sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers. He additionally negotiated welfare reform as well as promoted increased subsidies for childcare.
In 1998, Obama was re-elected to his seat defeating Yesse Yehudah in the general election. Again in 2002, he was re-elected again. Obama lost a Democratic primary race for Illinois’s 1st congressional district in the US House of Representatives to Bobby Rush in 2000.
Obama assumed the chairmanship of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee in January 2003. He resigned in November 2004 from the Illinois Senate following his election to the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Senate campaign
Obama commissioned a pool in 2002 to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race. By August 2002, he had a campaign committee and began raising funds. In January 2003, he made his official candidacy announcement. Obama was against President George W. Bush’s administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. He addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally, on 2nd October 2002.
He held another rally in March 2003 telling people to stop the war. Obama won the March 2004 primary election. The win made him popular in his Democratic party. It also led to the reissue of his memoir, Dreams from My Father. In June 2004, Obama’s opponent who won the Republican primary Jack Ryan withdrew from the race.
The Republicans nominated Alan Keyes to replace Jack. He was defeated by 70 percent in the November 2004 general election. Obama took 92 of the state’s 102 counties.
2005-2008
On 3rd January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a senator. He became the only senator of the Congressional Black Caucus. Alongside Senators Tom Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain, Obama introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008. Additionally, he cosponsored Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act.
Obama sponsored the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act signed into law by President Bush in December 2006. Alongside Senator Feingold, Obama introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act. It was signed into law in September 2007. Additionally, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act to add safeguards for personality-disorder military discharges.
In 2006, Obama held assignments on the Senate Committees for Foreign Relations. He added his additional assignments with Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Obama assumed the chairmanship of the Senate’s subcommittee on European Affairs.
He made official tours to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa. He made a speech at the University of Nairobi condemning corruption within the Kenyan government. On 16th November 2008, Obama resigned his Senate seat and focused on his transition period for the presidency.
Presidential campaigns
Obama announced his presidential candidacy on 10th February 2007. In his speech, he emphasized ending the Iraq War, reforming the health care system, and increasing energy independence.
Obama defeated Senator Hillary Clinton in the primary contest at the Democratic Party presidential primaries. He announced his choice of Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate on 23rd August 2008. After Clinton’s defeat, she mobilized her supporters to back up Obama. Together with Bill Clinton, they gave their convention speeches in his support.
Obama was the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.
Obama contested against John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin. He defeated McCain with 365 electoral votes to 173 on 4th November. He won 52.9 percent of the popular vote to McCain’s 45.7 percent. Obama became the first black American to be elected president.
Presidency
On 20th January 2009, the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president took place. Among his first priorities, Obama gave executive orders and presidential memoranda directing the U.S. military to develop plans to withdraw troops from Iraq. He revoked President Bush’s restoration of President Ronald Reagan’s Mexico City policy. The policy prohibits federal aid to international family planning organizations that perform or provide counseling about abortion.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 was the first bill signed by Obama. The bill relieved the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits. He signed his second bill five days later. The bill was a reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program to cover an additional four million uninsured children.
Obama appointed two women to serve on the supreme court. On 26th May 2009, he appointed Sonia Sotomayor to replace Associate Justice, David Souter. Sonia became the first Supreme Court Justice of Hispanic descent on 6th August 2009. On 10th May 2010, Obama nominated Elena Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens. She was confirmed on 5th August the same year.
Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls on11th March 2009. it was chaired by Valerie Jarrett. Additionally, on 22nd January 2014, Obama through a government memorandum established the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. The task force was co-chaired by Jarrett and Biden.
Obama signed 23 executive orders and outlined a series of sweeping proposals regarding gun control on January 16, 2013. He signed a four-year renewal of the Patriot Act in 2011.
LGBT rights
Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act on 8th October 2009. This expanded the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law. He lifted the ban on travel to the United States by those infected with HIV on 30th October 2009. Obama fulfilled his promise in the campaigns by signing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010, on December 22, 2010. The pentagon banned the policy that barred transgender people from serving openly in the military in 2016. Obama became the first US president to support gay Americans.
Economic policy
Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 on February 17, 2009. His Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner took steps in managing the financial crisis in 2009. Obama renewed loans for General Motors (GM) and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing in March 2009. He signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as “Cash for Clunkers” in June 2009.
Obama’s administration authorized spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury. On August 2, 2011, Obama signed the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011.
Health care
President Obama called for Congress to pass legislation reforming health care in the United States. He proposed an expansion of health insurance coverage to cover the uninsured, cap premium increases, and allow people to retain their coverage after leaving their jobs. He proposed a public option, a government insurance plan to compete with the corporate insurance sector. A health care bill featuring the public option was passed in the House on November 7, 2009Obama signed a bill passed by the senate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law on March 23, 2010.
Foreign policy
Obama announced that combat operations in Iraq would end within 18 months on February 27, 2009. His administration scheduled the withdrawal of combat troops to be completed by August 2010. He decreased the troops from 142,000 while leaving a transitional force of about 50,000 in Iraq until the end of 2011. Obama announced on August 31, 2010, the ending of the US combat mission in Iraq. He said on October 21, 2011, that the troops would leave Iraq in time to be “home for the holidays.
President Obama sent 275 troops to Baghdad in June 2014. He ordered a campaign of U.S. airstrikes against ISIS in August 2014 during the Sinjar massacre.
Obama ordered an increase in U.S. troop levels to 17,000 military personnel in February 2009 in Afghanistan. Obama announced the U.S. military would reduce the troop level in Afghanistan from 68,000 to 34,000 U.S. troops in February 2013. However, the White House announced a plan to keep U.S. Forces in Afghanistan in October 2015.
The US increased military cooperation with Israel during the first years of Obama in administration. This included the re-establishment of the U.S.-Israeli Joint Political Military Group and the Defense Policy Advisory Group. However, Obama publicly opposed plans by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to build Jewish housing projects in predominantly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem in March 2010.
The US vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements in 2011. Obama supported the two-state solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict based on the 1967 borders with land swaps.
After Presidency
Obama ended his tenure on 20th January 2017. He was succeeded by Donald Trump. Currently, Obama rents a house in Kalorama, Washington, D.C. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum awarded Obama the Profile in Courage Award on March 2, 2017. Obama disagreed with Trump on the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement.
Obama admitted his frustration with Republicans on September 19 for backing “a bill that will raise costs, reduce coverage, and roll back protections for older Americans and people with pre-existing conditions.
From October 31 to November 1, 2017, Obama hosted the inaugural summit of the Obama Foundation in Chicago. Obama has been known to disagree with former president Trump. He criticized Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Obama and his wife Michelle bought a home on Martha’s Vineyard from Wyc Grousbeck in 2019.
Obama endorsed his former vice president Joe Biden, on 11th April 2020. He criticized Trump for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in May 2020. He wrote a presidential memoir, A Promised Land, in a $65 million deal with Penguin Random House, released on November 17, 2020. Obama visited the white house on April 5, 2022, his first time since leaving office. He narrated Our Great National Parks, a Netflix documentary series in 2022. The Obamas and their podcast production company, Higher Ground, signed a multi-year deal with Audible in June of 2022.
Barack Obama’s Salary and Net Worth
Obama has managed to accumulate a net worth of $70 million in his life.
